Has a book significantly influenced you?

[Aggie93]

For a long time I have disliked many aspects of the industry I work in – investment management. Without going into details I think the industry has done a great job in prioritizing paying themselves well over doing what is best for the client and the capital markets overall. I recently moved from a small company to a large one and realized that my suspicions were accurate and perhaps worse than I thought.

Friday after work, I was talking to a co-worker about these issues. These have turned into quarterly venting sessions. This time I was more vocal and said that I felt like a sellout (this could end up as another post). This took him by surprise and asked how and why I thought this. After thinking about it for a few seconds I said, “I read The Fountainhead.”

Maybe this was a little flippant at the time, but over the weekend I have been thing more about this and thought I’d throw it out here.

Have you read a book that significantly impacted how you thought about something?

Or do we just relate more to books that we already share common traits with the characters?

[MarkRobinson]

Does Playboy count as a book??

[Rikao4]

Ghengis Khan & Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford..

per rec. Seahawk

when you think you know a little bit about something .
nice too be surprised & go ..did not know that ..

Rika

[dan88911]

I read "Think Twice" by Michael J. Mauboussin.
He's Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management.

[nota]

stranger in a strange land

[vash]

intro into Civil Engineering..volume IV.

[doug_porsche]

I think in my case Jimmy Buffett said it best in "Son of a son of a sailor"

Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks,
And I've learned much from both of their styles.

[speeder]

Yes...too many times to list. I read "The Fountainhead" when I was in JHS and was not terribly impressed. I thought that it was a journal of her sexual frustration or something.

[Jim Richards]

No, no one book "significantly influenced me." More likely a multitude of books each incrementally influenced me.

[duncan1437]

1984 by george orwell...an appreciation of the overwheming ability/resources of govts (or by extension large corporations, media,etc] to control the storyline sold to the general public....about anything that serves their purpose...

[willtel]

I read this book and it got rid of my white guilt. I learned that every group of people has been exploited by some other group at some point in time. Just because you are last on the list doesn't make your history more important than mine.

[svandamme]

The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa.

bout a kid that turns out to be a Lama reincarnation and he tells the story about how that all worked out..

[Zeke]

"You Can Negotiate Anything" by Herb Cohen.

[red-beard]

I was influenced a lot by Heinlein.

[Z-man]

Don't want to PARF this thread, but the Bible has influenced my life.

The Speed Secrets series by Ross Bentley thought me a lot about driving.

-Z

[Superman]

I've read Ayn Rand also, and been unimpressed.

Heinlein did impact my thinking, particularly with Stranger In A Strange Land.

The Bible, of course. And Mere Christianity, because my intellect and philosophical doubt had been getting in the way of my faith and that book took care of the problem.

[Halm]

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. Excellent account of how we got where we are with radiacal Islam, particularly in Afghanistan.

[Seahawk]

The Hardy boys mysteries. I started reading them when I was 5 and my interest in reading, the joy of reading, started there...reading became a pleasure, something to anticipate with relish.

My Mother help me look up words I didn't understand, write the meaning in the margin in pencil.

There it is.

[vash]

honest answer is. BIG RED by Jim Kjelgaard. that book made me want to explore the outdoors, and planted the early seed that makes me want to hunt and fish.

i actually got a library card and checked out all of his books and read them all.

[Joeaksa]

By far, Atlas Shrugged... then the Bible.