A Book That Changed a Life
This program is about our favorite books – those books that changed our lives in some way.
Member Preparation
In preparation for this session, read the following quotes and spend some time thinking about some of the books that have had the greatest impact on you. Try to choose one – which of these books had the greatest effect on you?
"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." - Maya Angelou
"I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive." - Malcolm X
These questions provide ways you may want to approach this topic. Remember to focus on just one or two of the questions, if you choose to use them, as this will allow you to explore the topic in more depth.- What book has had the greatest effect on you? Who wrote it?
- Where were you in you life when you encountered it?
- How did it change your life?
- Have you re-read it? If so, did you experience it differently than the first time, and if so, how/why?
Further Exploration
- "The book that changed my life," Douglas Danoff. Essence (May, 2005)
- "Read Across America: Celebrity book picks," NEA website
- The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen, eds. (Gotham, 2006)
- The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books by J. Peder Zane, ed. (W.W. Norton, 2007)