Life Changing books

[camus]

Was there a book that changed your life, or even altered your views, perhaps changed your path? or you just dug, do you like books!

Catch 22 will always hold a special place in my heart. One because it was the first book as an adult I actually read, apart from Lucky by Jackie Collins, but that doesn't count. Two because it opened my eyes to the awesome power of imagination.

I was working night shift at a crazy place that coated huge pipes with concrete. 3 people had died there, crushed by pipes, it was a death trap, most people were stoned or pissed including myself, and at break I'd wander down the yard, thick with mud up to your knees, choose a pipe sit inside it and read catch 22. My friend was reading Crime and Punishment, and we'd discuss what was going on in each book, we were transported, by the power of written word, to other times and destinations, taken from the madness into other madnesses, Great memories.

Books are BRILLIANT!

[Bombadil]

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart always does it for me. I remember just being in a funk when I read it and it only got worse...Great book for a chockabookoo.

[azathoth]

East of Eden by steinbeck
the first really good and intelligent book i ever read, with such an intimidating scope, in it i saw how powerful literature could be.

and tied for second are the short story Nyarlathotep by Lovecraft, and the book Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins. beautifully dense prose. one baroque and towering, the other intricate and light hearted. i dream about the writing of these authors. just beautiful.

[cameron]

For me it would have to be Ulysses by James Joyce. For Leopold Bloom on the thunderbox, for Molly's soliloquy and for a million pieces of wonderful word play e.g. the dog on the beach: " He trotted forward and, lifting his hindleg, pissed quick short on an unsmelt rock."

Cam

[communist daughter]

Tons of books, reading as much of Derrida as possible in one go was probably the most important, deconstruction makes life or whatever it is more amusingly bearable. also his dealings in the concept of the spectre made certain events more palatable to my non-genius mind.

george orwell's 'a clergymans daughter' had a resounding effect on my desire to teach (which wasnt really desire more apathetic drifting) possibly saving me from future insanity.

Sartre's nausea made me try and change my instilled lifestyle, or end it, which was dramatic but had the desired effect. I still half believe he wrote that book by reading my mind.

The poems of Richard Brautigan continually change my life, and 'watermelon sugar' remains one of the books that can calm me from whatever state i fall into.

[pseud]

Mine are more common and perhaps not belonging in esoteric discussion, but I can't help it:

Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, concerning religion, Golding's Lord of the Flies influenced my view of government, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World influenced my view of the future, Spenser's The Faerie Queene made me appreciate fantasy, and Milton's Paradise Lost showed me a glimpse of what can be accomplished with exalted language.

[Travis]

For me it's life changing people, and then the literature they introduced me to. I credit two people at different stages of my life for guiding me to the next level as it were. One was an artist I know, the other, a high school teacher.

Mr. Artist, my childhood neighbor, was and still is an avid science fiction fan. Being one myself, as well as being quite the little bookworm, we clicked and bonded and all that over the genre. There was a disparity though, he was in possession of the real stuff while all I had was the fluff. He shoved Brin, Card and Pratchett at me. I was amazed. I had no idea real books existed.

To this day science fiction is a part of me, although I don't let it "interfere" with my main literary pursuits. Was that a disparaging remark? Attack the genre in my presence and find out.

Mr. Teacher first accosted me in grade 11. His reputation preceded him. He was known as being a little melodramatic, crazy, or just a "fuckin' idiot", each title depending on whether the herald attended advanced, academic or dummy classes, respectively. Whatever. I always liked finding things out for myself. Incidentally, I think that means I've had a decent amount of life experience, or at the very least that I've swallowed, absorbed, smoked and sniffleypood more than a person should. But then I'm not much worse for the wear. Did you know that I'm an only slightly out of practice martial arts aficionado? A few years removed, yes, but I think I'm heading back in that direction now that I've managed to quit tobacco. But I digress as they so often write.

So, I found out for myself that he was everything that he was heralded to be. More even. But that's what was so great about the man, he was larger than life. And never in my own had I witnessed such passion for the written word. Shakespeare became interactive and fun, and for the first time it was sacrosanct. I wasn't just told so. I knew it now.

The horror of war was realized, the joy of poetry. A plethora of firsts I experienced with this man. He instilled a love of literature in me that went beyond anything I had ever known. And my world was once again broadened.

Between then and now I've gone my own way. Growth, it's a never ending process. I understand that. But those two men enabled me to grow unrestrained. Insofar as my own limitations go anyway. But I'm getting philosophical now, so fuck that. The story's over.

[TDF]

For various different reasons, these books have struck a chord when they have needed to be struck:

Gospel of Thomas
Diamonds behind my eyes
His dark Materials Trilogy

[pitseleh]

a couple of books that knocked my head off were

the long walk - slavomir rawicz
crime and punishment - dostoyevsky
either/or - soren kierkegaard
picture of dorian gray - oscar wilde

im not especially well read but im working at it.

[Raisin]

It's really hard for me to pick out a life changing book because I read so much, I can read up to three books a day, and I read quickly as well. Ones that stand out are
A Clockwork Orange
His Dark Materials
Lord Of The Flies
Of Mice And Men
The Time Travellers Wife
Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
Atonement

To name but a few...

[Elphin]

For anyone into science and literature and history try Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson - three very long reads but their span is incredible and the writing riproaring.

elph

[David]

For anyone into science and literature and history try Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson - three very long reads but their span is incredible and the writing riproaring.

elph

That sounds quite interesting. I shall look out for them, Elph.