Books that changed your life thread
>>8019724
This is the first book that really got me into history. I've learned so much about the world and our past since then. I owe a lot to this book.
>>8019744
goat
>>8019744
literally self help that doesn't work
>>8019724
The Tunnel
>>8019744
This line really struck me. Fundamentally we all know what we should do, what is moral scrutiny but prevarication?
>>8020307
This quote is a good one and something I always strive to do.
In a way, it really bothers me that people will constantly complain about the ections and misdeeds of others and will offer up pointless suggestions on how they must change yet will not do so themselves.
>>8020307
>don't know what you're doing just do it
GR8 STUFF!!!!!!
>>8019744
I didn't like this book, what's so good about it?
>>8020307
>What did I get from the Wake, what are its lessons? First of all, be yourself. Second of all, put one foot in front of the other. And lastly, just do it for crying out loud, time's a wastin'!
damn
deep
>>8020442
love this meme
this is the best ever
>>8020840
This is better
>>8020902
you say so?
>>8020926
lmao look at that big nose nigga haha
>>8020409
How so? I mean it's great but...how? Did it make you realise that being an abusive alcoholic in a failed marriage is a bad idea, or something?
>>8019724
Can't say it changed my life, but it did destroy my soul. The last few chapters made me physically sick.
My diary desu
Pic related
Books don't change your life, life changes you.
>>8019724
>Any book written by Faulkner
I grew up thinking of the south as a haven of ignorant people, but Faulkner portrays it as the morally-conflicted society that is still present today.
>>8020381
I think it's more in the sense of everyone knowing inherently what a good man is, yet we lack the self-control to be one. So we complain and argue of an ideal that we think is unattainable, maybe even corrupting it into affordability. If you were to be an actual good man, others would follow. So instead of arguing and forcing others to live an ideal, we ought to live and lead it. Likewise, others will be captivated by you and those that seek true virtue will find courage to rise above this endless cycle of bickering. Those too lax and prideful, on the other hand, will tear you down. They believe in the subjective value of worth, of comparison. A man of virtue values objective worth and can only obtain this by being a good man, instead of arguing what a good man ought to be.
1984, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, dune, 1984, slaughterhouse 5, brave new world, infinite jest, ulysses, gravitys rainbow
>>8021348
That's 1984 twice, bud
>>8021328
Well said, but:
>A man of virtue values objective worth and can only obtain this by being a good man
What do you mean by "objective worth"?
>>8021355
shit my bad i meant to put it 3 times
>>8021348
>hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
How? It's just comedy.
>>8021328
I think this can quite easily be seen as a cop out from asking the difficult questions. At bottom this is saying : 'Don't think, just do'
I don't at all believe people inherently know what the good is and you see many go off on any seemingly crazy avenues where they think they are doing what's right and they have the attitude that you don't question it too much you just go for it.
The sad truth is that without reading a great deal you're unlikely to have a very well thought out conception of good and where you may slip up and how you might contradict yourself. But there also needs to be a balance between just taking what 'the greats' say and just doing it because they say so.
If you truly want to be a 'good' person to the best ability you can conceive of I think it is an exceptionally difficult and contradictory task that really isn't so plain as 'do it, and it'll happen'
I think that approach is albeit a more useful cop out that 'i don't know what is good so i do nothing' but still a cop out.
>>8021366
it taught me to always bring le towel
>>8021306
What's it like living in a homonormative cult of hypermasculinity?
Though, seriously, what did you like about this book?
>>8021667
Did you read it?
I'm not the guy from the post you're replying to. I also didn't read it, i'm just curious
>>8021443
Haha 42! Xd
Its not so much that I agreed with all of Emerson's conclusions but after reading his essays the way in which I approached every other piece of writing changed drastically
>>8019724
good beginner's redpill on communism, desu
Books/Lit Materials
- Brave New World
- 1984
- Fahrenheit 451
- Future Shock
- Notes From The Underground
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
- Simulacra and Simulation
- The Manufacture Of Consent
- Hacker's Manifesto
- The One Dimensional Man
- Ubik
1984 was a good read, and while it did influence me, I don't feel it was life changing. Much like Winston, when he read "Goldstein's" book, I feel like the book didn't teach me anything new, it just connected a lot of stuff that I'd thought of before and put it together well.
I did not emerge from 1984 with vastly altered perspectives on things like I did after reading Brave New World. Though I read it some years ago, I still think about BNW constantly. I need to re-read it, though.
>>8022697
my nigga
>>8022760
I just read BNW as I am an uncultured American swine. I find it a much more compelling setting than 1984. Orwell's "Boot stamping on a human face forever" future seems a bit too absurd and incomplete. While Huxley's "everybody is stupid and happy" feels a lot more possible. My POV might just be a product of my time.
-
If visual novels are novels- then Saya No Uta changed the way I consume all horror stories. Saya is one of the most compelling characters I've ever read.
>>8019724
Particularly these three:
The Great Gatsby
The Brothers Karamazov
Umineko no naku koro ni
>>8021402
Have you read Meditations? Taking the quote out of context, I can see why you might think it's a cop out. But Meditations as a whole contains volumes of specific attributes that Aurelius took from his peers and elders, which he qualifies by explaining how they should be used. He doesn't just say "Be a good man" with no guidance. He thoroughly explains his reasoning why, and remains famously hesitant throughout. You can feel his brilliant composure in every sentence. It was his use of these skills that led him to so much success. The reader might not have an idea of what it means to be a good man, but he can see why the traits Aurelius talks about are important.
And to be fair, this isn't an interview. It's a personal memoir at the pinnacle of Aurelius' success. This isn't Steve Jobs telling you to buy a new iPhone because the old one was so good. It's an extraordinarily famous emperor combining all of his life experience. It might as well be a personal gateway to his mind. What more do you require from a book?
All of Emil Cioran and Lev Shestov's books have had a big influence on me. At least the ones of them I have gotten a hold of.
>>8020428
it appeals to simplistic morons who want an easy way to avoid their problems for another week
same as all self help books really
>>8023113
So what would you recommend?
>>8021328
Arguably, you can't have 'objective worth' as a good man. Being a good man has no worth, that's why it's so hard. The only person who can truly measure your worth is yourself, so there's no way of determining objective worth among men.
>>8019744
I love 'Meditations' but the only place where I think it falls flat, is that Aurelius uses the gods as sort of a catch all for logic holes. While there is some merit to saying 'You can control everything', relinquishing your own responsibility for your actions is naive, even if whatever happened wasn't your fault. I wish Aurelius would have ignored the fates and mythology, and instead directly said that consistently making good, honest, and composed decisions will lead to the best outcomes. He indirectly infers this to be true, but ultimately decides to fall back on the fact that the fates are truly the only ones who control your life in the end.
A lack of control is a qualifier for his brand of stoicism, but he finds lack of control in mythological existential crises, instead of factual ones.
crime & punishment
This and the church doctrine I read
Journey to the West
it's like if meditations was good
>>8020307
This quote is "Don't try to find out what a good man is, be one!" What. How can you be what you don't know? You can't be a good man if you don't know what is good. What if good to me is not good to you?
>tfw discovering that all anxiety stems from living in a strained, unnatural way
>>8023568
you are moved by a heavenly spring in you?
>>8023505
Can you recommend a good translation of this Fampai? ?
>>8023202
Is this the best translation?
>>8019744
I've never read any stoicism, is this the best starting point?
>>8024118
no, read discourses
>>8024133
Thank you friend.
pic related
settembrini or naphta? thougths
>>8023662
Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Lattimore are the top 3. Find an excerpt from each and see which you like the most. Fitzgerald is the most poetic, Lattimore the most literal, and Fagles is the middle-ground between the two.
>>8023113
suck my fucking dick you fucking retard
>>8020300
What's this about anon?
>>8022742
Seconding this. It's the first book that really showed me what good writing can be capable of.
>>8021265
post it
>>8022808
BNW is for the richer masses of firstworld countries, 1984 is what happens in poorer countries and, so to speak, behind the scenes of firstworld countries, what their governments do. Try revealing secrets when you're high up in some intelligence agency and you'll find yourself in an abandoned military base eating baggies of powdered glass and being electroshocked then forced to eat your own fingers
>>8019724
>>8022808
Only the people with the power to do damage are boot stomping on a human face forever. The real story of the book is how the regime uses language to destroy the capacity for thoughtcrime in the proles. THere's no need to monitor or repress them, they don't even know what rebellion is.
>>8022808
The fact that huxley hit the nail on the head so well actually comforts me slightly. If he had such a good concept of these things in 31, maybe things havwnt declined as much as it would seem from our perspective.
Or maybe he was just uncannily good and we truly are doomed, which I fear is the reality of it.
25 cents at a yard sale. Still have it.
>>8023646
Not that annon, but I enjoyed the Jenner translation.
>>8026542
I don't see a believable way to control language to the extent needed to accomplish that. 1984 requires this massive censorship that isn't doable.
>>8026519
Reading 1984 as a response or rebuttal to Brave New World makes it feel a lot more complete actually.
I don't believe that first world governments make their citizens disappear.
>>8023202
How did this change your life? Reading this and Odyssey only made me want to be more tanned and bath in olive oil
>>8019744
Meh. Stoicism helped me for a few months when I was infatuated.
>>8021307
You change your life
Fix'd
>>8024390
It is the failed attempt of a middle-aged history professor to write an introduction to his book. Unlike the book itself, it is strange, offensive, disgusting, highly personal.
>>8019724
Found the tourist and/or high school neckbeard
>>8023649
a million times this
>>8023093
good advice
>>8019744
This.
>>8027998
Yes. We are all in control, like robots.
>>8023649
Second that.
>>8023649
All self-help books are same bullshit, different form.
>>8028374
Kek
>people actually praising 1984
The idea of people as a whole being so dumb as to not realize what was wrong with the government and/or not doing anything to revolt was just too much for me; and the entire third chapter being torture porn instead of actually showing some kind of over-elaborate plan for a revolution only settled my dislike for it even more.
It may have something to do with the belief that, now that the internet is a thing and everyone can talk with anyone, such levels of isolation may seem impossible to someone grown in this era, though.
This right here.
>>8022710
isn't this like a million pages long with three volumes?
>>8029158
>The idea of people as a whole being so dumb as to not realize what was wrong with the government and/or not doing anything to revolt was just too much for me
China will make you eat your hat soon
>>8029158
You should come to mexico, friend
>>8021667
>>8022354
Summary:
Humans have evolved a psychology that is adapted to a certain lifestyle: the lifestyle that we have lived for the past 200K years throughout the paleolithic. The basic survival strategy of humans (and all intelligent social predators) is to form small violent bands, stake out territory, and compete with rival groups for resources and humans.
Donovan's thesis is that the traits men look for in other men are the traits that would make another man useful to you in a paleolithic/apocaliptic/survival shit-hits-the-fan situation. They are what he terms "martial virtues", manly traits: strength, ballsiness, skills, and loyalty. This is how men look for when they choose to associate with other men, and how they evaluate themselves in comparison to other men. Because it's how the machinery of our minds has evolved to work.
He closes by saying that the modern world is at odds with our psychology, because we aren't geared to working 9-5, and being perfectly safe, and having easy food sources, and jacking off to HD pornography. Men have a need to set up an us vs them, and act as a gaurdian and a provider. We ate psychologically grade to live a "gang" life in a small group struggling to survival. This is why men are so into sports, hunting, and literature/film about the apocalypse. And the lack of this type of life is why suicide and depression are so prevalent.
>>8030713
Fucking autocorrect
the older i get the more i realize swann's way is ur guide to finding good relationships, but you only know this once u old enough to have some perspective on ur memories
>>8030933
Why the FUCK is it so difficult for you to type out the word "you?" You need to stop this nonsense immediately.
Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Call me a dimwit but it made me realize how insignificant humankind is.
>>8020307
doesn't make any fucking sense.
>>8019724
Made me question the concept of morality, and the basics of good and evil. Realized that morality is a fabricated human construct primarily, and evil is just as valid as good.
>>8034830
It made me realize that aliens could make my waifu real
This
>>8024192
neither.
did you actually read the book?
>>8035334
I'm not alone!
>>8035334
How has this changed your practical, day-to-day life in any way though?
>>8035334
dude.
seriously?
Made me realise what socialism really wants. It shifted me to the right (among other things).
>>8019744
This. And some stuff by Mishima helped me realise some stuff about meself.
>>8019755
I have a book about Opium War by Julia Lowell lying around. Do you recommend it? I only bought it because I found a cheap copy in a second hand bookstore, but when I started reading it I found it meh.
Willing to slog through ~100 ages if it's a valuable source of info.
>>8037169
*pages
>>8037152
The realization of those deeper thoughts is likely to lend itself to changing the way he lives his practical, day-to-day life
Probably Great Expectations because it was one of the first real pieces of literature I read (excluding Alice in Wonderland) and made me fall in love with it.
Blood Meridian also really influenced my writing, especially when I write prose and specifically in dialogue.
>>8019744
This times 2000 , if everyone was forced to read this, the world would be a better place.
>>8023526
Worth reading if we were in a repressed religious society, but now only read by libtards in order to justify degeneracy .
>>8037215
...so you don't write dialogue very often?
>>8019724
the only books that change your life are the ones you read in childhood
once you reach adulthood, books don't change your life, you just read ones that happen to validate your worldview and claim they were "life changing"
alice's adventures in wonderland was far more life changing than anything else i have ever read
>>8037514
I guess that's true in some regards. Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings taught me to love nature and keep friendships sacred. I can say I've become a better person after reading those as a child.
I must say Blindsight.
>>8037514
>he doesnt keep his mind open to changes
>he doesnt let books show him a new worldview
>he thinks people are set in their ways forever
I'm so drunk that my fingers feel like feathers against the keyboard
>>8037637
>>he doesnt keep his mind open to changes
"having a mind open to changes" is not the same as "a book changed my life". as the quote goes, when the facts change i change my views, what do you do, sir?
the chances are that if you have a mind open to changes, instead of a closed mind, that is something you learned in childhood
but of course there are books that can change people's worldview. however mere mention of some of them on this board is enough to send some people into fits and cause a flurry of people posting people wearing hats.
The World as Will and Representation.
>2016
>Optimists exist
>Mfw
>>8024559
depends. you could compare it to Pope's translation. maybe write a poem about it.
This was the first book I read that really made me stop and think. Also Orwell tells a fantastic story and I must say my heart really went out to Boxer...
>>8030579
the only legitimate answer
>>8037681
those people wearing hats are often a good representation of the aforementioned posters though
>>8037420
Yep. Me too
>>8019724
Not even baiting. This book was the first book I ever loved and I'm glad it captivated me at a young age, sowing a seed of love for reading.
>>8038563
>Osamu
Is that like Osama bin ladens weebo brother?
>>80371523
It made me more aware of human consciousness, and drive. Made me wonder wither or not my actions were affected by human ethics. Basically whenever I see a fucking asshole, I wonder wither or not his behavior of being an asshole gives them any physical, emotional, or materialistic gain, regardless of wither or not it was "good" or "bad".
i.e. >>8037154
What's wrong with it?
>I like dystopian fiction (1984, Brave New World)
>The book was hard enough to read, so it at least challenged me to some extent
>The theme was solid, as well as it's motifs, stream of consciousnesses, and dialogue.
>>8038563
mah nigga
>>8019724
Ham on rye
Ask the dust
permutation city
>>8038552
Anon, you have to warn me before taking me on a nostalgia trip that intense.
I'm sorry
>>8038563
>Implying I'm not Human, all too Human
>>8027939
Gives greater insights into what it is to be human. How we deal with life and death and how we should structure our own lives to deal with these existential questions.
>>8019724
Did not. Only put on words the ideas that i already had.
>deja vu
>>8019744
Hello, reddit!
Annals of the Former World - John McPhee
shattered my anthropocentrism
catcher in the rye
>>8024192
great book
>>8021366
It gave a solid argument for why god can't be real at one point.
>>8032637
Ayy. My 9th grade history teacher gave me his copy after I came back to school after being suspended for drinking on campus, buying and using various pills, etc. Reading this and Herman Hesse's journey to the east and wanderings helped me chill the fuck out.
Made me realize not all books are boring.
>>8023640
Just finished this and loved it.
Coates is a great writer. I found myself getting so immersed in this book.
I think it has changed my life, also. Of course, I have always "known" the struggles of being black in america (as any good young white liberal "knows"), but never was it made so clear, so obvious. It is also the only book that has made me want to learn about black history in a much less passive way.
>>8024404
lol
I guess that book helped change me by making me realize to not be a lazy fucking piece of shit and how many people are lazy fucks
i felt good after reading it.
This is basically the gateway drug for fundamental materialists into some crazy shit.
>>8035347
>"now listen here u little shit" The Book
I liked it too
>>8019724
Made me hate almost everything left wing.
>“We're no longer young men. We've lost any desire to conquer the world. We are refugees. We are fleeing from ourselves. From our lives. We were eighteen years old, and we had just begun to love the world and to love being in it; but we had to shoot at it. The first shell to land went straight for our hearts. We've been cut off from real action, from getting on, from progress. We don't believe in those things any more; we believe in the war.”
This book made me realize how little I understand about real life.
>>8019724
> 1984 non-ironically changed my world. So fucking grim, a real wrist-slitter, but the possibility of such a dystopia existing has been drastically reduced by the existence of this story. Now the proles know the warning signs (so to speak). Even so, still haven't had the fortitude to re-read this book even after five years.
The middle school I went to as a kid was shut down a year or so ago and I was in my home town, so long story short I found my way into the library, which was still full of books strewn about.
I found pic related on a pile and, remembering reading it in a class for gifted and talented students I had there, opened it up and started reading it again.
I read the entire thing in one sitting. I never remembered being interested in it at all when I read it in school, but holy shit I couldn't put it down. I've been trying to get back into reading, but it usually feels like a chore. Once I get started I can go for a while, but often I feel myself waiting for the next chapter, but with pic related I literally started slowing down my reading towards the end so I wouldn't have to stop and I damn near cried at the end. I'm damn near crying thinking about it.
This all happened yesterday. I don't know what to do now. Nothing I have read before has compared, and neither will anything I read now. I'm in the doldrums so to speak.
>>8041637
you are so dumb you are really really dumb
>>8039864
this book made me realize all the "alt lifestyle" friends that i had in high school were shit and unoriginal.
>>8022890
>anime shit
kys
>>8043361
My nigga. I found it on my brother's pile and read it as a kid. The puns and allusions flew over my head, but I remember enjoying it a lot anyway.
>>8043775