What book was most influential on your life and why

hedgetrimmer

A lot of my friends are posting book reviews on their blogs these days, and I'm hearing a lot of talk about books which people read at key times in their lives, and the book(s) either saw them through tough times, or became a new direction for them. Either way, they proved a major influence on their lives and the book has taken a special place in their heart.

So..thought I'd ask..sorry if it's been asked before.

the one that springs to my mind for me is "LILA: An Enquiry into Morals" by Robert Prisig. Changed the way I think about life, the way I approach my writing, and my views on happiness and living life to be happy.

Pretty positive and influential book for me

Sposs

Ann And Barry.

It taught me that Ann likes red balls and barry likes trucks,it was very taught provoking at the time.

Imposter

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking.

Why? I'll let ye guess that one yourselves.

Wook

douglas adams, the hitchhikers trilogy
profound impact

Monty - the one and only

Moved

Hip

Candide by Voltaire.

I always felt like everybody got an instruction manual when they were born, but I must have lost mine. Then I found it...

Manach

"The Man who was Thursday" by Chesterton

That it is in fact good to look at the world from an odd angle.

Saruman

For deciding my fave Genre.. .Lord of the rings!

Vlad_Tepes

An american Prayer, by James D.Morrison
and also his Wilderness...they opened my mind to new views, thru these poems I found a hundred other little treasures, like Nietzche, Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg..

Caesar_Bojangle

How to be Colin Farrell - by Colin Farrell.

It has turned me into a better man

Hagakure - its full of philosophical content, very interesting book

colster

I would have to say Narcissuss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse.
The 2 characters represented the 2 sides of humanity. Narcissuss represented spiritual side of humanity and Goldmund the sensual.
Narcissus spent his life dedicated to his religion and a a monastic life.
Goldmund spent his life in more wordly way and feeding his senses.
This book is about the conflict between the flesh and the spirit.

This book had a great effect on me.
The main message is that you can't live a totally impulsive life dedicated to feeding the senses or a disciplined life totally dedicated to your sprituality/religion. Life should be a mix of the 2 if you are to be happy.

Funky

The Hobbit i suppose , got me started reading the genre and from then on 99/100 books i read were fantasy...

dod

Good Lord, where to start with a question like this?

#1 Where I'm Calling From (a Raymond Carver collection)
#2 Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
#3 All of Trollope
#4 All of Chekhov
#5 The Prince (Machavelli)

Once I've published these five, I'll probably wake up tonight a million times saying, bugger, I forgot to put that in the list, but hell, this is a good starting point.

funktastic

Finished 'Companero', biography of Che Guevara, pretty good. Nearly finished 'Brighton Rock' by Graham Greene,pretty decent read if you liked something like Clockwork orange, like an earlier version of it.

superconor

i think the 2 most influential books in my life were
The Colour Of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Magician - Raymond E. Fiest

both books brought me into the fantasy genre

McGinty

"The Road Less Travelled" and all of Scott Peck's books, they have had a profound effect on me. I remember reading the road less travelled and at first I was raging against it, and then three quarters of the way through the message hit me like a sledgehammer.

Also Allen Carr's easy way to give up smoking, and beleive me it works, nearly two years of the smokes and I don't miss them.

Also 'Polo', by Jilly Cooper helped me through one of my depressive periods.

sionnach

the hobbit, i had only read enid blyton stuff up until then, the hobbit was a revelation

yellum

The Diceman - Luke Rheinhart

Oh yeah

simu

I've read many many books and many have influenced me in their own way but one that stands out is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. We had to read it for school in transistion year and I suppose, I was more innocent about books and life in general back then than I am now so it had a greater influence on me then than it might have if I read it for the first time now.

It shocked me because it showed how easily what we call civilised behaviour can break down and how quickly humans can revert to mindless barbarity and violence, to a state of affairs where anyone who shows weakness or difference is stamped out.

eggshapedfred

"Generation X" by Douglas Coupland. It didnt really have a profound effect on me but it did sort of bring things together.its kinda like spending your life banging your head against a wall and not knowing why and then one day someone tells you why you're banging your head against the wall and from then on you don't mind doing it.

also "1984" by George Orwell (and Animal Farm and Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up For Air).

perhaps these are cliched reference points but they're MY cliched reference points.

Crash

Excession by Iain M. Banks

The first book of his i read and lead to me being severely hooked. also "Use of weapons" by same.

Mutz

Power of One - Great Book. Uplifting

Liquorice

Fantastic Mr. Fox-Roald Dahl. It was the first Roald Dahl book I read, I was about six. The reason I say that it was the most influential book on my life is because it got me interested in reading. Even now when I read his children's books I find them interesting.

LoLth

three hearts and three lions by.. emm, some nordic guy (I'll do a search and edit later).

reason: it was the first "proper" book I read, and it was also the first fantasy book I read (by myself, I had the hobbit as a bedtime story before this). Think I was about seven or eight.

literati

Ulysses, by James Joyce.

Fantastic book. Daunting at first - but well worth perseverance! If you find it difficult at first [as I did!] try the audio version. There is an excellent abridged audio version read by Jim Norton [bishop Brennan from Father Ted].

It is a fantastic exhortation to abandon yourself to life's chances. It definitely changed the way I look at things.

There has never been a better time to start it too. Next year is the anniversary of its setting, e.g. June 16th 1904. Try it. You won't regret it.

simu

Yes, I intend to get around to reading Ulysses, Literati! At the moment, I'm reading Proust's A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (in French as well!) so after that, Joyce should be easy!

Is there any particular edition you'd recommend? (i.e. with explanatory footnotes or a good introduction, maybe?)

GuanYin

Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.. a cliché but there you have it.

I'd put Lord of the Flies and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as books that had a profound effect too. The latter because it made me start to question everything (and read more).

Lorddrakul

I would have to say Derrida's Writing and Difference . It showed me that a lot of Western philosophy and religion rests on very tennuous grounds.

Also, to question everything, with the message that each interpretation is but an interpretation and as such is as valid as any other.

Mind blowing stuff. Not so much "All your fears are lies" so much as as "All your fears could be lies because the only truth is uncertainty"

Profound.

LD

avatar

Oh God... here goes

1. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe -- C.S. Lewis (The highpoint of the chronicles of Narnia, but I've always had a soft spot for The Silver Chair too)

2.The Lord Of The Rings --- J.R.R. Tolkien(I read this for the first time when I was six or seven.... haven't touched a non-fantasy book since)

3. Magician --- Raymond E. Feist (The opening of one of the best trilogies ever written... I won't read th books after the first three, they just CAN'T be as good)

4. Lord Foul's Bane -- Stephen Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, along with the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, are my favourite books of all time. Six moments of raw genius)

5. Assassin's Apprentice -- Robin Hobb (After the LOTR, the first real grown-up fantasy series I read.... Farseer trilogy. Classics. Apparently, he's writing a sequel trilogy, but I haven't read them yet)

6. Northern Lights --- Phillip Pullman (THE best kid's book ever written. Ever. And I'm including the other two books in that statement)

7. Mort --- Terry Pratchett (Got me hooked on Discworld, and still my favourite discworld book.... well, that and Pyramids.)

8. A Wizard of Earthsea -- Ursula le Guin (another book that hooked me on fantasy.)

9. The Vampire Lestat --- Anne Rice (Lestat is god. 'Nuff said.)

10. The Catcher In The Rye -- J.D. Salinger (This book changed my life. I think I'll go shoot a Beatle....)

avatar

Oh yeah, how could I forget....

11)The Stone and the Flute --- (Can't remember the author) (Very interesting and deep German fantasy novel. I think it's famous, bt I'm not sure)

Funky

Originally posted by avatar
5. Assassin's Apprentice -- Robin Hobb (After the LOTR, the first real grown-up fantasy series I read.... Farseer trilogy. Classics. Apparently, he's writing a sequel trilogy, but I haven't read them yet)

excellent book, Robin Hobb's an alias for Megan Lindholm afaik. The sequel series is called the Tawny Man and the first 2 books are out already with the third coming out some time in October iirc.