Sometimes all it really takes is a book to completely change the world. Be it due to the book sharing ideas and concepts that were never considered, or simply acting as a unifying voice for thoughts that everyone was having, they were the spark that sets change into motion. Interestingly, it isn’t always the books you think that have the biggest impact.
These are 5 books that shaped the world in long lasting ways, and are still as relevant today as they were upon release.
Black Beauty
There are a number of books that have dealt with profoundly important social issues, changed minds, and are ultimately recognised for the impact they had. But Black Beauty is often overlooked. It is the first book that really brought attention to human interactions with animals. Although the story is as much about the human characters, and their relationships, it deals with the horse, Black Beauty, as if the animal were a part of the family.
Black Beauty was key in helping many rethink the way they see animals, and that altering of perception is still resonating to this very day.
Pride And Prejudice
Many automatically bring up Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, when talking about revolutionary books. But it doesn’t hurt to emphasise; next time you are playing Australian slots online games, head over and download a copy after you’re done winning big.
Talking about Pride and Prejudice is one thing, but actually reading it something else entirely. Saying that marrying for love was once a unique concept is something, but reading a book written when this was a new thought may just blow your mind.
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are books that go side by side. Charlotte Bronte famously despised Jane Austin, thinking that she conformed to expected norms, even as she attempted to break them. She took the notion one step further, insisting that not only could marriage be for love, but also that any woman could be respected as an intelligent human capable of living her own life.
1984
1984 is a book that only seems to become more relevant with each passing year. George Orwell challenged the way information is filtered and fed to the masses via mass media, insisting that we are all living in the dystopian science fiction worlds we read about. Only, when we read about thought controlling science fiction worlds, we breathe a sigh of relief that they aren’t real. They are real, the book declares, and you’re living in one.
The Diary Of Anne Frank
There isn’t much that can be said about the Diary of Anne Frank that hasn’t already been said. The holocaust was deeply unsettling in a way that can hardly be appreciated, unless you lived in it. Only; you can live in it, simply by reading the genuine words of a person, as they experience the horrors unfold. The Diary Of Anne Frank is a book that can, and will, shape your perceptions of history in a truly profound way. It is still compulsory reading in many schools for a reason.
