the book that changed my life was : Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. and recently read the Secret by Rhonda Byrne and A New Earth by Echart Tolle and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I just realized that all of these three books have something in common… It is looking deep into your own lifes and making it positive and going after the things that you want and give meaning to your own life and learning to live the life that makes you happy.

Having taught in elementary schools for 35 years, a lot of my reading material was aimed at youngsters. There are an amazing number of books for children that have great messages for kids of all ages. The story that came to my mind right off the bat was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. A great book!

Many years ago I read book by Mary Wetsmacott (pseudonym of Agatha Christie) called Absent in the Spring. The main character goes out to the Middle East to visit her daughter and her train home breaks down. She soends 3 days in the desert and her mind drifts and she realises that her life had not been as she imagined it; that people had not always really liked her very much. She went home determined to change but in fact went on being the way she had always been. Of the hundreds of books I have read this one sticks out in my mind - perhaps because it underlined how people don’t like to learn from life and to modify their behaviour or attitudes.

A third grade teacher read to us every day and I fell in love with books. I cannot remember the first book that changed it all I remember the teacher. Later my parents divorced, and my life went from perfect to numb. I read Atlas Shrugged at 12 and found what I was looking for. A direction. Later I went to a church at Christmas, I discovered the Bible. It taught me about mankind, and God. It contains all that I love about books. Drama, poetry, history, philosophy, etc. The I started reading Barbara Kingsolver books. I knew I loved reading. I knew I was philosophical. I knew that i was spirtual. I learned I had an opinion. I turn 60 this year, and I know that I will never be poor as long as I have a book to read.

“Singing at the top of our lungs”, Women, love and Creativity, by Claudia Bepko and Jo-ann Krestan. It validated me and gave me courage to reach my dreams and write my own book.

I’d have to agree with Ms. Dee - the book by Victor Frankl really had an impact on my life and I read it many years ago. I have given it as a gift to many of my friends because I think it is so important. I am interested to see books that have influenced others - the one my friends and I are reading now is “Eat, Pray, Love” and it is fabulous. It will give you a new outlook on life. By the way, I live in Louisville and we have just “survived” Derby Week here - I did not go this year and didn’t even watch it (in the past I have been in grand style) - I’m glad I didn’t watch it because of that filly having to be put down - I don’t know why, but I had a bad feeling about this year’s Derby. Nevertheless, the city was beautiful and everyone had on their best hats and manners!

This question sent me straight back to those late nights as a kid with the flashlight under the sheets devouring all the Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Those books had an enormous impact on me—Nancy as an independent girl finding adventure in her own little town; and I was fascinated by Holmes’ brilliance and powers of observation. This led to saving my allowance for weeks to buy a chemistry set (are those things even allowed on the market these days??) so I could devise potions and formulas and possibly figure out how to make the stuff one uses to dust for fingerprints. Later in life, I’d say anything by E.B. White and Truman Capote astonishes me—deeply realized stories by way of a deceptive lightness of language.

“Bruce Carries the Flag”….the first book I ever read from cover to cover..it opened the door to “reading for enjoyment”….

“Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt changed the way I looked at my own problems. The way those children lived in the slums of Limerick, Ireland put my life in a whole new perspective.

All Things Made New, Ferraby Gleanngs from the Writings of Baha’u’llah Many more from that source Black Boy by Richard Wright Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton An Interrupted Life and Letters at Westerbork (2 books) by Etty Hillesum Not Every Sea Hath Pearls, Loulie Albee Mathews Portals to Freedom, Howard Colby Ives Purpose of Physical Reality, John Hatcher so many more….. a lot of memoir and nonfiction….