I really connect with the quote by E. M. Forster as posted on the Gurteen Knowledge Log. I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves.
I’d like to think syncronicity has a helping hand though. I was once recommended a book but was unable to purchase it even though the store had it marked as one the shelf. Nor could I borrow it from the library. Again, it was supposed to be there but wasn’t. Three weeks later I had the book in my hand, after completing an outplacement course which had changed my opinion in ways that meant the book was much better received.
The book was Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski.