The best book I've ever read

"What is the best book you've ever read, and how did it change you??"

The answer, which oddly enough instantly popped into my head considering how MANY books I've read in my life, is Dune by Frank Herbert.

I read Dune for the first time as an 11 year old. Who was I then? I could speak Arabic almost fluently, and could read it easily. I was a wonderful student, writing and reading at a sophmore (in college) level. I was a skilled cook and babysitter, and just barely approaching that line of puberty, which in the Islamic world that I grew up in, meant a radical shift in my freedoms and options and - more importantly to me - my learning.
Then, I picked up this book of one of my mom's friends, and from the first page I was hooked. I'm not sure if it was the Arabian 'feel' that wound all through the book and therefore connected it to where I was at that moment. I'm not sure if it was reading about the Bene Gesserit, and how a group of WOMEN were silently controlling the world in the background in an attempt to lessen war. I'm not sure if it was the proud free independence of the Fremen, where the men & the women were equally fierce and proud. I'm not sure if it was the power of prana and bindu, where you learned how to control your involuntary reactions, and thereby determine the face that the world saw. I honestly can't put my finger on ONE thing in this book that shook my world, and officially made it the best book I've ever read. I can't even tell you how it changed me - but after reading that book - the world itself was new, and fresh, and clean, and I KNEW that I had the option of controlling it - and I believed (and still do) that "Fear is the mind-killer".

It was the truest book I've EVER read - and every time I re-read it, it's still true. Herbert broke through into inner motivations and reasonings and subtle reactions of people - and described them so cleanly/purely that - it was truth - and it taught me more about how to READ people than - than anything else, ever. Like Paul, reading Dune, I could sense the truth of what he spoke. And 17 years later - I still quote from the book. I still pick it up and read it....and while it doesn't draw me in (largely because I know the whole damn thing by heart) as much as it used to....these words still resound as true as anything I've ever read - written by man or God.

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.