"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." - Franz Kafka

When I was working abroad in Japan and going through a particularly miserable period of my life, a friend offered to lend me her copy of A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Though I had heard of The Power of Now several times before, I had no idea who Eckart Tolle was and how influential he was in the global spiritual community. 

I had never been very religious or spiritual prior to reading the book, and Eckhart Tolle just may have been my first "awakening" experience. I still remember the cloudy overcast day when I looked up from reading a specific passage in his book and really seeing the world for the first time ever in my life.

I was walking home from a train station with the book pressed into my nose. As I was waiting on a corner to cross a busy intersection, a car passed me by. As the car crossed my line of vision, I could feel the tactile crush of its wheels rub against the scrabbly, irregular black bumps of the road. Time seemed to slow down, and everything around me--from the trees to the telephone poles to the dull reflection of the windows on the surrounding windows--vibrated with an inner energy, and my world view was never the same again.

Within a short period of time, I read the entire book three times before finally returning it to my friend. It's been nearly a year since i've read A New Earth, and now I can't imagine where I else I could possibly be--mentally, spiritually, even geographically--if it weren't for that book.

Here are four other books that changed my life, big and small, in chronological order of their reading:

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry

2. The Golden Compass trilogy by Philip Pullman

3. Blankets by Craig Thompson

4. On Writing by Stephen King

This week on Intent, we want to know the 5 books that changed your life. We want to be inspired and reminded of the big revelations and minor transformations that are possible from reading a single book. Don't forget to tag your blog posts "5 books" and share them with your friends on Intent. 

Start sharing away, and even better, be brave and take up the recommendation of a fellow Intent community member. After all, those life-changing books at your local library and bookstore aren't going to read themselves.