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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 2:59:42 PM

GreedyTop

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ooh..thanks, BK.. forgot to mention Narnia

and.. Velveteen Rabbit

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 4:49:09 PM

kuriouswitch

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oliver twist by charles dickens

the parable of the talent series by octavia e butler

the Split Infinity series by Piers Anthony

children with green eyes and somebody elses kids by tori l hayden

a child called it by david pelzer

sybil (don't remember the author off the top of my head)

grapes of wrath and of mice and men by Steinbeck

my antonia by willa cather

a tree grows in brooklyn

lots more but these were ones that sprang to mind right now.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 6:40:16 PM

ShyAllison1919

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This is a WONDERFUL idea for a subject. Influential books can tell us so much about a person.

As a young teen, I read an entire shelf of library books on sexuality, tranvestism and transsexualism, searching for answers to why I wasn't like everyone else.

At other points in my life, I read Jim Bouton's irreverent expose on baseball ("Ball Four"), Tim Robbin's wild metaphors ("Even Cowgirls Get The Blues"), and Tom Wolfe's sociological novel about NY in the '80s ("Bonfire Of The Vanities").

Recently, I came across a sex-book that was more entertaining and educational than I expected, "Guide To Getting It On." Well worth a look.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 7:15:08 PM

Manawyddan

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The single book that had the most immediate personality-changing brain turnover was Doris Lessing's "The Temptation of Jack Orkney," for making me realise what a pretentious jerk I was.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MarsBonfire
The Harlan Ellison Hornbook/An Edge in my Voice/The Glass Teat and other Essays by Harlan Ellison (taught me the worth of being a dissenter, a pain in the ass to assholes, and what really makes someone great... not just the materialistic BS)

I idolised Ellison when I was younger, and his influence shaped me greatly, but I can't stand the man now.

quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol
Dostoyevsky is horibly absent from this thread.

Agreed! Though reading him mainly convinced me that I was too lacking in talent to be a writer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Thunderbird56
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's been said that Thomas Jefferson was the father of the Libertarian philosophy, if so, then Ayn Rand was it's mother.

An influence on me when I was younger, but I've gotten over it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Apocalypso
The Illuminatus Trilogy- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson

These also really warped me politically, and are one reason why I never fit in which a lot of the standard libertarians.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fitznicely
There was a short-lived comic book named "Crisis" that had a lot to say about multinational corporations and their activities in the third world. That shaped my early years, drove me to investigate more and generally keep an eye on the business news rather than the headlines if I wanted to get an idea of what was REALLY going on in the world...

Hey, I remember that series! Rather strident, and it lasted several years, no? Not all that short-lived.

quote:

ORIGINAL: amoryblane
Your list reminded me (because Gould and Hofstadter are/were both great at popularizing very difficult concepts) how much Godel, Escher, Bach meant to me growing up. It was the first book that ever really made me think about what it means to be conscious, which has since become a kind of fixation.

All his books are brilliant, and were greatly mind-expanding when I first discovered him.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 8:39:31 PM

Joseff

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I could list favorites all night, I've read thousands. Those that influenced me, though...
The writings of the American Founding Fathers
The Bible
Enemy Mine-Barry B Longyear
The Lord of the Rings trilogy-L.R.R.Tolkien
De Re Metalica
The Edge of the Anvil
Last Chance to See- Micheal Palin
Anything by Terry Pratchet
Illusions (sorry, can't remember the author )

Guess that's enough.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/2/2009 8:47:46 PM

Jeptha

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"Love's Body" by Norman O. Brown.

don't know that it was the best, but it got there first.

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Always enjoyed when people would quote the transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, Holmes...I put Whitman in that group if he isn't officially), because the quotes were mighty pithy, but I never enjoyed trying to read the originals.

When I was on a road trip once, I hid my money in a book of Emerson's, because I knew absolutely nobody would ever crack that thing open.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/3/2009 12:12:39 AM

FirmhandKY

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MarsBonfire

Yeah... that explains a lot, Firm. (You left out Mein Kampf, BTW...)

Yes, I've read My Struggle in the English translation, and worked my way through a lot of the original German version.

However, since it wasn't a major influence on me, I did not cite it.

I also suspect that you've never read some of the books I quoted, and especially the ones that I think you based your comments on.

Why not read both of the Ringer books, and then see if your comments have any basis in reality.

Firm

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/3/2009 8:11:11 AM

Jeptha

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And if I were really being honest, I would add some porn to that list.

Don't recall any individual titles, tho...though I did exercise some selectivity about it.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/3/2009 10:38:43 AM

Lorr47

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I believe I was 17 when I read "The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich." I wish I had not read it. I seldom believed anyone in authority after that and viewed the human race as a bunch of lemmings; that attitude got me into a lot of arguments.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/3/2009 12:29:04 PM

MarsBonfire

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Yes, but Lorr... for the most part, I've found that observation about the human race to hold a lot of truth! I have lots of respect for the individual, the man or woman who dares to think differently than the herd. The DaVincis, the Dalis, the Robert Goddards, even the nutcases like Reich or Tesla (in his later years). Mankind was never moved ahead by the establishment. Only by the folks that the establishment thought were dangerous, or heretics, or sometimes even frauds.

But the masses of the "establishment themselves? No thanks. They get up, they go to work, they build their families, they pay their mortgages, and start the cycle over with their kids. When people call me "weird" because I create art, or am into BDSM, or am working on some nutty idea for a business, or building some odd bit of retro tech, I give them a very heartfelt "Thank you!" I've seen what "normal" is like, thanks. I can't think of a greater insult to hurl at someone. (Hell, I don't even call the bullies on this forum THAT!) LOL

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/4/2009 8:35:37 AM

philosophy

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The Empty Space Peter Brook

Towards a Poor Theatre Growtowski

Small Gods Terry Pratchett

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/4/2009 3:54:21 PM

MarsBonfire

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Jeptha,

Influential porn could be a whole seperate thread, frankly. But, just to keep this one moving along...

Pretty much anything by Pat Califia. His stuff has always worked on multiple levels for me... First, they're all just good, solid one handed BDSM reading. Some of the scenes he describes are the literary equivilent to a Michael Manning graphic novel. Second, they are some of the only tales where I often see a realistic portrayal of what the BDSM community is really like, and third, his characters come alive! I will always remember Tyre, Doc, Fluff, Katt, Doyle, and all the others just as vividly as I do Huck Finn, or Sherlock Holmes.

Brilliant smut!

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/5/2009 8:09:06 AM

Irishknight

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I would have to give credit to the numerous volumes of history I have enjoyed reading. When one becomes aware of the mistakes made in the past he/she can watch them being made all over again.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/5/2009 8:39:02 AM

philosophy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Irishknight

I would have to give credit to the numerous volumes of history I have enjoyed reading. When one becomes aware of the mistakes made in the past he/she can watch them being made all over again.

...oooh good point, made me remember a book i read at school. 'Stalin, a political biography' by Isaac Deutscher. (i may be a bit off on the title and that, it was a long time ago).

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/5/2009 8:44:46 AM

Mercnbeth

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There have been many, but here's a few that stand out as shapers:

Kama Sutra...Vatsyayana

Be Glad You're Neurotic...Louis E. Bisch, M.D.

Back to Eden...Jethro Kloss

1984...George Orwell (THE practical guide to BDSM total power exchange. A 'how to' manual for pragmatic Dominance and submission. "How many fingers to you see?")

The Voice of Knowledge (A Practical Guide to Inner Peace)...Don Miguel Ruiz

Ritual of The International Order of Job's Daughters...Ethel T. Wead Mick

< Message edited by Mercnbeth -- 5/5/2009 9:12:46 AM >

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/12/2009 9:43:16 AM

ienigma777

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YES !!! DC sucks since they killed Superman and put Batman in a wheel chair.

Man, I was totally devasted when Superman was killed. And I thought, what did he stand for? Truth, Justice, the American Way. When Superman died, what died, I asked myself...Truth, Justice and the American Way.

So, back to Wolverine and the X guys. I like Storm.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/12/2009 9:46:33 AM

Phoenixpower

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Donald Duck...as it did show to me that I am not the only one out there who ends up from one trouble to the next

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/12/2009 10:03:29 AM

BrokenSaint

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Prometheus Rising -Robert Anton Wilson
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious -C.G. Jung
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Brave New World -Aldous Huxley
Liber Null- Peter J. Carroll
Psychonaut- Peter J. Carroll
Principia Discordia -Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley
The Gateless Gate - Wumen Hui-k'ai
The Prince -Machiavelli
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
Principia Mathematica & On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems (2 seperate texts) -Kurt Godel (damn you lack of umlauts!)
Quantum Theory and Measurement (translation of Heisenberg) -A. Wheeler and H. Zurek -
Hyperspace -Michio Kaku

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/12/2009 5:31:10 PM

DragonNphoenix

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BrokenSaint

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Hell yes! My friend advised me to read it and told me if I did I would never view the Gods and Goddess' the same. You know what... she was right. I have read and have not been the same since.

Phoenix

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 5/12/2009 5:36:45 PM

DragonNphoenix

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But other Books... In alot of cases it isnt a book, but an athur. But, here goes...

Hitchhikers Guide ~ Adams... (of course)
Works of Poe ~ Edger Allen Poe
Incarnations of Immortality series ~ Piers Anthony
Dragonlance Saga ~ Wies and Hickman
Antham and the album by Rush that followed ~ 2112

I could go on... but then you will all think that I am more of a freak thaen you already do.,.....

Phe

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