# What was the first book you read that changed your thinking?



## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

What was the first book you read as a young person that changed the way you viewed the world or people? 

For me, it was a book by S.E. Hinton called THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW. I lived in a small town and we didn't have a TV, so books were my exposure to the real world. This book made me realize that everybody's childhood and home environment was unique, and sometimes painful. It gave me compassion for my peers, no matter how they acted. That compassion has stayed with me.
L.J.


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## Joel Arnold (May 3, 2010)

Great topic, L.J.!

Hmmm...The first one that comes to mind is *A Wrinkle in Time * by Madaleine L'Engle - that scene where all the kids are playing to the rhythm of the pulsing brain (or something like that) creeped me out and made me want to avoid becoming an automaton. 

Joel


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## Figment (Oct 27, 2008)

_The Diary of Anne Frank_, generated a lifetime interest in Holocaust literature and history. I was young, really young (probably snatched the book from my 10 years older sister's bookshelf), from a really small town, student at a convent school, and had absolutely no previous knowledge of what happened during WWII.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2010)

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. I read it in college as part of a course in African American literature. I was going through a depression at the time and having a lot of personal problems, and it slapped me out of it. Very hard for a healthy, free, middle class white girl going to college on a full scholarship to continue feeling sorry for herself after reading about what real heroism and adversity is!


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## robertduperre (Jun 13, 2010)

Oh, Atlas Shrugged, and in a big way.  In my late teens, I dove into Rand's philosophy.  Of course, later on I realized it was a bit...erm...unrealistic...but it was definitely the first book that made me completely change my view of the world.


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## Patrizia (Oct 29, 2008)

Don't laugh but in high school I read Women men love.. Women men leave.. taught me some great lessons YOUNG on how men think and it sticks in my head to this day.. it was written by two men so that helped and even 100 years later the advice is very on target


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

Honestly? _Anne of Green Gables_. The girl was more of an innocent, well-meaning (but often absurd) saint than I could ever hope to be. It did give a girl something to aspire to, however. It saved me from the temptation of breaking slates over mean boys' heads


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## Guest (Jul 22, 2010)

There are lots of books that have changed the way I think.

This is a beautiful book about bringing mindfulness and Buddhist thought into your every day life. There are lots of fun meditating exercises. I'm so thrilled it's available for the kindle!


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## CaroleC (Apr 19, 2010)

I read _*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*_ by B. Smith when I was about 10, and it was mind-boggling!! Francie was poor, growing up in Brooklyn, and allowed to drink COFFEE as a little girl.... I was upper middle class, growing up in the Midwest, very protected, and not even allowed to drink Coke yet.  Could such people and lives exist? Oh my aching brain! LOL!!


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I'm not sure which I read first, so I'll call it a tie between _Catch-22_ and _Slaughterhouse-Five_ (is the format of the names just a coincidence?  ).

 (not on Kindle yet  )


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## Guest (Jul 22, 2010)

Catch-22 is the highlight of my life. I loved The Things They Carried, but it really borrows so much from Catch-22. I've never had so much fun reading in my life.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

I can only take a wild guess... since I don't remember that far back.

Perhaps it was "The Poky Little Puppy."


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## mparish6 (Apr 14, 2010)

Oh, wow, good question. It's difficult to say...I've been reading for nearly as long as I can remember, and the first books that come to mind are usually my favorites(which weren't necessarily the ones that changed my thinking or challenged my preconceived notions). Perhaps I'd say Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It's probably not the _FIRST_ book that changed my thinking, but it is _a_ book that changed my thinking, and it's one of the first that comes to mind.

The book was by a Viennese psychiatrist who survived a year (I think) in Auschwitz; he was separated from his wife at the time he was deported and never saw her again. Rather than remaining mired in the tragic events he witnessed, however, Frankl managed to find inspiration from his own past to help others in his capacity as a psychotherapist. The book doesn't actually spend very much time on his memories of the concentration camp; it merely uses those memories to illustrate Frankl's ideas about human nature, which are the ultimate focus of the book. He believed that our desire to find a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives is crucial to who we are - in fact, that we can endure incredible suffering if we are able to find a meaning or higher purpose in it, whereas without meaning suffering quickly becomes unendurable - and that many neuroses and psychological disorders stem from precisely this problem.

Regardless of whether you agree with his line of logic or not, it was a very powerful book. It's all the more so, I think, in light of more recent developments. We're living through a very interesting time period in history right now - interesting in many ways, but especially in terms of the way scientific discoveries are changing the way we think about ourselves - about what it means to be human. We now know that consciousness, rather than being a mystical property of the "soul", is a result of biochemical interactions. We now know that human beings, rather than being a kind of special creation, are in fact evolutionary descendants of unicellular organisms, the product of chance rather than design. We are learning more with every passing year about human biology and will probably become able at some point in the future to enhance the human germline. All these discoveries(and others like them) have dealt a serious blow to traditional theology from which it will probably never recover.

The so-called "new atheists" like Dawkins & etc. want everyone to discard religious belief altogether, on the theory that the world would be better off if we were all "rational". (I'm not sure that I agree with the definition of religion as "irrational", but maybe that's why I don't much care for Dawkins & etc.) I tend to think, however, that religious belief or spirituality is very central to some aspect of who we are as humans; blame it on evolution if you like, but religion wouldn't have endured for so long if it didn't appeal to some basic need that we have. It may be important in the future, then, to find some way to reconcile spirituality/faith/belief with our improved understanding of the natural world so that the two can coexist.

Anyway, that's all a long digression, I suppose, but thinking about that book again brought it to mind. To get back on track here...it's a very deep book and one I'd recommend to anyone who wants a thought-provoking read.

And permit me to add that I second the "Poky Little Puppy" as another great life-changing book, too.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Looks like someone already said it, but I'll say it again: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. The stories were very emotive but it was actually how thoughtful and gritty the prose was that was the real eye-opener for me. It was the first time I truly fell in love with the writing in a book.










Dawn


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

The first book that I can recall having an effect on my thinking was likely Korzybski's _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics._



Not an easy book to get through. Fortunately, I found others on the subject that were easier to read.  

Mike


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## pdallen (Aug 3, 2010)

Well, I can tell you that the first adult book that hooked me as a reader was Allen Eckert's narrative history, The Frontiersman. I was 13 years old when I read it, and I've been gobbling up literature ever since.


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## William L.K. (Aug 5, 2010)

'The Secret' by Rhonda Byrne...Definately still has me thinking!


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## Cyndi (Aug 2, 2010)

In high school, "I know why the caged bird sings" by Maya Angelou...tore me up.


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## Guest (Aug 5, 2010)

There are some great titles in this thread. If one more person comes out as a fan of The Things They Carried I'm totally making a thread!

Here's another one of those books that is a window into an entirely different way of thinking. It's the bible of Evolutionary Psychology, unfortunately not available for the kindle. Just so many applicable ideas to understand human behavior. I find some Ev. Psych to be esoteric and useless when it gets down to little one-celled organisms argued to be like humans in some obscure way, but this was very lucid. It really does battle with the Buddhist thoughts presented in my earlier recommendation.


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

So many of the titles in this thread are familiar favorites. The book I think first changed my thinking was All Quiet on the Western Front. I read it in high school and it really made me feel the futility of war and turned me into a pacifist. It also opened up the world of the great WWI poets to me. Oddly, the book isn't available on the Kindle, but numerous "Clifff Notes"-type cheats study guides are.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

*The Hiding Place*
deb


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

*Winning Through Intimidation*

Despite the title, it actually had some good observations on life. Of course, this was back in 1980, and it is a very 80's book in it's outlook.


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## pdallen (Aug 3, 2010)

I mentioned the book that initiated me into adult literature, but as for the first book that changed my thinking, for that we tumble into metaphysics.

The answer to that particular question would be Rolling Thunder, by Doug Boyd. It is the true story of an Indian shaman. What got me about it was that Rolling Thunder drew out ideas that I was just starting to grasp as a teen. 

Next in line would be the Seth books by Jane Roberts. The stuff in those books has colored my perspective ever since.

And none of these are available on kindle.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

I'm not sure the first one I read that affected me - too long ago to remember - but they were all non-fiction. Diary of Anne Frank would be one. Against Our Will by Susan Brownmiller was another. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown was another. I too have had an easy, middle-class life, and these glimpses into the horrors others experience were real eye openers.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Wow, interesting topic. The first one? Maybe Sartre "Being and Nothingness" as a teen, confused me and knocked my socks off.


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

My high school civics class we had to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It made a big impression on me.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Good one. And "Atlas Shrugged" as well, although ended up refuting a lot of it later. It made me think.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

The Fisher King


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## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

What an interesting question. I notice that I have not read or even heard of many of the books mentioned in this forum. My thinking has changed radically since childhood, and I can't attribute that to any one book. I have always been reading, and many books have influenced my thinking. My thinking has also been changed by life experiences. I lived in several countries, and saw not just the differences in people but the similarities. My entire thinking about animals has changed radically, and that was due to experience, reading, and education. I don't know how people live and function without reading. 

I must look for some of those books others mention.

Ann.


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## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

L.J. Sellers said:


> What was the first book you read as a young person that changed the way you viewed the world or people?
> 
> For me, it was a book by S.E. Hinton called THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW. I lived in a small town and we didn't have a TV, so books were my exposure to the real world. This book made me realize that everybody's childhood and home environment was unique, and sometimes painful. It gave me compassion for my peers, no matter how they acted. That compassion has stayed with me.
> L.J.


Unfortunately I was a late comer to reading books. I loved Jonathan Livingston seagull when I was young. Read it over and over, but I wouldn't say it changed my life. The only thing I read till I was like 20 after that were comic books. I do have to say they actually molded me more then I care to admit. Thor and Captain America, the older ones, and to some extent, Superman. They taught me what values and honor were. I know sad. Yet there voices still ring in my head about truth and justice to this day no matter how old i seem to get.


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

This probably wasn't the first that had some effect on me, but _The Five People You Meet in Heaven_ really made me aware of how even people who pass fleetingly through your life can alter it in some way.


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## Barry Eysman (Jul 19, 2010)

Death in Venice.
Jo put her hand to my shoulder.
"Barry, why are you crying?"
I put the book back. 
I bought it later.
Someone long ago knew.
And said in such soft colors
of the end of summer skies,
I was ok.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

Mine was probably _First Woman Doctor: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell,_ (read when I was very young and which opened my eyes to the possibility of women having careers which were assumed to be for "men only"), followed by _The Diary of Anne Frank,_ for obvious reasons.


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## CDChristian (Jun 4, 2010)

The Secret Garden. It was the first book I read as a child that dealt with situations similar to what I was experiencing at the time. The need to find and create beauty in the midst of miserable tragedy stuck with me. Over 20 years later I still miss my copy. 

(Which I bought in 1985 at Waldenbooks. It was blue imitation leather with gilt edging. The color illustrations were exquisite. Now I'm inspired to hunt for the same one on ebay.)


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

When I was a young girl, there was a book series of biographies of famous people geared toward kids called "Childhood of Famous Americans".  There were something like 100 books in the series, but only about 10 that were about women, and I read those 10 over and over and over again!  I especially loved the "Maria Mitchell" book.  Maria was the first female astronomer in the U.S., and the discoverer of Mitchell's Comet.  I loved reading about Maria, because a) we had the same first name, and b) she was an uncomfortably smart girl, which was not very cool in her day, nor in mine!  Reading about Maria and her achievements in a traditionally male field helped me to feel positive and confident about being the "smart girl" instead of a cheerleader.

 Maria


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## nairbyeklep (Aug 8, 2010)

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Books by two "Sinclairs" were formative of my attitude toward capitalism: Upton Sinclair's _The Jungle_, with its unflinching portrayal of capitalism as a totally amoral force, and Lewis Sinclair's _Babbitt_, a wry portrait of a community leader and business booster.

Prior to that time, a steady diet of comic books gave me a firm grounding in basic ethics and morality and sacrifice.


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## Debra Purdy Kong (Apr 1, 2009)

robertduperre said:


> Oh, Atlas Shrugged, and in a big way. In my late teens, I dove into Rand's philosophy. Of course, later on I realized it was a bit...erm...unrealistic...but it was definitely the first book that made me completely change my view of the world.


Yes, Atlas Shrugged for me too, although I was in my 20's when I read it. But yes, some of the ideas changed me forever.

Debra


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## pdallen (Aug 3, 2010)

Ishmael is a great read, as is The Story of B, also by Daniel Quinn. They cover a lot of the same ground. In a way, The Story of B is the more mature version of his ideas, but I still prefer Ishmael.



nairbyeklep said:


> Ishmael by Daniel Quinn


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## pdallen (Aug 3, 2010)

Two excellent authors. I'm getting ready to read Sinclair Lewis's It can't Happen Here, a novel that demonstrates that fascism could happen in the US. I know, it's a little after the fact.



Jan Strnad said:


> Books by two "Sinclairs" were formative of my attitude toward capitalism: Upton Sinclair's _The Jungle_, with its unflinching portrayal of capitalism as a totally amoral force, and Lewis Sinclair's _Babbitt_, a wry portrait of a community leader and business booster.
> 
> Prior to that time, a steady diet of comic books gave me a firm grounding in basic ethics and morality and sacrifice.


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## Patricia (Dec 30, 2008)

Patrizia said:


> Don't laugh but in high school I read Women men love.. Women men leave.. taught me some great lessons YOUNG on how men think and it sticks in my head to this day.. it was written by two men so that helped and even 100 years later the advice is very on target


I wish that book had been around when I was in high school, Patrizia. Maybe I'll read it now. Too bad it's not on kindle!


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## richardya (Jul 8, 2010)

Exodus - Leon Uris
The Cather in the Rye - Salinger


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## LDS (Aug 4, 2010)

I read "1984" when I was just old enough to fully understand it, and it caused me to live in a bubble of distrust and suspicion for quite some time.

Why do you ask? 

Huh? 

What are you going to do with this information?

Sorry, there's my distrust again. I guess I still have it.


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## Michael Brian (Aug 10, 2010)

The Kama Sutra...kidding.

Actually, it was Autobiography of a Yogi.  Made me realize you could be spiritual without having to be religious.


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## Five String (Jun 6, 2010)

There have been a lot books that really affected me deeply, and some of them have been mentioned here. Catch-22, A Wrinkle In Time, and another that comes to mind, Of Human Bondage.

One that really changed the way I view the world was Charlotte's Web. I read it when I was in fourth grade and I still remember the powerful feelings it gave me. But it changed the way I looked at the world because before that, I wasn't much of a reader. Charlotte's Web was the first chapter book I read all the way through. It's the book that really opened the world of reading and books to me, and it's been a fantastic journey ever since.


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