Life changing books?
- Thread starter drstrange
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Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Two main facets to my life mountaineering - Readers digest article about Reinhold Messner's no oxygen ascents of Everest in 1978 with Peter Habler and 1980 solo. 
Science - Isaac Asimov's The Solar System and Back a collection of essays he wrote published early 70's
And Voyage of the Beagle....Darwins diaries of his voyage.
Science - Isaac Asimov's The Solar System and Back a collection of essays he wrote published early 70's
And Voyage of the Beagle....Darwins diaries of his voyage.
Carl Sagans `Cosmos` I got given it as I was watching the series, for the first time I realised that there were people who werent afraid to ask the questions I asked.
Marco Polos travels and why not be introduced to the gorgeous Orient by him?
Nicolas Roerichs `Shamballa` A book on the mysteries of the Orient, well written from a scientific but not sceptical viewpoint
Cammile Flammarions `Lumen` and `Urania` Two philsophical books written in the 1880s discussing much matters as life on other planets, reincarnation and relativity before Einstein amoungst other things.
Frasers `Golden Bough` I have read the full length version...Twice
Marco Polos travels and why not be introduced to the gorgeous Orient by him?
Nicolas Roerichs `Shamballa` A book on the mysteries of the Orient, well written from a scientific but not sceptical viewpoint
Cammile Flammarions `Lumen` and `Urania` Two philsophical books written in the 1880s discussing much matters as life on other planets, reincarnation and relativity before Einstein amoungst other things.
Frasers `Golden Bough` I have read the full length version...Twice
bambodoggy
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
For me there really is only one....fraid it's got little to do with practicle bushcraft though.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
ISBN 0 7126 5752 5
It's written by a westen educated Tibetan Lama as a way for us to learn and understand the Tibetan Buddist approach to death and the care of the dying and life and the care of the living.....in other words it covers rather a lot; from pre-birth to life to death to after death it talks us through each stage and what to expect in the next one
Great book to read alone in a nice peaceful woods and I'd be as bold as to say a book that will stir at very least some sort of emotion in even the hardest hearted person. It has certainly mellowed me and made me a much easier person to be near, more thoughtful and much more empathetic
Cheers,
Bam.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
ISBN 0 7126 5752 5
It's written by a westen educated Tibetan Lama as a way for us to learn and understand the Tibetan Buddist approach to death and the care of the dying and life and the care of the living.....in other words it covers rather a lot; from pre-birth to life to death to after death it talks us through each stage and what to expect in the next one
Great book to read alone in a nice peaceful woods and I'd be as bold as to say a book that will stir at very least some sort of emotion in even the hardest hearted person. It has certainly mellowed me and made me a much easier person to be near, more thoughtful and much more empathetic
Cheers,
Bam.
Good Lord ! Marco Polo, philosophy, Asimov...
The one book that I can honestly say changed my life was a beautiful little Ladybird book called "Piggly Plays Truant". It was THE book. The book in which I followed the words with my finger as my mother read it to me at bedtimes. The book that I learned to read with, and from. The book that lead to everything I've read since, both good and bad. That is the life changer for me.
The one book that I can honestly say changed my life was a beautiful little Ladybird book called "Piggly Plays Truant". It was THE book. The book in which I followed the words with my finger as my mother read it to me at bedtimes. The book that I learned to read with, and from. The book that lead to everything I've read since, both good and bad. That is the life changer for me.
Oh, that.
That one was not mind expanding or life changing.
In fact I didnt learn to read untill I was 8, because nobody bothered teaching me that it was a worthwhile thing to do.
The book I learnt to read with was E Bridges `Uttermost part of the World` (surely a lot of bushcraft relevance)
A kids book which has both neat pictures and philosophical content, I alas, didnt find untill I was an adult.
Maurice Sendaks `Where the Wild Things Are`
That one was not mind expanding or life changing.
In fact I didnt learn to read untill I was 8, because nobody bothered teaching me that it was a worthwhile thing to do.
The book I learnt to read with was E Bridges `Uttermost part of the World` (surely a lot of bushcraft relevance)
A kids book which has both neat pictures and philosophical content, I alas, didnt find untill I was an adult.
Maurice Sendaks `Where the Wild Things Are`
I took a bit longer than you Tengu, on the reading front! I was difficult to engage then.
My first book was 'My family and other animals' by Gerald Durrel. Second as it was recent then... 'The lonely sea and the sky' by Francis Chichester and more recently, 'South' by Ernest Shackleton. Part of this book has the incredible voyage of the James Caird, the ships boat that they sailed to South Georgia. When I finally saw this diminutive vessel in the museum at Greenwich last year (although it is the 'film' replica) The story became so much more real.
Any bushcraft theme, well, I think there are parallels there. In particular Improvisation, navigation and observation. Plenty of kit too!
Swyn.
My first book was 'My family and other animals' by Gerald Durrel. Second as it was recent then... 'The lonely sea and the sky' by Francis Chichester and more recently, 'South' by Ernest Shackleton. Part of this book has the incredible voyage of the James Caird, the ships boat that they sailed to South Georgia. When I finally saw this diminutive vessel in the museum at Greenwich last year (although it is the 'film' replica) The story became so much more real.
Any bushcraft theme, well, I think there are parallels there. In particular Improvisation, navigation and observation. Plenty of kit too!
Swyn.
Mervyn Peake, Titus Alone: for highlighting mankind's first tool, language.
And any of the tirades by Richard Dawkins: for pushing me further along the path from agnosticism to atheism.
And any of the tirades by Richard Dawkins: for pushing me further along the path from agnosticism to atheism.
GUNS & AMMO ANNUAL (1974 Eition)
Not so much for the reviews of firearms etc. but a number of well written and inspirational articles on Woodchuck, Squirrel, Turkey and Sheep Hunting with a Rifle.
I would love to say it was something more deep but there you have it.
Cheers
Not so much for the reviews of firearms etc. but a number of well written and inspirational articles on Woodchuck, Squirrel, Turkey and Sheep Hunting with a Rifle.
I would love to say it was something more deep but there you have it.
Cheers
... and, bought on an inexplicable whim, Combat and Survival issue 1 (since we're being honest). Similarly, for the S not the C.
Hmmm... OK, I've got two.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Prisig. It's very difficult to describe what this book is about... It's basically a long, rambling exploration of just why it should be that logic and reason seem so blind to a quesion Plato posed as: "What is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good? Do we need anyone to tell us these things?" Some questionable metaphysics, but definitely a life-changer for me. Apparently he was clinically insane when he wrote it...
Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert. It kinda irks me to mention a self-help book, but this (and the rest in the series) are somewhat atypical. Rather than the usual "feel-good" twaddle, it's a rock-solid handbook to self-administered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It was (and still is, sometimes) hard work to put it into practice, but it certainly helped me enormously and I can't recommend it enough to anyone either suffering from depression themselves or who knows someone who is.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Prisig. It's very difficult to describe what this book is about... It's basically a long, rambling exploration of just why it should be that logic and reason seem so blind to a quesion Plato posed as: "What is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good? Do we need anyone to tell us these things?" Some questionable metaphysics, but definitely a life-changer for me. Apparently he was clinically insane when he wrote it...
Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert. It kinda irks me to mention a self-help book, but this (and the rest in the series) are somewhat atypical. Rather than the usual "feel-good" twaddle, it's a rock-solid handbook to self-administered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It was (and still is, sometimes) hard work to put it into practice, but it certainly helped me enormously and I can't recommend it enough to anyone either suffering from depression themselves or who knows someone who is.
The ladybird book of course fishing
My Cub Scout Membership book
They f**k you up
The NLP Practitioners manual
My Cub Scout Membership book
They f**k you up
The NLP Practitioners manual
Main books that made me stop and actually think when I was growing up were;
Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
I tended to loose interest in reading - with the exception of Fantasy, particularly Michael Moorcock - as a teenage due to music and girls - in that order.
Now I can't read enough, and reading whilst sitting under a tree, beside a stream or on a mountain top is the best.
David
Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
I tended to loose interest in reading - with the exception of Fantasy, particularly Michael Moorcock - as a teenage due to music and girls - in that order.
Now I can't read enough, and reading whilst sitting under a tree, beside a stream or on a mountain top is the best.
David
Seconded - I wouldnt' say that book completely revolutionised my life, but, like you, it made me a nicer person.bambodoggy said:
Similarly, Danny Wallace's "Yes Man" was a brilliant book - and was also quite inspiring. It certainly had me saying "yes" and trying to change the world by simply saying "Yes" to things!
Batfink said:
On that basis it should be a compulsory read please.
First title then to kick-off a Bushcraft UK Book Club?
Cheers
I can't honestly say that I've ever read a book that's changed my life - not even Paul McKenna's "Change your life in 7 days"
I guess I'm yet to discover that book. I hope I find it soon.
I guess I'm yet to discover that book. I hope I find it soon.
I think life changing is too strong a term in my case but if something makes you stop and think, deeply. Chances are that at some level it will influence you, even subtly.
As human's we are the product of all of our experiences, good and bad. It's how we allow those experience to shape us as a person that is the challenge in life.
As human's we are the product of all of our experiences, good and bad. It's how we allow those experience to shape us as a person that is the challenge in life.
moduser said:
True. The combination of "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, Morgan Spurlock's "SuperSize Me" and Huw Fearnsley Whittingstall's output definitely changed my eating habits and the way I look at food in general.
moduser said:
Agreed - my list are just the most influential books I can think of today. I'm sure there are many more... But my experiences define me.
