Which book best expresses your view on life and your personal philosophy?

So many books have made impacts on my life......to many to mention but at the moment it has to be words that reach the soul!!!

1) A guide for the advanced soul.....book of proverbs and sayings that make you think and realise the true meaning of life !!!

2) Excuse me your life is waiting........about changing your thinking and reasoning....real eye opener this one!

3) The astonishing power of emotions, let your feelings be your guide!

Reading this one at the moment..........about not fighting against the way you feel etc, rather good!

Always been into different, diverse reading! xx

Judaism welcomes converts. You would be treated with the same respect and - albeit cautious - friendship as any other prospective 'jew by choice'. Whether a person has any Jewish heritage or not doesn't make a difference; they will be treated the same regardless. Was the Jewish heritage via your mother's maternal line? If not, it won't actually count at all, because Judaism passes via the mother, always. You would be, as are all converts, seen as *totally* Jewish if you did go through a formal Orthodox conversion. For a Conservative or Reform conversion, while they are still thorough, Orthodox won't count you as Jewish.

Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey. One of its themes is that the only way you can live with yourself is to be true to yourself even if you would really rather not. Another is the way that things which started without your control will continue to spool forward in your life until you stand them down.

Both of those things have proven true in my life and the book is a validation of my viewpoint on them. It is also an incredible piece of writing which will never grow old for me even though I can hardly read it anymore because I practically know it by heart.

Phillip K. Dick's non-fiction or Hunter S. Thompson

I really like the way Phillip K. Dick writes about normal working stiff's, his book's are realistic, set in a world with limitations but still very inspiring and most of all wryly humorous. Like the exstential angst aspect too.

Hunter S. Thompson

Never really been heavily into the drug scene but I love the way Thompson looks at the world. I love the energy in his writing, you can tell it hasn't been edited and mulled over. Yet it isn't a bunch of free-form hippy rubbish.

No book should be able to do that, unless you're a total cliché. Perhpas there is a book that does but it's nothing to be proud of. A good book should make you privy to something unique; on the other hand, if you try to emulate what has happened in a book, you are a loser that at least knows you are.

Bottom line: a book is someone else's work. I am my own.

I believe the book "Stantasyland" has some very, very different views on how to see life in quite an array. It has 139 poems about life in general. It's a print on demand book it can be ordered off the net.

Oddly enough - probably Rue Mcclanahan's auto-biography. There's a lot of quotes from there that sum up my philosophy one of which:

'Youth is not a time of life, it's a state of mind. It's not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips, and supple knees, it's force of will, quality of imagination, and vigor of emotions. It's the freshness from the deep springs of life, and the idea that every day is God saying to you, "May I have this dance?'''

During this period of my life my personal philosophy is changing partly because of this book:

12 'Christian Beliefs' that can drive you crazy by Dr Henry Cloud and John Townsend

I love the novel The Power of One by Bryce Courtney - its about a young boy growing up in south africa and his fight (aged 5 upwards) against perceived injustices of world.

Very uplifting and you can really get into his head and see world from his point of view - his best friend is a chicken when he is 5!!!

Well worth reading

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

(the alchemist is like a grown-up version of the little prince)