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Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:24:42 PM   
amoryblane


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Joined: 4/22/2009
Status: offline 		I know that many will immediately answer something like "None, only experience shapes how you see the world."  That's one view.  But for some of us nerdy nerd nerds, there are books (or maybe movies or even records) that really have changed or shaped how we see things.

For me, I think the short list is:

Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adams
This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald
Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
Coldness and Cruelty by Deleuze.

I guess I'd probably throw in the one volume version of The Golden Bough and/or Burroughs's Naked Lunch, both of which sort of drove home a similar point in my head, though only one of which (the latter) also got me insanely aroused with some of its grotesque, violent, surrealist imagery.
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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:35:52 PM   
littlewonder


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Status: offline 		To be honest..the bible, Baghavad Gita, Upanishads, all the writings of Shakespeare, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:41:25 PM   
amoryblane


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quote:

ORIGINAL: littlewonder

To be honest..the bible, Baghavad Gita, Upanishads, all the writings of Shakespeare, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience


I've heard very bright people argue pretty persuasively that the Bible and Shakespeare probably had more to do with the way everybody thinks, what it even means to consider oneself "conscious" in the modern sense of the world, than any other nameable influences.  Richard III and Timon of Athens always really did it for me.

Re:  The Gita, there are a couple of aphorisms that I always try to keep in mind.  Especially from the section early on when Krishna in disguise is explaining to Arjuna the differences between his actions and the fruits derived from those actions.  He said something like "To your actions alone you're entitled but not to the fruits."  I'm butchering it a bit, but it's a very helpful section for me to keep in mind to counteract my monstrous sense of entitlement.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:44:12 PM   
xBullx


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Status: offline 		Most all publications by Marvel...

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:45:47 PM   
DemonKia


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From: Chico, Nor-Cali
Status: offline 		FR

I'm a book-fetishist; they are sacred objects of which I own too many.

Some of the big life-changers have been:

non-fiction

Post-Porn Modernist,
by Annie Sprinkle;

Emotional Life Of Nations,
by Lloyd DeMause;

Killing Hope,
by William Blum;

Anal Pleasure & Health,
by Jack Morin;

How The Mind Works,
by Steven Pinker;

Hubble,
by Robin Kerrod;

Exhibitionism For The Shy,
by Carol Queen;

fiction

Titan (trilogy),
by John Varley;

The Stars My Destination,
by Alfred Bester;

Voyage From Yesteryear,
James P. Hogan;

Moon Is A Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein

I love books, can never have enough . . .

< Message edited by DemonKia -- 4/29/2009 6:46:24 PM >

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:45:55 PM   
Owner59


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Status: offline 		Black Like Me  by John Howard Griffin

1st book I read through and got.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:50:44 PM   
amoryblane


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quote:

ORIGINAL: xBullx

Most all publications by Marvel...


lol.  Spiderman was always kind of a personal hero.  I liked how he was a sassy slacker.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 6:51:40 PM   
xBullx


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Status: offline 		-winks-


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"A Republic, If You Can Keep It."

Caution: My humor is a bit skewed.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:07:07 PM   
marie2


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Status: offline 		Giant Steps---Anthony Robbins.

Monsters and Magical Sticks---Stephen Heller

Influence: The Psychology of Pursuasion---Michael Cialdini 

The Secret--Rhonda Byrne.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:16:23 PM   
Crush


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quote:

ORIGINAL: xBullx

Most all publications by Marvel...


Amen on those!   Playboy too...

And the Boy Scout Handbook   DOH!


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:25:16 PM   
kittinSol


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Status: offline 		The first couple of titles that come to mind are The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould and The Second Sex ("On ne naît pas femme: on le devient.") by Simone de Beauvoir. They were very much part of my formative years. There are many more, but these two titles sprang from my memory like a 'Jack in a box'.


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:29:35 PM   
TheHeretic


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Status: offline 		1984
 
Animal Farm
 
The Gulag Archipeligo
 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
 
Principia Discordia
 
Dune

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:42:24 PM   
kittinSol


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Status: offline 		Surprisingly orthodox reading list there, Heretic.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 7:50:49 PM   
TheHeretic


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From: California, USA
Status: offline 		      I was one of the lucky 25.


   No specific title in particular, but anything and everything by Hunter S. Thompson needs to be on the list.

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If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 8:04:56 PM   
pissthirstysub


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VALIS by PK Dick
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Ain't I A Women by bell hooks
and my mom's 73' version of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 8:08:50 PM   
slaveluci


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From: Little Rock, AR
Status: offline 		So many but the ones that popped immediately to mind are:

"Self Reliance" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The Prophet" - Kahlil Gibran
"Catcher In The Rye" - JD Salinger
"Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck

+ scores more.................luci



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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 8:18:25 PM   
SteelofUtah


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Status: offline 		The Art of War
Ferenheit 451
The Mouse that Roared
The Second Civil War
To Reign In Hell

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 8:34:02 PM   
slvemike4u


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Status: offline 		To Kill a Mockingbird.
There were others of course but this was the first and the most important.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 9:14:37 PM   
SylvereApLeanan


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Status: offline 		The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
Shakespeare's plays
The Sandman graphic novels (Vertigo comics)
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But were afraid to ask) ~ Dr. David Reuben
Exile's Gate ~ C.J. Cherryh


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 9:38:34 PM   
OrionTheWolf


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