Four Hootastic Books That Have Changed the Way I Think
We all have books that we enjoy, learn from, and fall in love with. I have many books that fall into these categories, but there are some that not only teach me, but also impact my life on a larger scale that left me with a different outlook on my experiences.
1.
The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde provided me with illumination towards the concept beauty. I know this might sound kind of funny, but it's shown me a larger picture of how others think on the topic as well as a completely different outlook on art and writing that I hadn't experienced in my everyday life. Though there are some odd twists near the end, the story offered me more confidence to follow my own passions of beauty in writing, and Oscar Wilde himself provided a good writing style to mentor such goals as well.
2.
Walden and Civil Disobedience written by Henry David Thoreau guided me towards a greater way of thinking of solitude and human nature. Thoreau presented great opinions on how a human can create their own life without the help of others. I mean the man went out and built his own cabin to live in off of a beautiful lake! He demonstrated that a life of solitude and his own volition enabled him to become a kinder person, and explained how his life away from the city offered him a greater perspective on who he was as a man. This has helped me as I've struggled with thoughts on humanity and isolation, who hasn't, and that it's okay to get away once in a while to just be yourself and enjoy some nature. He concludes that humans are not naturally bad, but wrong thinking and wrong values have led us to become something different.
3.
The Giver by Lois Lowry opened my eyes to so many things I take for granted. In her story, there is a society that decides to hide from the rest of humanity with a hope to change the way the world and its people have become. They do so by injecting themselves with a form of medication to block all emotions and allowing a council of elders their path in life. This council chooses each citizens fate and their choice is absolute. As the story progresses we follow the life of a young man named Jonas as he begins to see things differently from his fellow classmates and family. This story affected me in many ways as it allowed me to appreciate all I take for granted. Not being able to feel a cool breeze or smell the morning air after a rainy night would be a nightmare, and on top of that not being able to listen to my favorite music and feel the joys of a great story would be even worse. Seeing how things could be, as this story shows how things generally could be worse, always seems to put the woes of now into a greater perspective.
4.
Thinking Fast and Slow written by Daniel Kahneman is a book about different thinking processes that we go through with every activity. This book doesn't have a story to teach you a lesson, but I feel that the information taught provides a great starting point if you enjoy analyzing why you do what you do. He breaks thinking processes into two different forms, called systems in the book, and each one is vastly different but also connected. System 1 is our automatic responses towards our thoughts and activities, and these responses grow as our System 2 grows. System 2 is our more thought out critical inputs, such as when we first learn a new action or activity. If the even seems hard to do and challenges your mind processes through your System 2, and as you progress and practice such an activity it becomes easier, even almost automatic, and it falls into the easily processed activities run by System 1.
The book isn't the most exciting of writings, but it has taught me to look at all experiences differently, and it reinforced the idea of try, try again until you succeed.
Thank you for reading and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, or if you would like to discuss what I've written and compare it to how you've read the books. Just send me a hoot!
