One Book Can Change a Life

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Recommended: How literature changes society

“What studies tell us is that the single most important skill you can teach a child is to read...” this quote will reign true for all of time (Cantarella). Reading opens new possibilities, new mind-sets, and can change the heart. Although books can change the heart negatively, the positive change of heart that can come from books overshadows the negative. The places visited while reading are places that people can only imagine. Books can unintentionally capture the soul and captivate one’s mind. Books can change the way people think, which can lead to a change in the entire world. The fact of the matter is, books can change a person’s life.

One way books can change a person’s life is by encouraging them to perform good deeds. The book Pay it Forward exemplifies this perfectly. Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote the non-fiction book to let the world know of an eleven-year old boy named Trevor that decided to make the better place as a school assignment. Since the book came out, the amount of “pay it forward” actions has drastically increased. For example, on Christmas Eve 2013, the world’s longest “pay it forward” record was broken. A Connecticut Starbucks has a customer pay for the next customers coffee. As a result of just one person paying it forward, over 1,000 people had their coffee paid for, and they also paid for somebody else’s coffee. The manager Joshua says, “We hope that it will continue on, even if it doesn’t continue on here, we just hope that it will inspire people to do greater things and inspire people want to do more for their communities” (Chen).

Another book that can make a person want to do good deeds is the Bible. Churches all across the world are doing outreaches to help others for free; this is likely beca...

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...2012. Print.

Laws, Claudia. "OUR GOOD DEEDS: Vale Church Launches Program to Give Clothes to

Those in Need." Rapid City Journal. N.p., 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

Parr, Ben. "Google: There Are 129,864,880 Books in the Entire World." Mashable. N.p.,

05 Aug. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message//Remix: The New Testament in Contemporary

Language. Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress Pub. Group, 2003. Print.

Potter, Janet. “What We Talk about When We Talk about Crying: John Green’s The Fault in

Our Stars” The Millions. N.p., 28 Feb. 2013. 07 Apr. 2014.

Rossagency, Andy. "The First Book Ever Written." Bookmarks Magazine 02 Apr. 2001: n. pag. Print.

"Thursday, April 24, 2014." Pay It Forward Day. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

White, E. B., Garth Williams, and Edith Goodkind Rosenwald. Charlotte's Web. New York:

Harper, 1952. Print.

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