What book has meant most to you?

We asked writers to confine themselves to books published recently, or at least in the last 100 years.

I CAME across David Bornstein's How to Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2004) last year. I devoured it within a day.

Visionary individuals who seek a better future and dedicate their lives to achieving this promise are at the centre of its pages. From rural electrification in Brazil to assisted living for the disabled in Hungary, this book has taught me that service and commitment are an exciting and inspiring task.

This is not a manual on how to run your charity or your organization, it is just the stories of people who believe that things can change and pursue this dream without forgetting that they are dealing with individuals, not with customers, clients or patients.

How to Change the World has encouraged me to work to build a new society; to understand that, if we want to make a difference, there is no time to lose.

Jose Carlos Leon

Vargas, London, UK

REFLECTING ON this question put by FAC, books such as a biography of President Truman came to my mind, but my immediate answer certainly is A New Day (Blandford Press, 1960). For each day of the year this small book has a page of quotations. 'These have been taken from the whole range of mankind's history, and bear on personal faith and a world view,' writes the compiler, DM Prescott. I have carried it anywhere I went, also in my hand luggage on long flights. It still surprises me how often one or more quotations chosen for a day seem to answer exactly my need for vision for that day.

Eelko Bergsma, Enschede, the Netherlands

ONE SUCH book is l'd Rather Teach Peace (Orbis, 2002), by Colman McCarthy. This writer was a columnist for a major newspaper for over 20 years. However, his true impact has been on the college and high school students who were fortunate enough to take his classes in Peace Studies.

A couple of sentences that might serve as an example of his message would be the following: 'Forgiveness looks forward; vengeance looks backward.' Also, 'Forgiveness means leaving the garbage of the last fight behind. Otherwise, we let our emotions become trash haulers. Settling scores never settles conflicts.'

Lloyd J Klapperich, Greenville, VA, USA

I REREAD recently the novel of Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray. I like this novel very much! The style of this author is vivid and precise. In his novel he touches upon many problems: love, mystery, perfidy, adventures.... The writer doesn't impose his view on the reader.

Vakha Demelkhanov, Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russian Federation

IN Memory and Identity--personal reflections (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005),Pope John Paul II brought home to me the totality of our human existence and that we are all involved in world affairs no matter who we are or where we are. He discussed the coexistence of good and evil and the ideologies of evil of Marxism and National Socialism. But he also spoke of the limits imposed upon evil by redemption.

This is a deeply inspiring book and made me sit back and think of the hope that faith gives me and that if I live the way God intends me to live evil can never triumph.

For those of us worried about the future of Europe at this time the late Pope quoted from one of his poems: Freedom--a continuing conquest, It cannot be possessed! It comes as a gift, but keeping it is a struggle.

Donald Oswald, UK

THERE IS a book I read all the time. I do not take it with me, rather it comes everywhere I go. I read it in every light my eyes see, I hear it in every sound my ears hear, I feel it deep whenever I touch it. It is the book of Life.

Life is a book of God. He created it to give us the chance to feel and rationalize His wisdom, His power, and mercy.

This book will never end or be boring.

Doa's Abdul-Galeel

Hussien Abdul Majeed, Cairo, Egypt