Can Books Change People?

Can books change people? Well, it's a silly question, really. It's inanimate; it has no innate abilities. I think more accurate would be the question, Can people change through reading great (or really good) books?

I think that a great (or really good) book is an invitation to change.

According to Robert P. Waxler, co-founder of the CLTL (Change Lives through Literature program) and English Professor of the University of Massachusetts, “Deep [reading allows us to] break free from our single lives…from the linear and local perspective of ordinary existence.”

My current great and really good books are One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez and the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling respectively.

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I started this post months ago and didn't finish. So now, I'm asking myself, Have I changed through reading the above mentioned books. How do I measure such a thing?

What I remember about 100 Years, is the destructive power of isolation that happens when people live inside their own heads and their own skin. Amidst all of that, the book has these moments of the beautiful and the glorious. Not sure if that's changed me... All I can say is that it made me want to live better and to live in honest community with others. So, yes, I think this novel has challenged me to "break free from [my] single li[fe]…from the linear and local perspective of ordinary existence."

Harry Potter? Wow, as to my question of change, I have no idea. But what do you say about a series of books that has so indelibly changed the face of popular culture and will possibly be part of future culture like Lord of the Rings and Narnia are?

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