A Book That Changed Your Life As A Teen

[Stenbeck]

Jelly Belly by Robert Kimmel Smith.

I must've been around 8-9 when I first read it, but boy did I LOVE that book. The jokes, the food, Ned at Camp Lean Too. It opened the world of reading for me and changed my life completely.

My sister read it later on and she loved it as well. We still talk about the delicious egg bread Ned's grandma cooked. I recently found my original copy of the book and I'm not afraid to admit it... I hugged it dearly. 

[scarynikki12]

I thought of another one!  Well, a book series.  Starting at about age 12 I became obsessed with that Love Stories series.  I still have a couple of them and, while the writing is BAD, they're still totally readable.  It's mostly besties falling for each other, antagonism turns to true love, misunderstandings cause conflict kind of stuff but it will kill a half hour with ease. 

I would include Sweet Valley but I started reading those when I was eight so they don't quite qualify.

[Ceindreadh]

On 6/22/2018 at 7:27 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

For me, it was To Kill a Mockingbird at age 15.. and Flowers in the Attic when I was 12.

Flowers in the Attic for me when I was 12 or 13.  When I realised that the whole story had happened in part because the mother hadn't any means of supporting her family on her own, I swore that i'd never be financially dependent on a partner, and always make sure I was able to earn my own living. 

[Snow Apple]

On 7/7/2018 at 5:19 PM, Ceindreadh said:

Flowers in the Attic for me when I was 12 or 13.  When I realised that the whole story had happened in part because the mother hadn't any means of supporting her family on her own, I swore that i'd never be financially dependent on a partner, and always make sure I was able to earn my own living. 

Great lesson. Depend only on yourself and also don't spoil your children or spouse until they're completely helpless as adults.

Corrine didn't want to support herself or her children. She lost everything when Chris died because they brought everything on credit. His salary could have afforded average things but average wasn't good enough for her. And he was weak when it came to her. Then she enjoyed being back with daddy and his money too much to continue secretarial school.

 I also read this when I was twelve and wore it out. I can talk about this book forever. I have new opinions of this book at different stages of my life.

[rmcrae]

Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings when I was 16. My English teacher gave us an assignment for the first semester where we had to read a book, write a journal from the perspective of the author and then give a class presentation before Christmas break. I wasn't sure what book I wanted to read so my teacher suggested Caged Bird and I loved it so much I ended up reading her other 5 books that were out at the time. She was truly a phenomenal woman.

[BookWoman56]

I'm not entirely sure it was while I was still a teen, but the book that changed my life was Walter Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz. It was definitely the first post-apocalyptic novel I'd read, and it changed my view of humanity.  The book essentially posed the question, is humanity so stupid that we will keep doing the same destructive things over and over again. Up to that point, I had somewhat naively thought that humanity as a whole was making progress toward the kind of civilization described in original Star Trek, in which after centuries of conflict humans finally get their shit together and go exploring the stars.  There is a scene close to the end of the novel, in which a small group of people and a cache of books are put onto a spaceship to escape the nuclear armageddon that is imminent, and one of the people remaining behind tells a person who will be on the ship to leave and never look back. I remember that scene hitting me hard, because it confirmed that the books (representing knowledge) on the spaceship and the people going on that trip, were such a small aspect of humanity itself and what it could achieve. The people who remained were trapped by the worst aspects of humanity: contempt for learning, unwillingness to learn from previous mistakes, and a mindset that couldn't see past anything but political power. 

[Starleigh]

On 11/11/2014 at 8:56 AM, Queena said:

 

The Wild Children by Felice Holman

I don't think I've ever met anyone who ever mentioned that book. But I loved it when I was around 12. Never forgot it, it was very haunting. I tracked down a copy not long ago and re-read it. My biggest surprise was that I thought it would be a bleak and grim reread, which is why it took me so long to even decide to re-read it. But, to my surprise, reading it as an adult, there is a clear tone of hopefulness and optimism throughout, and definitely at the end, despite the subject matter! And still an excellent read, so poignant, especially in the acknowledgements where she thanked the taxi driver who shared his father's life story.

I've always been a big reader. So I don't have a specific book that changed my life or turned me on to reading. That said, here are some impactful books I read in my teens--books that I loved, read over and over, and enjoyed making up day dreams about story plot continuations:

Term Paper by Ann Rinaldi 

The Truth Trap by Frances Miller

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

April Morning by Howard Fast

Perdita by Isabelle Holland

Edited June 9, 2020 by Starleigh

[peacheslatour]

I read To Kill A Mockingbird at 11 Gone With The Wind and Little Women at 12, Catch 22 and M*A*S*H at 13, The Lord of the Rings at 14. These are the books that changed my life. I read many, many other books through those years but those are books that affected me the most.

[Snow Apple]

19 hours ago, Starleigh said:

 

I've always been a big reader. So I don't have a specific book that changed my life or turned me on to reading. That said, here are some impactful books I read in my teens--books that I loved, read over and over, and enjoyed making up day dreams about story plot continuations:

Term Paper by Ann Rinaldi

I loved that book! There was a sequel too. Sadly they are out of print or else I'd read them again right now.

Another book that I like by the same author was Time Enough for Drums, but haven't found another book of hers that captured my emotions like this one and Term Paper.

[Starleigh]

16 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I loved that book! There was a sequel too. Sadly they are out of print or else I'd read them again right now.

Another book that I like by the same author was Time Enough for Drums, but haven't found another book of hers that captured my emotions like this one and Term Paper.

Yes, Time Enough for Drums was also great. It was her first, and imo, best historical fiction book. She wrote a couple of decent ones and then, I don't know what happened,  but she started churning them out and they were mostly unreadable imo. A ghostwriter, maybe??

But it's a shame she didn't write more contemporary fiction, because the few that she did write were all very good. Another one was, But in the Fall I'm Leaving. But Term Paper was the best!

Now, for an interesting tidbit...years ago, when I was still in high school (so, early 90s), I almost fell out of my chair while reading letters to the editor in the New York Times, by one of my favorite authors, Ann Rinaldi. I don't recall exactly what she was responding to,  but it must have been about women in journalism or something like that, because she wrote about her basic life story and how she got started writing (which I really don't recall), BUT she wrote about having been raised by an emotionally absent (possibly emotionally abusive??) father, due to her mom dying when she was a baby, with the only nurturing coming from her much older maternal aunts. Her dad always putting down her ambitions of wanting to become a journalist, etc.... ANYWAY! As young as I was, the pieces just clicked for me...all those books she wrote with detached, disinterested widowed dads and daughters trying to prove themselves, yet failing...the protective older brother as father figure (I guess something she had always fantasized about) made PERFECT sense.

[laughs]

I was eighteen when I read Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album, and it spoke to me like no other book had. I've since followed his work closely, and most of his novels have been extremely rewarding for me. I even like his short fiction: his latest called "He Said, She Said" was recently published in New Yorker, but his short fiction collection "Love in a Blue Time" is simply phenomenal! 🙂 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Well, I wasn't a teen, but Judy Blume's "Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret" I think, helped me NOT to panic when I got my period. Plus the days we were taught about it in school.

I mean, both me and my younger sister learned about it in school and from talking with our mom, and my sister was just oh so arrogant she knew everything about everything, and when it happened to her? Panicked and freaking out like nobody's bidnez, like a certain character in this book.

When it happened to me, I just told me Mum, and she showed me the options of what to use.

Sorry if that was TMI!

Then it was The Outsiders. Love me some S.E. Hinton.

It didn't change my life, I don't think, but I got the shock of my life that "Catcher in the Rye" was a required book to read when I was a junior in high school. I mean, the book had f-bombs!😅

Edited June 26, 2020 by GHScorpiosRule

[Queena]

On 6/9/2020 at 2:44 AM, Starleigh said:

I don't think I've ever met anyone who ever mentioned that book. But I loved it when I was around 12. Never forgot it, it was very haunting. I tracked down a copy not long ago and re-read it. My biggest surprise was that I thought it would be a bleak and grim reread, which is why it took me so long to even decide to re-read it. But, to my surprise, reading it as an adult, there is a clear tone of hopefulness and optimism throughout, and definitely at the end, despite the subject matter! And still an excellent read, so poignant, especially in the acknowledgements where she thanked the taxi driver who shared his father's life story.

I've always been a big reader. So I don't have a specific book that changed my life or turned me on to reading. That said, here are some impactful books I read in my teens--books that I loved, read over and over, and enjoyed making up day dreams about story plot continuations:

Term Paper by Ann Rinaldi 

The Truth Trap by Frances Miller

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

April Morning by Howard Fast

Perdita by Isabelle Holland

I've met very few people who have read it. It started a long love affair with pre revolutionary Russia. The Unsolved Mysteries episode on the Anna Anderson only deepened my love for Russian history. 

 

I think that my  most life changing book is Flowers in the Attic. I remember my Mama reading it and it just fascinated me that kids were locked away. It was the first adult book that I read. 

 

The second book would be Where the Sidewalk Ends. It was the first long book that I read at 7. 

[Starleigh]

Queena, I know this isn't the book recommendation thread, but have you ever read City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin? It sounds right up your alley, with the Russian history. It's a great historical novel of suspense, in any case.

 

[dubbel zout]

At first I read the author's name as Aretha Franklin, and I thought, "Man, she really could do it all!"

[Blergh]

I think I'd just turned 20 and had it assigned in college but the book that changed MY life more than any other was To Kill a Mockingbird which also was one of the very few that SO hooked me, I literally couldn't put it down !Even though I had heard inklings of things like this, this book truly opened my eyes to SO many double standards and injustices while never reveling in them and staying as tasteful as possible despite the rather heated and controversial subject matter!  I truly believe this book should be required reading for ALL students above the age of 12 (as the subject matters are still quite relevant and cross virtually every setting re humanity) . I'm somewhat disappointed that my Southeastern US high school didn't touch this one  re any teacher's  curriculum and I'm not even sure  if that book  was available in its library back then. 

[Queena]

On 6/25/2020 at 10:23 PM, Starleigh said:

Queena, I know this isn't the book recommendation thread, but have you ever read City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin? It sounds right up your alley, with the Russian history. It's a great historical novel of suspense, in any case.

 

Thank you! I'm adding it to Amazon now. 

On 6/26/2020 at 10:10 AM, dubbel zout said:

At first I read the author's name as Aretha Franklin, and I thought, "Man, she really could do it all!"

So did I... 😂 

[topazann]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking books I've ever read, and made me think about relationships, society, and the self in ways I never had before.

Edited July 6, 2020 by topazann

[SnarkySheep]

On 7/4/2018 at 1:41 AM, Stenbeck said:

Jelly Belly by Robert Kimmel Smith.

I must've been around 8-9 when I first read it, but boy did I LOVE that book. The jokes, the food, Ned at Camp Lean Too. It opened the world of reading for me and changed my life completely.

My sister read it later on and she loved it as well. We still talk about the delicious egg bread Ned's grandma cooked. I recently found my original copy of the book and I'm not afraid to admit it... I hugged it dearly. 

Did you ever read his book Mostly Michael? (Michael and Ned make cameos in each other's books.) I related pretty well to a lot of Michael's issues.

[peacheslatour]

21 hours ago, johnnyy said:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I reread it a few times. I don't intend to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, but it is worth every minute of time it will take you to read. I wrote an essay about this book in college. With a little help of writing service here I got the highest score in the class. These guys helped me a lot. 

You beat me to it. I read it in high school and it really shaped my whole "question authority" world view.