What Book Changed Your World?

So, I know a lot of you out there are avid readers. I’m the same way, and I’ve actually started slacking off in recent years compared to how many books I could devour in middle and high school. And I’m hoping many of you out there know the power that the written word can have.

Today on the New Yorker’s webpage, Susan Orlean provided a list of “Books that Changed Kids’ Worlds,” compiled of responses she got to a Twitter poll. The results are extensive, tons of different titles and genres and subjects are contained in this list, varying reading levels, all kinds of different words that opened up new worlds for readers.

And I was pleased to see my own is on there, but that’s hardly a shock. The book Anne of Green Gables will continue to be my book that changed my world. I can’t quite put it into words, which is weird for me ’cause, you know, writer. But something about that book, something about Anne herself, just resonated with me. Anne is always quirky, but she’s also smart, driven. I finished Green Gables and moved on to other Anne books and found a heroine I could imagine being friends with…or imagine BEING.

So I find myself wanting to ask, Buzznet: has a book ever changed your world? Have you ever read something that just changed everything, made your life feel different, made you feel different? Was there a moment in a book where suddenly everything just came together and suddenly you could see differently? I want to know.