Basically what the title says: Is there any fiction book you’ve ever read that has emotionally or intellectually connected with you so much it changed the way you viewed the world, changed the way you viewed yourself or changed the way you viewed life (your own or in general)?
If so…
- What book was it?
- Why did it connect so well with you?
- How did it make you feel?
- And how did it change you?
Just to emphasize, I’m solely asking about works of fiction here. So nothing like reading just an academic book on philosophy or a self-help book or something.
In college, I took a Lit class where the professor gave us a list of books, told us to pick three of them, and write a report about each by the end of the semester. As a YA fantasy and scifi reader, I had little interest in any of the classics on the list, but I noticed Dune by Frank Herbert and decided to make it one of the three.
I burned through it in less than a week, and when the professor told us to present one of our reports to the class for our final, I knew exactly what I would do.
I’d never read a story that felt so fantastical and so real at the same time. Here was this strange world with giant worms, interstellar travel, and drug-fueled magical powers, and yet the people felt more human than a lot of “realistic” fiction I’d read.
What’s more, it was a cautionary tale about the dangers of hero worship, and how easy it can be for the people who obtain power to be consumed by it. Given that this was shortly before the 2016 election, that struck me like nothing before it.
I use the Litany of Fear, and how to think more like a human instead of reacting like an animal in daily life. It was a very profound reading experience.