Is there a book that has fundementally changed your outlook

Yeah, that got me started but it was the Shikasta series by Doris Lessing that clinched it for me -- it is a lyrical indictment of the human condition, written with sentiment, empathy, and humor. Probably time for me to read it again.

Canopus in Argos: Archives
Shikasta
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five
The Sirian Experiments
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire

Thanks much for elaborating, edgar.

I had a curious introduction to Dianetics when 20some years ago, back when we were just dating, Mr. B came home from college, tossed me a copy of Dianetics and begged me to help him with some class paper.

I had a passing knowledge of Scientology and knew Hubbard's name and position but still I found the book oddly seductive. (Note: Having been raised with no religious beliefs or preconceptions, I find most religious texts "oddly seducitive".)

Your mention of it makes me want to revisit the book to see what the heck the allure might have been.

Thank you.

I didn't read it from a religious perspective, boomer.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

(I won't say that this is great literature, although I always enjoy Kingsolver's writing, or a work of pioneering concepts -- but I happened to read it at the right moment in my life. I often think that the personal impact of literature and world events for that matter depend more on what's going on in one's head at any given moment.)

Immortality by Milan Kundera

Cosmic View the Universe in Forty Jumps
by Kees Boeke
Publisher: John Day Co (June, 1957)
Language: English

It has been 4 decades since Cosmic View was written, 3 since Kees Boeke died, and perhaps 2 since the last printing. Out of print, difficult to find, and largely forgotten.

This book, written for children, takes the reader on a journey of scale -- jumping by powers of ten meters (1 meter, 10 meters, 100 meters) to give a sense of the smallness of our Earth and our Galaxy relative to the Universe... and then jumps back to the same starting point from a picnic scene and then works its way through innerspace (.1 meters, .01 meters, etc.) to the atomic level.

Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero
by Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison

Kees Boeke's book book inspired a short film, "Powers of Ten", and the creators of that short film (Philip and Phylis Morrison) went on to produce a book by the same title ("Powers of Ten") which covers the same basic ground as "Cosmic View" -- but with photographs replacing some of the hand-drawn illustrations of the original, and with more in-depth commentary on the implications of size at each "power of ten". The newer book is geared much more at the adult level. It is a "Scientific American" branded book after all.

These books and the film caused me to understand more clearly the tiny impact of the earth and our galaxy in the overall scheme of the universe. It also confirmed and validated my atheism.

There are many. But I'll just keep it to the book(s) that so far have changed my life the most.

The sum total of the works of Dostoyevsky. In particular; Crime and Punishment + The Brothers Karamazov.

I was 14 when I first got my hands and heard of him. Small town. We didn't even keep those books in our library. The librarian brought me a tattered old copy from her house. She nourished me with all sorts of books.
Well, at first it seemed so esoteric and exotic. What is this? Then I fell in love.
Dosty opened a whole new world of writing and life to me.

flushd, i devoured all of dostoevskij (books, not the man) in high school. couldn't stop reading.
i can fully relate.
one holiday i was with a friend and her parents up in the mountains. i spent most of the time on a blanket by a river, ignoring the rest of them. That was Brothers Karamazov. Idiot was a weekend alone at home. Crime and Punishment I read on buses, in parks, at school....feeling very antisocial against everyone around.... ahhhh, the good old days. i never read anything quite in the same way as dostoevski back in my teens...

as many books as i've read, some must have affected my outlook, but i'm having a hard time recalling them. the only one that popped into my head is Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman. It was my introduction to Navaho(Dinee) spirituality in particular, and Native American spirituality in general. I don't think it's even Hillerman's best work, and Hillerman isn't even Native American, but it gently nudged me toward an unexplored path.

The Lord of the Rings basically confirmed what I believe about right and wrong, good and evil, without imposing rules and hierarchies to abide by.

I am also very enthusiastic about a novel by Anouar Benmalek calle "The Lovers of Algeria." I read it at a time when I was dating an Algerian. But beyond that, it opened my eyes to North Africa and the Middle East and helped confirm my ambitions to study Maghreb and the struggle over decolonization in North Africa.

I also was very touched by "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy, which is beautiful and sensual, and again opened my eyes to the social strugges in India that exist even today.

There have been many others, but I'm having a hard time bringing them to mind..."I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," "100 Years of Solitude," "The Four Loves" and others

The entire series "Incarnations of Immortatility" by Piers Anthony
Book really makes you think about different stances on religion and whether Purgatory existes and why/why not

"What we talk about when we talk about love" (R. Carver)
"The Winter Tale" (W. Shakespeare)
"Who's affraid of Virginia Woolf" (Albee)
"A Streetwar Named Desire" (T. Williams)
"L'Eternité" (A. Rimbaud) (just a poem, but it changed me...)
"Les Oubliés de Vulcain" (D. Martinigol)

Most of them made me just LOVE to read, and therefore made the book worm I am now...

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
by Robin Sharma

can you tell us a bit about the Ferrari book? whats it about?

Monk Who sold His Farrari is about this lawyer,Jullian who had a major heart attack, he was always busy working and he never mad time for his family. he decides to sell his farrari,all his other prized possessions and go to India where he finds a monk who gives him philosophys like time is most precious commodity and the limits that you have in life are the limits you set for yourself,you should become a vegetarian. You should read the book!!!!

Of course the HOLY QUR'AN

prophets

the zoo story:edward albee

the curtain:yousef edris

Dull as it may sound the Da Vinci Code made me relise it wasnt only me that thought the whole 'Jesus is an untouchable being' story was a bit unbelievable.
I was very glad to know others thought like me, and have done for some time.

thanks very much.

i'll surely get hold of the book asap.

i am already interested, after reading the bit about time being the most important commodity. couldnt agree more.

"The Way of the Peaceful Warrior"
"Sugarbusters"
"Unholy Alliance - Occult Roots in Naziism" or something like that
"Mutant Message Down Under"
"My Life as an Explorer" by Sven Hedin

S'funny how people can have such a completely different take on things.

I never thought the life of Jesus had anything to do with being "untouchable." The whole point was, IMO, that although he was the "Saviour" he was still very much human. He knew what it felt like to be joyful, to be in agony, to be admired and loved as well as betrayed and forsaken.

The disciples of Jesus felt free to question him, debate him, even criticize him. That wasn't the case with Mohammad; his followers wouldn't have dared.

And of course, we all know what happened at the end of Jesus' life.

I never saw him as being "untouchable"; just the opposite, in fact.

Here are a few truly great books...
I have been reading upwards of 120 books a year since 1989 -- mostly on business -- but on several other topics as well. In that time I have run across a handful of truly life-changing books -- I won't list them all here -- but here are a few of my very, very favorites:

"Living, Loving and Learning" by Leo Buscaglia
"A Strategy for Daily Living" by Ari Kiev
"The Prophet" by Kahil Gabran
"The Four Agreements" by Miguel Ruiez
"Awakening" by Anthony De Mello
"As a Man Thinkith" by William James

I have a full list of the top 100 books I've ever read on my web site at Edit [Moderator]: Do not post your link here

Hope this helped -- John Spence