1984 by George Orwell and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I picked up the book from the library on a lark and read the entire book in one sitting. My fascination with dystopian fantasies and objectivist/pro-capitalist literature stemmed from the reading of these two books. Quite simply, this book has led me down the rabbit hole and has affected my decision of major in college and political orientation.
What books have changed your lives and why?
De Incarnatione Verbi Dei by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, because it answered the question.
When I was a young and impressionable child, "The Wizard of Oz," and its sequels, by L. Frank Baum, made me the fantasy freak I am today.
When I was a young and impressionable child, "The Wizard of Oz," and its sequels, by L. Frank Baum, made me the fantasy freak I am today.
My previous answer was an adult change. For the childhood change like yours, it was Roger Lancelyn Green's Myths of the Norsemen.
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"Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder and "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbott. Both of these books succedded in making me not only look at the world differantly, but also new, differant ways of writing books and coming up with plots and characters. An entire society where the characters are geometric shapes? A plot where the laws of reality gradually break down along themes of philosophical evolution? Brilliant.
Or at least they changed my life. No other book can claim that.
The Book of Five Rings by Myamoto Musashi, D'Aulieres Books of Norse and Greek Myths...the world is bigger than the bible belt
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion , by Sir James George Frazer
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter
Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges
The Outline of History, by HG Wells
The Rattle Bag, by Ted Hughes (Editor), Seamus Heaney (Editor)
The Hobbit.
1984.
The Children's Books on Roman and Greek mythology by Ian Serraillier
Dungeon Master's Guide, by Gary Gygax.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
And most of all: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Contributor
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Twilight of the Idols, F. Nietzsche
Genealogy of Morals, F. Nietzsche
The Book of Five Rings, Musashi
Sun Tzu, Art of War
D'Aulieres Books of Norse and Greek Myths
Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein
Rich Dad Poor Dad, Kiyosaki
Reason, Truth and History, Hillary Putnam
A Theory of Justice, Rawls
Varieties of Religious Experience, William James
Pragmatism, William James
Zen Mind Beginner Mind, Suzuki
I started to come back and add James' VRE!
EDIT: Part of the problem is, I could probably mark off stages of my life by the books that were crucial at even given time.
7 Habits of Highly Successful People
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Player's Handbook.
I honestly cannot remember the name of it, but it was the first fantasy story I ever read. It was part of a two-book series that focused on psychic outcasts against a semi-traditional fantasy background. There was a character named Archer who was psychokinetic, a young woman who was a powerful telepath, the main character who had a power that I can't remember, and another man travelling with them about whom I remember even less. But it was my very first fantasy story, and without it, I never would have gotten into Bunnicula(and it's numerous sequels), the Hobbit(to this day I find LOTR to be incredible boring in comparison), Thieves' World and the Lone Wolf series(my second and third forays into fantasy respectively, I actually started writing fanfiction for Lone Wolf as a kid), The Time of the Twins(my first D&D related novel), Dark Empire Rising(my first non-storybook Star Wars novel), The Girl Who Owned A City(or perhaps it is the Girl Who Owned A Castle, either way it was the last book that was read to me in a classroom setting in 6th grade), and so many other works of fiction in a fantasy vein. If anyone here remembers the title, please post so I can put it in a place of honor in my living room.
My fantasy habit really started with David Eddings' Malloreon. I read Tolkien (and the far less talented CS Lewis) previously but was not really in awe. I'm still not.
Ain't Nobody's Business if you Do by Peter McWilliams was a massive influence on my thinking.
The Prosperous Few and Restless Many (or any one of a dozen similar books, all interviews of Chomsky by the same guy and all covering more or less the same ground) pushed me even further leftwards.
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen turned history from a fun selection or trivia that I happened to be really good at into a lifelong obsession.
Declarations of Independence by Howard Zinn
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Mythology: Edith Hamilton
Legend of Huma: Richard Knaak
Lord of the Rings.
Legend of Huma.
The Art of War.
If anyone here remembers the title, please post so I can put it in a place of honor in my living room.
Have you tried whatsthatbook.com? Most such questions (such as mine) don't get answered, but some do. You might get lucky.
Players Handbook
Art of War
Stormbringer
Escape from Innsmouth
and finally....
Wilf Weasel's Speedy Skates, my first ever *proper* book. Which I still have and read to my grandchild.
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I honestly cannot remember the name of it, but it was the first fantasy story I ever read. It was part of a two-book series that focused on psychic outcasts against a semi-traditional fantasy background. There was a character named Archer who was psychokinetic, a young woman who was a powerful telepath, the main character who had a power that I can't remember, and another man travelling with them about whom I remember even less.
<<snip>>
If anyone here remembers the title, please post so I can put it in a place of honor in my living room.
Douglas Hill's Blade of the Poisoner and Master of Fiends.
I honestly cannot remember the name of it, but it was the first fantasy story I ever read. It was part of a two-book series that focused on psychic outcasts against a semi-traditional fantasy background. There was a character named Archer who was psychokinetic, a young woman who was a powerful telepath, the main character who had a power that I can't remember, and another man travelling with them about whom I remember even less.
<<snip>>
If anyone here remembers the title, please post so I can put it in a place of honor in my living room.
Douglas Hill's Blade of the Poisoner and Master of Fiends.
Sir, I cannot thank you enough. I will be purchasing those books shortly and will have them displayed in my living room. Actually, you confirmed for me that I read the second book first, so thank you again for that.
In fifth grade a family friend gave me the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a birthday present. I've never looked back.
Joeseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces showed me how we tell stories to one another, and why certain themes resonate in the human soul.
Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel illuminated me as to how one set of peoples came to dominate the world in a concise rational scientific way.
The Bhagavad Gita was one of the most spiritually enlightening texts I have ever read. Truly an inspired work about the big issues.
Fantasy-wise the two books that started my life-long love of swords, dragons (and other beasties), sacrifice, honor, and all that jazz were:
Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen
Ive reread the Prydain Chronicles probably more often than any other book, except for some of the Phillip K Dick short story collections.
The "Choose Your Own Adventure" and "Encyclopedia Brown" series intrigued me that not all books have to follow the same rules of structure, which led to my love of twisting words and clues in stories.
Our sixth-grade teacher got away with reading certain short stories from Stephen King's "Night Shift", and those stories led to me finally kicking juvenile literature exclusively. That was the first 'adult' book I read.
And, my mom read me the Milne "Pooh" books when I was a kid and laughed so much at things I didnt understand till I read them later :D
The Once & Future King
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
I learned that poignant silliness is incredibly important in making it through life.
Slaughterhouse Five.
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Gah! As people post, so any pivotal and life-influencing books come back. I feel guilty, awash with a sense of having betrayed my love for the books because I didn't remember them. Revamped list to expiate my crime of forgetting...
Twilight of the Idols, F. Nietzsche
Genealogy of Morals, F. Nietzsche
The Book of Five Rings, Musashi
Sun Tzu, Art of War
D'Aulieres Books of Norse and Greek Myths
Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein
Rich Dad Poor Dad, Kiyosaki
Reason, Truth and History, Hillary Putnam
A Theory of Justice, Rawls
Varieties of Religious Experience, William James
Pragmatism, William James
Zen Mind Beginner Mind, Suzuki
D&D Basic Set - Red Box Edition
The Time of the Dark, Hambly (first fantasy I ever tried to turn into D&D adventures)
Darkworld Detective (first fantasy I ever shared with my brother)
Lloyd Alexander. Just Lloyd Alexander. Such a companion through sad, early times.
Witchworld, Andrea Norton (Andrew North in some of my editions)
Starship Troopers, Heinlein (kicked off political thought)
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In fifth grade a family friend gave me the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a birthday present. I've never looked back.
Joeseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces showed me how we tell stories to one another, and why certain themes resonate in the human soul.
Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel illuminated me as to how one set of peoples came to dominate the world in a concise rational scientific way.
The Bhagavad Gita was one of the most spiritually enlightening texts I have ever read. Truly an inspired work about the big issues.
I definitely agree on how marvelous Joseph Campbell's works were
The Heroes Path is something we can live as well as role-play ;)His Masks of God: Primitive Mythology was one I also enjoyed.
... and "The Gita", well, that is a classic among classics and very cool!
I would have to say that The Hobbit definitely put the love of fantasy in me and led to me picking up that beautiful Blue Box one day ;)
Penthouse Forum
If not for this fabulous seperately released semi-periodical, I would have been lost out there during all those satisfaction-guaranteed solo mission hen's parties, nubile hitchhiker menage a troises and inventively ironic cash-alternative methods for voluptuous vixens to pay off large billiards debts using the very green felt tables on which they lost their shirts.
Stinky McClucky's Scratch-n-Sniff Adventure
This book taught me that nothng should ever be scratched and sniffed. Nothing. Ever.
Pathfinder Core Rulebook
When I found that I couldn't lift its heft without whimpering, this wondrous tome inspired me to attend the gym. It's the sole reason why I'm the famed bodybuilder I am today.
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Penthouse Forum
If not for this fabulous seperately released semi-periodical, I would have been lost out there during all those satisfaction-guaranteed solo mission hen's parties, nubile hitchhiker menage a troises and inventively ironic cash-alternative methods for voluptuous vixens to pay off large billiards debts using the very green felt tables on which they lost their shirts.
Stinky McClucky's Scratch-n-Sniff Adventure
This book taught me that nothng should ever be scratched and sniffed. Nothing. Ever.
Pathfinder Core Rulebook
When I found that I couldn't lift its heft without whimpering, this wondrous tome inspired me to attend the gym. It's the sole reason why I'm the famed bodybuilder I am today.
All of those resources richly add to the education of any man of the world ... the first will certainly educate even the ordinary man-about-town ;)
All of those resources richly add to the education of any man of the world ... the first will certainly educate even the ordinary man-about-town ;)
Without question! <G>
JC Rant
Joseph Campbell is okay in certain works, but when you get into his big popular series, be suspicious that he knows what he is talking about. Be very suspicious. And when he talks about Western religions, he is almost always wrong, and really wrong. He does a lot of universalizing for his own purposes. Inspiration, maybe, interpretation, not so much.
But I do like the Hero with a Thousand Masks and Myths and Symbols in Indian Art.
* The bible - although probably for the exact opposite reasons why many others in here cite it. ;-)
* The Hobbit
* Dystopia, Krøniker fra Kvæhl (Chronicles of Kvæhl - 5 book series), The Thing in the Cell, the Freddy series, Corpsemarch and Relief (4 book series). Well, basically any book published before '95 by the Danish author Dennis Jürgensen. He covered so many genres, from fantasy, zombies, teenage angst and problems and silly humor to Cthulhu'esque horror. His books really cemented my love of reading.
* Dragonlance Chronicles - besides the Hobbit, my first real foray into English fantasy.
* Shamran - den som kommer (Shamran - he who comes) - by Bjarne Reuter. Another Danish fantasy/mythology book. The first book in a series of 3.
(* Dead Poets Society - although it was the movie. But hey, it's based on a book, so it counts, right? :-) ).
I can't say enough about Atlas Shrugged..... ten years ago I walked into a Barnes and Nobles with a friend. She purchased Atlas Shrugged, I grabbed a copy of one of Simon Green's Deathstalker novels. Months later she used that encounter as the reason why we would never make a good couple. She was an intellectual who read philosophical books..... I was a car mechanic who enjoyed reading about people getting skewered or laser blasted. A few months back I finally got around to reading Atlas Shrugged.....absolutely amazing.
Farenheight 451.... everything that is wrong with our modern society written sixty years ago
Alas Babylon
Martian Chronicles
and Dragonlance - Dragons of Winter's Twilight. The first book I ever read for pleasure after my mother demanded that I started reading more. I was so unfamiliar with the concept of trilogies that I failed to realize I was reading the second book first. Anyhow, it got the ball rolling for the juggernaught book collection looming in my spare bedroom.
The Carpet People by terry pratchett.
This book is the single most important book in my entire life. It is the first book i ever read for my self, the first book i ever read for pleasure and the book that gave me a reason to read. I owe Terry Pratchett everything for this book. I was twelve years of age, unable to read simple sentances, at a new school, with new methods. The combination of those new methods and this book was a perfect storm for my reading. From a child who couldn't read at all, to a child who could out read the average 15 year old in six months.
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
This book holds within its pages everything that i love and respect about evolutionary biology, the scientific discipline which has been the defining passion of my adult life.
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Possibly the most beautifully written book i have ever read, it's structure and literary illusions are stunning and almost breath taking.
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Mura
This the book i am currently reading. More than any other i have read, it digs its fingers into the surreality of real life and the absense of feeling i feel during the worst bouts of depression. Startly beautiful, but painful to read.
American gods and neverwhere by neil gaiman
While all of the above books have been pretty influencial, it is gaiman who has more than anyone taught me about stories. I can't ride the tube anymore without smiling to myself as i see little snatchs of london below, and know that most will never understand why i am smiling. I long to see the america that gaiman describes in american gods, and i believe that this is one of the greatest quotes in all the world.
“I can believe that things are true and I can believe things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen – I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of casual chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
So many great books and pieces of Literature/literature that, over time, have all helped shape my world view. A few come to mind that immediately made impressions on me at various points in my life to dramatically change that view (and ultimately lead me to the ACE you see here!) and here they are in chronological order:
1) Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
2) The Prelude (William Wordsworth)
3) Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie)
Each corresponds with a good block of my life: High School, Undergrad, then Grad School and beyond. What is interesting, looking back at the three, is that they are all fairly overtly *about* idealistic perspectives. Also, I still read a fair amount but i don't think that there has been anything that i've read in the past five or six years that has had the same internal effects that the three pieces listed here have had at those other points in my life.
Maybe i'm due for #4?
Any suggestions for a 30-something year old married dad that may fit that bill?
As ever,
ACE
The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli: The single best treatise on human nature on a big-picture scale. Every politician's pillow book, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Making Friends, by Andrew Matthews: Smaller-scale but just as useful for dealing with people. What little empathy this mockery of a human being has, it's thanks to this book.
Advanced Dungeons&Dragons, Players' Handbook: While I have always been a freak of nature, this book defined the kind of freak I am today.
The Four Gospels (evangeliary): I consider this collection of Jesus' "slices of life" to be the benign counterpart to Machiavelli's The Prince, both treatises on human nature, both equally pragmatical, and both right from their respective P.O.V.
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I must admit i am the freakI am today, because since I was young I was a freak, but one who chose its path after meeting D&D
Certianly if I sit to analyze WHAT has changed my life... I could certianly say that these books:
Dungeons & Dragons Red Box (there I fell in love with the cleric and helped me elarn english)
Advance Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition helped define what 'Fantasy' meant for me
AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft Campaign Book gave me parameters of what is horror and how to write or storytell it.
Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Edition defined my worl for many years, and has defined my view of modern world and what vampreis should be (be damned shinign vampires to hell!)
Gustavo Adolpho Becker's Poetry, it certainly cuaght my soul for many years to come
I loved fantasy and horror, and I liked writing, but this thingslet me made my fantasies true and helped me understand things I was barely scratching, to all of them thanks.
Besides those every single book I read makes me grow in one way or the other.
its interesting and scary to realize that i have read a lot of things in my life... but basically RPG has defined my life, for good or ill.
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- "Iron Council" by China Mieville
- "Un Lun Dun" by China Mieville
- "Solipsist" by Henry Rollins
- "Get in the Van" by Henry Rollins
- "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut
- "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
- "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess"
- "The Terror" by Dan Simmons
- "At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft
- "At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft
Ahh Lovecraft. Ever since I picked up that luridly-covered Seventies reprint of 'The Dunwich Horror and Others' from my middle school's library shelf I have been hooked. Nice to see he is getting some respect these days with Penguin editions with scholarly annotations.
1984 - George Orwell
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, 1st Ed. - Gary Gygax
and last, but definitely not least,
Days of War, Nights of Love - Crimethinc. Ex-Worker's Collective
This book took all the things I had seen in the world, all the emotions I felt about how the world was, and my beliefs and ideas about what the world could be, and helped me put it together, make sense of it, and develop a coherent philosophy. Even though it has been years since I read it, the words in that book still influence me every day, and help me make sense of the world.
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"Where the red ferns grow" was the first real book I read and the emotion I got from the book hooked me forever on reading.
For Fantasy the first book I read was my father's old version of "The Hobbit" that was 25 years old in 1977 sitting on the bookshelf. It was a hard read for my 7 yr old mind but it forged me into a Fantasy fan.
Lord of the Rings - it's ultimately why I studied so many foreign languages as a kid, and eventually got a phd in linguistics.
Dragon #60 - my first roleplaying book - I bought it for the Elves (Tolkien influence, of course), and a friend of mine had just discovered D&D, so I started playing almost right away after that.
Lots and lots of Robert Heinlein books as a teenager - that's how I almost became a physicist. I guess Tolkien was a better writer in the end :)
The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper) - I saw this in the school library when I was in third or fourth grade, and that started my love of fantasy, and dark fantasy in particular.