The 10 Most Influential Books in Your Life...

[HaventGotALife]

Yeah, a little over ten. I feel like I'm forgetting something important....

We did away with the ten. Just list the books you think are important.

EXcellent thread, Haventgotalife!!!

I'm glad you are enjoying it, I am, too. You learn about new books you never read, you remember books that you have forgotten, and you learn a little about each poster in here and what they are like. It grew out of my need to simply express one of my top-ten lists. There's a book called My Ideal Bookshelf that I won from the local library back in August. It caused me to start rating my books, trying to create an ideal bookshelf that fit my personality and influenced me. It's a great read, by the way; my coffee table book.

Yea. I'm the same way. More so when it comes to Shakesphere. I may be in the minority that I didn't care for Shakesphere.

That's okay. He's not for everyone. I think he's pretty great myself. But there are some plays that connect with me and others that don't. The Richards and Henrys don't do much for me. My brother, who enjoys European history, loves them. To each their own. But Star Trek brought it into my life and because I wanted to understand the references (they stick to the easy-to-understand quotes, at least for the adult brain I have now), it changed me. King's English isn't the easiest, and not everyone likes iambic pentameter or the flowery language. There's nothing that says you have to like them.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Looking forward to the 10 Most Influential Records thread

So am I.

 

[HaventGotALife]

Looking forward to the 10 Most Influential Records thread

So am I.

Oh, that would be awesome! One of you two, start it!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Looking forward to the 10 Most Influential Records thread

So am I.

Oh, that would be awesome! One of you two, start it!

I dunno, your Inspirational Music thread seems pretty good enough already.

 

[trekkiedane]

Looking forward to the 10 Most Influential Records thread

So am I.

Oh, that would be awesome! One of you two, start it!

So great an idea! why don't you do it yourself... oh, too late...

 

[lurok]

Kudos to OP for original great thread idea .

Potentially could also have most influential movies and people too, I guess?

Interesting reading people's comments here, and how pervasive Orwell and Dr Seuss are .

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Speaking of Dr. Seuss, I should add The Lorax to my list. For a young reader, it conveyed a powerful message about how to treat the world we live in.

 

[trekkiedane]

Kudos to OP for original great thread idea .

Ab-so-lutely!

 

[Thestral]

Aw. [hugs]

I've yet to see the movie, and I'm not sure if I want to. I love the book, and I'm sure they did a fine job in the movie, but I'm not sure I want to visit that reality, when the one in my head is so strong.

It's actually really good IMO despite the horrifyingly misleading marketing. Not perfect of course and the actress they cast for Leslie wasn't like I pictured, but everybody did a great job and the captured everything really well.

 

[auntiehill]

284 Words per minute, 14% better than the national average. Yeesh.
320 words per minute, 28% better than the national average. At least I'm at 10th-grade student on the second one.

My results

You read 471 words per minute.
That makes you 88% faster than the national average.

I made sure to go at what I thought was a slow pace, to get all the info. I guess I read kinda fast, but then not as fast as some. But I read all day for a living, and most of that is total crap, so reading proper, clear English is a treat.

 

[Saga]

The Odyssey
The Outsiders

man, i can't believe i forgot about these two.

 

[sidious618]

Tough topic as different books were influential at different parts of my life. For instance, the LotR books were big for me when I was younger, but I've almost no interest in them now. So I'll try to go with what influences me the most now, or at least over the past five to six years. So in no particular order and with the caveat that these wouldn't necessarily be my favorite books either:

1) Duma Key by Stephen King
2) American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
3) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4) Yellow by Janni Visman
5) Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton
6) This Town Will Never Let Us Go by Lawrence Miles
7) By Cunning and Craft by Peter Selgin (great book if you're interested in working on your writing)
8) Tie between Enduring Love and Atonement by Ian McEwan
9) Priest by Ken Bruen
10) Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

I'm sure this would change tomorrow if given half the chance.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, a little over ten. I feel like I'm forgetting something important....

We did away with the ten. Just list the books you think are important.

I know, but I decided to go with it as a challenge-- and failed.

And I remembered what I forgot: The Weird Heroes anthologies that started in 1975.

 

[Pondwater]

That's okay. He's not for everyone. I think he's pretty great myself. But there are some plays that connect with me and others that don't. The Richards and Henrys don't do much for me. My brother, who enjoys European history, loves them. To each their own. But Star Trek brought it into my life and because I wanted to understand the references (they stick to the easy-to-understand quotes, at least for the adult brain I have now), it changed me. King's English isn't the easiest, and not everyone likes iambic pentameter or the flowery language. There's nothing that says you have to like them.

See. Because it was referred to in Trek and that huge book in Picard's ready room.... I thought I would like it. Had to read some in high school and it was a bit too tough for me for the exact reasons you already said. I have to admit that I did like Hamlet.

You're dead to me.

Your loss, pal.

 

[J.T.B.]

See. Because it was referred to in Trek and that huge book in Picard's ready room.... I thought I would like it. Had to read some in high school and it was a bit too tough for me for the exact reasons you already said. I have to admit that I did like Hamlet.

People talk about "reading" Shakespeare. I'm sure some people can do it, but I can't and I love the stuff. It wasn't meant to be experienced by reading on the page. If you can't see it performed there are some great audiobook versions out there.

Anyway, I've been working on this on and off for a few days, to see if I can meet the challenge of getting it down to ten. I concentrated on fiction and children's books (with one novel-style non-fiction in there), though I mostly read non-fiction. Here's what I came up with, in alphabetical order:

• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Perfected irony in comic form.)
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Probably the most heart of any novel I've read.)
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (The most perfect American book? Probably.)
• Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton (A kid's book with wonderful informational illustrations which grabbed my eye for graphic design).
• Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (love Conrad's style, this novel and its morality play theme get a slight edge over "Heart of Darkness" or "The Secret Agent.")
• Moby Dick by Heman Mellville (It's got everything and it's all briliant.)
• Norse Gods and Giants by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire (A children's mythology book that I monopolized from my library when I was in elementary school.)
• The Right Stuff (My memorable, immensely enjoyable introduction to New Journalism.)
• True Grit by Charles Portis (For me, the 20th century Mark Twain, with adventure, humor and wonderful characters.)

 

[thestrangequark]

^I love reading Shakespeare's sonnets, but as I said before, I agree that reading the plays is dull.

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Good point, I should have specified plays.

 

[Melakon]

Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Around 1970, I was living in a small college town along the Mississippi River. I'd often take the book down to the river bank and read it while while the sun came up, and watch the barges.

Stephen Whitfield's The Making of Star Trek. The first book I ever bought related to behind the scenes film and television production.

Holy Bible, King James Version. Growing up as a preacher's kid, it inevitably had some influence. Though I've not been inside a church for over 40 years.

Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. I read this when it was first published in paperback, about 20 years before it was turned into a movie.

Jack S. Margolis' A Child's Garden of Grass, around 1970. Though it was about another 7 years before I ever smoked a joint.

 

[BigJake]

Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders by Victor Appleton. (My earliest introduction to sci-fi, and to the original Tom Swift series which I went on to devour.)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. (As for so many people, my twin introductions to high fantasy literature.)
The Collected Works of William Shakespeare by That One Famous English guy. (Actually, I quite like reading the plays... well, some of them. "Timon of Athens" is rough going, I'll admit.)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Another Country by James Baldwin.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Conan Doyle
To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
the Harry Potter series, Rowling

Profiles in Courage, Kennedy
The Bible
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung