One book which changed your life

Brian

Gold Member
I made this thread with a little inspiration from the "pre-destiny" thread.

There have been many influential books and essays which changed my outlook of society and in general "life"; it was Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" which caught my attention and forced me closely examine how we've been programmed from birth to accept principles and understandings which are incoherent and contradictory.

The book is a fairly well-known philosophical and somewhat inflammatory critique of mankind and it's continuous conquest of earth. Being somewhat criticized, I'm wondering if anyone else has read this, and any thoughts?

Highly recommended reading, IMO.

And finally what have you read, or are reading, that made a significant impact on your world view and outlook?
 
Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession by W.J.G. Ord-Hume

Excellent book. Not philosophical, but it blew my mind some of the engineering ideas and hoaxes society has come up with to achieve the impossible. Half the ideas were legit, and were geared towards making life easier, while the other half were for nothing more than fame and financial gain. I found it fascinating how long people have been obsessing over perpetual motion, and how time and changes in technology helped to drive the obsession. It is a great read for anyone who is interested in mechanics and history.
 
Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession by W.J.G. Ord-Hume

Excellent book. Not philosophical, but it blew my mind some of the engineering ideas and hoaxes society has come up with to achieve the impossible. Half the ideas were legit, and were geared towards making life easier, while the other half were for nothing more than fame and financial gain. I found it fascinating how long people have been obsessing over perpetual motion, and how time and changes in technology helped to drive the obsession. It is a great read for anyone who is interested in mechanics and history.
Sounds very interesting, I'm checking it out now. Thanks!
 
A little book called "The Rudiments of Music" taught me to read and speak the language of musicians.

Around the turn of the century The Idiots Guide to HTML sent me on a path of web design; until then I didn't know where to start in creating a "legit" (ie. non Homestead) website. That was followed by years of happy hobbying plus some graphics work for a while.

Philosophically, no one book. Lots of self help, popular psychology and Buddhism books when I was young - the ones that started me were "Your Erroneous Zones" and "I'm OK, You're OK". I've since spent many years gradually shooing out the many bats in my belfry - it's a work in progress.

I only recently noticed "how we've been programmed from birth to accept principles and understandings which are incoherent and contradictory", mainly from listening to rationalist speakers on YT. I was amazed to notice all the archaic and illogical misconceptions that I once simply accepted as fact - they were really programmed into me and never questioned.
 
"The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler. Never looked at cities in the same way since then.
That looks like a great read. On the surface, reminds me of Adam Curtis's excellent doc "The century of the self", minus the resulting political theory(s).

USA of course = where the culture remains the lack of culture. ;)
 
A tie..

"Healing the Gerson Way", Charlotte Gerson
"Thugs, Drugs & the War on Bugs", Brad Case

Realized that most health issues are tied to your diet and that drugs do nothing to improve health.
 
A tie..

"Healing the Gerson Way", Charlotte Gerson
"Thugs, Drugs & the War on Bugs", Brad Case

Realized that most health issues are tied to your diet and that drugs do nothing to improve health.

Funny, one of my old friends had just mentioned Mr. Gerson's book to me....................he said the results from just a dietary change was amazing...........................going to get the book and research some more
 
There's a book called," Flyfishing Through the Midlife Crisis" by Howell Raines,that offers wisdom and insightful perspective ,that led to a few" Ah Ha" moments for me.

A great read.

Steve B
 
"Sound Recording" by John Eargle. It made me shift out of pre-med, and into mass communications, and later music production and engineering.
 
Back
Top