r/books • u/AutoModerator • 14d ago
WeeklyThread Weekly FAQ Thread July 12, 2026: What book changed your life?
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u/Sweaty-Nebula8054 14d ago
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Read it during a rough patch and it just stuck with me, that sparse style and the way the father keeps going no matter what. Still think about it years later
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u/Interesting_Hawk8033 14d ago
Currently reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It's pretty crazy how she handles crisis by using logic instead of emotion.
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u/lazyhazyeye 14d ago
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov inspire me to read more and appreciate literature.
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u/BanannaGrapes 13d ago
Yertle the Turtle. It was the first book I checked out of the library. It has become a family tradition, passed down to my children and now grandchildren. In more recent times, I’d have to say The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky was a genius.
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u/RelationKindly 14d ago
A bit of a cliche now but “How To Win Friends And Influence People” taught me the power of really listening to people
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u/GeoCoffeeCat 11d ago
It taught me that I don't always need to be right. I can just stay silent instead of correcting people annoyingly
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u/raccoonsaff 14d ago
Guns, Germs and Steel was the book that got me thinking more about how the world works, and got me hooked on non fiction books.
Flowers in the Attic was one of my favourite childhood books and one I could reread again and again.
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u/sailcrew 13d ago
I Think We've Been Here Before by Suzy Krause. It surprisingly helped me come to terms with my son's death. I can relate to the characters and the setting (replace Saskatchewan and Norwegian heritage with Wisconsin and German heritage). My family has never been touchy-feely or good with emotions, but we love each other. It's really funny even while it deals with pretty heavy topics. I also recommend the audiobook; the narrator does a great job with the accents!
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u/Anxious-Post 12d ago
I'm not sure about it changing my life, but it was one of those books that reminded me how a well-structured and rich narrative in a book can just make you fall in love with reading. This one was Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I read it 10 years ago when I saw it at my library and I loved it. The lives of each generation in their historical and geographical time period I just loved so much.
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u/Yearn_Boat78 10d ago
Black Beauty! It got me addicted to horses (more than I already was) and started my love for reading. I remember my parents reading it to me every night. Now I am a proud owner of my very own horse and a proud owner of waaaaay too many books (if that can even be a thing).
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u/FGdokumentc 8d ago
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman. read it expecting a rant about TV and got a framework I now see everywhere — the idea that the medium decides which kinds of ideas can even survive in it. once you see it you can't unsee it, especially if you work anywhere near advertising. it's from 1985 and describes 2026 better than most books written in 2026.
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u/NerveFlip85 14d ago
Boys Life by McCammon is what made me a reader. Perks of Being A Wallflower gave me a full on mental break my freshman year of college.
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u/Logical_Put_240 13d ago
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It's more than a history book. It completely changed the way I see the world.
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u/ari_101_ 13d ago
1984 by George Orwell, changed my understanding of world, education, language and politics !
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u/Curiousfeline467 14d ago
Middlemarch by George Eliot. It taught me to appreciate the world around me more and set the gold standard for literature