Introduction

WE LOVE BOOKS, and we bet you do, too. We especially love books that inspire, heal, and transform lives. It has been our long-held dream to put into your hands a work that carries the essence of what we believe to be most valuable about a book: its potential to change your life. This collection of stories is the fulfillment of that dream.

We've all found that life becomes richer when we're reading a great book. You go to sleep at night feeling that your time on Earth is more valuable, your experience here more worthwhile. You wake up seeing yourself, other people, and the world differently. This is real magic—and in this book you will read story after story about the effect of this magic on people's dreams, goals, careers, and relationships.

Working on this book has been magical as well; it has changed our lives profoundly. In the course of bringing it together, we were exposed to powerful new insights and discovered new worlds to explore. It is our great hope and highest intention that this book will do the same for you.

HOW IT BEGAN

It all started with a fascinating conversation. Twenty-five transformational leaders, business consultants, and authors had gathered at Jack's house to discuss ways we could work together to make the world a better place. During a lunch break, a number of us were sitting in the living room when the subject of books came up. Several people mentioned how difficult it was, with the thousands of books being published every year, to know which ones were really worth reading. Others mentioned how much they loved to read and how reading had transformed their lives, but unless a book was recommended or referred by someone they respected, they often didn't make the time in their busy schedules to read.

Gay picks up the story: "As I listened to our friends talk about their love of books, a question suddenly flashed through my mind: What were the books that had transformed the lives of these remarkable people sitting around me? Everyone in the room had written books (and some, such as John Gray and Jack, had written best sellers that had sold in the tens of millions), but what were the books that had changed their lives? My wife, Kathlyn, was sitting beside me, and I leaned over to whisper to her, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could read all the books that the people in this room considered most valuable?' Her eyes widened in agreement, and in the next moment I asked the intriguing question out loud: 'What was the book that transformed your life?'

"What happened next was wonderful to behold. We all listened in fascination as one person after another told of a book that had changed his or her life. One striking thing was the look on everyone's faces. They absolutely glowed as they talked about their special books and told stories of the profound changes these books had inspired in their lives. What was truly remarkable, though, was that we found we hadn't read many of each other's favorite, life-changing books! In fact, we hadn't even heard of some of them. This discovery had an electrifying effect on the group; it was as if we had opened a door to a roomful of new treasures."

That conversation led to a yearlong journey in which we conducted in-depth conversations with dozens of inspiring people—some famous, others less well known, but all doing valuable work in the world. You can see from the names listed in the Contents that they come from many walks of life: politics, medicine, healing, psychology, business, entertainment, the arts, sports, and more. What they have in common is a passion for reading and a personal experience of the life-changing power of books.

THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATIONAL READING

What is it that gives certain books the awesome power to change lives? Noted author Deepak Chopra once said that reading has a special transformational power because "it gives you the opportunity to pause and reflect." Opportunity for reflection is a rarity in today's world, dominated as it is by visual media such as television, which fires a constant stream of images at you point-blank. And even if you are nimble with the mute button, the silenced visual stream still requires continuous mental processing. This is not the case with books: When you hold a book in your hands, you're in charge of the pace at which you read and the images you choose to form. You can stop and digest concepts and try on different perceptions and feelings.

But even that doesn't guarantee transformation. As our friend Bernie Siegel writes in his story in this book, "To be honest, I really don't believe any book can change your life—only you can. Look, two people read the same book: One is inspired while the other is bored. It's the person—not the book—that creates the transformation." When time for reflection is combined with the willingness to be transformed by what you read, the possibility for real growth is created.

This is why a book can have different effects if read at different points in one person's life—and why two people can learn different things from reading the same book. In the following pages you will find stories that illustrate situations like these, as well as many other examples of that most powerful of combinations: books plus people open and willing to receive the ideas contained in them.

Motivational speaker and author Charles "Tremendous" Jones once said, "You will be the same person in five years that you are today except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read." With that in mind, we are excited to help you meet 55 people who have had an influence on today's world—each in their own unique way—and to introduce you to the books that have profoundly shaped their lives. We know that you will be inspired by their stories and moved to read many of the books they write about. And whether you're exploring books new to you or finding hidden treasures in old favorites, we are confident that you will also find your life transformed for the better.

May this book bring you all the delight reading provides—from the joys of entertainment to profound insights and inspiration. Happy reading!

—Jack Canfield, Gay Hendricks, and Carol Kline

Jacquelyn Mitchard is a critically acclaimed New York Times best-selling author. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first book selected for Oprah's Book Club and was made into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer. She has written five other novels and three children's books. A newspaper reporter since 1976, she now writes a nationally syndicated column for Tribune Media Services and travels to promote awareness of colorectal cancer, which took the life of her first husband, award-winning reporter Dan Allegretti. Jacquelyn lives on an old farm south of Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband Chris Brent and their seven children, who range in age from 4 months to 22 years.

A few years ago, on my birthday, a simple box arrived in the mail from my dear friend and agent, Jane Gelfman. When I opened it and saw what it contained, tears welled up in my eyes. It was a first edition of the book that I loved more than any other: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The copy was inscribed lovingly by the author, Betty Smith, to her own agent, and tucked inside were letters she had written, preserved just as they were 60 years ago. At this point, even my children, gathered around the dinner table, grew misty eyed. They knew how I felt about this book, its author, and its heroine.

Some months before, I had herded my three teenaged sons into a budget screening of the newest movie production of Little Women. They entered that theater as willingly as accused felons being led to jail while TV cameras rolled—their coats hunched over their faces, lest they encounter anyone they knew.

Afterward, however, they realized why Little Women was required reading in our house full of little men, along with a couple of other "girl" books, including National Velvet and, of course, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. My son Dan, who, before puberty and Limp Bizkit hit simultaneously, was known to us as "the sensitive one," said as we got into the car, "I get it. When you were a kid, you wanted to be Jo March, didn't you, Mom?"

Copyright © 2006 by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks.