These are the books that literally changed my life. I give them my highest recommendation. (I’ve just started this list, so there will be more to come soon.)
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
In part, this book fueled my quest around the world on a bicycle. When I read this book, I thought the world was meaningless, a clockwork universe that just ticked the moments until my death. This book gave me hope there was meaning to the world, so I set out to find it. Campbell compares different religions and mythologies showing how they are more similar than different, and that we are all heroes on our own adventures through life. I adapted his hero’s journey in my article What is an Adventure?
The Population Bomb
This non-fiction book — though not the genre you may expect me to like — changed my life. Long before it became popular, I’ve been an environmentalist. It originated from when my grandma and I cleaned up all the beer can pull tabs in the campground. I couldn’t understand why people littered, especially since I liked to run around barefoot, and these old-fashioned pull tabs were like razor blades. My love for the environment grew into my own book, Breathless. Anyway, I read the Population Bomb as a young boy, and it gave me a good scare. I think the predictions in this book are more relevant than ever, especially considering the population has increased four or five times since then. Read more about my impressions of this book.
The Choose Your Own Adventure series
I’m not recommending these unless you’re a young adult, but I thought it would be fun to share the most influential books from my elementary years. I would anxiously await the day the newest book arrived in the library. They were so popular that the phrase “Choose your own adventure” is a colloquial phrase.
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