The featured topic of this week is:
NAME A BOOK THAT HAS CHANGED YOUR LIFE.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
HUHC Student Voices
This week we introduce a new weekly feature called HUHC: Student Voices. It’s a posting made up of quick student responses to a question or topic. Each week, the editorial board of HUHC: The Conversation will post a new question or topic that calls for short (no more than one or two sentence) responses. Topics can range from the serious (What should the U.S’s role in Darfur be?) to the intellectual (Name a book that changed your life?) to the mundane (What kind of snacks should HUHC be serving in the living room?). Our goal is to use these topics to spark conversation, share information, and grow as a community. Plus, it can be fun to see the various answers build throughout the week.
The featured topic of this week is:
NAME A BOOK THAT HAS CHANGED YOUR LIFE.
The featured topic of this week is:
NAME A BOOK THAT HAS CHANGED YOUR LIFE.
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27 comments:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence
I was 21, just out of college, and trying to decide whether to study philosophy or religion. This book showed me I didn't have to choose.
"Moneyball" by Michael Lewis. I took the HUHC seminar called "Statistics in Baseball" about two years ago and the professor kept plugging this book. I finally picked it up and couldn't put it down. For those of you who think you know all you need to know about baseball, reading this book will prove to you otherwise.
"You Shall Know Our Velocity!" by Dave Eggers. Opened my mind to a new wave of literature I had never experienced before.
And I was going to say Moneyball until Geoffrey beat me to it.
Probably Secret Garden, because it made me believe that you really can help anybody even if they don't necessarily want it.
Most likely Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It was for summer reading a few years ago. Read it in a weekend.
The Harry Potter Series. Cliche, maybe, but it provided me with an escape and helped me get through some of the hardest years of my life.
Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
This book taught me, at a very young age, that everyone is equally important and they deserve the same amount of respect and love.
"The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Kaled Hosseini. Hosseini has an incredible abilty to make an outsider completely ignorant of the Afghani culture feel and understand the complexity of the story as if he were on the inside. Warning: both are real tear-jerkers!
Animorphs: The Invasion
It's the first book in the Animorphs series, and even though it was marketed to kids,this book (and the rest of the series)touches on some not-fourth-grade-reading-level stuff, like the effects of war. It made me think about things that I probably wouldn't have otherwise at that age.
I have been reading Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" for about a year and every time i pick it up again, I love it so much that I start reading it from the beginning. I may never get to the end but it's ideas of perception and reality really touch on everything i seem to be wondering about at this point in my life.
oh, and as disgustingly mainstream as it might be, i also recommend the movie.
Factotum by Charles Bukowski. I had to read it freshman year in English 2 and it really did change my life, I tell people that all the time. It showed me that writing doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. And it helped me to find my favorite author of all time.
I have two.
1984 by George Orwell
Just an indescribably wonderful book, and it really showed the necessity of dissent, freedom, and privacy in our government and our politics. While being educational, it happens to be incredibly interesting. A definite must-read.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
AMAZING book, a true story written by someone not much older than us about his childhood in Africa, being picked up as a child soldier, and the experiences he went through. Singlehandedly the most life changing book I have EVER read. It was enlightening and entertaining.
Girl, Interrupted is a good I have read several times in a row, and always enjoy reading again. Also, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a fascinating, terrifying view of what society could become, or perhaps, in some ways, already is.
The experience of Buddhism by John S. Strong. Introduced me to a whole new way to look at life and changed my entire perception of what was important to me. It helped me to deal with everything from everyday issues to the great questions of self that we all come across every once in a while.
Brave New World and the Giver- both are about the changing of humanity and how technology affects, and it really makes you wonder how we got to this point after all of history.
A Wrinkle in Time- the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The most beautiful and inspirational book I have ever read. A fable about following your dreams and listening to your heart.
"A Child Called 'It'" by Dave Peltzer and "Not Without My Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody. Both of these books just showed me the strength and power of the human spirit.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Amazing book about staying true to your principles.
A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Real account of a child soldier in Africa. Children in Africa are dehumanized and molded into killing machines. It's the most disturbing and real thing i've ever read.
The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I read it for a scholarship contest last year. I didn't end up finishing in time for the essay deadline but by then I was hooked and I wanted to finish it anyway. My world will never be the same.
"Night" by Elie Wiesel. One of the most powerful books ever written about the Holocaust. I was required to read it for a history course in high school and the emotion blew me away.
"Le Petit Prince" (aka "The Little Prince") by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I could read it over and over and over. I recommend it for people of all ages... it really changes the way you look at life and growing up.
I know this much is True (by Wally Lamb) and Roots (by Alex Haley)
These books piqued my interest in family related historical fiction(the history of individual families). It is a genre that never ceases to keep my interest and keeps me reading, which is important to me to maintain because it keeps my mind open to new ideas and new words. The benefitial cognative effects of reading should be taken advantage of throughout ones life.
The Dark Tower Series. If you can make it through a thousand something pages then I recommend you read it. It is epic!
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I think because it was the first novel that I voluntarily picked up. And, because it was the first book that truly overwhelmed me with angst.
"The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. Before reading this book, I did not consider that I was a good candidate for mission work. As a result of accepting a challenge in this book, I've now made two trips to Honduras, and my life is wrapped around a bunch of kids in an orphanage there.
I have two.
"The Meditations of Marcus A. Antoninius" because they are the concepts, put down in a simple, beautiful and unconfused form, that I live my life by. It's not novel, but rather ideas for right living that have their roots in the ideals of the Roman Empire.
And "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell because the psychological concepts in that book are poignant, true, make you think and written in an entertaining fashion. Give a a go, it's a quick and fun read.
I have to say Harry Potter also. I know, dorky, but it got me involved with a community of people that I never would have met otherwise.
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