Books that changed your way of thinking

Please list some books that have changed the way you think (not ones that presented good evidence for what you already believed) or moved your psychology in some way. Also, a brief explanation of how it changed you would be nice.

The most recent for me was Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville (although it's a short story.) It opened my eyes (apologies for the cliche) to how quickly most people--including myself--adhere to assumed obligations, and starve their own private desires and ambitions. It's a really layered story, and I suggest it to almost anyone, considering it's so short.

Others that affected me seriously: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, which presented a compelling case for individualism (Objectivism, specifically) and Rand's ideal way for a man to live. That is to say, for himself only. But it's 700 pages or something. A great read, but it's doubtful anyone would want to go on my opinion for something so large.

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe brought questions into my mind about duties to man, sacrifices, the role of God, dedication to God, mercy, and so many other things. It is possibly my favorite book, although I haven't liked other things of his that I've read since.

 

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For me it's also Ayn Rand, but the initial book was Atlas Shrugged. One of the most important things that book taught me was to think for myself and not trust "experts" if what they're saying doesn't make sense. She provided a moral framework and justification for capitalism. She pointed out that not only is capitalism the only system that works, it's also the most moral system by any fair standard.

 

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Yes Man by Danny Wallace

He's a bit of a comedian and he's not going to win a Man Booker prize any time soon, but he's a likeable chap and the main idea of the book is brilliant.
Whenever somebody asks a question and the answer is yes or no: say yes.
He did this for a good few months and it got him into a lot of strange and wonderful situations. It's inspiring. Something that seems so simple, but most people wouldn't be willing to do. It seems like it genuinely benefitted him, so I'd like to think I say "yeah, what the hell, I'll give that a try" more often than I did before.

 

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The Hobbit.

 

"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell read together with "Lavondyss" by Robert Holdstock.

I like reading two books at the same time and this combination turned me into the psychological aspect of mythology, made me see visions in dream and a few hallucinations.
Turned me towards Jung and anthropology, buddhism and hinduism.
Changed and contributed to the ways I perceive reality and interpret myself.
These books triggered a mental explosion which also changed my plans on what I want to do with my life. So yeah, big stuff for the lil me.

 

-- The Selfish Gene
It increased my bewilderment of the universe and how such baffling complexity can arise from such inherently selfish mechanisms.
-- The Medusa and the Snail
Increased my appreciation for nature and got me thinking about how similar the organisms here on Earth really are. The book got me thinking about organisms on different levels and how they are related to each other.
-- Nanocosm
Just a book about nanotechnology. It got me interested and really opened my eyes as to how it promises to irrevocably change our lives--whether we want it to or not.
-- The Singularity is Near
This book is about the Singularity. After doing a good amount of reading about nanotechnology I realized that pretty soon we're going to be living in a very different world. This book was kind of a necessary extension that got me thinking about the Singularity as a natural process that happens when pockets of the universe become increasingly alive and intelligent.

 

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy.

 

Frank Herbert's Dune chronicles. - A brilliant series which profoundly impacted my conception of certain things. Offering some very profound wisdom on various topics, including a radical alternative to a machine-focused culture.

Yamamato Tsunetomo "Hagakure". - The essence of bushido. A foundation for a manly, heroic way of life, with an apathy towards death, and a revolution of value and understanding.


Marcus Aurelius "Meditations". - A sublime and heroic work of contemplation by one of the West's greatest leaders. Profound and life-altering.

Plato "Meno". - A philosophic watershed. Offering the proof of truth and knowledge.

Confucius "The Annalects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean". - "Is virtue a thing remote? I look to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand". An ethical treaty of fantastic importance which has offered me definite insight into a proper foundation for ethics.

Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. - Although it sounds silly to make a pulp novel series into a profound work of literature, Conan's perserving striving and heroism is a great inspiration.

 

Barrows Boys by Fergus Fleming. Totally changed my world view, showed me what remarkable things people can survive.

 

The Denial of Death, by Ernest Becker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death

 

Watch this three-minute trailer of 'Flight From Death', a film based upon Becker's writings.

http://www.flightfromdeath.com/trailer_high.htm

Has anyone here seen it?

 

Brust, Camus

The writing of Steven Brust has had a tremendous effect on my perspective. To Reign in Hell relaxed my approach to theology; Cowboy Feng's Space Bar & Grille ... it's hard to explain the change, as it was broad and creeping; the Dragaeran stories (Taltos cycle and Khaavren romances) have had a cumulative effect; it's where the name "Tiassa" comes from. Fiction can be a powerful force if you let it.

Perhaps the greatest impact on my way of thinking, however, has come from the work of Albert Camus. The Myth of Sysiphus is an essential volume, in my opinion. I actually got it wrong for a number of years because I overlooked a detail. This oversight made the book such a frustration that I didn't finish reading it, and it was only when I went back to read it again, and completely, a few years later that I figured out what I was missing. It was a proverbial light in the attic. From O'Brien's translation:

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. ​

 

There are perhaps four books that can said to have shaped my life.

1) Marx's Communist Manifesto. I am not a communist, nor a socialist, nor do I like Marx or think he is any more than a fairly hack student of the greatest hack philosopher in history. That said, when I was 13 I read this book and thus started my life path down towards academic philosophy.

2) Colin McGinn's The Making of A Philosopher. If Marx got me reading nothing but philosophy, Colin made me realize I could do this as a job.

3) Mario Bunge's Crisis in Philosophy. Never before has so beautiful a paradigm for the investigations of philosophy been presented to me.

4) Dostoevsky's The Gambler. I gave up fiction with very few exceptions from the day I read Marx until this past summer. Dostoevsky opened a floodgate.

 

Oh, and for argument's sake....

5) Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Thus beginning the long life task of screaming at every individual who thinks Rand is either a good writer or even a semi-decent philosopher.

 

Hahahaha, yes!

 

Ayn Rand is an excellent writer, but for one qualm I have with her sytle: Her villains can degenirate into carciatures at times.

 

She's not an excellent writer. But then, one must bear in mind that she wrote directly into English when it was not her native language, and she wrote while quite young when compared to most philosophers.
Dosteovsky, I believe, was translated. He was also considerably older.

Prince James: They do, but then so do her heroes. And her "style" isn't meant to be anything other than a depiction of her view of perfection, so given that and the language barrier and one can forgive her somewhat for it.

Now if we're talking about books which changed one's outlook on life, then Rand definately did mine. I read "Atlas Shrugged" when I was 12 or 13, moved directly onto "The Fountainhead" after that, and was presented with an entirely different viewpoint from what I'd known before.
I'm not sure how the exact quote goes, nor do I remember who it is from, but it brings to mind this:
"Marxists are those who have read the books of Karl Marx, and anti-Marxists are those who have understood them".
She was one who understood them, and helped others understand.

Rand was not, in Tyler's words, a great writer nor philospher; there are very few who will claim she was. Her ideas were obviously developed from others... but then so were many who are deemed "philosophers" today. As far as being someone who has changed the way many people think, particularly for me at quite a young age where I was not quite certain why everything I was being told didn't feel right, she very definately was.

So Tyler and Sandoz may carry on screaming and laughing, if they wish, these two have probably never had an effect on anyone at all.

Except perhaps while posing in their underwear.

 

Your quote is from Ronald Reagan. Precisely it goes: "What is a Communist? Well, someone who reads Marx and Engels. What is an anti-Communist? Someone who -understands- Marx and Engels."

Although I'd actually claim that Ayn Rand was quite the philosopher, if not one that makes many uncomfortable. She's a.........Free Market Nietzsche? I think perhaps only Nozick would have appreciated that sort of person. Continental Philosophy is too Socialist, and Analytic Philosophy too Liberal.

I was never bothered by her "perfect heroes". I much prefer a perfect hero to one that is so flawed the notion of hero is lacking. I also found her prose far more readable than most 20th century authors, but then again, I hold a dim view of 20th century literature.

 

I have a feeling Reagan may have be re-quoting, but perhaps you're right. I don't actually know.

At 12 or 13, I found her quite readable as well - perhaps it is the simplistic style which helped at the age I read her. Reading again now, I would probably find her a little tedious, but then her influence has already been established and I no longer really need to.

Why would you hold a dim view of modern literature?

 

The themes and prose style disinterest me. Only the following authors, post WWI, interest me:

Robert E. Howard.
Frank Herbert.
J.R.R. Tolkien.
George Orwell.
Ayn Rand.
Pearl S. Buck.
Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I generally prefer 19th century authors. Amongst which:

Stephen Crane.
Oscar Wilde.
Mary Shelley.
Bram Stoker.
Mark Twain.
James Fennimore Cooper.
Alexandre Dumas.
Robert Louis Stevenson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Rudyard Kipling.
Edgar Allen Poe.
Washington Irving. (As a New Yorker, I must love his works)

Et cetera, et cetera.