Change your View of the World with These 10 Books

If you want to get a new perspective on things, begin reading. Once you start reading, on a regular basis, your mind will nourished and you’ll broaden your perspective on life. When that happens, you’ll see that you have new sets of options, for which you can make better choices.

These books have changed, and are changing, my view of the world. You can probably get some of these books from your local library. Or, you can find out more about them and buy them by clicking their links in the carousel below. Whatever you do, I encourage you to read these books, and start reading in general. Books can change your view of the world and life, too, and give you options that you might have never imagined otherwise.

Reading these books will help you see the world in a different way, enabling you to gain a broader perspective, make better choices, and, ultimately, have more freedom.

1. The Bible

The Bible is The Word of God. If your read The Bible, It will change your life. When I read The Bible, and apply what It says, my life changes in extraordinary ways. The Bible has the answer to every question that befuddles mankind. Ironically, although it is the most popular book in the world, sometimes it seems to be the most overlooked.

2. Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell

This book gives a behind-the-scenes look into what it’s like to work as a dishwasher, known as a “plougeur”, in various hotels and restaurants in Paris. The descriptions are vivid and intense, and while reading this book, you’re likely to avoid dining at restaurants.

This book resonated with me. Why? Because I’ve worked in restaurants before, usually as a pantry cook (cold foods station – salads, sandwiches), sometimes as a line cook (hot foods station – saute, grill, broiler), once or twice as a dishwasher. In this book, Orwell describes in graphic detail what it’s like to be a dishwasher in the basement kitchens of Paris. This is a gritty tale. If you don’t come away with dirt under your fingernails, you weren’t really reading it.

3. Big Sur
Jack Kerouac

Epic account of Kerouac, who earned big fame from On the Road, except it’s years later, and he’s unnoticed enough to avoid even getting a hitchhike ride. In an attempt to rediscover something, Kerouac enters Big Sur, camps, and writes an unflinching account of his view on things, with a clarity that is both heartbreaking and refreshing. I must have read and re-read this paperback five times. Underlined and high lighted. I think this book is as good as if not better than On the Road. If you don’t appreciate it now, come back to it ten years from now. Time has a way of lending perspective on things.

4. Tortured for Christ
Richard Wurmbrand

Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor, is thrown into jail and tortured by Communists who attempt to silence his conviction. With unwavering faith Wurmbrand wins many of them to Christ, rewarding them with love. “A bruised flower, if you crush it under your feet, rewards you with love. In this way, we rewarded our torturers with love, winning many of them to Christ.” – Richard Wurmbrand In eary 2000, after reading this book, more than once, and reading Voice of the Martyr’s magazine, I started Out of the Wilderness, a music ministry to raise awareness of, and support for, the persecuted Church. Today, OOTW is mainly an online ministry, but at some point, I would like to play in churches and community centers again.

5. A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway

Get this book on paperback or hardback, either from Amazon or from the nearest library. Read it while eating something delicious, something fried. Even if it’s just sauteed onions and chopped potatoes. This book tells Ernest Hemingway’s account as an American ex-patriot living in Paris. He eats delicious foods at local cafes, works as a writer, and lives with his wife and young son. This book will probably make you hungry for an expensive meal. Idea. Grab a friend, read it, and plan a restaurant tour, hitting 3 restaurants a week that are known for high quality, delicious faire.

6. The One Minute Millionaire
Mark Victor Hansen

During the winter of 2006, I rented an 8×10 room, with a window, in the Five Sisters neighborhood of Burlington, Vermont. I spent time reading books, working on online projects, and even developing a company that sold cookies, made with really good ingredients, to realtors who could use them for house showings. Maybe I’ll write a blog about that, too.

Anyway, one of the books I read is The One Minute Millionaire. This book is two books in one, because the left page has a fictional story about a woman’s effort to raise cash based on her business idea, and the right page explains 3 ways to make money. The 3 ways are: 1) Start a business 2) Write a book or e-book 3) Start a website. After reading it, I began to apply the money making techniques. Although my income fluctuates, the ideas are solid. And now that I’m applying the techniques from The Keyword Academy to make money online, my online income is growing. And that’s cool because I enjoy typing, writing, developing websites, and helping people. If you want to learn how to make money, online or offline, get this book from your local library or order it from Amazon. Read it, and apply what you learn. Eventually, you will make money.

7. How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie

This book reveals key strategies for making friends and for getting people to like you. The techniques work, too. If you read it and apply it, you will see fantastic results. You’ll learn social techniques that you can use to meet people, increase sales, and much more.

This is a great book because it works. Read it. Apply it. You will see results.

8. The Secret Life of Plants
Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird

When I first got this book, I was on a gardening kick, ordering seeds from Burpees and other seed places online. That Christmas, when family members asked what I wanted for Christmas, I mentioned things like seeds and organic socks. They e-mailed me with hilarious responses to that, and I did get seeds!

The Secret Life of Plants reveals the truth about plants–that they have feelings. In the course of running experiments, plants were shown to dislike hard rock music, even shriveling up when exposed to the music for long periods of time. When classical music was played, the plants would thrive. In the late 80′s, a lot of science projects were devoted to this topic. (I should probably incorporate this into a screenplay idea I have about the last week of 1989. You can check out some writings at bicycledays.com.)

In the book, it’s shown that plants were proven to have feelings for the people that they were introduced to. Interestingly, the relationships got to the point that when one of the participants in the study nearly got run over by public transportation on the street, the participating plant was was recorded reacting with great alarm.

This book is just incredible. I read it slowly, as it contained so much interesting information about plants and how they have feelings. It’s like reading a few books in one. It will change the way you view plants and trees.

9. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins

A well written and captivating account from the viewpoint of an economic hit man aka someone who works for a big corporation that goes into another country, convinces it to accept loans, then forces repayment with extortion tactics including, but not limited to, land grabs, stealing water rights, and other dirty schemes.

In this book, Perkins shows how U.S. corporations bankrupt the economy of other countries by “loaning” money for extensive construction projects. This happens with deforestation and other areas, including drilling for oil, wherein corporations can make huge profits through exploting another countries natural resource.

If you want an interesting view about American corporations, read this book.

I think it could easily translate into a screenplay, done as a suspense-drama-action film wherein the main character, based on Perkins, would have brief bouts of guilt about his job, in between the lavish lifestyle that the corporations provided for him.

10. The Believer’s Conditional Security
Daniel Corner

In Christianity, there seems to be 2 schools of thought regarding what one has to do in order to get to Heaven.

The first school of thought is called Eternal Security aka Once Saved, Always Saved. This basically states that once a person repents (turns) from their sins, and asks The Lord Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Saviour and come into their heart, that they are then saved. And after that, no matter what they do, they will go to Heaven because they are sealed, having been saved. Thus, if the person is saved once, no matter what he does, he is always saved.

The second school of thought is called Conditional Security. This view states that after a person has repented (turned) from their sins, and asked The Lord Jesus Christ to come into their life, that they have to continue to live in obedience to what The Bible says, and continue to not sin, in order to go to Heaven when they die.

Dan Corner, in this book, proves the second school of thought. He uses numerous verses from The Bible to make the case that one must continue living the Christian life in order to get to Heaven.

Corner carefully reveals the truth about how we can have assurance of salvation according to the Bible.

Because eternity is at stake, and that eternity being Heaven or Hell, this is the most important book, besides The Bible, that I have ever read.

You can visit Dan Corner’s website at: http://www.EvangelicalOutreach.com

Another website that has a lot of information about this topic is: http://www.eternalsecurity.us

your favorite books
What are your favorite books? Why are they your favorite? How has reading them changed your view of the world, and about life? Let me know by leaving a comment. Thanks.