Has a book ever changed your life?

Has a book ever changed your life? Can you share?

I can't say that a book directly ever changed my life (except the Bible), but it did have a big influence. That was all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mother said I played "school" all the time with my Barbie doll, and once I was able to read the Little House books, I said from the age of 5 I wanted to be a teacher, like Laura. And behold, teacher and college professor.

Sense and Sensibility. Read it in the Year of My Varmint Boyfriend back in my early 20s. Realized I did not want to be like poor Marianne Dashwood, yearning and crying over a man who ultimately wasn't worth it. That book, and Austen generally, helped me learn to govern my emotions and not to be a trial to myself and others.

>3 nohrt4me2: LOL varmint boyfriend!

Not sure changed my life, but there were plenty of books I read that opened my eyes and changed my prospecitve. One was Grapes of Wrath when I was eleven. Remember coming to dinner in tears. My dad suggested I put it away for a bit.

When I was eighteen and having a very bad year, two books made a huge impression: The Female Eunuch and Catch-22. The first was about taking control of one's life, and the second told me that they can do anything you can't stop them from doing. Useful.