El Presidente Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I want to do a little more quality reading this year What is the one book that has most influenced you/made the most impression? Expand if you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalebread Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 That's a huge question. Only one book? Too many books that have influenced me or delighted me at least a little. But no one book meets the "most influenced' qualifier. Are we talking fiction? Non-Fiction? Recently? Or years ago when I was more impressionable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Presidente Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 That's a huge question. Only one book?Too many books that have influenced me or delighted me at least a little. But no one book meets the "most influenced' qualifier. Are we talking fiction? Non-Fiction? Recently? Or years ago when I was more impressionable? The one book (OK...three) which resonated with you in alighning/challenging your thoughts and have had some significant impact on the person you are today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfort Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 August Strindberg, The red room Of course, I see, and take my chances to infuse the world with swedish things of all sorts. Accept from cigars that is, even though there was a company that produced a swedish puro until last year. Back to the subject, The red room is a truly great novel, it´s a satire describing the lunacy and falseness in seeking fame. Even though it´s written in 1879 it feels universal an up to date. Happy reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogers72 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Without question, The Bible. As far as secular works go, probably Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples. I'm a history dork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micahzeff Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 As a teen the novel Siddhartha spoke to me, I felt like the book had been written just for me. During my time in college and the Peace Corps I read and reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance several times. My all time favorite novel is All the King's Men. Robert Penn Warren's prose is just beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalebread Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The one book (OK...three) which resonated with you in alighning/challenging your thoughts and have had some significant impact on the person you are today. OK, then. I'll have to go back and rethink this. But in the meantime, here are a few of the books that have impressed me recently: Fiction Welcome to Hard Times by E. L. Doctorow Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lathem The border trilogy books by Cormac McCarthy (basically any of his other books, too) The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins (or any collection of his poetry) Non-fiction A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Letter To A Christian Nation by Sam Harris The Tipping Point, Blink, and The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalebread Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The one book (OK...three) which resonated with you in alighning/challenging your thoughts and have had some significant impact on the person you are today. In that case, what comes to mind is Existentialism Is a Humanism an essay, or more correctly I think, a lecture given by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946. I first read it in the late 60s and re-visit it periodically. Also at the time I was reading Eric Fromm and Rollo May and all of it put together had (or must have had) a big impact on me. I suspect it's worn off by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montaigut Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 "The Prophet" - Kahlil Gibran Anyone who reads this book and is not moved is dead to the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Gargett Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The one book (OK...three) which resonated with you in alighning/challenging your thoughts and have had some significant impact on the person you are today. very hard to limit. loved siddarthra but not sure it had any major impact. if it is books you keep coming back to, i've read gerald durrell's collection many times. try and read lord of the rings every five years or so but i don't think i'm about to rush off to mordor to fight orcs (enough of that visiting new zealand). also re-read a lot of shakespeare's stuff regularly, especially lear and a few others but again, how much impact that has had, not sure. probably subliminally, many of the wine books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wil Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Without any shadow of a doubt, To Kill a Mockingbird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wil Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The border trilogy books by Cormac McCarthy(basically any of his other books, too) The Border trilogy is excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdlfoto Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Das Kapital by Karl Marx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbone Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 try and read lord of the rings every five years or so but i don't think i'm about to rush off to mordor to fight orcs I read The Hobbit and LOTR series time and time again. These have to be my favorite reads, but not life changing. Life changing? Getting Things Done (GTD) - David Allen **** my Dad Says is a LOL book. Anyone who a relationship with their Dad will love this book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfenst Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Atlas Shrugged- I probably re-read it every five years. I promise you will not be able to put it down. Ayne Rand. Teaches how "greed is good". The Reckoning -by Halberstam- explains why Japan eventually killed the U.S. dominance in auto prodiction. Although it is non-fiction, it is so brilliantly written you will feel like you are reading a great novel. The end of the book looks towards the future of China (and perhaps India and countries like Brazil) and how it/they will be big game changer(s). Soooo many others. What types do you like to read or matters do you want to learn about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechenman Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 For me **** and Jane started it all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrody Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 As DBone said, LOTR and Silmarillion...read many times. Not life changing. Great escapes from reality. Also read All Quiet on the Western Front many times. Not life changing. Great read For WHom the Bell Tolls, influential. Art of War - influential, can be used in life strategy and situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nocoins Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Lolita. The story itself is captivating, but the true pleasure of reading the book is in the prose. I think Nabokov has no equal in his mastery of language. It is the most well written book I have ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daboose Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Without question, The Bible. Agreed! Without a doubt ... the Bible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgarner Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I'm not sure, that is a tough question. I do hope though that my wifes one book isn't the book my dog stole off of her desk today and shredded in the back yard. Good thing she is out of town for work. Especially after my dog stole and shredded two Christmas stocking that she slaved over weeks making. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habanablue Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I want to do a little more quality reading this year What is the one book that has most influenced you/made the most impression? Expand if you wish. When I was about 16 I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X (just before or after the movie with Denzel Washington came out). This book made an everlasting impression on me. For a white kid in Suburban Australia, Malcolm X's story (as told to Alex Haley) made a profound impact on me, giving me a an idea of Malcolm X's experiences, an overview/his perspective of race relations in the US and also a wider awareness of Nation of Islam and wider Islam.... As a fan of history it aslo intorduced me to parts of the history of Slavery, race relations, Martin Luther King Jr etc. as an aside Angela Bassett's performance as Malcolm's wife Betty in the film is powerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicko Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Albert Facey "A Fortunate Life" - an autobiography/novel detailing a normal Aussie's extraordinary life. Amazing all the jobs and things he did, had some very tough times too - bull whipped as a kid working on a farm, fought at Gallipoli, lived in depression days, family dramas etc. Kept positive and generally was a good bloke. worth a read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torontonian Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 The Bible and Søren Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death are the only truly life-changing volumes that I've read. Some honourable mentions would be Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation, Pascal's Pensées, and Alvin Plantinga's Nature of Necessity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archosaur Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Just a few eye-opening reads off the top of my head: Abbey 'Desert Solitaire' Bukowski 'Post Office' Vonnegut 'Slaughterhouse Five' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicko Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 lol just bought 4 books online thanks to this thread "all the king's men", "doctor faustus", "atlas shrugged" and "eat the rich"(recommended elsewhere) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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