i’m not a new-ager, but …
My brother has been stoked about this book, 
so i decided to order it. I used to have this iron-clad rule where I would read a book after I’d heard it mentioned by three different sources. And, in my English major days, I would always ask friends their favorite book and then read it (ostensibly, to get to know them better … but, really, because I’m a nosey-Parker). It seems that fewer and fewer people are actually reading whole books these days, so hearing “This book changed my life!” is rare indeed.
But books did and do and can and will change lives. I credit Ayn Rand (of Atlas Shrugged) with my first All-American race in NCAA cross-country. And had it not been for Anne Morrow Lindberg’s Gift From the Sea (A Vintage Book), I might never have surrendered to motherhood. My life-changing book-list is long and goes waaaayyyy back … to gradeschool and The Search for Delicious, which allowed me to understand individual perspective.
When was the last time a book changed your life?
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you wonít be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
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Who Is John G?
…without any doubt, the book that changed my life was the Big Book.
Comment by Fat Charlie the Archangel — 8/15/2006 @ 6:45 pm
You’re right — many of us don’t read whole books as much as we’d like. I can see how this could become a running blog-and-bookclub; I admire/envy you the energy to read as much as you do.
I think the books that mean a lot to us say something about where we are at a point in our lives. Books that hit me at the right spot included: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (my alltime favorite book of boyhood), Tolkien (at age 12-perfect), All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Sun Also Rises. But I’m not sure they would’ve been the same experience at 40. I have a friend who refuses to re-read David Copperfield because he loved it so much at 17 that he is afraid he will lose the memory if he read it again and it disappointed him. Cheers, E
Comment by Eric — 8/15/2006 @ 7:38 pm
Hello Eric,
Are your kids old enough yet for you to give them YOUR favorite books? I just read an excerpt from Search for Delicious on-line (from the Amazon link)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0374465363/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-1224915-2997455#reader-link
and was immediately thrust back to 4th grade! My Rosie is going into 4th grade and I can’t wait to read it with her.
I also loved Charlie, but I think of your other choices as “boys books.” My eldest girl - just turned 13 - is a Tolkein freak and I totally agree with your “right time/ right book” theory.
Probably the only way for your friend to enjoy re-reading Copperfield would be as a parent or teacher seeing it through new eyes.
Sometimes I am so sad to have already read Tender is the Night or King Lear (”Howl. Howl. Howl!”) or Nine Stories (by JD Salinger - a boy and a girl writer!), etc.
I envy my daughters’ blank reading slates. Think about it … one day your kid will read “The sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer” for the FIRST time!!
Comment by Joan — 8/16/2006 @ 9:02 am
Hi Joan -
Wisdom - simply expressed in those four gems!
When I think of important books in my life, the following come to mind: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Death in Venice, Mrs. Dalloway, Lord Jim. I’m not sure any one of these books changed my life, but I keep going back to them. Certainly books in general have changed my life. Reading time is a lot like running time – the day is richer for it.
I remember as a kid reading under the covers with a flashlight. My parents would try to get me to stop, knowing they would have to deal with a sleep-deprived child the next day. Now my 6 year-old (who just learned to read) is doing the same thing, and I have to smile when I urge him to go to sleep (nice symmetry there). We make a deal – 15 more minutes with the flashlight, then lights out.
Best,
Jim
Comment by Jim Terry — 8/16/2006 @ 8:34 pm
Tru dat Fat C. I , too was transformed by the Big book but since it’s been a year, I decided to read something a little easier . Since I am so lazy I decided 4 agreements were alot easier than 12 steps..
Comment by Shake — 8/17/2006 @ 6:49 pm
and Joan, since I am new to your site I felt I should comment that your brother seems like a FASCINATING creature.. Does he work out?
Comment by Shake — 8/17/2006 @ 6:51 pm
Shake -
Funny, I keep reading and rereading the Big Book, and have now for some 7776 days (1111 weeks tomorrow
But after thinking about it, I’ve decided that here are some LifeChangers:
Stranger in a Strange Land - I read it when I was about 10 years old, and haven’t been right since.
Illusions (Confessions of a Reluctant Messiah) - the sort of book where one reads and says “yeah, yeah, but nobody ever said it out loud before…yeah…”
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - in 1986, I was at a friend’s house for the first time in years; when I looked at his bookshelf, I had read almost everything there (we were that kind of friends) but I saw this title, and - although I’d heard of it before, and laughed about it - I decided to try it. I have no idea how many copies I’ve gone through, and given away
Overeaters Anonymous - I read it after five years sober (one night, I slapped my sponsor’s hand because he stuck it in my popcorn bowl - he made arrangements for me to read this book the next day
and I’ve been in OA since then.
jim p.
Comment by Fat Charlie the Archangel — 8/18/2006 @ 2:05 pm
I will now practice agreements 1,2, and 3..So I will keep my mouth shut …
Comment by Shake — 8/18/2006 @ 2:27 pm