Reading is "our consciousness in someone else's mind,"* whether in the literary sense of being within a fictional character or an actual biographical individual, or in the seemingly unending raveling mind of a book's writer.
-verbal image by journalist and novelist Anna Quindlen
“Books are love letters (or apologies) passed between us, adding a layer of conversation beyond our spoken words.”
-Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader...
"In books, I have traveled not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to...the difference between good and evil, right and wrong."
“Part of the great wonder of reading is that it has the ability to make human beings feel more connected to one another, which is a great good...”
-Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life
Of course, it can have the opposite effect, depending upon who is doing the reading. Some of the most evil-acting humans in history have been avid readers. Napoleon was a voracious reader, as was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (birth name of the Georgian leader who adopted the noms de guerre of Stalin)
The latter amassed a library of 25,000 books! And he was a poet.
(Side Note: And that's another humanistic fallacy--that poets are somehow more sensitive and more humane than the average human, than business leaders and engineers, and other non-literary types. Yet not only was Soso a published poet, so was the murderous Ho Chi Minh, etc.)
Since, I mentioned Stalin and Napoleon, maybe that is a strong place to start listing powerful books which have dynamically affected me:
BIOGRAPHIES:
NAPOLEON by Alan Schom
YOUNG STALIN by Simon Sebag Montefiore
LOST PROPHET: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BAYARD RUSTIN by John D'Emilio
THE OUTPOST: JOHN MCLOUGHLIN AND THE FAR NORTHWEST by Dorothy Nafus Morrison
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN by Gregg Cantrell
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot
THE PASSION OF AYN RAND by Barbara Branden
WADE HAMILTON by Rod Andrew Jr.
FOUNDING BROTHERS by Joseph J. Ellis
FOOLS GOLD: CAPTAIN JOHN SUTTER by Richard Dillion
THOMAS PAINE: APOSTLE OF FREEDOM by Jack Fruchtman
CITIZEN THOMAS PAINE by Howard Fast
NO ONE GETS OUTSIDE by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
STEVEN JOBS AND EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson
THOMAS JEFFERSON by Fawn Brodie
THE FIRST MUSLIM by Lesley Hazelton
MACHIAVELLI by Ross King
ONCE UPON A COUNTRY by Sari Nusseibeh
FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT by Larry and Dominique Lapierre
FRANCO by Paul Preston
CARL SAGAN: A LIFE IN THE COSMOS by William Poundstone
SUBTERRANEAN KEROUAC by Ellis Amburn
ERASMUS OF CHRISTENDOM by Roland Bainton
MICHAEL COLLINS by James Mackay
NOVELS:
THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan
ALASKA by James Michener
11/22/63 by Stephen King
DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch
SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD by Orson Scott Card
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
OPEN SEASON by C.J. Box
THE COLONIALISTS: HISTORICAL NOVEL OF AUSTRALIA by William Stuart Long
ST-NG: GHOST SHIP by Diane Carey
THE CHILDREN OF HAMLIN by Carmen Carter
THE ALTAR OF EDEN by James Rollins
FACE TO FACE by Karleen Koen
THE ORIGIN by Irving Stone
BLUEHEART by Alison Sinclair
WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
FAILURE TO APPEAR by J.A. Jance
BIRTHRIGHT by Nora Roberts
ILL WIND by Nevada Barr
MIST by Miguel de Unamuno
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS by Ernest Hemingway
LISTENING WOMAN by Tony Hillerman
HYPERION by Dan Simmons
MIDNIGHT by Dean Koontz
HISTORIES:
ALBION'S SEED by David Hackett Fischer
BEAR FLAG RISING by Dale L. Walker
GOD'S ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLES by George C. Rable
THE PRINCE OF THE MARSHES by Rory Stewart
JESUS WARS by Philip Jenkins
TEXAS AND TEXANS IN THE CIVIL WAR by Ralph A. Wooster
AMERICAN NATIONS by Colin Woodward
A HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY by Martha Sonntag Bradley
POLK by Walter R. Borneman
ZEPHANIAH KINGSLEY JR. AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD by Daniel L. Schafer
A GLORIOUS DEFEAT: MEXICO IN AND ITS WAR WITH THE U.S. by Timothy J. Henderson
RINGSIDE SEAT TO A REVOLUTION by David Dorado Romo
TO END ALL WARS by Adam Hochschild
THE FIRST WORLD WAR by John Keating
LONDON: A HISTORY by A.N. Wilson
TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Kearns Goodwin
THE ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD by Russell Shorto
MAYFLOWER by Nathaniel Philbrick
THE LIVES OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND by Antonia Frazer
HEAVENLY SERBIA: FROM MYTH TO GENOCIDE by Branimir Anzulovic
PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION and ETHICS:
AMONG THE DEAD CITIES by A.C. Grayling
GOD AND THE REACH OF REASON by Erik J. Wielenberg
INVENTING HUMAN RIGHTS by Lynn Hunt
50 VOICES OF DISBELIEF Edited by Blackford and Schuklenk
HOW JESUS BECAME GOD by Bart Ehrman
UNDERSTANDING THE APOCALYPSE by Wilfrid J. Harrington
A SHORT HISTORY OF MYTH by Karen Armstrong
WHEN GOD TALKS BACK by T.M. Luhrmann
ADAM, EVE, AND THE SERPENT by Elaine Pagels
FEELING GOOD by David Burns
SCALING THE SECULAR CITY by J.P. Moreland
A REFUTATION OF MORAL RELATIVISM by Peter Kreeft
SOPHIE'S WORLD by Justein Gaarder
WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT ME by Walpola Rahula
THE MIND'S I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett
WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS by Michael Shermer
LEAVING THE FOLD by Edward Babinski
THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer
PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY by John Dillenberger and Claude Welch
THE HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen R. Covey
DYNAMICS OF FAITH by Paul Tillich
SCIENCE:
HOW IT BEGAN and HOW IT ENDS by Chris Impey
THE ANCESTOR'S TALE by Richard Dawkins
FAITH VERSUS FACT by Jerry A. Coyne
WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE by Jerry A. Coyne
FINDING DARWIN'S GOD by Kenneth R. Miller
THE BIG QUESTIONS IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION by Keith Ward
THE ROCKS DON'T LIE by David R. Montgomery
DARWIN'S DANGEROUS IDEA by Daniel C. Dennett
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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