What clicked and made you have a different mindset? How long did it take to start changing and how long was the transformation? Did it last or is it an ongoing back and forth between your old self? I want to know your transformation and success.
Any kind of change, big or small. Anything from weight loss, world view, personality shift, major life change, single change like stopped smoking or drinking soda to starting exercising or going back to school. I want to hear how people’s life were a bit or a lot better through reading and your progress.
TIA 🙏
It was a Dictionary from a Library it fell on my Head and i got Brain Trauma afterwards some Therapy Sessions still impaired.
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. The whole series really. The overall theme is change/growth. The books are chonky, and that gives him the room to do what he does best: character work. There’s a range of characters with a broad spectrum of personality types and issues, so it’s easy to find something that you relate to. Main characters with depression, PTSD, complicated pasts. And while they do grow and improve, it’s definitely more realistic than a lot of books I’ve read. It’s not easy or a straight path to getting better, and sometimes they stumble. But the books do a great job of showing that those things are completely normal and part of personal growth. The people around them give them the support we all wish we had, giving a good model for how we can support those in our lives.
Just a couple quotes that have stuck with me for years:
From Words of Radiance: “Keep cutting away at those thorns, strong one, and make a path for the light.”
From Oathbringer: “It’s terrible,” Wit said, stepping up beside her, “to have been hurt. It’s unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan . . . it’s okay to live on.” … "Wit?” she asked. “I . . . I can’t do it. He smiled. “There are certain things I know, Shallan. This is one of them. You can. Find the balance. Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it.”
Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber
This was the book that got me to stop hating books.
I didn’t like reading as a child or teenager until I was forced to read this one for a mandatory book report in high school and really, really liked it. I don’t know why, I don’t even remember that much about the book, but it got me interested in science fiction and reading in general.
The Xenogenesis trilogy (Liliths Brood) by Octavia Butler. It examines what it means to be human and how much of us can be changed before we’re no longer humans anymore. It also made me examine how we treat other cultures/species through the lens of how the aliens treat the humans and how they are so convinced that their way is the right way that they don’t even question it until it’s forcibly shoved in their faces. It shows the ugly side to the violent human agitators while also eposing the ugliness of the peaceful alien “saviors”.
There’s also a side thread of connections are chemicals in our brain and we can get trapped by them and circumstance into a situation where we’re not always sure we’re happy/on the right side/have any agency.
They aren’t long books and even years later I still think about them sometimes.
Two books that helped me understand the world better particularly when it comes to human behaviour. Both are terrific reads although can be difficult at times for different reasons, but strongly recommend both of them;
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The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker is a great oversight of the science behind the biology of human (and animal) behaviour, explaining that it is a mix of nature and nurture (but leaning towards nature).
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Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D Hare is a disturbing but easy read, and explains some of the worst of human behaviour, not just in the criminal justice system but also in politics and business
