Life-Changing Books

Last week marked the start of the annual children’s books week, the event to promote reading to children. This provides an excellent opportunity to talk about the books that influenced people throughout the years, books which were life-changing.

Children’s Books

The first books which unknowingly changed our perspectives were children’s books. The ones your parents read for you before going to sleep. There are numerous examples of children’s books that aim to change the way children think about the world. Be it about friendship with Winnie the Pooh or life lessons with fairy tails of the brother Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen (if only they knew the original story behind each fairy tale). As for the children who are a bit older, any Dutch person might remember the “how do I survive…” series. A series of books which covered all situations and how to survive them such as high school, puberty etc.

Young Adult

The fame of a book does not decrease its value, the Harry Potter series provides an invaluable lesson for all young adults. Under the surface of the fantasy world lies a story providing life lessons and inspiration. In a world where creativity is being valued more and more, the little bit of courage and imagination provided by the series is of massive value to all young adults.

“It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”

Albus Dumbledore

Adult Literature

Then there is the adult life, where you forget about the self-improvement and the lessons a book might teach you, as an adult you make your own choices. That’s why some of the most life changing books are often part of adult literature. Whether it is a mysterious thriller such as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, heavy duty literature such as Dante’s Inferno or some of the spicier works such as E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey. Everything is an option since you are an adult.

Ancient Literature/ Out of the Box Self-Improvement

Lastly there is 2500 year old masterpiece which has been an influential piece of literature in many fields. It is still regarded as the most important work regarding East-Asian warfare and has been used beyond that as an important work for business tactics, legal strategy and much more. Furthermore, many top companies make the book compulsory reading for their key-executives. We are of course talking about The Art of War by Sun Tzu.