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Books that changed our minds.

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We talked about geek lit, it made me think of some books that have kicked the lid off my brainbox, and changed the way I think, feel or perceive. Share your own.
On me, the biggest impact has been done by Stephen C. Levinson’s “Space in Language and Cognition”, which while being a linguistic/anthropological study, is designed to be for cross-field professionals and ends up being, I think, reasonably readable for just about anyone. It blew my mind.
Here’s a link to Google Books: http://books.google.fi/books?id=wQ_mx5sYDAUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Levinson+Space+in&source=bl&ots=l2DNqNEqND&sig=Y2O5nC22nZdxXKWcZBeBFHmc3hA&hl=fi&ei=m9LZS7icOZyUOJOZ-PAP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

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I keep looking at this thread title

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

wondering why yours is the lone voice. Then I stop to think about the books that changed my mind. I can’t come up with a short list. I conclude that’s because every book I’ve read has impacted my mind in some fashion.

However, anything Francis Schaeffer wrote, Heinlein’s [i]Stranger in a Strange Land[/i], Tolkien’s Hobbit series, and Casteneda’s look at shamanism are as good a place as any to start a list.

Sounds weird but…

In reply to I keep looking at this thread title

Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham”.

Why you might ask? Because when I was 3 this was my favorite book, and mom absolutely hated Dr. Seuss in general and “Green Eggs and Ham” in particular. After the 3rd request in one day to read the book to me, she gave it back, and said, “Read it yourself.” As the story goes, I put my finger on the words, and started reading.

That is the book that changed my mind because it was the first one that I read by myself, and from then on, there was no holding me back.

I don’t think it sounds weird.

In reply to Sounds weird but…

This old world, and a few others besides, open wide once we learn to read. I love to read, but I don’t remember the first book I read all by myself. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was a Dr. Seuss. We had ’em all, and loved ’em. 🙂

We never had dr Seuss at home, I didn’t ever see them until I was

In reply to I don’t think it sounds weird.

in fourth or fifth grade and was allowed to wander the public library children’s section by myself and saw them in the library. opened one, read two pages and shoved it back while thinking ‘What rubbish.’

The first book I have a memory of having open in front of my while trying to make out what the squiggles with the pictures meant was the Encyclopedia Britannica – the set was the bottom two shelves on the book case and I could reach it. So I used to pull it out and flip through looking at the pages. I’d had to learn what the letters meant, so I asked Dad, after I learnt how to pronounce the letters and understood what the gaps between them meant, it was a bit easier to read as I’d spell out the letters to Mum, and she’d say the word – had no other option as Mum was blind. The kindergarten people didn’t know what to do with me when i got there as I could read well.

It gets very awkward when you ask about the first fiction book as I grew up with Mum having a talking book machine and some of my earliest memories are of lying on the bed with her as we both listened to the man with the lovely rich voice speak the story out of the machine – I couldn’t always follow the stories, but enjoyed the bits I could understand.

Francis Schaeffer ??

In reply to I keep looking at this thread title

Wow, you are the very first person I’ve ever ‘met’ outside of christian circles who’s even heard of him, let alone read him.

“How Should We Then Live?” made a huge impact on me.

Who says

In reply to Francis Schaeffer ??

I’m outside of Christian circles? I’ve a complete collection of his works. That man was sharp, very sharp. [i]Escape From Reason[/i] is the first I read.

Sorry, should have said MY circles

In reply to Who says

Have you read any Ravi Zacharias or Dave Hunt?

Not yet.

In reply to Sorry, should have said MY circles

Ravi I’ve heard a lot. I get so sidetracked in bookstores that I rarely come out with what I went in to get. Dave Hunt rings a bell. I think I have something of his around. Been awhile, obviously, as it only ‘rings a bell’.

The odor

In reply to Not yet.

That’s what gets me every time. Makes me want to deposit my own.

Now that

In reply to The odor

is what I call ambiguity.

Yes’m.

In reply to The odor

.

Francis Shaeffer

In reply to Francis Schaeffer ??

How could you have not heard of him? I read that book in high school.

I haven’t

In reply to Francis Shaeffer

Maybe published in my lifetime, in which case, that makes it coeval. I harbor deep, deep suspicion about my coevals.

You need only survey the posts on this forum.

Died in the ’80’s.

In reply to I haven’t

In his 80’s, I think.

M-mm

In reply to Died in the ’80’s.

Checked once I wrote what I wrote.

He didn’t say

In reply to Francis Shaeffer

he’d never heard of him. He specifically noted that [i]How Then Should We Live[/i] made a huge impact on him.

And

In reply to He didn’t say

The title alone has to mean he settled on the meaning of, “We”, a meaning one of partisan many I see, as I retire from the din of my coevals.

Personally I don’t care when someone was born

In reply to And

The follies of the past for sure are better documented, but some follies of the past are cast into idols and bastions, making them dangerous in different ways.
I use self-immunization; I’m so full of preachyness (believe it, I’m holding myself in check here) that I can’t bear a preacher.
I can’t read anything done in a “let me assure you that this is the right way to X” kind of way. Chomsky for example, I can’t read it. But it’s not confined to paradigms I oppose, it applies to anything using that kind of discourse.

It was a response

In reply to He didn’t say

“I’ve ever ‘met’ outside of christian circles who’s even heard of him”

“How could you have not heard of him?”

I was simply implying that I thought he was fairly well known. Not asking a literal question.

Sorry about that.

In reply to I keep looking at this thread title

There’s more of me than you think …
many many more 😮 :p.
In fiction, I guess Dune had a pretty big effect. And the Santaroga Barrier also by Frank Herbert still haunts me at times, so that’s influential too.

Haven’t read the second you mention.

In reply to Sorry about that.

It’s added to the ‘gotta read’ list now. I’m partial to Frank.

Try also, if you haven’t already

In reply to Haven’t read the second you mention.

Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment, and The Godmakers.

The Dune series, while his most famous, is not, imo. his best.

Read, and have

In reply to Try also, if you haven’t already

[The Dosadi Experiment[/i] and [i]The Godmakers[/i]. Will add [i]Whipping Star[/i] to the list. 🙂

World Book Encyclopedia, 1958 ed.

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

The first “book” I remember reading. Started at A and went to Z, discovering in the process there was no ending…

You did that too?

In reply to World Book Encyclopedia, 1958 ed.

That makes two whackos.

Make that 2 plus one

In reply to You did that too?

played that game, and mom encouraged me.

Guess that is what makes me crazy today.

We had World Book.

In reply to World Book Encyclopedia, 1958 ed.

And we had Childcraft to go with. I spent hours in the Childcraft as a kid, reading the stories from around the world and exploring mythology. Damn. Wish we hadn’t gotten rid of those. I could sit through ‘Catskin’ again. 😀

You’re supposed to be

In reply to We had World Book.

Fast asleep in bed.

Relativity For the Millions by Martin Gardner

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

I read this when I was 8. He ‘introduced’ me to Einstein and the wonders of Science and Mathematics. Been a life-long love affair. Subscriptions to NASA’s Library of Space Exploration followed, then Popular Science, then Scientific American, etc.

Not famous

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

but a big book on how things worked. Can’t remember the exact title but it was for kids and described in simple terms how things like planes, steam engines, cars…worked at a basic level.

Alas, Babylon

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

Wikipedia’s blurb: Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank). It was one of the first post-apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and remains popular fifty years after it was first published. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora.
It’s a good read. I just finished reading it again.

“Mr. Adam” is good, too. (nt)

In reply to Alas, Babylon

.

You know,

In reply to Books that changed our minds.

I think I left one out. [i]Out of the Silent Planet[/i], by C.S. Lewis. That was a great treatment of fear and learning.

[Author]

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