Lessons Learned in a Book

It seems that each decade I live, there has been an important book that had a profound effect on me due to the subject matter and how it translated to that time in my life.  I think we seek out reading material that we need at the moment.  In the 60's, I read a book called Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, a Puerto Rican who grew up in Spanish Harlem in New York.  Because I lived in the Spanish ghetto in Milwaukee and worked with Spanish teens at the time, it opened my eyes to a new world this country girl did not know existed.  I later married a Puerto Rican and the book continued to have effects on me.  I later shared the book with my Puerto Rican son when he became a young man because of the subject matter.

In the 70's I read I'm Ok, You're Ok.  I took a Physiology class at Long Beach City College that actually used the book as a text book.  The 70's was the TA (Transcendental Meditation) era.  The book helped me reconfirm simple truths that life sometimes takes away from you.  

The 80's brought Maya Angelou's 3 auto biographies and she became one of my heroes.   Her books showed me that people can over come almost any adversity and become great people.  I read everything she publishes.

The 90's brought The Broken Arrow, a story of an Native American Single man adopting a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Native American son.  It began my research on FAS.

2000 brought me A New Earth and it has become my 2nd bible.  It is the best spiritual book I have read and return to it often so I don't forget the important things I learned from it.  

It is too early to to say which book will be my pick for this decade.  I'll let you know in another 9 years.  I just have to keep reading.  Each book I read has something to offer me.  I have to finish anything I start though just in case there is some important information I will learn.  There is no such thing as a wasted education.  

What books have changed your life?  

Be happy and God Bless You.