Everyone reads them at some point and many are so swayed by a good story that they adopt life changes to match. True stories are obviously the most inspiring and biographies of people as leaders and doing good are among the best. But there are also fictional stories that can be just as inspiring. Some of renowned authors like Dickens or Mark Twain will live inside your psyche forever.

The question is how many of his stories are invented or simply adapted from life? In the case of Samuel Clemens, who adopted the pseudonym Twain, he lived the life he wrote about. The two classic novels of him’Tom Sawyer’s Adventures Y ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn‘they are the ones who live in the hearts of those who relate to them.

In my case the novels of John Steinbeck did that for me Highlight a particular book ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ as his best piece. Here was a family struggling with the worst challenges of life after the Great Depression and then the horrible drought and windstorm that hit the midwestern US. Their journey led to homelessness, hunger and death of family members.

Perhaps what drew me to this story was the constant struggle that had so impressed me as a child. For me and my generation to understand what depression, homelessness, riots and other things mean, one needs to read this book.

In my younger years, we’d pass ‘humpies’ or ‘swaggies’ on the trail with their bundles slung across their backs while a billy was always attached at the end.

Still marching from place to place looking for handouts, this was years after the depression ended, but not long after World War II. He taught me respect for what we call the unfortunates and some stories written about the time reinforced it.

Good stories are those that teach a lesson and warm the heart with something spiritual. As someone with a memory of reincarnation and a link to Spirit, fiction is something I try to avoid now, but when I grew up, a lot came through such stories that would not otherwise be known.

Twain and Dickens produced such stories that touched on history while throwing you into the mood of the times. The color, even the smells, come to life as one flips through the pages of his books with enthusiasm and a drive to finish it and bring it to the final conclusion. Sometimes the ending is happy but even when it’s tragic you know it has affected you.