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-   -   Has a book significantly influenced you? (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/665064-has-book-significantly-influenced-you.html)

Aggie93 03-12-2012 10:06 AM

Has a book significantly influenced you?
 
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 03-12-2012 10:08 AM

Does Playboy count as a book?? :)

Rikao4 03-12-2012 10:37 AM

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 03-12-2012 10:40 AM

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

nota 03-12-2012 10:59 AM

stranger in a strange land

vash 03-12-2012 11:07 AM

intro into Civil Engineering..volume IV.

doug_porsche 03-12-2012 11:12 AM

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 03-12-2012 11:13 AM

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 03-12-2012 11:19 AM

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

duncan1437 03-12-2012 11:22 AM

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 03-12-2012 11:24 AM

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.

http://cdn.counter-currents.com/wp-c...0684838649.jpg

svandamme 03-12-2012 11:57 AM

The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa.
http://www.ripaonline.co.uk/resources/rsz_thirdeye.gif
bout a kid that turns out to be a Lama reincarnation and he tells the story about how that all worked out..

Zeke 03-12-2012 12:19 PM

"You Can Negotiate Anything" by Herb Cohen.

red-beard 03-12-2012 12:37 PM

I was influenced a lot by Heinlein.

Z-man 03-12-2012 12:42 PM

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 03-12-2012 12:48 PM

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 03-12-2012 01:25 PM

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

Seahawk 03-12-2012 01:39 PM

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 03-12-2012 01:48 PM

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 03-12-2012 04:16 PM

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


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