"I Can Never Recommend It Enough" – 17 Books That Genuinely Changed Peoples Lives

"I read both as a teenager (and I was a very sheltered child) and it really opened up my eyes to what horrors people (and, especially, people like me) have endured and what horrors people are capable of committing. I suppose this is a serious and sad answer, but these two books really opened my eyes."

–u/Anonredis1234

"I’d call it an 'experiential autobiography,' that’s fictional but with enough truth to give you the sense of being there. It’s also the best description of America I’ve ever read."

–u/Chunqymonqy

"Wait, reading can be enjoyable? Thanks school book reports on completely uninteresting books that turned me off of reading until I was 30."

–u/BinaryCortex

"Helped me through the hardest time of my life by teaching me to accept and not resist hard feelings."

–u/CultureMore5293

"Simply a must."

–u/Normal_Tip7228

"Along with her wonderful community, The Luckiest Club, she got me my Day One free from alcohol, I'll be four years AF on July 4th."

–u/FroggiJoy87

"People shit on it often but I read it just after a horrendous breakup while working an overnight shift. The sheer horror I felt reading the book the way I did, plus the distraction I got from the book helped me move on from the breakup and I became entranced with horror literature. 

Soon after I was frequenting my local indie bookstore and reading all the horror I could. A few months later I get a job at that bookstore co-running the horror section. Soon after that I took over the antiquarian room and learned the ins and outs of rare book selling. 

I began talking to many horror authors and became entrenched in that scene. I’ve recently taken a job which will pay for my masters degree, so I’ll be going back to school to become a librarian. In hopefully two years or so I’ll be a librarian. All because I randomly grabbed House of Leaves one day."

–u/Thissnotmeth

"Can’t quite say it changed my life but it absolutely left a mark. I’ll never forget how brutal and heartbreaking that book is."

– u/panicpixierising

"It completely changed how I see myself and other people. It changed how I date men, and how I discern among them. I can notice how my body feels in the presence of a man which affects my decisions, I can tell if they are hiding something or have their own trauma. It's crazy."

–u/Few-Music7739

"Beautiful writing and soul crushing indictment of this industrial banking complex that we've created. Rather that the politicians and elite banking and industrial interest have created."

–u/arash1977

"It’s a look at how western philosophers have thought about happiness since Ancient Greece. It taught me that 1) A lot of the smartest minds in history dealt with the same problems as me; and 2) There is no higher plane of contentment where all my worries go away (at least in this universe). I stopped having thoughts like, 'Oh, if only I had a girlfriend/found a different job/had millions of dollars, I’d live happily ever after.'"

–u/CaptainApathy419

"Literally changed my view on my own self-worth and struggles. I can never recommend it enough." 

– u/ajl95

"Yeah, the story about a horse. I was really slow picking up reading. Like I couldn't read until almost the third grade. So when I was able to read, I picked up this book not knowing about it and read it completely by myself. I remember being able to picture every scene, it honestly, if it weren't for that book, I would most likely hate reading and writing all together."

–u/AmphibianThick2852

"It opened something in my mind, like suddenly there was beauty and freedom. I suddenly went from being a conformist to a nonconformist."

–u/rlevanony

"Personal accountability was a skill I learned only as a young adult and this book was directly responsible for the flipping of the switch in how I approach challenges in my life and my effectiveness ever since in overcoming them."

–u/Aynwethani

"Some friends aren't friends and will just use you until you have nothing." 

–u/I_might_be_weasel