“You are what you read.”
I very firmly believe this and practice it every waking day.

• The Godfather - Mario Puzo
  This is without doubt my absolute favorite book. I can’t even remember how many times I read it as a kid. Don Corleone taught me the my most important life lesson, something I live every single day with every breath I take, “Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.”

• Harry Potter - J.K.Rowling
  I learned from Sirius that true friendship means standing by your friend through thick and thin and never leaving their side. Ron taught me that you can fuck up and come back and ask for forgiveness. Hermione taught me the importance of a sharp mind. Dumbledore taught me that “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light”. And of course, Snape taught me the most important word in my life, “ALWAYS”.

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
  This masterpiece taught me to be very critical and analytical in my thinking. It encouraged me to always dig deeper to understand the root of a problem. It strengthened my belief in science and really helped me gain a much clearer perspective on life.
  “Consistency is the playground of dull minds.”

• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
  One of the most bone chilling books I’ve read. It absolutely helped me put life into perspective. It made me realize that whatever I call “problems” are absolutely minuscule compared to what millions of people face every single day. It helped me realize that I need to get up and change things that I don’t like.
  “Sitting around miserable all day won't make you any happier.”

• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry- Neil deGrasse Tyson
  A book that I’ve been currently reading, it has sparked my curiosity and made me think like no other before it. By far one of the most insightful reads, this one absolutely makes me gasp in wonder at least once per page. I’ve learned to ask deeper and more meaningful question from this book and also have learned to accept that sometimes not having an answer is ok.
  “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”

Do feel free to share your thoughts on these books as well as leave your recommendations on some life changing books. I love to read so any and all suggestions are welcome; even more so if you can explain in a line or two why you recommend them. Thanks.

In case we haven’t met before, I’m Rohan Kamath.
Thank you for reading. I hope I could help you smile today. :)

The Alchemist:

The book developed my belief in destiny. I started believing that if I am determined to achieve a goal nothing, except Allah, can stop me and the hindrances in my path are actually there to correct me.

Steve Jobs:

Being a geek, I always held respect for Jobs, but reading his biography, written by Karen Blumenthal, was an absolute life-changer for me. I suddenly discovered that I don’t want to be a Software Engineer; I want to be an inventor. I discovered how a company started from Jobs’ parents’ garage now rules the world. And I decided that I have to do something even bigger and better than Jobs did.

Around The World In 80 Days:

I deciphered that if travelling around the world in only 79 days, in 19th Century is possible, then what is impossible? Nothing. I learnt that determination is the key to success and I resolved that I’d never back away once I have started my journey on the road to success.

The Book Thief:

The day I had read half of this book, I decided three things:

1. I’d never become somebody like Adolf Hitler
2. If it was up to me, there will be no World War III
3. I’ll never let a dictator manipulate me in developing prejudice towards any race.

Carthage:

This book taught me that life is not the most important thing; a life with honor is more important. As soon as I finished this book, I knew I’d rather die than surrendering in front of my nemesis.

I have read hundreds of books and lived into every one of them. There are some good books and some bad ones but nonetheless every one of them has a place in my mind.

“Readings books gives you wisdom”, its a common sentence and everybody knows it. But how do we test it? How do we know that we are better and more wiser today than yesterday? To know that, first we have to know about wisdom. One of the many things we acquire by reading books.

Wisdom is a hard thing to explain, it can best understood by experience alone, but the evolution has given us the power of language which can explain anything in this world. Wisdom is deciding what is right or wrong. This definition can be argued but it is the simplest form of wisdom to know what is right over wrong. Building an atom bomb is intelligence, only an engineer can do that, but we can’t say he is wise if he didn’t use it for the right purpose.

Books tell us stories, and those stories contain right and wrongs altogether. 70 thousand years back we are the persons who used stones to produce fire but now we are the one’s who are planning to conquer mars. How do we think we are at this level if its not the learning we got from our ancestors. Our ancestors made miracles along with some mistakes too, we learned from those mistakes and tried to be careful not to repeat those. All that knowledge would’ve been lost if its not for the books. More than 90% of all the human knowledge came in the form of books.

Coming to the question that how do books change an Individual life. I have been in many situations in my life where acute decision making is required and almost at all the time i have taken the right one. If is it about selecting life partner, or about your career, or getting into conflict, you need an expert advice surely, but you may not find that person every time in your vicinity. Books let us meet various persons who are far away and even dead too. We can still learn useful lessons from them and use that knowledge in our life.

I hope it helps…