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alegriafury's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting book; I picked it up to read the essays by the authors I know. They were cool. I got some good reading ideas from others.
jessieweaver's review
4.0
Now that I’ve read it, I’m sad I waited so long. As someone who loves chatting about books more than most things in life, reading this was like sitting down with a group of good friends and finding out their very favorite books of all time.
(Although I’m not sure I trust anyone whose life was changed by Catcher in the Rye. I just don’t get it, I guess.)
(Although I’m not sure I trust anyone whose life was changed by Catcher in the Rye. I just don’t get it, I guess.)
jsl's review
3.0
This was a quick, fun little book that added to my TBR pile considerably!
Many of the contributing authors and the books that changed their lives were new to me. I enjoyed hearing from the authors whose work I had read as well.
Many of the contributing authors and the books that changed their lives were new to me. I enjoyed hearing from the authors whose work I had read as well.
konkie44's review
2.0
Series of essays on famous people's favorite books/books that changed their lives
anrobe's review against another edition
2.0
I was so excited about this book but it fell flat for me. There were some essays that were fantastic but just as many that were NOT. I did enjoy reading about books that some authors that I like enjoyed but there were many writers that I'd never heard of and, frankly, wasn't impressed with from their essays. Overall, I'm glad I picked it up but I am equally glad that I only borrowed it from the library. Had I purchased it, I would have been disappointed.
elzecatreads's review against another edition
3.0
Found this randomly wandering the library...while I enjoyed the short essays from a variety of writers, I would not necessarily say that these are "71 remarkable writers." A few are great writers, like Dorothy Allison, Chris Bohjalian, Harold Bloom, Elizabeth Berg, Jack Prelutzky, the truly remarkable Frank McCourt, etc. But many of the essays were contributed by people I've never heard of, many were journalists or politicians who've written a couple of books. For the most part the essays were good but not great (aside from, again, Mr. McCourt).
bucket's review against another edition
1.0
If this book had been described as "the 71 books that a random collection of authors think are good and important" then I wouldn't have been so disappointed. Instead, this books purported to be about how books change lives and, for the most part, it was not. Most of the essays were your typical descriptions of how great books like The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird are. This is true, these are great books, but that doesn't make them life-changing. Most of the essays were missing this very personal element. They were uninspired and often boring - this is at least in part because the writers were chosen because they happened to visit a certain bookstore in Connecticut on a book tour and not because they had a great story to tell.
All that said, there were a few (very few) gems: Gina Barreca reads The Snake Has All the Lines in the shower, Frank McCourt falls for Shakespeare in an Irish catholic hospital, Anne LaMott discovers Ram Dass' The Only Dance There Is in the midst of a flu- and jealousy-laced misery, Edward Sorel is compared to a character in The Red and the Black and eventually changes his name, and John McCain is pressing some four leaf clovers in For Whom the Bell Tolls when it's words distract him and carry him away.
Themes: literature, writing, reading, bibliophiles, life, books
All that said, there were a few (very few) gems: Gina Barreca reads The Snake Has All the Lines in the shower, Frank McCourt falls for Shakespeare in an Irish catholic hospital, Anne LaMott discovers Ram Dass' The Only Dance There Is in the midst of a flu- and jealousy-laced misery, Edward Sorel is compared to a character in The Red and the Black and eventually changes his name, and John McCain is pressing some four leaf clovers in For Whom the Bell Tolls when it's words distract him and carry him away.
Themes: literature, writing, reading, bibliophiles, life, books
canadianbookworm's review
4.0
http://cdnbookworm.blogspot.ca/2015/11/the-book-that-changed-my-life.html
rmaclean's review
3.0
What a great book for people who love to read book reviews. I have added several of the books to my list to read.
dmtcer's review
5.0
I found this book to be inspiring. As I read it, I found myself asking the question - just what book changed my life? My answer kept coming back to the same thing - ALL of them! I found this book to be an inspiring collection of essays by a variety of authors. Writing styles, humor, individual quirks; small opinions of each writer could be found in each essay. I do, however, have one small complaint. my list of to-read books got much longer during my reading of The Book That Changed My Life! So many books...too little time!