Open Culture - Latest Comments in What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Listen ToYourMotherEarth — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:57:00 -0000

The Ringing Cedars Series, especially Bk 5 Who Are We? nnThese books have made a bigger difference in my life than any others. nI found is while looking for books for my teen daughter however, which leads me to write that The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy book So Long and Thanks for all the Fish. The Xanth series by Piers Anthony also brought me laughs during dark periods of teenage hood. nnHere are my Ramblings on these booksnnAloha - With You my beloved, I could create a Space of Love to last for eternity!nI am so in Love with the Ringing Cedars Series of books and I would like to find another person, or many people, who are also interested in these concepts of living in harmony with Nature and turning this Earth into a paradise garden in one generation, by passing laws to give the land back to the people, especially to the children.nnSome of the fantastically amazing things I have read in these remarkable books are soaking a seed under your tongue for 9 mins while standing barefoot where you will plant it, telepathic children leading a world race to neutralize all bullets and bombs, and prisons that have women and children trying to break in because of the beautiful Spaces of Love the prisoners have created inside the barbed wire. Some more of my favorite stories are The Billionaire, Flying Saucers, These nine books are filled with many beautiful parables and stories that inspire me to believe that we can turn the earth into a paradise garden and our grand children will live in a world that is more beautiful than we have ever dared to dream!nnThese books are almost like a fairy tale, and yet I believe they are real, and I am looking for others who believe too. If you read them with an open mind, and give thought to the concepts mentioned you will see that it is not mysticism, every action is grounded in logical practicality.nnMost people blow me off as an idealistic. And I Am! Yet, I also look at what is Here Now with a practical and logical mind, balanced with creative joyful imagination, and when I combine the two, I can sometimes see the most beautiful direct actions to make my dreams come true.nnI have recently come to live on My Space of Love where I am planting fruit trees for my grandchildren. I live with 14 yr old daughter in Hawai'i, and I don't particularly desire more kids, but I might for the right man. A man who desires to create a fully fledged human being, with purity on our Space of Love.nI am also open to having other people here to help keep this land beautiful by hand, I've been thinking of using a weed whacker lately, but would prefer not to. Many hands make light work :-)nnI hope everyone will read these books, and get inspired like many other people all over the world have been. Hopefully someone will make movies from them so the message can spread even faster! There are many people who will never read a whole book, much less 9 books!nnA wonderful movie that I've heard associated with these books, although it looks like the movie is older than the books, is La Belle Verte, or The Green Beautiful. Its a very funny movie!nnOne of the best and most sensible stories in the books is the Wedding Rite. In this ancient way of getting married, the groom and bride get to spend months together planning and creating their Space of Love, which will be passed down to their children and the next 7 generations.nnThey visit everyone in each of their villages and say only a short phrase while visiting, such as "what a clever cat you have" or " My look at that beautiful cherry tree". This is to give a clue as to what gift they would like that particular person to bring to their wedding ceremony.nnWhen everyone is gathered, the groom tells everyone of the plans they have made, and where each tree is to grow, and when he points to where the cherry tree goes, the neighbor that came with the cherry tree, goes and stands in that spot. When he has finished describing their Family Domain, everyone gets to planting what they have brought! Some people have brought seeds and they dance around throwing the seeds into the air to the sounds of the singing of the young maidens. A light and refreshing rain falls briefly.nnAnd in that way, their Space of Love is planted in a very short time, and everyone participating will feel a sense of Joy and connection with that place, which will endow the Space with Love and radiant health. The perfect space to create new human life within! Its so much more beautiful the way it is written in the books.nnI have been inspired to grow my own food, and to create a Space of Love that will feed my daughter and future generations. I want to make this possible for more people, by organizing with others that also feel this dream in their hearts, to create and reactivate the ways that get the land back in the hands of the people, that we may be free once againnnAloha, nListen ToYourMotherEarthnKapoho, Hawai'i

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Listen ToYourMotherEarth — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 20:57:10 -0000

The Ringing Cedars Series, especially Bk 5 Who Are We?

These books have made a bigger difference in my life than any others.
I found is while looking for books for my teen daughter however, which leads me to write that The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy book So Long and Thanks for all the Fish. The Xanth series by Piers Anthony also brought me laughs during dark periods of teenage hood.

Here are my Ramblings on these books

Aloha - With You my beloved, I could create a Space of Love to last for eternity!
I am so in Love with the Ringing Cedars Series of books and I would like to find another person, or many people, who are also interested in these concepts of living in harmony with Nature and turning this Earth into a paradise garden in one generation, by passing laws to give the land back to the people, especially to the children.

Some of the fantastically amazing things I have read in these remarkable books are soaking a seed under your tongue for 9 mins while standing barefoot where you will plant it, telepathic children leading a world race to neutralize all bullets and bombs, and prisons that have women and children trying to break in because of the beautiful Spaces of Love the prisoners have created inside the barbed wire. Some more of my favorite stories are The Billionaire, Flying Saucers, These nine books are filled with many beautiful parables and stories that inspire me to believe that we can turn the earth into a paradise garden and our grand children will live in a world that is more beautiful than we have ever dared to dream!

These books are almost like a fairy tale, and yet I believe they are real, and I am looking for others who believe too. If you read them with an open mind, and give thought to the concepts mentioned you will see that it is not mysticism, every action is grounded in logical practicality.

Most people blow me off as an idealistic. And I Am! Yet, I also look at what is Here Now with a practical and logical mind, balanced with creative joyful imagination, and when I combine the two, I can sometimes see the most beautiful direct actions to make my dreams come true.

I have recently come to live on My Space of Love where I am planting fruit trees for my grandchildren. I live with 14 yr old daughter in Hawai'i, and I don't particularly desire more kids, but I might for the right man. A man who desires to create a fully fledged human being, with purity on our Space of Love.
I am also open to having other people here to help keep this land beautiful by hand, I've been thinking of using a weed whacker lately, but would prefer not to. Many hands make light work :-)

I hope everyone will read these books, and get inspired like many other people all over the world have been. Hopefully someone will make movies from them so the message can spread even faster! There are many people who will never read a whole book, much less 9 books!

A wonderful movie that I've heard associated with these books, although it looks like the movie is older than the books, is La Belle Verte, or The Green Beautiful. Its a very funny movie!

One of the best and most sensible stories in the books is the Wedding Rite. In this ancient way of getting married, the groom and bride get to spend months together planning and creating their Space of Love, which will be passed down to their children and the next 7 generations.

They visit everyone in each of their villages and say only a short phrase while visiting, such as "what a clever cat you have" or " My look at that beautiful cherry tree". This is to give a clue as to what gift they would like that particular person to bring to their wedding ceremony.

When everyone is gathered, the groom tells everyone of the plans they have made, and where each tree is to grow, and when he points to where the cherry tree goes, the neighbor that came with the cherry tree, goes and stands in that spot. When he has finished describing their Family Domain, everyone gets to planting what they have brought! Some people have brought seeds and they dance around throwing the seeds into the air to the sounds of the singing of the young maidens. A light and refreshing rain falls briefly.

And in that way, their Space of Love is planted in a very short time, and everyone participating will feel a sense of Joy and connection with that place, which will endow the Space with Love and radiant health. The perfect space to create new human life within! Its so much more beautiful the way it is written in the books.

I have been inspired to grow my own food, and to create a Space of Love that will feed my daughter and future generations. I want to make this possible for more people, by organizing with others that also feel this dream in their hearts, to create and reactivate the ways that get the land back in the hands of the people, that we may be free once again

Aloha,
Listen ToYourMotherEarth
Kapoho, Hawai'i

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Alexandre — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:12:51 -0000

Many books have made an impact in my life, but none as much as "The Timeless Way of Building" and "The Nature of Order", by Christopher Alexander. They gave me a new and wonderful vision of what the world is made of.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

dave — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:57:14 -0000

"Around the Year with Emmet Fox." A daily compilation of Fox's other books. Read it and them 25 years ago, and this again now.
Spirutuality in two syllable words that a two year old can understand. As was said to me years ago, "The world is filled with books and they all have answers in them. Find one." This is the one for me.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

sioban — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:25:00 -0000

none of you seem to realise, but you are changed and affected by each and every book that you have ever read, and so it will continue until you either cannot read anymore or die.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

sioban — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:25:34 -0000

none of you seem to realise, but you are changed and affected by each and every book that you have ever read, and so it will continue until you either cannot read anymore or die.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

alice — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:10:52 -0000

The book that I loved in my teens was 'A Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley.
In my 20's, 'Midnights Children' by Salman Rushdie
In my 30's Jane Austen for me and 'His Dark Marterials' by Philip Pulman, for me and my children.
In my 40's - the book I have enjoyed most this year is ' A very easy Death' by Simone de Beauvoir.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

virr — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:09:59 -0000

LMM's books. All of them, but specially the Emily of New Moon series. The Blue Castle is also amazing.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

NIc — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:22:46 -0000

"A quite life with woodpecker" Tim Robbins

It spoke to me on many levels critiquing the way I thought about the world.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

NIc — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:22:46 -0000

"A quite life with woodpecker" Tim Robbins

It spoke to me on many levels critiquing the way I thought about the world.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Aurelius — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:42:49 -0000

While there are several books I consider important, I want to highlight just one here.
"Martin Eden" by Jack London. It's not only a masterfully written novel, but also it's considered his autobiography.
Read it, and let it put your world upside down for good or for a while.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

RoRo — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:21:44 -0000

"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman.

This book is one of the rare books that changed my life in that it helped me, as a health professional, "get" what cultural diversity means and the ethnocentrism of Western Medicine. It is about a Hmong family in Modesto and their struggles with our health care system. True Story.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

byzie — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:10:12 -0000

Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts and Macroscope by Piers Anthony.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Mario — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:53:09 -0000

I can't help myself. I feel so jealous when I get to know people who have read lots of books -not to mention those who have written them. That's the reason I must pick "Farenheit 451".

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Debra Y Mathis — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:34:25 -0000

Mundane's World, by Judy Grahn.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Kevin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:01:38 -0000

Enders Game. Orscon Scott Card
Ender taught me that no matter how small one may be. No matter how meaningless your existence might be. No matter how small you are on a universal scale you have the ability to impact the world for good or evil. No matter who you are, where you are, and how you came to be you have a chance to make your mark on humanity. The book has had a giant impact on my life and I try and look to it everyday for inspiration.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

jay — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:51:10 -0000

Leaving Las Vegas
by
John O'Brien

only submission i can offer is that this
book
offers the most beautiful
and
horrifying

writing
story
life

you'll read in quite a while
(maybe ever..)

horrifying
in the sense
of
my god.

beautiful
in the sense
of
my god.

hope you try reading
what he wrote.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Marek Bogacki Staszkiewicz — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:03:45 -0000

Two books that may have changed my life were Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" - my fist adult book (at 14) that I read upon graduating to the adult section of the Municipal Library in Krakow. Having read all the classic science fiction on the shelves, Capote's matter of fact prose was as disturbing to me as it was new. No aliens here among far away stars but a world almost ordinary and within reach, tangible and so totally frightening. Reading it felt like being caged with a wild animal, a quick fear followed repeatedly by the mind's pangs of pride to subdue the brute. This was no fiction yet it read stranger than anything else up till then.

The other book was "The Second Krishnamurti Reader". Having awakened to the boredom of a world full of ME, I was perhaps ready for this psychological release and a process of "unlearning" a rather ego-centric world view. To learn to do each thing with "love", that is with the deepest engagement yet at the same time to be able to step back in experience to allow attention a broader perspective was a revelation and it continues to this day.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

tharu — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:18:33 -0000

The important books in my life include the following:

"Black Like me" -J.H. Griffin -Important because I was raised by white people and I am an African American.
I led a sheltered life. In Jr High---it provided an understanding of the pain associated with what it meant to be Black in the real world.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X because I was intrigued by his courage and he made more sense to me than MLK at the peak of their leadership-and Malcolm's metamorphosis gave me hope!!

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham--first encounter with love as a hopeless passion and tinged with cruelty.

Exodus-Leon Uris, The Slave- by Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand,

Rand was my first encounter with an organized articulation of my own difficulties with organized religion. Finally, any book that takes me into a different time and cultural context have an influence on my understanding of the world (people and life). Bless the minds that make those experiences possible.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Amanda — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:09:48 -0000

After reading through these suggestions, I realized there's a big hole: Poetry! So much poetry has affected my life: Sylvia Plath's _Ariel_; Campbell McGrath's _Road Atlas_; James Wright's _Above the River_; Brenda Hillman's _Cascadia_...Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Bly...

Reading Lyn Hejinian's _My Life_ actually opened the door to my emotional understanding of language and memory. It's a gorgeous book.

Poetry may not be the "winning pick" here, but it definitely should be celebrated! And not just in April.

Thanks for reading my rant, and I hope you check out some of the books I mentioned. :)

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Luella — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:54:47 -0000

Sorry, I forgot the authors... "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd and “Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki” by David Chadwick.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Luella — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:45:30 -0000

The Secret Life of Bees really did something for me. It's a story of love, especially womanly love, a love that is so lacking in a world of angry men seething with prejudice and the desire to kill people over superficial differences. Having grown up with men myself and without a mother, it made me realize that I really do have this love in me and just need to find it and stir it up. It has changed the way I think of my mom, who I have been spending time with as an adult, and activism. It really sends a beautiful message about changing the world through love and celebration of diversity.

Another book that has changed my life is "Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki". Although I am not practicing Zen (yet), this book is like my Bible in that I plan to always read over it and reflect upon the messages therein. Suzuki had a humble vision that in order to change this world, we need to change the way people think and live, not just to change the symptoms of what is wrong. Not just to get rid of pop-prejudice and hatred, but to get rid of labels entirely, to "fight" war and injustice with peace and understanding instead of anger. And so, so much more in this book. That's just some of the stuff that is shaping the way I think right now.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Davide Mana — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:55:46 -0000

A few books that made me what I am, in no particular order...

. Richard Feynman - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
A collection of assorted writings by a great scientist, shows the full palette of a sharp intelligence animated by all-around curiosity.

. Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species
A brilliant mind working out a complete paradigm shift from assorted clues, just like Sherlock Holmes but better. This one got me hooked on palaeontology, still my main line of work.

. Thor Heyerdahl - Kon Tiki
Read it when I was ten or twelve.
True life adventure and exploration - what more could a kid ask for?

. Alan Watts - The Way of Zen
The beginning of a life long interest in Zen phylosophy, I caught this one while in high school. Sure got me a few weird looks from classmates...

. Tom Robbins - Still Life With Woodpecker
The core topics of the book might seem dated, but the language fireworks are still as effective as they were at the time of publication.

. David Brin - Earth
Massive and demanding, a novel that shows what science fiction really is and what could achieve as a tool for exploring possibilities. Great read.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Jack — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:37:46 -0000

I'm going to go back to high school and say that Catcher in the Rye had a big impact on my life.

While the content of the book in terms of character and story were accessible to me at 16, that isn't really what made the difference.

It was only after reading some criticism and talking with others in school and out that I began to see all that was going on in a novel beyond the plot: symbolism, irony, language and the rest.

When I saw how much could go on in a book, how many things were going on simultaneously, I became very impressed with the complexity of literature as art. From then on I was pretty well hooked on books.

Re: What Books Made a Difference? (Yes, We’re Talking to You)

Judy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:13:37 -0000

"The Chosen" by Chaim Potok. I read this book as a teenager. I remember being completely fascinated with the Jewish culture portrayed in the novel, but the main impact came in the way Potok emphasized the values of intelligence, intellectual achievement, and compassion for others. I was incredibly moved by the conflict between these values, and find myself re-reading this novel and the sequel "The Promise" almost yearly for over 20 years.