Books that changed your lives
US popular culture blog Lifehacker conducted an informal poll of their readers, asking for the “Books that changed your lives“.
Their top ten responses were:
- The Bible - 25 votes
- The Works of Ayn Rand - 23 votes
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - 15 votes
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - 9 votes
- The Stranger - 8 votes
- The Works of George Orwell - 8 votes
- The Works of Richard Dawkins - 8 votes
- The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings Trilogy - 7 votes
- Ender’s Game - 7 votes
- Dune - 7 votes
Of course its a totally subjective list, but that’s half the fun.
Click on the links to find out more about these titles and to place a free hold if you wish.
The book that changed my life was All quiet on the Western Front, but many other titles have changed my direction slightly over the years. Would love to hear what you book you would list - feel free to leave it in a comment on this blog post.
Miche
lle
July 4th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Around the time I was 10 years old, my Grandmother lived in a caravan in our backyard. After my brother and I had been sent off to bed, Nanna would creep out from the van, knock softly on my window and pass through a book and torch (for reading under the covers) with a wink and a soft admonition “Don’t tell Mum”. This was my first introduction to the doyenne of crime writing - Agatha Christie, a life-changing event indeed as since that night, crime and mystery novels have become a firm favourite when browsing the shelves.
There is another “book that changed my life”, and incredibly, I can’t remember the name of it! It was ‘required reading’ for 3rd Form (Year 9) English. This much scorned tome by fellow classmates totally turned my head around to Australian authors and bush poetry … It was a collection of stories and poems by Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson et al. I can still recall the wonder at finally understanding how important meter is to rhyming poetry as I read The Man from Snowy River … “There was movement at the station for the word was passed around that the colt from old Regret had got away …” “Can you ‘hear’ the horse’s hoof beats?” our English teacher, Mr Lewis, would beseech. And yes, I could! Pieces like The Loaded Dog, The Drover’s Wife, Mulga Bill’s Bicycle and The Geebung Polo Club still to this day conjure up the sights, sounds and smells of Colonial Australia so vividly, you are transported back in time to a place that lives only in the annals of history. And for a city kid, that was a pretty amazing thing!