Books Which Influenced Your Perceptions, Action, and Behavior

[CoriSCapnSkip]

Presented for your delectation is an image of a milestone and what might be termed a core life memory. Find the Way Home was the first book which impressed me so deeply as to directly impact my behavior in a major situation. Just prior to Easter when I was in First Grade, my sisters and I had a little mishap in which I fell into a vaporizer which had been running all day. They were splashed, but I sat directly in it and all three of us were rushed to the ER at Kennewick General Hospital. I was standing up in the car with no pants as the skin where I sat was sloughing off "like a boiled peach," a doctor said, and I could not sit! I remembered this book in which a lost boy begins crying, says, "Crying never does any good," then finds the solution to his problem of having lost his way. I repeated "Crying never does any good" and by the time we made the very short drive to the hospital I had stopped crying. A boy my age in the ER who had suffered only a small head cut was shrieking like a banshee and one of the doctors said, "Look at that girl, she is hurt much worse than you and she isn't crying at all." I thought, boy, I am tough!

I learned not only from the book but from my dad. My mom was mortified at any child of theirs having suffered an accident serious enough for the ER and wouldn't have mentioned it to a soul, but Dad trumpeted it to everyone he knew that I was seriously injured. My grandmother for whom I am named was ready to fly across the country till Mom set her straight. Anyhow, I learned if you are taken to the ER, make sure everyone you know knows all the gory details. This has stood me in good stead.

As to what brings this up now, I still have that damn vaporizer and when the hardware comes out of my leg perhaps I can mount both in some sort of tasteful display. I also have a crusty old vaporizer which hasn't been used in twenty years and probably shouldn't be. This year I decided we needed a new one and was thinking today where to set it.

Lastly, this book is a wonderful relic of a bygone era. Wouldn't it be great if the streets were safe enough for six-year-olds to walk far enough alone to actually lose their way?

 

[Tery]

The first thing that comes to mind is a safety pamphlet on bike riding. This was before bike helmets. It had those monotone drawings of kids doing stupid things on their bikes. One of these was holding on to the back of a moving vehicle. Of course, the child doing this fell/ The pamphlet hammered the point home -- Result: skull fracture, death. That last word stayed with me to this day. Of course, now I use it as a punchline but, as an 8-year-old, those words chilled me to the bone. I have never grabbed the back of a moving vehicle, by the way.

 

[Doc Creed]

I can't think of any enlightened response, although I'm sure there were many children's stories that subconsciously informed my thinking. I do remember being terrified at 6 years old of The 3 Billy Goats Gruff. Ha ha.
At age 12 we read The Outsiders and for the first time I saw the adult world as it was. Sometimes it was a rough world, kids were orphaned, bullies threatened you, and friends died.

 

[Grandpa]

Good thread.

When I was in high school, To Kill A Mockingbird was required reading in my English class, but once I got started, it didn't matter. It was a shattering story. I've resolved to judge people on their individual content rather than external qualities ever since.

As a young(er) adult, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance hit me hard. Not because it was so dramatic or suspenseful, but because it brought life's goals and mechanisms more into focus.

 

[CrimsonKingAH]

The Holy Bible KJV and all my study Bibles ... many other books thru my life, but this was the most influential .

 

[arista]

Horton Hears a who. You are a important person no matter how small.

 

[GNTLGNT]

 

[Spideyman]

As a grade school child we had Weekly Readers Book Club- can't remember the title, but it was about a boy playing with firecrackers and going blind. Still can't hold a sparkler!

Later life_ The Tao of Pooh. Changed how I looked at things and gave new meaning as to how to life one's life.

 

[not_nadine]

First book I can remember is:

I remember being very upset with that Mayzie bird for taking off, and so worried about Horton.
And the ending! yay!

 

[niro]

Ever heard of that book? It scares kids since 1845.

Spoiler: Content

Short stories with kids who do forbidden stuff like playing with fire etc. The story I rememer the most is about finicky eater. The boy refuses to eat his soup and the parents let him starve to death. It's horrible today stuff like that is poisunus pedagogy. The boy in the picture refuses to let his mother cut his fingernails and comb his hair.

 

[not_nadine]

Ever heard of that book? It scares kids since 1845.

Spoiler: Content

Short stories with kids who do forbidden stuff like playing with fire etc. The story I rememer the most is about finicky eater. The boy refuses to eat his soup and the parents let him starve to death. It's horrible today stuff like that is poisunus pedagogy. The boy in the picture refuses to let his mother cut his fingernails and comb his hair.

I'd like to read that.

 

[Out of Order]

 

[Pucker]

As a kid, the original endings to a lot of those tales from the brothers Grimm (as opposed to the Disney versions) informed me more than I probably remember. The one I recall most strongly influencing my perception of the difference between how things were and how they "should" be -- at an age when I could actually grasp that kind of thing -- was Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger.

 

[GNTLGNT]

....very dog-eared copy....had to do a lot of memory refreshers huh?.....

 

[DiO'Bolic]

 

[muskrat]

Marvel comics--mostly Spidey, with some Cap and Iron Man thrown in. Sounds corny, but those comics instilled within me, at a VERY young age, a heavy sense of morality, heroism, right and wrong--all that good stuff, not to mention sparking my creativity. All my 'good' traits can be traced back to those old funnybooks, and I can honestly say they made me a better person. (Take that, Dr. Wertham!)

 

[skimom2]

The Velveteen Rabbit taught me about faithful love from earliest childhood.
Louisa May Alcott's ability to look at people and acknowledge the bad while staying hopeful for the good was a great influence in my life, and led me to Mr. King. They are very similar in viewpoint (I can wax poetic about that, but I won't here--lol).

Here's a strange one, but it did change my viewpoint: At the insistence of a friend, I read a book about a BDSM couple (The Submissive, NOT 50 Shades of Grey. I can tell you tales about that book, its genesis, and that author that would curl your hair, but I'll keep those to myself.) I was very judgy-judgy about that sort of thing, to be honest. Through the course of the book, though, I came to an understanding that it's just another valid choice between consenting adults. It helped, I think, that the author is in the lifestyle (unlike that other book) and presented it matter of factly rather than abusively (also unlike TOB--lol). I'll never get the appeal, but I think I grew up a bit (and I was over 40--lol).

Last one: Me Before You (JoJo Moyes). It made me examine and re-examine my beliefs/thoughts on assisted suicide. Moyes did a bang up job of presenting POVs from advocates and detractors without coming down on one side or another, and without making the story either clinical, preachy, or maudlin. Touching, funny, and thoughtful book. One of the best books I read a couple of years ago.

 

[Kurben]

One early book that meant a lot was Watership Down and The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. Never has animals been so human and at the same time so animallike as here. It said a lot about humans without having a human enter the story at all. Two great books.

 

[not_nadine]

One early book that meant a lot was Watership Down and The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. Never has animals been so human and at the same time so animallike as here. It said a lot about humans without having a human enter the story at all. Two great books.

Did you read Traveller, Kurben? I really liked this one too.

Traveller (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[doowopgirl]

I can't think of any enlightened response, although I'm sure there were many children's stories that subconsciously informed my thinking. I do remember being terrified at 6 years old of The 3 Billy Goats Gruff. Ha ha.
At age 12 we read The Outsiders and for the first time I saw the adult world as it was. Sometimes it was a rough world, kids were orphaned, bullies threatened you, and friends died.

The Outsiders was important to me, too. I had a turbulent home life as a teenager and that book really hit me. It made me feel like I wasn't alone having a messed up life.