Before and after books

I've been cooking since I'm 13 years old and this book definitely changed my approach to cooking. Before reading it, I wasn't as systematic in my seasoning and definitely had a poor understanding of heat. After reading it, I became a better home cook and started to venture myself further from the cooking I had been doing.

Cixin Liu is one of my absolute favourite science-fiction writers. His imagination is immense and I love his ability to play and mix the tiniest with the biggest things in the universe. The reason "Remembrance of Earth's Past" (yep that's the name of the three book series) is part of this list is quite simple. Up to this book, I had never come across any alien life form that was truly alien to me. Every book or movie I had watched on first contact had always felt like a projection of hopes and fear of a human. This series is different though. I have this distinct memory of missing my tram station while reading the first pages of the second book because I was too shocked to get up from my seat. Been recommending this to everyone ever since.

Before I read a fortune-teller told me I had a decisively more analytical approach to life choices. This book helped me to see through the noise of life and accept that most choices are in fact not rational and that maybe that's the best part of it. I've gone back to this book every decade which is something I do very rarely.

Octavia Butler is, by far, the most incredible science-fiction writer I read. Emotionally, going through her books is an impossibly painful yet rewarding journey.

The parable series is really impossible to describe in words. You have to read it yourself to understand how deeply prescient Butler is and how crude and real and deep is her understanding of American (and, at large, capitalist) society.

"To remain human at this juncture is to remain in agony. Let us remain there: it is the more honest place from which to speak."

This quote helped me navigate post Oct. 7 western discourse (which is in itself a before/after of gigantic proportions). Before reading this very short book I had trouble accepting my own state of mind in relation to the average westard out there. After it though, I know my truth.

All right this one is odd as the series, while well written and entertaining, is nowhere close to the quality of any other book in this list. Also I'd rather not "promote" the author. But she obviously doesn't need that anyhow and I want to stay thoughtful to my own definition. Before reading this series, I could hardly converse in English. After reading it (while also listening to the audiobooks), I was totally fluent. Definitely fits the definition!

This is the only book related to my profession on this list now that I think about it. That's interesting in itself in a way. But the main point here is that before reading this book I had very little understanding of the product side of the value chain of sofware development. After I read this book, I became much more aware of how to work with product people, how to manage them, how to help them. Seminal reading for my professional development.