Books That Have Shaped Peoples Lives
in 1995, the LibraryOfCongress produced a list of 25 Books that have Shaped People's Lives.
The twenty five books (in alphabetical order) on the list were:
- TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn, by MarkTwain;
- AtlasShrugged, by AynRand;
- The Autobiography of BenjaminFranklin;
- The Autobiography of MalcolmX;
- The Bible;
- The CatcherInTheRye, by JdSalinger;
- Charlotte's Web, by EbWhite;
- The Diary of a Young Girl, by AnneFrank;
- DonQuixote, by MiguelDeCervantes;
- Gone with the Wind, by MargaretMitchell;
- Hiroshima, by JohnHersey;
- HowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople, by DaleCarnegie;
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by MayaAngelou;
- Invisible Man, by RalphEllison;
- TheLittlePrince, by AntoineDeSaintExupery;
- Little Women, by LouisaMayAlcott;
- LordOfTheRings, by JrrTolkien;
- Roots, by AlexHaley;
- The Secret Garden, by FrancesHodgsonBurnett;
- To Kill A Mockingbird, by HarperLee;
- Treasure Island, by RobertLouisStevenson;
- Walden, by HenryDavidThoreau;
- WarAndPeace, by LeoTolstoy;
- WhatColorIsYourParachute? by RichardNelsonBolles;
- TheWizardOfOz, by FrankBaum.
Other books that have shaped peoples lives are:
- SurelyYoureJokingMrFeynman, by RichardFeynman;
- IshmaelBook, by DanielQuinn
- ThePhantomTollbooth, by NormanJuster
How is such a thing measured?
The SI units for life changing are kilogram-meters / second.
Alternate measurement for life change in radians would be 3.1415+.
Interesting note: AlexHaley wrote two of these books. It is widely recognised that he was the ghost writer on the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Another interesting note: three of these books (Diary of a Young Girl, Gone With The Wind, and To Kill A Mockingbird) are the only work from the author.
- /25 by American authors. I suspect they meant books that changed American people's lives, else we'd see
TheKoran and TaoTeChing on that list. And even then it fails to mention Marx, Keynes, AdamSmith, and Mao ... Perhaps it's American books that have shaped American lives ...
It was the LibraryOfCongress...
I think they probably meant books that shaped peoples lives as a result of actually reading them, rather than through indirect influence, which would rule out the last four named, for most people.
It's just a list, it doesn't have to be accurate, or meaningful, for goodness sake! If you want accuracy and meaningfulness by your own measure, make your own list! It will then reflect your culture, reading habits and geography.