Which author do you think can change a person's life just from reading their book?

William Griffith Wilson

Thanks , Cruiser. He helps tee totalers? I don’t drink.

Full Catastrophe LIving; Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn.

The author expects the reader to try the meditation and the yoga as well as reading his text. U. Mass. Medical Center has a world-renown Center for MIndfulness based in these ideas

You can find a program near you if you’re interested. I took a one-evening-a-week eight-week course with homework fifteen years ago and use the techniques daily.

J.K. Rowling. So many kids have read the Harry Potter books. She makes Harry’s world seems so real and whenever you hate this world, you can always escape to the one she created. I have all of the books right next to me on the shelf and still open one up every once in a while….

Of Human Bondage. W. Somerset Maugham. Everything you need to know about life, history and art in one book.

^^^^^^ I actually read this book forty years ago and tried to get through the movie last week. I can’t see how it helps anyone get through life, history or art ; I’m obviously not a great intellect. Because all I could see is a crippled man chasing after a loser.

Irvine Welsh, for being bold in his writing, and for not being afraid to expose the underbelly of life’s darkest sides.

Dr. Seuss

Hermann Hesse. I would start with Siddhartha and Peter Camenzind.

Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking was great for me.

Some authors that changed my life in various ways:

J.R.R. Tolkien
Dr. Seuss
Giovanni Boccaccio
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Bertrand Russell
Richard Dawkins
Christopher Hitchens
Barbara Tuchman

I agree with @trailsillustrated
About Maugham. Another book of his that’s full of life lessons is “The Razor’s Edge.”

GQ!

Predictibly Irrational by Dan Ariely is one of the best books I have ever read. It’s not a transcendent or spiritual book like a fiction novel (which is probably more what you were asking about), but it is full of fascinating insight into how humans make decisions backed with examples and experimental research.

As a kid, Dinotopia did that. It’s a really imaginative book, full of beautiful painted illustrations, where the plot follows two lost travelers as they explore their new home. It looks like renaissance Europe set on a tropical island, and throughout the book humans and dinosaurs live side-by-side in a peaceful and knowledge-seeking society. The whole thing is like catnip to an imaginative kid, and there are positive themes about learning, reason, tolerance, and exploration throughout the story. I still flip through my old copy sometimes, and I’m going to pass it down to my kids if I ever have any.

Lord of the Rings did the same thing for my imagination when I was a tween. It’s a big, grand adventure.

This isn’t fiction, but I really recommend Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. It’s like a shot in the arm of optimism. I love the way he saw the world, finding beauty in everything, even mundane things. He wrote about people from all different walks of life with empathy and love. If you ever watch the evening news or reality TV and shake your head at the state of humanity, Leaves of Grass is the antidote to that.

“Deep River” by Shusaku Endo is another book I really like, about finding inner peace and empathy for one’s fellow man.

Emma Goldman certainly triggered a change in perspective for me.