The 10 Most Influential Books in Your Life...
- Thread starter HaventGotALife
- Start date
Heh. Not my old man. I wouldn't be surprised if mine had some on him at the time!
Sci fi dominates my list too. 
"Charlotte's Web" - EB White. The first book I read and one of the most loved. I never ate pork again, although I still hate arachnids.
"The BFG" - Roald Dahl. Still my favourite Dahl book.
"The Phantom Tollbooth" - Norton Juster. One of the first really funny-clever books I remember reading. Still good, and its final line pretty much sums up how I feel today.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - Douglas Adams, and all the other books in the trilogy of 4, 5, 6. Whatever. It made me the person I am.
"The Time Machine" - HG Wells. The first of his books that I read and one of his finest.
"2001: A Space Odyssey" - Arthur C Clarke. This story has influenced me more than any other in my adult creative life.
"Nineteen Eighty Four" - George Orwell. Probably the first time that a book left me shaken and disturbed.
"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley. The second time, arguably much harder this time.
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - Philip K Dick. Chosen purely for personal reasons.
"The Lord of the Rings" - JRR Tolkien. I was in New Zealand and needed to read something to pass the time. This seemed apt.
Both "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" - Lewis Carroll. This eased the pain of the events of last year, and oddly seemed more comforting than I thought.
Yes, I chose 11. I was never good at counting or following directions at school either. That's why I became a viola player.
"Charlotte's Web" - EB White. The first book I read and one of the most loved. I never ate pork again, although I still hate arachnids.
"The BFG" - Roald Dahl. Still my favourite Dahl book.
"The Phantom Tollbooth" - Norton Juster. One of the first really funny-clever books I remember reading. Still good, and its final line pretty much sums up how I feel today.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - Douglas Adams, and all the other books in the trilogy of 4, 5, 6. Whatever. It made me the person I am.
"The Time Machine" - HG Wells. The first of his books that I read and one of his finest.
"2001: A Space Odyssey" - Arthur C Clarke. This story has influenced me more than any other in my adult creative life.
"Nineteen Eighty Four" - George Orwell. Probably the first time that a book left me shaken and disturbed.
"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley. The second time, arguably much harder this time.
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - Philip K Dick. Chosen purely for personal reasons.
"The Lord of the Rings" - JRR Tolkien. I was in New Zealand and needed to read something to pass the time. This seemed apt.
Both "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" - Lewis Carroll. This eased the pain of the events of last year, and oddly seemed more comforting than I thought.
Yes, I chose 11. I was never good at counting or following directions at school either. That's why I became a viola player.
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The 10 most influential books in my life (in the order I probably first read them)
Bible Firsts by Charles Paddock. Someone gave this to me when I was about 8. I got so angry when I was reading the story of Noah (because I realised that vast majority of the innocent animals, and all the innocent children and innocent babies drowned) that I threw the book across the room and decided that that God was too mean to be real. So, after picking up the book, I put it in with my mythology books. From that day onward I think I was an atheist.
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum. I loved the edition that was illustrated by Maraja. This was my sister's book and I was so jealous that it was hers. I bought my own copy a few years back. One example of the illustrations in this book
The Revised 14th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I know it was 24 volumes but they were the books I read the most as a child.
War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. I read this as a teenager. Before I read it my 'knowledge' of Indians came from 1960 TV shows. This book ade me realised how wrong that portrayal was and also made me question how Australian Aboriginals had been portrayed to me.
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. I was 14 when I heard the news reports of their survival and 17 when I read the book. I think this book showed me just how resilient people can be.
Earth Abides by George R Martin. Started me on the road to reading post-apocalyptic books.
He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum. Fossum really knows how to portray mentally ill characters and I think her portrayal of Errki is this book is her best.
The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness. Beautiful book with the best, and most interesting, grandparents IMO ever portrayed in literature.
The Library by Zoran Zivkovic. Marvellous collection of short fantasy stories, all with a book theme.
Honorable mentions
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
The Diary of Anne Frank
Egil's Saga (as well as Laxdaela Saga, Njal's Saga and the Saga of Grettir the Strong)
Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Venus on the Half-Shell by Philip Jose Farmer (using the alias Killgore Trout)
Bible Firsts by Charles Paddock. Someone gave this to me when I was about 8. I got so angry when I was reading the story of Noah (because I realised that vast majority of the innocent animals, and all the innocent children and innocent babies drowned) that I threw the book across the room and decided that that God was too mean to be real. So, after picking up the book, I put it in with my mythology books. From that day onward I think I was an atheist.
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum. I loved the edition that was illustrated by Maraja. This was my sister's book and I was so jealous that it was hers. I bought my own copy a few years back. One example of the illustrations in this book
The Revised 14th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I know it was 24 volumes but they were the books I read the most as a child.
War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. I read this as a teenager. Before I read it my 'knowledge' of Indians came from 1960 TV shows. This book ade me realised how wrong that portrayal was and also made me question how Australian Aboriginals had been portrayed to me.
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. I was 14 when I heard the news reports of their survival and 17 when I read the book. I think this book showed me just how resilient people can be.
Earth Abides by George R Martin. Started me on the road to reading post-apocalyptic books.
He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum. Fossum really knows how to portray mentally ill characters and I think her portrayal of Errki is this book is her best.
The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness. Beautiful book with the best, and most interesting, grandparents IMO ever portrayed in literature.
The Library by Zoran Zivkovic. Marvellous collection of short fantasy stories, all with a book theme.
Honorable mentions
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
The Diary of Anne Frank
Egil's Saga (as well as Laxdaela Saga, Njal's Saga and the Saga of Grettir the Strong)
Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Venus on the Half-Shell by Philip Jose Farmer (using the alias Killgore Trout)
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Alphabetical by author
Piers Anthony Macroscope
Isaac Asimov The Foundation Trilogy
Paul J. Cohen Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis
Albert Einstein The Meaning of Relativity
Frank Herbert Dune
Douglas R. Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach
John W. Link The Mathematics of Music
Carl Sagan Cosmos
J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
Edwin Bidwell Wilson Advanced Calculus
Piers Anthony Macroscope
Isaac Asimov The Foundation Trilogy
Paul J. Cohen Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis
Albert Einstein The Meaning of Relativity
Frank Herbert Dune
Douglas R. Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach
John W. Link The Mathematics of Music
Carl Sagan Cosmos
J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
Edwin Bidwell Wilson Advanced Calculus
A
Amaris
Guest
They seem almost magical, don't they? It reminded me of another book I read as a child, which was Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth. I remember adoring it as a child.
I'm starting to think this thread should have been titled "The Top 25 most influential books...", as we seem to keep piling on top of one another with other influential books we've read.
Edit: Ooh! I almost forgot:
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
When I was younger, definitely books like The Narnia Chronicles, The Wrinkle in Time series (and later any other Madeline L'Engle fiction I could get a hold of), The Giver (I've also read Gathering Blue, but not the last two books in the series), The Hobbit and the Indian in the Cupboard series.
In my teens my reading was largely taken up with Star Wars novels, so I should probably mention the Zahn trilogy and X-Wing series as shaping my pop-culture sci-fi loving self.
I also remember as someone raised evangelical Christian that reading Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz was a huge deal. The book made it okay to question the political affiliations and cultural assumptions that went hand-in-hand with that culture of Christianity, without rejecting faith altogether.
But probably my most valued collection of books from my childhood is the complete Calvin and Hobbes set sitting across from me on my shelf right now.
In my teens my reading was largely taken up with Star Wars novels, so I should probably mention the Zahn trilogy and X-Wing series as shaping my pop-culture sci-fi loving self.
I also remember as someone raised evangelical Christian that reading Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz was a huge deal. The book made it okay to question the political affiliations and cultural assumptions that went hand-in-hand with that culture of Christianity, without rejecting faith altogether.
But probably my most valued collection of books from my childhood is the complete Calvin and Hobbes set sitting across from me on my shelf right now.
I'm starting to think this thread should have been titled "The Top 25 most influential books...", as we seem to keep piling on top of one another with other influential books we've read.
Ten is pretty brutal.
A
Amaris
Guest
I'm starting to think this thread should have been titled "The Top 25 most influential books...", as we seem to keep piling on top of one another with other influential books we've read.
Ten is pretty brutal.
I don't know, if I sat here long enough, I could easily pull down 50 titles that have been influential in my life.
Oh no. I meant that it's a brutal cut. I could come up with 100!
A
Amaris
Guest
Oh no. I meant that it's a brutal cut. I could come up with 100!
100? Pshaw! How about ten hundr-er, a thousand!
HaventGotALife said:I enjoyed my Freshmen year of High School's English course. We read Romeo and Juliet, we read Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, and, of course, Animal Farm. The only thing I can figure is that I was being taught by a Communist.Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and I went through it in about a week and we were supposed to read it over 2 months.
Isn't it great when books are so good that you like doing your homework
?
HaventGotALife said:I enjoyed my Freshmen year of High School's English course. We read Romeo and Juliet, we read Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, and, of course, Animal Farm. The only thing I can figure is that I was being taught by a Communist.
Isn't it great when books are so good that you like doing your homework
I don't know why that class stuck with me the way it did. I will say, the first Jon Krakauer book that I read was in Sophomore year (Into the Wild). And someone mentioned Things Fall Apart up-thread. We read that in Junior year. But I remember that Freshmen year course like it was yesterday. The books were so good! I almost forgot--we performed a play as well (12 Angry Men).
That's awesome. I wish we had more plays. The only one I was part of was an adaptation of Hansel & Gretel. So, you might say Grimm's fairytales are another influential book of mine
I didn't like the books I read in college, however. My lit class, we read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Life of Pi. I couldn't stand either one. I guess I am a fan of moderism. Stream-of-cosciousness, not my forte.
We did 4 of Shakespeare's tragedies, but probably my favorite play from high school was Shaw's Pygmalion in senior year because we decided to stage it/My Fair Lady. But we kept Pygmalion's ending because Shaw's is clearly superior.
Oh my god yes! 5th grade and I can still remember how devastated I was. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back I very clearly went through the stages of grief.
Oh my god yes! 5th grade and I can still remember how devastated I was. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back I very clearly went through the stages of grief.
Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie) I often think of it as being the first 'real' novel I ever read and loved.
H2G2 (well, duh!)
Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco) if nothing else it influenced me to read more Eco.
Travel on an unknown planet (Sven Wernström) Horrid social-realism for children about some aliens taking a couple of hildren to various places on Earth where they encounter apartheid, dictatorship, abject powerty, war and the like. Influenced me to never trust a librarian!
The Thief's Journal (Jean Genet) Possibly because of my age at the time I first read it.
Excession (Iain M. Banks) The best space-opera -imho.
Sven Hassel The only writer of novels of war that I've ever read. The novels are not particularly well written or dramatic or anything, but they are written by someone with a first-hand knowledge of fighting in the second world war -on the German side.
Hunter S. Thompson. Not a book as such, although I do have a one-volume anthology of his articles, just because of the prose; gotta love gonzo!
The World According to Garp (John Irving) Got me started on American lit.
Neuromancer (William Gibson) Don't really know why I put it on this list, but I really liked it back then -and I'll probably read it again soon (it's been a while)
I don't do lists very well and all of ^these are merely what I could think up in the moment.
H2G2 (well, duh!)
Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco) if nothing else it influenced me to read more Eco.
Travel on an unknown planet (Sven Wernström) Horrid social-realism for children about some aliens taking a couple of hildren to various places on Earth where they encounter apartheid, dictatorship, abject powerty, war and the like. Influenced me to never trust a librarian!
The Thief's Journal (Jean Genet) Possibly because of my age at the time I first read it.
Excession (Iain M. Banks) The best space-opera -imho.
Sven Hassel The only writer of novels of war that I've ever read. The novels are not particularly well written or dramatic or anything, but they are written by someone with a first-hand knowledge of fighting in the second world war -on the German side.
Hunter S. Thompson. Not a book as such, although I do have a one-volume anthology of his articles, just because of the prose; gotta love gonzo!
The World According to Garp (John Irving) Got me started on American lit.
Neuromancer (William Gibson) Don't really know why I put it on this list, but I really liked it back then -and I'll probably read it again soon (it's been a while)
I don't do lists very well and all of ^these are merely what I could think up in the moment.
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We did 4 of Shakespeare's tragedies, but probably my favorite play from high school was Shaw's Pygmalion in senior year because we decided to stage it/My Fair Lady. But we kept Pygmalion's ending because Shaw's is clearly superior.
Oh my god yes! 5th grade and I can still remember how devastated I was. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back I very clearly went through the stages of grief.
Me, too. I cried buckets when I read that. I don't remember how old I was,but it was around 4th grade or the summer before 5th. Somewhere around there. I think that was the first time a book made me cry.
My folks were of the prohibition era, dad was old enough to play in a speak easy band, and mom remembered my gran making beer for the local speak easy bars. They could be completely conservative on the surface, yet be so very subversive privately. One of the funniest lines in 'Yentl' for me was when the father said he was sure it was OK with god she study the Torah, but he wasn't sure about the neighbors. That was so my parents. When mom found the pot stash she let fall the wish prohibition would come back so she could make beer again like she and gran had done. It's a funny old world.
- Strange In a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein (preferably the uncut one)
- The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
- Time Enough For Love, Robert Heinlein
- Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
- The Story Of B, Daniel Quinn
- Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Høeg
- Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith
- High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
- Titanic: End of A Dream, Wyn Craig Wade
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