Life Changing Books (Nonfiction Today)

What books changed you life? Right now, I’m thinking about a practical everyday sense. After reading a good book, you never see the world in quite the same way, but which books (Other than the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc) have changed the way you raise your kids or write or wash your dishes? I have two in mind. One changed my writing forever and the other revolutionized my home schooling methods.

If you write and have never read On Writing by Stephen King, stop reading this and run to the store right now. I have been writing all of my life, but I never tried to write anything for publication until I had my first son. I have to admit, my first attempts were bad. I couldn’t get my ideas to go on the paper the way they were in my head. After some frustration, I took one of my sister’s books off of the shelf. It was On Writing. I didn’t read much Stephen King because I don’t like to be scared. My sister read almost everything he wrote.

The first part of the book is inspirational. It describes Stephen King’s life. He didn’t have all of the advantages you think of when you want to be a writer. (If I could just quit my job and write all day… If I had a nice orderly office… If I had a better computer…) Then, you find out he worked for sixteen years before he had his big break. I didn’t know whether to cheer or cry. It gave me hope since I had been working for over a year but fear as well. I hope it won’t take me sixteen years to get my work out there.

The second part of the books is a little more practical. Stephen King reveals the “secrets” of how to write. Many other books teach these as well, but King has a way of explaining things that makes sense. I will never think of adverbs in the same way again. He also talks about how to write a book. Instead of saying you have to write a certain way, King gives many different examples and allows writers the freedom of doing it their own way. So much of his book helped me and changed the way I feel every time I sit at the keyboard.

I’ll save my home schooling book for another day. My oldest son just fell off the kitchen table and is begging for a Band-Aid. What book(s) have changed your life?