Has anyone ever read a book that challenged you?

[Fountain79]

I am not talking about a book that reaffirmed your political beliefs but rather made you defend them. Obviously tripe like Coulter does not belong in this category, but have you read a book that made you say..."Yeah, I can see your point but..."

[Broken_Hero]

1. hmm

hard to say...I don't think so...the closest one would be Memnoch The Devil, it wiped away 99% of the church strings that surronded me during my upbringing. I was all ready on a downward spiral with religion, and Memnoch pretty much put the nails in the coffin.

[Fountain79]

2. An Anne Rice novel did this??? n/t

[Broken_Hero]

3. yep sure did...

Its an Anne Rice novel, essentially, the Devil comes to Lestat, and tries to recruit Lestat to his cause...and the Devil takes Lestat on a tour guide show of the creation of the world, angels, humans, and goes off on some tangeants....I have read this book 5 times, I recommend it to anyone. YOu odn't have to be saavy on the vampire crap, after page 80 or so, its takes off pretty well.....

[Control-Z]

4. And there I thought you

were talking about the challenge of reading - like a Michener novel, for example.:dunce:

(still the answer is no - not that I can recall)

[FuzzySlippers]

5. Not really.

Even the more "scholarly" RW drivel, such as Milton Friedman's "Free To Choose", has holes in the reasoning you could drive a Mack truck through.

[Jamastiene]

6. Yeah, Billions and Billions

by Carl Sagan challenged me on some of the environmental issues and population overload. Before reading his book, I was misinformed and thought global warming was something that wouldn't affect my generation. Therefore, I didn't think is was as important as I now realize it is. Also, I never knew that the population has been double since the turn of the century (the 1900's, that is) like it has. Humans are nothing more than dumb parasites who are killing our host planet. No parasite does that if they know what is good for them.

Off-topic: I wish I could remember the name of the book about quantum physics that I was trying to read when we lost the house. When I first read your question, I thought you were going to ask about mentally challenging books, as in a challenge to intelligence. I only got 3 chapters into that quantum physics book and I had to keep my Webster's Unabridged Collegiate Dictionary (a book bigger than I am) just to understand half the words. I wish I had gotten that book. It was just the type of challenge I might need to get my mind straight and ready for calculus in the fall.

[Truthiness Inspector]

7. Not really

But the most disturbing book I think I've ever read is Crime and Punishment. That is a must read; a book no one can forget, but it does leave you feeling oogy.

[Evoman]

8. Just the bible.

It challenged me. Good thing I won that little challenge!

[martymar64]

9. Nietchze - On the Geneaology of Morals

It challenged me in so many ways.
It changed my whole outlook on life.

[malta blue]

12. I read that too, and I found it challenging on the

same levels.

[malta blue]

10. Roughing It by Mark Twain

forced me to carry a dictionary EVERYWHERE, and I usually don't need one (at least not once I got into high school).

[idgiehkt]

11. all the mens movement stuff I read does this to my head.

not books, but mostly stuff I read on the web. There's just so much shit to take into consideration.

[Katina]

13. yeah, Intro to Economics

what a snore!