10 Books That Changed my Life

I am a reader.  I am always reading something.  On my bedside table there are always at least three to five books (sometimes more).  In a pinch, I’ve been known to read the backs of cereal boxes.  To say I am an avid reader is definitely an understatement.  I think I could probably just about keep the local public library in business by myself.   Did I mention how much I love the library?

I also love to share what I read. When I find a gem, I recommend it to pretty much everyone I know.  If I think it’s a bummer, I generally don’t say much because you might find something in it I don’t.  If you want to see some of what I’ve been reading and what’s on my to-read list (I often forget to update), you can check out Good Reads.

Sometimes when you read a book, it really sticks with you.  Sometimes because it’s incredibly well written (usually), sometimes because it moves you out of your comfort zone and makes you really think about things, sometimes because the book or the subject of the book really inspires you–and sometimes, just  because.

I have many books that have stuck with me.  I’ve been inspired, I’ve traveled the earth–and beyond, I’ve been moved, I’ve learned, I’ve laughed (yes, I do laugh out loud when I’m reading–and sometimes I even talk back to my books), I’ve cried.

Here are 10 of those books that have stuck with me the most (in no particular order).  I’m sure if I thought longer, I could come up with even more books that really had an impact on me.  There are a couple of notable omissions here.  I did not include my primary religious texts here–they would have made up a good chunk of my list.  Suffice it to say that reading the word of God has certainly had more impact on my life than anything I ever have or ever will read.

The 10 Books that Have Changed my Life

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Where the Red Fern Grows

by Wilson Rawls

Everyone has a favorite childhood book.  They are all favorite for different reasons.  This one is mine.  When I was in the fifth and sixth grades, Miss Hoffman read to us every day after lunch.   This was one of the books she read.  I was so drawn into the story that I read it myself at the same time.  I just couldn’t wait for school every day to find out what would happen to Billy and his coon hounds, Old Dan and Little Ann.  It was the first time I read a book and cried.  Even today, this story still brings tears.

It was with this book that I learned the power of the written word and the emotions it could evoke.  If you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t, you need to.  And read it to your kids.  It is one of the classics of children’s literature, in my opinion.

Aligned Thinking

by Jim Steffen

This is a short book.  I only read it for the first time a couple of years ago.  I happened upon it at the library (libraries have good stuff!) and I liked it so much I went out and bought my own copy.

It’s told in the form of narrative/mini-novel, as so many of the books in the Ken Blanchard series are.  Obviously, it’s a format that works.  Instead of telling us how to do it, the book illustrates the principles in action through the characters in the story.  As stories go, it’s not great fiction, but as a teaching tool, it does illustrate the point well.

This book has changed the way I plan and structure my time and set goals.  I still have long to-do lists, but I’ve learned how to plan and how to realistically gauge what I can and cannot do.  Amazingly, when I am really following along with it I am so much more focused and productive than at other times.  The system is simple enough that I’ve started teaching it to my kids.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khalid Hosseini

Another library find that I ended up buying.  And after I read this, I read The Kite Runner.  It was an interesting year.  It seemed for months everything I read was about Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, India and other Asian cultures.  I call it my “eastern” phase.

Of all the novels I read, this is the one that stopped me in my tracks.  I usually can knock off a novel in two or three days.  This one took me nearly two weeks to get through.  I found myself reading it much more slowly than I usually read, but then reading for shorter periods so I could absorb and process what I was reading.  It is not an easy read, but it is a great story.  I will admit to having known very little about Afghan culture and history before reading this.

 A Thousand Splendid Suns is the compelling story of multiple generations of an Afghani family spread over 30 years or so.  Since reading it, I have become keenly aware of just how blessed I am to have been born in a free country where I can choose my life and I am free to make my own decisions.

Three Cups of Tea:  One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace. . .  One School at a Time

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

This is another book from my eastern phase.  Before I read it a friend told me I would want to be out doing good things to fix the world before I even got halfway through it.  She was right.  Reading this book definitely increased my desire and motivation to be involved in good works.

Greg Mortenson has an inspiring story.  A wrong turn during a mountain climbing expedition in the Himalayas led to an extended stay in a remote mountain village and a promise to return and help.  What made Greg different?  He kept the promise–and then he went on to build school after school after school despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  Dedication, sacrifice and perseverance seem almost inadequate to describe this story of opening doors and changing lives by giving people, especially girls and women, the gifts of education and literacy.  And his story isn’t over yet.  He continues to work and build schools for both boys and girls.

Yes, I have read the reports that perhaps it all didn’t happen quite the way Greg Mortenson says.  That doesn’t make the story of these children and the opportunity that an education provides for them any less meaningful to me.  While perhaps it changes the way I feel about him now, it doesn’t change the way I felt when I read the book.

You Will Go to the Moon

by Mae and Ira Freeman

Yes, it is a “Beginner Book”.  Published in 1959, in the early years of the space race, You Will Go to the Moon is the first book I remember reading all by myself.  Yes, I’m weird.  I really do remember it.

 I read it in the summer between kindergarten and first grade.  And the reading bug bit.  So did the space bug.  To this day I am absolutely fascinated by space travel.  My oldest daughter saw the last Space Shuttle launch and I am soooo envious.

 In first grade, I built little Apollo models, complete with men in space suits.  I watched all the launches and all the splashdowns.  I saw Neil Armstrong make “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”  And I became a voracious reader and an explorer and none of that has really changed.  This is the only one of my favorites that I don’t have in my library.  And I do still have a copy of it. Some books are just too important to part with.

The Phantom Tollbooth

by Norton Juster

Another of my fifth grade favorites.  Miss Hoffman was great.  She introduced me to many books and encouraged us to read.  To this day, my library contains many of the books she first introduced me to.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a kids’ book–sort of.  There’s a lot of metaphor in this book and a lot to think about.  It’s one of those books that you understand on one level as a child and another as an adult.  To me, it was all about imagination and creativity and actually seeking for those things in your life instead of waiting for them to come to you.

 I’ve read it with all of my kids, and even convinced one of my youngest’s teachers that she needed it in her classroom library.  After reading it, she agreed.  The story of Milo, a bored kid, and his little car and his adventures beyond the tollbooth captured the imagination of this very academic little girl.  Yes, learning can be fun.

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was more visionary than he realized.  It has always amazed me that he saw so much of our future back in 1931.  I don’t think a week goes by that don’t I see or hear something on the news or in the media that makes me think “that’s so Brave New World.”

I read it in high school, not because it was assigned but because it interested me (my classmates did think I was weird–I read To Kill A Mockingbird for the same reason.  That pretty much cemented their opinion of my weirdness).  It was pretty controversial back then (yes, it does contain some strong imagery, maybe even language, though I haven’t read it for a while so I don’t remember if it has bad language).  This is a book every teen and adult should read.  The message is important and so is the warning; so sad that our society is choosing to ignore it.

The Call of the Wild

by Jack London

I think this is where much of my sense of adventure and wanderlust has come from.  I had this very edition of Call of the Wild and I fell in love with the writing of Jack London.  After this one, I read everything he wrote.  

I was such a Jack London fan as a child (I still am, by the way–I have his collected works, but my original copy has long since fallen apart), that one summer my grandfather took me to tour Wolf House and Jack London State Park in Sonoma.

While I haven’t gotten to Alaska yet, one day I will.  I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 when I read this; we went to Wolf House the summer I was 8.  Oh, the doors to adventure that reading has opened for me.  I became a world traveler in the pages of my books and this was the one that started it all.

The Man Who Walked Through Time

by Colin Fletcher

Another story of adventure for me, The Man Who Walked Through Time inspired my love of geology and gave me a love for the history of nature and the history of the earth.

It’s the story of the first man (who recorded it anyway) to have hiked the length of the Grand Canyon–at the bottom, of course.  From his narrative, I saw the mighty Colorado River, the majestic canyon walls and the breathtaking scenery.  From rushing river to quiet calm, by the time I finished this book I really felt I had hiked the canyon with him.

 

Breakout

by Martin Russ

This is probably emotionally the hardest book I have ever read.  I found it in a bookstore at a time when I wanted to learn more about the Korean War and specifically the Battle of Chosin.  We really didn’t discuss it in either high school or college history.  In fact, the whole Korean War was just kind of glossed over.  I had never even heard of it until I was playing Trivial Pursuit at my home with a group of church friends.  It came up in one of the questions and a friend who was a history buff started talking about it in the first person, though he was my age and clearly too young to have been there.

And then my dad interrupted.  And he told us that the worst thing about Chosin wasn’t the cold, it was the water.  They couldn’t drink the water because it was red, from the blood.  And he never mentioned it again.  My father almost never talked about his military service.  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps it was too painful; perhaps it was because he was the father of four daughters and old-fashioned enough to believe it was his duty to protect us from the ugly parts of life.  My husband knows more about my father’s military service than I do.

So, back to the book.  Of all the books about the Korean War, this was not only the only one there about Chosin, but it was about the First Marine Division and their role in this battle.  My father was a 20-year-old corporal in the First Marine Division when he was shipped out to Korea.  I recognized a few of the names in the book from going through his papers after he died.  So I decided that reading it might fill in some of the blanks about my dad’s history.

I’ll admit, it was hard to get into.  The first 50 pages or so were pretty dry.  And then it got into the battles.  And I was captivated.  I couldn’t put it down.  I would read and read until the tears came so heavily that I could not see the words on the page.  And I would have to set it aside and come back to it.

I learned a lot reading Breakout .  I learned about the Korean War, I learned about Chosin, possibly the most horrific military battle in our history.  But most importantly, I learned about my dad, about the sacrifices he made, about the memories he had to live with, about the pain he endured and about what it means to be a hero.  He was always my hero.  Reading this book just cemented it for me. Breakout is definitely a book that changed my life–in completely unexpected ways.

So tell me, are there any books that have changed your life?