Four Books That Changed the Way I Live

A great book can literally change your life. Here are four that changed mine.

A great book can change your life.

Literally.

It can open up entire new worlds of questioning and understanding. It can make you look at a situation from a completely different angle. It can change the way you view the world and your place within it. In essence, it can shake the very foundation of your being. That’s why the economist Tyler Cowen refers to them as “quake books.”

Only very special books have this power, of course. It’s not just the content of the book that matters, but also in how it is presented and, most especially, how it connects and resonates with the reader. That is why quake books are different for everyone.

For me, they should impart lessons without being dry or dull. They should be inspiring without being preachy or overly motivational. To become one of my quake books, a work needs to balance the art of dispensing wisdom while still telling some sort of narrative, even if it is told in an unconventional way.

These four books do that brilliantly.