Most influential Books you've read

[RawKev]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

[Fallen_Horse]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Please don't tell me you are the first person to recommend this. It's one of the greatest books of all time, hands down...

[offense74]

I actually like the story of B better. Is there something wrong with me?

[joelk]

anyone know if there's any books about vegetarian and vegan bodybuilders?

or about diets?

 

I plan on writing one down the track but for now I don't really know- you'll just have to get more great advice off everyone on the forum

[VeganDeVil]

'1984' and 'Animal Farm' both really made me see the world around me differently. 'Fast Food Nation' is another one that has impacted me, though I know it has already been mentioned.

 

I can't wait to read some of the recommended books here!

[xJox]

Diet for a New America by John Robbins changed my life completely.

[zinzen]

Celestine prophecy saved my life, I am not joking neither, I was very close to death.

The peaceful warrior, compounded the celestine

Conversations with god rounded it out.

I have read so many spiritual books, and looking through everyones list it seems I am not alone.

I read the mad cowboy a long ass time ago, kept eating meat though, just a interesting book back then, came back to it recently.

Honestly I became a vegetarian so I could more easily see energy on plants and people, all because of the celestine.

Took years for me to get to where I am now for the reasons I am now.

[liftandcode]

I've recently read this book, and think it's very good.

 

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the way in which people use the modern concepts of sanity & inanity , for example to evoke a certain social reaction, or portray certain priorities as the correct ones to have.

 

The author agrees with many of my concepts and philosophies about sanity and human psychology, so I also found reading this book to be surprisingly empowering , in addition to being uplifting.

 

As an honest look at the paradox between superficial sanity and profound sanity, and the tenuous grasp people tend to have on only one or the other, if either at all, I think that many people would find it to be very insightful.

 

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2005/02/17/zgoingsane.jpg

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Sane-Adam-Phillips/dp/0241142091

 

 

There's a nice synopsis in one of the Amazon reviews by someone called ' Fitzcarraldo "eco worrier" ' -

 

 

In Going Sane, Adam Phillips skilfully marshals a wide cast from literature and the literature of psychology in order to examine the many headed and currently vague notion of sanity.

 

How is the term used? Why is the term used? Does sanity encompass madness or exclude it?

 

Opening with a sceptical voice, he considers ideas such as the misuse of the word by The Party in Orwell's 1984 and Laing's consideration of madness as a rational response to circumstances.

 

Further on, we're challenged to regard the difficulties of an idea of sane sex and the programmed madness of adolescence.

 

As the book progresses, Phillips asserts his own voice more strongly, finishing with his idea of a sane life; perhaps how a life might be sane, but at least in how the thing might be recognised.

 

Even while arguing forcefully and eloquently, Phillips still manages to avoid being over prescriptive; his voice is too secular for that. In any case, he insists (in the introduction) that his ideas are there as a challenge.

If you're up for such a challenge and especially if you're interested in where psychology meets philosophy, then this book is for you.

 

 

 

I think anyone who has ever been labelled insane, or treated as such by others, or who doubts their sanity because of feeling traumatised, isolated, unsupported, terrorised etc.... and thus being unable to maintain a false and acceptable social facade of the sort many others constantly expect socially, would find this to be a very meaningful book which could give them valuable support through showing them a more expansive and meaningful approach to sanity (or the lack of it) than they are likely to be accustomed to encountering in daily life.

 

Sounds Good. My highschool yearbook quote was from "1984 "Sanity is not statistical."

[liftandcode]

Influential vegan books

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell

Healthy at 100 by John Robbins

The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer

 

Other influential books

Collapse by Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Animal Farm by George Orwell

 

Fun stuff

Anything by Douglas Adams, Raymond Feist, Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson or Stephen Donaldson

 

I love gun, germs and steel and everything by stephenson!

[Danny1611124300]

"Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen" is a book by Austrian investigative journalists which deals with the crimes and inhumane business practices of modern day corporation.

I read it when I was about 16 and things would never be the same... although I knew a lot of the shit was going on it really moved me. Pissed off ever since!!

[funkybioped]

Manufacturing consent

[xvx ben]

Animal rights: I find animal liberationist Rob Coronado's writings inspiring, I particularly enjoyed his "Strong Hearts" 'zine written from prison. (It's included in the book "Flaming Arrows" which is a collection of his writings.)

 

Also, I first went vegan thanks in no small part to reading the liner notes and lyrics of Conflict albums, not a book I know but influenced me a lot when I was 17!

 

Cooking: "New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook" was written by a hippy commune that went vegan in the sixties and grew most of if not all their own food. how to make soymilk from scratch, tofu, tempeh, plus the best nutritional yeast "cheese" ever. I got this when I first went vegan and had to learn how to cook for myself, still use it often.

 

Other books that have stirred me to the core:

"Feminism is for Everybody" by bell hooks,

"Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell, about the antifascist militias in the Spanish civil war

"Assata: An Autobiography" by Assata Shakur, Black liberation fighter, currently living in exile in Cuba after escaping from a US prison

 

oh yeah and I volunteer at a radical bookstore here in Houston called Sedition Books, we have a decent selection of AR lit and veg cookbooks so if you're ever in town look us up!

[Theresaann]

absolute #1: "Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path" by Rudolph Steiner. Not an easy read, but leads to self realization if really studied!

[RoyCarlson]

hi

Edited June 26, 2012 by RoyCarlson

[RobertSupreme]

Healing with Whole Foods - Paul Pitchford

The Green Foods Bible - David Sandoval

Chocolate Busters and Ultimate Fast Food by Jason Vale

Sugar Blues - William Dufty

 

Solitary Fitness - Charles Bronson

Way of the Peaceful Warrior - Dan Millman

A New Earth, Practising the Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

Unlimited Power, Awaken the Giant Within - Anthony Robbins

Total Self-Confidence - Dr. Robert Anthony

Cosmic Ordering - Barbel Mohr

Zero Limits - Joe Vitale

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

[RoyCarlson]

I should post something serious huh?

 

The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler

Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy

Don't Worry Make Money by Richard Carlson (he passed away too young)

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children by John Wood

[BabyVegan]

In terms of what tipped me over the vegan scale was "The Ethics of What we Eat: Why our Food Choices matter" by Peter Singer.

I read tons to I can't narrow it down so much but in terms of influential... I read "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coehlo when I was about 13 and it so vindicated the positive life I was trying to lead.

[beforewisdom]

In terms of what tipped me over the vegan scale was "The Ethics of What we Eat: Why our Food Choices matter" by Peter Singer

 

Interesting, abolitionists hate Singer's views and claim that he is retarding the spread of veganism.

[Fallen_Horse]

Meh, his Animal Liberation is what got me to switch, even though I am no longer a utilitarian vegan...

[BabyVegan]

Interesting, abolitionists hate Singer's views and claim that he is retarding the spread of veganism.

 

Hm, really? Why would they make such a claim? (not trying to be argumentative, I actually want to know )

 

I think he puts forward a really rational and compelling argument as to why people should lessen if not stop their meat consumption. I think what's attractive about it, especially to your every day omnivore, is that it's not preachy, which is an infamous vegan trait that tends to get on most people's nerves! He just lays out facts and says do what you want with this, but the facts hit you so hard, all you CAN do is convert! That's my take on it anyway...

[beforewisdom]

BabyVegan;

 

You aren't being argumentative. I can't speak for abolitionists so I can't give you a good explanation. My apologies to any abolitionists who think this is way off.

 

Abolitionists focus on settling for no less than turning people vegan, shutting down all forms of animal exploitation and giving animals legal rights. They see anything short of that, like getting bigger cages or banning some cruel practices as being a cop-out that is ineffective. They call those things, derisively "welfarism".

 

Abolitionists have many problems with Dr. Singer's ideas, but in general they see his ideas as justifying "welfarism" which in turn weakens the motivation for people to do abolitionist things.

 

I agree with you. I don't agree with everything Dr. Singer has to say, but he has chains of reasoning backed up with facts for his positions.

[apple]

The Count of Monte Cristo, The World According to Garp, The Master and Margarita, Les Miserables, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind, Daughter of Fortune, Pride and Prejudice.......

 

I think I might have just listed my favorite books, and not necessarily the ones that have influenced me. I fail!

 

Take 2:

Becoming Vegan was HUGE for me because of one simple chapter that completely changed my life. It took me from a potential life of misery and illness and into the arms of vegan health.

Vegan with a Vengeance was the first vegan cookbook I got, right after going vegan. It helped me learn to cook and introduced me to a world of yummy vegan food. It kept me from starving, it taught me how to cook...plus, it has a recipe for fucking pumpkin oatmeal cookies. PUMPKIN OATMEAL, PEOPLE.

 

I have always wanted to read The Sexual Politics of Meat, but have yet to get my hands on it. I wonder if it's in the library....

[Duncan_Idaho]

Carlos Castaneda's books

Chogyam Trungpa's "Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior"

[The K]

It wasn't until I'd read this list that I realised I've never read a single book on veganism or on animal rights or on spirituality. All my thoughts on these issues come from personal experiences, expanded and altered by conversations and debates. Whaddya know?

 

Probably the biggest influence on my life was 'Catch 22' - mainly because I read it at fifteen and it blew the doors off my mind. So many things made sense after that. (How's that for irony?)

 

The work I relate to best would be 'Walden'. Opened the book one day and closed it the next and just kind of nodded and thought to myself, "Yeah, that's just what I was thinking. But... longer and better referenced."

[lobsteriffic]

"Eat to Live" by Dr. Furhman...totally changed how I view food

 

When I was first contemplating veganism, the first cookbook I bought was "Vegan with a Vengeance"...that book has so many great recipes that soon I was hooked and saw how delicious veganism can be. Since then my vegan cookbook collection has grown exponentially, but I still use that one quite a bit.