Three Books That Changed My Life
It's hard to pick three. But then again, maybe not. I'm talking about three books that fundamentally changed me. I was one way before I read them, and was changed for having read them.
#1. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This book so changed me, that I cannot even articulate fully what it has meant for me. I read it while lying in a hospital bed really fighting for my life. Two weeks in a bed with nothing to ponder but the fact that I was not 100% sure I was going to get to go home--or if I did what my life might be like now that I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. A friend suggested it, and I read it in one sitting. Then I read it again. And again. And again. He recounts his survival in Auschwitz, but also the fundamental philosophy that if we know WHY we want to live and WHY we choose to live, we can endure almost anything. It started me on a journey through philosophy, quantum physics, and Buddhism. I was not afraid of death after I read it, but I wanted to live . . . with grace and human dignity.
#2. My Brain is Open, by Bruce Schechter. Why did this amazing book change me? It is the biography of Paul Erdos, mathematical genius. In seventh grade, I had the worst teacher of my life for math. She was so awful, I immortalized her as evilness personified in High School Bites. She taught math, and she was the single most horrible, nasty teacher I have ever encountered. She was mean, she was into humiliating students, and I never saw her crack a smile--a burnout case or a demon, or both. Even with the hindsight of adulthood, I can say with sincerity, she ruined young minds and bore down on them with a hatred of children. And so I thought, after doing poorly in her class, that I was "no good" at math. That one side of my brain was well-developed (the writing side), and one side was just empty--the math and science side. When I took my SATs, I scored evenly--exactly evenly--on both portions. So of course this was not true. But no matter. Numbers scared me! Until I read this book. I laughed, and I learned. And I discovered that math THEORY is anything but rote and it's fascinating. I wrote to the author when I read it about ten years ago to just gush over how excited I now was over math theory, and he was gracious and kind when he wrote back. A great book, a great guy.
#3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was going to pick Little Women because, like every little girl who wants to be a writer, I related to Jo. I wanted a room in an attic to write in. But . . . really . . . this book changed me more. It not only spoke to my politics, my feminism, and my personhood, it not only reflected war and subjugation . . . it was the first book that made me CRY as an adult and that stayed with me for weeks afterward, and I was filled with intense admiration for the writing. It was lyrical and beautiful and inventive, and I was awed.
These are the books that changed and moved me.
So, the rest of you?
#1. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This book so changed me, that I cannot even articulate fully what it has meant for me. I read it while lying in a hospital bed really fighting for my life. Two weeks in a bed with nothing to ponder but the fact that I was not 100% sure I was going to get to go home--or if I did what my life might be like now that I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. A friend suggested it, and I read it in one sitting. Then I read it again. And again. And again. He recounts his survival in Auschwitz, but also the fundamental philosophy that if we know WHY we want to live and WHY we choose to live, we can endure almost anything. It started me on a journey through philosophy, quantum physics, and Buddhism. I was not afraid of death after I read it, but I wanted to live . . . with grace and human dignity.
#2. My Brain is Open, by Bruce Schechter. Why did this amazing book change me? It is the biography of Paul Erdos, mathematical genius. In seventh grade, I had the worst teacher of my life for math. She was so awful, I immortalized her as evilness personified in High School Bites. She taught math, and she was the single most horrible, nasty teacher I have ever encountered. She was mean, she was into humiliating students, and I never saw her crack a smile--a burnout case or a demon, or both. Even with the hindsight of adulthood, I can say with sincerity, she ruined young minds and bore down on them with a hatred of children. And so I thought, after doing poorly in her class, that I was "no good" at math. That one side of my brain was well-developed (the writing side), and one side was just empty--the math and science side. When I took my SATs, I scored evenly--exactly evenly--on both portions. So of course this was not true. But no matter. Numbers scared me! Until I read this book. I laughed, and I learned. And I discovered that math THEORY is anything but rote and it's fascinating. I wrote to the author when I read it about ten years ago to just gush over how excited I now was over math theory, and he was gracious and kind when he wrote back. A great book, a great guy.
#3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was going to pick Little Women because, like every little girl who wants to be a writer, I related to Jo. I wanted a room in an attic to write in. But . . . really . . . this book changed me more. It not only spoke to my politics, my feminism, and my personhood, it not only reflected war and subjugation . . . it was the first book that made me CRY as an adult and that stayed with me for weeks afterward, and I was filled with intense admiration for the writing. It was lyrical and beautiful and inventive, and I was awed.
These are the books that changed and moved me.
So, the rest of you?
posted by Erica Orloff at 5:46 PM
10 Comments:
Regarding number 2, is it just me who has many writer pals who say they sucked at maths all through school, and that they just hate hate hate it? I think with some, they truly don't have the aptitude, but I can't believe that so many of us suck at maths because we write.
You should have seen my face when I saw my WISC-III scores though. When I took the test, I wanted to become a mathematician--I hadn't started writing then either. My score on the verbal scale was over 180, and I just squeaked past with 100 on the other one.
One of them for me would be Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. It help me understand that doing things the long way wasn't necessarily the better way.
The book I hope is going to change my life is the one I'm writing. :)
When asked why she chose to write, Flannery O'Conner said something like, "Because I don't really know what I think about things until I write it down."
I concur.
There have been some books that have had a profound impact on how I view humanity and all the victories and defeats and struggles and conflicts that go along with it: Twain's *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*; King's *Bag of Bones*; The Bible.
Okay, that's three. There have been many others. Maybe I haven't found The One yet. Still trying to find my way, and enjoying the journey.
Hi May:
I think the math issue is that we're taught to take tests. That's all. Pass a test. No one points out the mathematical possibilities in the universe, the quantum physics, all of the theory. So, if you are a dreamer or creative, or simply don't like tallying numbers, you never realize all the CREATIVITY that exists in math.
As for Blink . . . despite my Buddhism, I think lightning fast and often act lightning fast. I never want to do things the long way. :-)
True story . . . I brought my boyfriend, years ago, home to my family, and my sisters and I hadn't seen each other in ages, so we were talking rapid-fire, like a lot of New Yorkers. Anyway, it took TEN minutes before my then-boyfriend realized we were speaking ENGLISH. He thought we were speaking in Russian or Czech, because we were talking so fast, he couldn't catch half of what we were saying.
E
Jude:
I love that quote!!! That is me, for sure. I have worked through more grief and pain through writing novels than I think I could have through years of therapy. I don't see a therapist, so perhaps all the people who think I am nuts might disagree.
;-)
But I also work through some of my politics, and I definitely work through my feelings on fate.
E
This is a great post Erica.
I really had to think about this, because I couldn't come up with anything at first.
The first one is "The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles" by Julie Andrews Edwards. I read it when I was in Elementary or Jr. High. This was the book that really got me into reading. It was so different than the books I had read before and it got me to start thinking about writing.
The next book that changed my life was The Bible. I was just into college, was floundering and so I read it and started going to church. The experience of the two drove me away from mainstream religion completely. I have apparently never recovered :)
The third would have to be Plato's Republic. Just such an amazing work and study on the human psyche. It really opened my mind to questioning the status quo.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Now I have to go find a copy of the Whangdoodles book and read it again. Maybe even to my daughter at bedtime :)
Great post, Erica!
Man's Search for Meaning is in my top three, too. My parents are both Holocaust survivors and Frankl gave me a lifeline through all of that nightmare stuff.
Reading 1984 changed me too, but not in a good way. I was too young the first time I read it -- about twelve -- and I remember not being able to speak for a couple of days. I'm still haunted by that book.
As for #3...Watership Down taught me I was a writer, so I keep a special place in my heart for this book. I read it the first time with a good friend of mine, talking about it every day at junior high school, and the book cemented our friendship and our mutual love of making up stories. We wrote three volumes of what would be today called WD fanfic. I lived that book, loved it so much that I must have read it twenty times at least.
Thanks again for the post...remembering these books and their impact on me makes me so happy :) -- and makes me want to read them again. And now I want to check out the books you list as #2 and #3.
Michele
Ewoh:
I am not familiar with the children's book you mention, so now I have to go seek it out! Thanks for sharing.
E
Michele:
Wow . . . someone else who has read and was moved by Viktor Frankl. That book is just amazing to me; I can't imagine reading it as the child of a survivor.
1984--read it, but I think it maybe wasn't at some seminal time in my life. NOW, I would really be moved by it I am sure (because of my politics).
And Watership Down . . . I, too, read it with my best friend in 7th grade. It was powerful then, and it was over and over again to me.
E
Hey Erica --
Funny, I first read all three of these lifechanger books when I was twelve or thirteen (even the Frankl...geeze). Seventh grade was a seminal time in my life, as I'm sure it is for most people -- I was on the edge of adolescence and the world was crowding in on me in a new way.
I love visiting here because your posts are so thought provoking. Your musings often jump start my own writing...many thanks :)
Michele
Michele:
Thank you! What a lovely thought about this blog! (i often wonder if these are just the ramblings of a coffee addict!) :-)
E
Post a Comment
<< Home