Most life defining book?

Was there any book that came to you at just the right time and changed your perspective? The two I can point to are both cheesey, but I read them in my teens and they helped gel some ideas that had been frittering through my head: "The Fountainhead" and "Stranger in a Strange Land".

More recently, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."

It depends on the time in my life. When I was a teenager it was Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which set off a decade long stint of vegetarianism. Over the year there have been other books that have changed my viewpoint and approach to life at the time.

I think mine would of been "Go Ask Alice". I just remember it being an eye opener on how bad drug abuse could get when you are young.

I know this is going to sound corny, but the Bible has been the most life defining book I've ever read. It's fresh each time I come across something because my understanding changes.

I am going to first answer this from a creative standpoint. Being a writer the book Dune opened my creative visualization of fictional description and thought in writing. The detail of story is so deep that two attempts to capture it on film did not do the work justice. For me it helped me take a quantum leap in writing. It was also the first book of that size that I actually read cover to cover.

I was in Architecture this past year and we read and watched The Fountainhead. I love that book.
I headed off into Industrial Design [we design products and improve products] around spring break because of the lack of individualism in Architecture these days [I would most likely go through the 5 years of Architecture, get my B.Arch. & end up being a AutoCAD junkie] Ew no.

The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - I completely understood and related from the first read. I think I'm going to read it again......right now.

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The Fountainhead is great. "Atlas Shrugged" might explore the themes more completely, but I love the characters in "The Fountainhead".

I have a niece who wants to go into Architecture, mainly for the money. From what I've read, there's a whole lot of work getting into the field and a lot of dues to pay in order for a small chance at a big job. It seems that all anyone cares about right now is how to fit the largest possible structure on the smallest possible piece of land.

Anyone who goes into Architecture for the money is screwing themselves over. The truth is, most won't make much money in Architecture...they will be struggling their entire life to reach the highest point in their career which they may never even reach...and they're constantly struggling to be an individual, to make money and to be "perfect"...it's called "The Old Man's Profession" for a reason...and that reason being that they'll be working until they're dead.
Many Architects rarely hit a "peak"...they'll be almost dead by the time that they do, if they do.

It's a lot of work. & in my opinion...a lot of work for nothing.

I guess my choice would be PostSecret, because I can relate to most of the people in the book who share their secrets and I don't feel so alone anymore. They have a website if anyone's interested. I guess it's Postsecret.com. I'm too lazy to look haha

I've read that, on the average, architects are one of the lowest paid professions requiring the highest level of education. Of course that doesn't matter if it is your passion, but I would agree that it isn't something to go into for the money.

Money is a bad reason to do anything, in my opinion. It's necessary, of course, but money does fuck-all if you're unhappy. Of course, this is coming from an artist going into a very busy field with very little pay off who0 often end up as dreamers working in a convenience store or living out of a box.

In anycase, if money is the issue, lawyers often have more luck. And doctors, specifically plastic surgeons.

I don't read..

Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse. I was initially turned off by the fact that we had to read it for class, since I thought it'd be just another boring book about my parents' religion (Buddhism), but it was really more of a coming-of-age tale than anything else.

Exactly right.

There were a few suggestions on here that I might have to pick up the book and read it. I am a reader and am always looking for more titles that are good to read.

Harry Potter....I never realised until then that I have spent my entire life waiting for an owl to arrive!

Other than that, The Secret....which I already somehow knew but still needed to spend $20 to find out!