These are great books that will change your life.

Thes books are imbued with optimism: You too, can change your lives, in small ways or in grand ways, as long as you accept the most fundamental premise that life is all about- You as an individual, Your willingness to make mistakes, admit those mistakes, redeem yourself....and never give up.

These books teach to live your life and realize that every day, just as Thoreau told you and just as Homer tells you, every day you can begin again.

In the first book of the Iliad one of the most noble statements of what a great book is all about, is the example of Zeus, With all the problems and cares, going back home, having a meal, spending time with his wife, and taking a long rest and sleep, knowing that the next day will be a chance, even for a god, to begin all over again.

These books also teach that much learning and growth comes through suffering:

PAIN MAKES MAN THINK,
THOUGHT MAKES MAN WISE,
AND WISDOM MAKES LIFE BEARABLE

What choices we make concerning three themes; God; Fate; Good vs. Evil.

How these choices shape our morality and direct our lives will then help us address a fourth theme: HOW SHOULD WE LIVE!

1. BONHOEFFER, LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who sacrificed his life to fight totalitarianism illustrates a great book's most important attribute-its ability to speak to you as an individual and help shape ideals by which you live your life.

2.Homer,Iliad
The Iliad is one of the most deeply religious books ever composed, an enduring statement of the living tradition of polytheism and a profound effort to understand the meaning of life.

3.Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Though written to himself, this Roman emeror's great work has proven an enduring legacy, a reflection of an ethical life as applicable today as it was almost 2,000 years ago and a monument to self-sufficient wisdom.

4. Bhagavad Gita
Composed in the same period as the Iliad, the Bhagavad Gita is regarded as the supreme creation of Sanskrit literature. Though an epic statement of polytheism, it proclaims truth as an all-encompassing, single, divine power.

5.Book Of Exodus
The most influential religious book ever composed, the BOOK OF EXODUS has shaped three great living religious traditions-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-in its proclamation of a single, all-powerful God.

6. Gospel of Mark
Each of the Gospels presents a portrait of Jesus differing in emphasis. Mark, drawn from the firsthand account of Peter, is the most concise and dramatic. Its Jesus is both prophet and philosopher, testifying to his search for wisdom by his trial and death.

7.Koran
Examine the sacred book that holds for Muslims the same place that the words of Jesus do for Christians, the workds of the book itself held as the revelation of God to humankind.

8.Gilgamesh
The question of fate or destiny is at the core of the earliest literary work to come down to us, the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, composed circa 2000 B.C. in what is now Iraw

9. Beowulf
Gilgamesh proclaims a heroic ideal: We are fated to die, but in the meantime, let us strive to be as great as possible. This same message is the theme of the first great work of English literature, the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, written circa 700 A.D.

10. Book Of Job
If God is good, why does evil exist? The Bok Of Job is the most enduring attempt to answer that question, a profound disquisition on the ultimate mystery of God and the frailty of any human attempt to understand the divine.

11. Aeschylus, Oresteia
The three plays of the Oresteia rank with the Oedipus of Sophocles as the greatest of Greek tragedies, a story of murder, revenge, duty, and divine intervention that raises in stark form the dilemma of free will.

12. Euripides, Bacchae
For the great Athenian tragedians, it is moral blindness that leads to Hybris(also hubrisverbearing arrogance), and ruin. Pentheus in the Bacchae of Euripides exemplifies those who believe themselves wise but are in fact, fatally ignorant.

13.Plato, Phaedo
400 B.C. Greece sees the development of a more profound concept of the immorality of the soul. For Socrates, the belief in such an immortal soul was the ultimate question, as portrayed by Plato in Phaedo.

14. Dante, The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is the supreme summary of the thought of medieval Europe, ranking with the Aeneid of Vergil as one of the most influential epic poems ever composed and key to shaping the Italian language as it is spoken today.

15.ShakeSpeare, Othello, The Moor Of Venice
The ancient Greeks and Romans did not have a figure comparable to Satan or the devil. To them, evil came in the form of human actions. In Renaissance England, this same idea was portrayed magnificently in Othello.

16.Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus, like the other Greek tragedians, believes that we gain wisdom from those who suffered ona titanic stage-in this case, the great rebel Prometheus, who defied the will of Zeus to benefit humanity.

17.Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn's book stands as a massive indictment of the evil of Joseph Stalin and of the Communist system, portraying with chilling insight the role of ordinary people in carrying out this evil.

18. ShakeSpeare, Julius Caesar
Like Othello, Julius Caesar, was written at the height of ShakeSpeare's creative talents. Its theme is honor and duty, the duty of a man to resist evil by violence and murder if necessary.

19. George Orwell, 1984
In his novel 1984, George Orwell raises the pertinent and disturbing question of wheter any individual can resist the modern power of the state, brilliantly illuminating the logical consequences of subordinating the individual to anonymous social and economic forces.

20. Vergil, Aeneid
Vergi's epic is both a work of literature and a powerful and influential statement of the necessity of war in a just cause and the moral value of duty.

21.Pericles, Oration; Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Two great democratic statesmen used the occasion of a public funeral for the war dead to proclaim democracy an absolute good. Separated by almost 2,500 years, these two funeral orations represent the most profound statements of the necessity of just wars.

22.Remarque, All Quiet On The Western Front
Published in 1928, the best novel about war ever written gave voice to the feeling that nothing was worth another war, paving the way for appeasement policies in both Britain and France that in fact made another even more horrible war inevitable.

23. Confucius, The Analects
Few Intellectual figures in history have so influenced a civilization as Confucius, the teacher whose wisdom guided the intellectual, political, and ehtical life of China for more than two thousand years.

24.Machiavelli, The Prince
Confucius taught the art of government as it should be; Machiavelli as it really is. Written in 1513, The Prince might be called the handbook of modern politics and foreign policy, as useful now as it was then for anyone interesting in gaining and keeping power.

25. Plato, Republic
Plato's Republic might be called the greatest book on politics, education, and justice ever written. As the Divine Comedy embodies the values of the Middle Ages and the Aneid those of Rome, the Republic embodies the ideals and values of classical Greece.

26. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Published in 1859, Mill's On Liberty is the classic statement of the liberal ideal of democratic government and social justice. For Mill, government exists to serve the individual, and individual liberty is the end of government, not a means to an end.

27.Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d'Arthur
This novel captures the passion, consequences, and contradictions of romantic and spiritual love. One of the first great works of English prose, it summarizes the civilization of medieval chivalry in its ideal form.

28. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part 1
Goethe ranks with ShakeSpeare and Dante as one of the three supreme geniuses of European literature, comparable to Home and Vergil. In the first part of FAUST, Goethe grapples with the implication of attaining knowledge at any cost.

29. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part 2
The question of the role of beauty and cultural standards is one that every thoughtful Person must decide on his or her own terms. Those themes are explored against the backdrop of the moral growth and ultimate redemption of Dr. Faust.

30. Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Thoreau, the most American of thinkers, is an unabashed Romantic in exploring the relationship of Man to the natural world. Walden is the journal of his recovery of self-meaning and independence by his return to nature.

31. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire
The greatest history written in the English language. Here, we look at Gibbon and his history as a statement of "a philosophical historian," who searches the past for laws to guide us in the future.

32. Lord Acton, The History of Freedom
Though Acton never wrote his planned history of Liberty, he left behind, in numerous essays and unpublished nothes, a legacy of historical thought that remains a message of supreme importance to us today.

33.Cicero, On Moral Duties (De Officiis)
On Moral Duties is one of the most influential works on education ever written, directly contradicting the view that might make right and making clear that an immoral act can never be expedient.

34. Gandhi, An AutoBiography
By drawing on the traditions of Indian thought and reading the Bhagavad Gita daily, Gandhi makes his own path, focusing his entire life on a serach for truth and teaching us that there are many roads to wisdom and victory.

35.Churchill, My Early Life; Painting As A Pastime; WWII
Churchill might be called the greatest figure in the 20th century. These three books by this Noble Prize winner will help you in your search for wisdom and will guide you in drawing fundamental lessons for your own life.






The books listed have changed my life, and helped me learn a lot...I hope they can do the same for you. And I summed the books up the best of my ability. ENJOY.

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A LIFE OF CHRYME

Living your life according to books is a terrible idea. I could explain why, but instead read this story by Chuang Tzu, who is infinitely better at conveying his point than I am.

---

One day, King Huan was reading a book while an old craftsman was busy making wheels over in a corner. The old man noticed that the book seemed to capture the King's complete attention. He grew increasingly curious about this, and after a while decided to approach.

"Your Majesty, forgive me for intruding," the old man said. "What is this book that you are studying so diligently?"

"This is no ordinary book," the King said, holding it up with great respect. "It is written by a wise sage."

The old man asked: "Is this sage still alive, Your Majesty?"

The King shook his head. "No, he passed away a long time ago."

"Oh, I see," the old man nodded. Then, without thinking, he added: "In that case, what Your Majesty is reading would simply be the leftovers of a dead man."

This struck the King as incredibly insulting. "What is this?" His anger flared. "You are nothing more than a lowly craftsman. Is it your place to comment on what I wish to read? Explain the reasoning of your statement and I may let you live. If you fail to do so, I shall have your head."

The old man replied: "Your Majesty, it is exactly as you say: I am but a humble craftsman. I know nothing except the art of making wheels. Permit me to explain myself to you using this little bit of knowledge that I have."

This response surprised the King. To him, making wheels and reading books could not be further apart. Had the old man lost his mind due to fear? King Huan was puzzled, but his interest was piqued. "Go on," he said.

"Your Majesty, in my line of work, the hole in the center is of supreme importance. It must fit the axle just right. If I make it too big, the wheel will slip right off and become useless. If it is only slightly too big, then the wheel will seem to stay on, but after a short while of actual usage on the roads, it will loosen and fall off the axle, quite possibly causing great damage to the carriage in the process.

"On the other hand, it is also possible to make the hole too small. In that case, when I force the axle into it, I may very well split the wheel in two, thus wasting hours of effort. If it is only slightly too small, then it may appear to be a secure fit, but after a short while of actual usage, the wheel will crack and break apart, again causing possible harm to the carriage and even the passengers within.

"Therefore, one secret of my trade is to know the right way to make the hole. But making the hole just right, not too big and not too small, requires years of non-stop practice. This experience gives me a feeling that guides my hand. It is a feeling I have learned to trust, for it is never wrong.

"The other secret of my trade has to do with the roundness of the wheel. If I chisel away at the wheel too quickly, I may be able to complete the work in a short time, but the wheel won't be perfectly round. Even though it may look quite acceptable upon casual inspection, in actual usage it will cause excessive shaking of the carriage. The ride will be extremely uncomfortable, and the wheel will damage itself beyond repair in a matter of days.

"Of course, I can chisel slowly and carefully. This guarantees a perfectly round wheel, but it will also take so much time to complete that Your Majesty would have to wait many years before we can assemble the royal fleet of carriages. Clearly, this would not be acceptable.

"In order to create the best wheels possible in a timely manner, I must chisel at just the right speed - not too fast and not too slow. This speed is also guided by a feeling, which again can only be acquired through many years of experience. With this feeling, I can be perfectly composed and unhurried when I make my wheels, but still complete the project on time.

"I can teach the mechanics of wheel making to anyone. It is easy to create something that looks like a wheel, but quite difficult to make wheels that are durable, safe, and provide a smooth ride. I can explain all of this to my son, but it is impossible for me to give him the feeling that is at the heart of the wheel making art. He must gain that on his own. This is why I am seventy years old and still making wheels.

"Your Majesty, the ancient sages possessed the feelings that were at the heart of their mastery. Using words, they could set down the mechanics of their mastery in the form of books, but just as it is impossible for me to pass on my experience to anyone else, it is equally impossible for them to transmit their essence of wisdom to you. Their feelings died when they passed away. The only things they left behind were their words. This is why I said Your Majesty was reading the leftovers of a dead man."

King Huan was stunned and speechless. Slowly, he lowered his hand and set the book down.

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I think I'm now obligated to cock slap my teacher for making me believe such false poop.

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A LIFE OF CHRYME