People Shared The Books That "Changed Their Lives" And My Reading List Just Grew

"It's an incredible sci-fi book that was written in the '80s. It's a mix of apocalypse fiction, socio-political critique, and resilience. It completely changed my world view and put me on the path to sustainable off-grid living, which I'm really grateful for."

—u/brownanddownn

"I was about 10 years old and I had seen the movie a dozen times before I found out it was a book. I devoured it in two days. I was hooked on the whole series for decades and it started my obsession with books. I will read anything, but historical fiction is my favorite and it started with the Earth's Children series."

—u/vettechrockstar86

"I had zero intention to stop smoking when I started reading that book. To say I was skeptical about it would be an understatement. I was a heavy chain-smoker. Smoked more than anyone I knew — but I went cold turkey after I read it. Three years strong. I have not had a single puff since finishing that book. If you smoke, you want to read this book now. I wish I read it earlier."

—u/madcunt2250

"I was young and have always camped and loved the outdoors (still do), but this book had such an exciting story! It's about a boy who runs away from home and plans to live in the wild on his own. He goes to a library and checks out a bunch of books on survival and lives in the forest. He even burns the base of a large tree and hollows it out and makes a living space inside. It's a super easy read, but I loved every page."

—u/mumbling_87

"'The things other people have put into my head, at any rate, do not fit together nicely, are often useless and ugly, are out of proportion with one another, are out of proportion with life as it really is outside my head.' — Kurt Vonnegut."

—u/oikorapunk

"It really led me on a journey to overcome my fears and deeply examine what it means to be a monster."

—u/Ethandrul

"The insanity and complexity of the universe was explained in understandable terms, bonkers."

—u/yaycoasttocoast

"Fear is the mind-killer."

—u/Wyndsock

"I didn't go to high school, and this book made me go get my high school degree and go to college. I wanted to become a journalist because of that book. I graduated college last month."

—u/Wonderful-Reading-42

"I had no idea how my over-reliance on my intuition was impacting my ability to think through tough problems. It has forever changed the way I look at the world."

—u/KirbysaBAMF

"It's the first and only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer. It's a book about a second-generation survivor of the Holocaust, retelling his father memories of the event. This semi-biographic book puts into perspective the whole feeling of absolute terror and gives us an insight on the before AND after situation. Jewish people are portrayed as mice and Nazis are cats. It is — to this day — the only book that has made me cry and feel hurt; it makes the whole subject feel very personal."

—u/Eithanol

"It, somehow, gave me hope. I might have been at a low point in my life, I really can’t say, but I started collecting books again, reading more, and I put up with way less shit from people. There’s got to be a reason somewhere, so I’m giving credit to William Gibson."

—u/momisahamster

"I read it before and after becoming a father — drastically different experiences."

—u/zjustice11

"This was the first book I read during my free time in college. I didn't really care for reading, but I figured I'd give it a shot. After that, I fell in love and now I read a ton."

—u/deathwilldie0

"Those books helped me escape during some trying times."

—u/zalez64424

"As a young child, I had always found reading to be pretty dull. This changed when I was 7 and got my hands on this. I realized that it wasn't reading that was boring — I just wasn't reading the right books! The Hobbit started my lifelong love of reading, particularly fantasy and sci-fi. A passion that I'm now following as a writer!"

—u/HeartSpire

"If you've ever wondered how to reconcile a desire for freedom and a desire to support the common good, look no further."

—u/ISeeTheFnords

"Read it in fourth grade and it spurred a love and fascination for science that ultimately led me to teach biology and physics."

—u/Realistic_Mushroom

"I was extremely shy and easily embarrassed by just about anything when I was a teenager/young adult. I related so much to Fat Charlie in the book and — as he loosened up — I made it my goal to be less stiff and worried about embarrassing myself and realized it's okay to be goofy!"

—u/Captainbuttsreads

"I read it in high school. It really showed me that sometimes it’s us who can get in the way of ourselves."

—u/melidooty

"When I was 13 years old, I had a long bus ride home from school — almost an hour long — and would pass the time by reading. One day, I was in the library, frantic for something because I had no book and picked out this astronomy one.

That book, wow. I was completely enchanted learning about outer space, and by the time I was done reading it, I knew I wanted to be an astronomer. I remember thinking at the time how fantastical it was that people could have that job, but anyone who was an astronomer was 13 once and this was a thing you could do, even if you lived in Pittsburgh!

Anyway, that was over 20 years ago, and there were many twists and turns along the way, but I’m now two years into working as a professional astronomer at Harvard. I just submitted a paper last week on a black hole that ripped apart a star, which was super fun to work on, and I couldn’t help but think a lot about how excited 13-year-old me would be to see how it’s going! I don’t know if she would have believed it."

—u/Andromeda321