For this week’s Open Discussion thread, I’d love for you to share a book that changed your life or had a lasting impact on your view of the world, and WHY. Fiction or non-fiction, any publication date, any subject allowed!
I’ll start:
I read “Complications” by Dr. Atul Gawande in my second year of vet school and it was a revelation: Never before had I seen anyone in medicine relay patient stories and technical science in such a mesmerizing way. His absorbing prose was able to describe a mundane procedure like placing a central venous catheter and keep you on the edge of your seat. Dr. Gawande was unflinching in his critique of himself and the medical profession, describing many of his own mistakes during surgical training, including some near fatal cases. His essays in the sections Mystery and Uncertainty ruminate on the dark corners of medicine where we have no answers despite years of research.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in high school and Atul Gawande’s “Complications” showed me it was possible to fuse medicine and literature, two domains of my life I previously thought would remain separate. There was even a meta element to my appreciation of the book as it was written in the rare spare hours during his residency. I owe much of my writing style and ambition for All Science Great & Small to Gawande. The topics he explores in this book and his equally terrific follow-up books—fallibility, uncertainty, mystery, humanism, how to improve systems—are the same ones I dwell on 15 years later.
For me, it was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It chronicles a year of sustaining herself and her family entirely off her land and products grown within a short distance of her home over a 1 year period. This book marked a turning point in the way that I live and consume. It helped inspire and guide my transition to an agrarian lifestyle, inform the clothes I wear, consider my method and frequency of transportation and severely limit my use of non-recyclable materials. Every day of my life continues to be impacted by something I learned reading that book. The lifestyle may seem extreme and it isn't for everyone, but I've noticed that awareness alone promotes a gradual transition that feels less jarring than adopting everything at once.
That is a great recommendation! Did not know your interest in agriculture stemmed in part from that one. I have not read any of Barbara Kingsolver's work, but its been recommended by a number of people I respect. Your farming work feeding not only your family but also your community is an inspiration!
Great question! I have a huge fan of Guwande's work too. I am always enchanted by his and Sid Mukherjee's ability to make science interesting. I have yet to read a lot of the other recommendations here, so I am adding them to my list! Thanks for sharing.
This year I started a habit of rereading old books along with reading new books. These aren't necessarily books I'd call life-changing, but they have all changed my way of thinking in one way or another. Some of the books on my re-read lists are:
1) Deep Work by Cal Newport reminds me how important focus and sustained effort are and how they need deliberate practice.
2) Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert helps me get past my insecurities and explore my creative side.
3) Misbehaving by Richard Thaler reminds me how imperfect we are and provides me tools for better decision-making.
4)Cutting for Stone by Abraham Vergese and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison serve as inspiration of hoe people with technical backgrounds can find their way in literature. Both of them also remind me that it's never too late to start.
Terrific list, some great Lacuna alum recs there! You gifted me Cutting for Stone and it was one of the most beautifully written novels I've ever read. Lyrical prose, densely packed with medical factoids, and I learned a lot about the history of Ethiopia and India. Deep Work was a Conor recommendation that really changed how I approach my schedule and time. It's also a companion piece of sorts to "The Shallows" by Nic Carr on what the internet--and now phones--are doing to our brains
What a wonderful question to pose. I'm going to cheat a bit because I just can't narrow my list down!
1. Between Two Worlds. Read in the fifties and earliest book I can remember reading (other than that Dick and Jane school primer. Started a lifelong interest in Sci fi.
2. Peter Pauper Press Haiku collections. First poetry for me! Turned me toward Eastern culture.
3. Gideon's Trumpet/Black Like Me/South of Freedom. Turned me toward Law and Civil Rights.
4. Religions of Man. Huston Smith's masterpiece. Turned me toward religion, especially Buddhism.
5. Lives of a Cell, by Lewis Thomas. Opened a whole new world of biology as a topic.i still write on that topic.
6. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard. Along with the Teale and Muir books turned me toward naturalist writers.
7. All of James Herriot. Simply why I'm writing here now, forty years later.
I better stop at that! But so much more could be listed.... I love books and spent decades building up an amazing private library of several thousand of volumes that I'm now donating out as part of the divestment process of old age. I have no doubt that when I depart, there will be a book within reach! 🙂
Great list! Lives of a Cell has been on my backlog I want to get to for a while now. I would imagine it is spiritually similar to Siddhartha Mukherjee's recent, excellent treatise on cell biology for the general public: "Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human."
Solomon’s Organic Chemistry 😁 - I was so terrified of the class because I knew so many people who struggled and I never heard of anyone getting above a C. I bought the book in the beginning of the summer and actually enjoyed reading it and solving the equations. I got a 94 on first exam. The next highest score was 72 by the most brilliant person I knew. It really gave me a huge boost in my confidence and GPA. I easily made an A both semesters!
That's amazing! I have to confess to being terrible at chemistry, both organic and inorganic. I'm sure my very mediocre grades in those classes limited my options for vet schools, but everything worked out in the end!
I thought of a category: "If you were marooned on a desert island and could only have one book with you. What would it be?"
My answer is no book I enjoy reading or even influentialto me. All would get old after repeated rereading on the island. Nou7, I'd take the hardest, most technical above my pay grade book I could find. Maybe a CRC computational geometry or CRC graph theory or that Springer verlag Problem of Time book. Each page on each of those 600+ pagr
That is a great twist! I would probably pick a hard, long novel that I would need to work through and savor. I have started, and failed, to read Gravity's Rainbow multiple times, so perhaps being stranded on an island could get me across the finish line :-)
You aren't the only one who's had trouble with that one! I remember struggling with it in the Seventies and giving it up! Sorry, Thomas, but I'd rather have a root canal then read it again!
For me, it was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It chronicles a year of sustaining herself and her family entirely off her land and products grown within a short distance of her home over a 1 year period. This book marked a turning point in the way that I live and consume. It helped inspire and guide my transition to an agrarian lifestyle, inform the clothes I wear, consider my method and frequency of transportation and severely limit my use of non-recyclable materials. Every day of my life continues to be impacted by something I learned reading that book. The lifestyle may seem extreme and it isn't for everyone, but I've noticed that awareness alone promotes a gradual transition that feels less jarring than adopting everything at once.
That is a great recommendation! Did not know your interest in agriculture stemmed in part from that one. I have not read any of Barbara Kingsolver's work, but its been recommended by a number of people I respect. Your farming work feeding not only your family but also your community is an inspiration!
Great question! I have a huge fan of Guwande's work too. I am always enchanted by his and Sid Mukherjee's ability to make science interesting. I have yet to read a lot of the other recommendations here, so I am adding them to my list! Thanks for sharing.
This year I started a habit of rereading old books along with reading new books. These aren't necessarily books I'd call life-changing, but they have all changed my way of thinking in one way or another. Some of the books on my re-read lists are:
1) Deep Work by Cal Newport reminds me how important focus and sustained effort are and how they need deliberate practice.
2) Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert helps me get past my insecurities and explore my creative side.
3) Misbehaving by Richard Thaler reminds me how imperfect we are and provides me tools for better decision-making.
4)Cutting for Stone by Abraham Vergese and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison serve as inspiration of hoe people with technical backgrounds can find their way in literature. Both of them also remind me that it's never too late to start.
Terrific list, some great Lacuna alum recs there! You gifted me Cutting for Stone and it was one of the most beautifully written novels I've ever read. Lyrical prose, densely packed with medical factoids, and I learned a lot about the history of Ethiopia and India. Deep Work was a Conor recommendation that really changed how I approach my schedule and time. It's also a companion piece of sorts to "The Shallows" by Nic Carr on what the internet--and now phones--are doing to our brains
How could I forget all of Gary Snyder! Add him to my list. I spent years writing poetry in his voice.
What a wonderful question to pose. I'm going to cheat a bit because I just can't narrow my list down!
1. Between Two Worlds. Read in the fifties and earliest book I can remember reading (other than that Dick and Jane school primer. Started a lifelong interest in Sci fi.
2. Peter Pauper Press Haiku collections. First poetry for me! Turned me toward Eastern culture.
3. Gideon's Trumpet/Black Like Me/South of Freedom. Turned me toward Law and Civil Rights.
4. Religions of Man. Huston Smith's masterpiece. Turned me toward religion, especially Buddhism.
5. Lives of a Cell, by Lewis Thomas. Opened a whole new world of biology as a topic.i still write on that topic.
6. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard. Along with the Teale and Muir books turned me toward naturalist writers.
7. All of James Herriot. Simply why I'm writing here now, forty years later.
I better stop at that! But so much more could be listed.... I love books and spent decades building up an amazing private library of several thousand of volumes that I'm now donating out as part of the divestment process of old age. I have no doubt that when I depart, there will be a book within reach! 🙂
Great list! Lives of a Cell has been on my backlog I want to get to for a while now. I would imagine it is spiritually similar to Siddhartha Mukherjee's recent, excellent treatise on cell biology for the general public: "Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human."
Solomon’s Organic Chemistry 😁 - I was so terrified of the class because I knew so many people who struggled and I never heard of anyone getting above a C. I bought the book in the beginning of the summer and actually enjoyed reading it and solving the equations. I got a 94 on first exam. The next highest score was 72 by the most brilliant person I knew. It really gave me a huge boost in my confidence and GPA. I easily made an A both semesters!
That's amazing! I have to confess to being terrible at chemistry, both organic and inorganic. I'm sure my very mediocre grades in those classes limited my options for vet schools, but everything worked out in the end!
I almost failed freshman chemistry - hence the panic and getting a head start 😬
...tomes is a struggle, but I would love to learn the content of any of them!
I thought of a category: "If you were marooned on a desert island and could only have one book with you. What would it be?"
My answer is no book I enjoy reading or even influentialto me. All would get old after repeated rereading on the island. Nou7, I'd take the hardest, most technical above my pay grade book I could find. Maybe a CRC computational geometry or CRC graph theory or that Springer verlag Problem of Time book. Each page on each of those 600+ pagr
That is a great twist! I would probably pick a hard, long novel that I would need to work through and savor. I have started, and failed, to read Gravity's Rainbow multiple times, so perhaps being stranded on an island could get me across the finish line :-)
You aren't the only one who's had trouble with that one! I remember struggling with it in the Seventies and giving it up! Sorry, Thomas, but I'd rather have a root canal then read it again!