Books that changed your life

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OK, looks like most of the book threads have died down for the time being, so let’s start another.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Ukulele Ike’s comment in the book recommendations thread, while recommending The Master and Margarita to Mully, that it would “change [his] f*cking life, man”. It certainly changed mine, as have many other books. What books have had a definable effect on your life? I don’t necessarily mean favorites, or the books that you’d take to a desert island, but the books that in some way altered the way you’ve lived your life and how you view the world and people around you.

My list, more or less in chronological order of when I read them:
[ul]
[li]The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov. Found this on the shelf of the Poinsett County Public Library in Harrisburg, AR, during my senior year of high school. We’d moved just before the school year started from Fayetteville, AR, which was a cultural mecca by comparison. I probably read it through three times the first week after I checked it out. Various aspects of it strongly influenced my course selections, paper topics, and other decisions throughout my college career, provided the grist for the first fellowship application I ever wrote, etc. The book and its history are almost enough to convince you that it’s true that “manuscripts don’t burn” – and the knowledge that they and their authors can indeed be destroyed is the more heartbreaking for it. It still tells me a lot about a person when I find that they’ve read and enjoyed it.[/li][li]Ulysses, James Joyce. Had an opportunity to read this the first time as a junior in high school with an after-school group organized by one of our high school English teachers, led by a lit prof from the U. of Ark. Really opened my eyes to the varieties of narrative form, and set me to thinking about academic study of literature as a possible career path.[/li][li]Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne. Practically every convention the novel would ever have parodied within a generation or so of the rise of the form in English, with a wicked but ultimately affectionate sense of humor that continues to influence my outlook on life; if the people around me knew why I was whistling “Lilliburlero”, I’m sure my reputation as an even-tempered guy would suffer.[/li][li]The Odes of John Keats, Helen Vendler. This I read after being in an NEH summer seminar led by Professor Vendler at Harvard. If I’d had any doubts about pursuing a career as an academic and about specializing in lyric poetry, this book, the seminar, and the approach to close analysis of poetry they embody ended them . . . for a time.[/li][li]The Star-Apple Kingdom, Derek Walcott, Selected Poems, 1965-1975, Seamus Heaney, Skating with Heather Grace, Thomas Lynch, and Daily Horoscope, Dana Gioia. These books convinced me it’s worthwhile continuing to read contemporary poetry, despite the mountains of dreck you have to wade through to find the good stuff; even reliable poetry publishers like Knopf and Farrar Straus Giroux put out a certain amount of unreadable material.[/li][li]Poetry and Ambition, Donald Hall. Listed not so much for the whole book as for the title essay, which I read in either The Kenyon Review or The Hudson Review (not sure which at this remove), and which I copied and carried around with me for years until it appeared in this collection of essays. A great reminder of what it is poets ought to be about, and why the current poetry culture is so bad for good writing.[/li][li]The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon. While not as much of a literary achievement as V or Gravity’s Rainbow, I’d never have read those if I hadn’t read Lot 49 first. It also spurred my interest in information theory, leading me into reading John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and a bunch of other things, including Jeremy Campbell’s Grammatical Man, and giving me a lot of insight into the problems of a digital model of reality.[/li][li]Grammatical Man, Jeremy Campbell. Revived my interest in science by exploring the intersection between information theory and evolutionary biology. There are better books on nearly any of the various topics touched on, but in its time it did an admirable job of tying them together and making me reconsider my neglect of the so-called “hard sciences”.[/li][li]The Language Instinct, Stephen Pinker. Overturned many of my most cherished ideas about language and learning, and still informs my thinking about communication and human development.[/li][li]The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond. While Guns, Germs, and Steel is better known, I think The Third Chimpanzee may well be better – certainly, it’s more tightly focused. Much of what I think I know about how and why the human animal is different from (or the same as) other animals, and why we behave the way we do, derives from this book.[/li][/ul]

2

Without a doubt “All The King’s Men”

Read it in high school and identified fully with the invulnerable Jack Burden.
Saying that it inspired me to work in state government wouldn’t be a good thing, would it?

3

Richard Bach’s “Illusions” and Bertrand Russell’s “Understanding History”. They were the first ones (read around the same time) that took my thinking away from that of a child and onto the path of thought that would become my adult self.

4

Don’t need a second to think about it. Hit this sheltered, small town boy like a lightening bolt, slap in the middle of the forehead. ‘Catcher in the Rye’. It was the key to the cage door.

5

without a doubt, margaret atwood’s “cat’s eye.” it really opened my eyes in regards to how we, as women, act towards each other when we’re young. i guess it’s something you don’t really realise until you get older.

oh, and wally lamb’s “she’s come undone.” i still can’t believe a man wrote that book.

er, one last one: florence king’s “confessions of a failed southern lady.” i really, really related to it. plus, it was hilarious.

6

Orwell’s “1984”: I think this book woke me up the idea that people, as a whole and as an individual, can be made to believe (or quietly accept) almost anything. It was the first book that made me aware of how delicate the human mind really is. When i finished this book, for the first time in my life, i was truly scared.

7

cripes, i can’t believe i forgot that one. oh, and aldous huxley’s “brave new world.”

8

Yep, ‘1984’ was the book after, then ‘Animal Farm’ and then my head might just have exploded.

9

I can think of quite a few:

  1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith - while this may not be a great literary masterpiece, it changed my life. It’s the story of a girl growing up in total poverty and how she manages to overcome all the problems she encounters and succeed. Just thinking about it gets me emotional - my mom asked me to read it when I was 15, saying she loved it as a child. Having grown up in poverty in the inner-city, I could relate to Francie. My life and hers are almost exactly the same. I could relate to the fun she had with her brother, her difficulties with her mother, her struggle to fit in when she knew she was different, her alcoholic father, and her love for reading. This book inspired me to reeveluate my life. I truly believe it made me a better person.

  2. The Poisenwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver - this book details the story of a family of four girls who travel to the Congo in 1959 with their parents because their father takes a post as a Christian missionary. It’s deeply personal, but it also addresses the political issues involved at the time. If you read it, you will have a better understanding of how much our lives changes for every decision, every word we speak, and you will look at the US government in a different light. My favorite line is: “My little beast, my eyes, my favorite stolen egg. Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I’ve only found sorrow.” Parts of the book are very sad,like this one, but it is also very joyous and hopeful. There is also much written about religion and how a person has to create their own spirituality as well.

  3. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison - this is the story of a man trying to find himself. It is about a black man trying to fit into a white society, a boy trying to become a man. There is symbolism in this book that is so original and awesome, and anyone who has made the move from child to adult can relate to the narrator’s struggle. It’s really universal, and Ellison’s writing is so truthful but still very poetic.

  4. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - I love this book because it taught me what to expect of good writing. The characters are so real, the writing so beautiful, and plot so gripping. The sub-story of unrequited love is beautiful, as is Lucy’s relationship with her father. All the good characters are heroes, all of them have something pure and decent to which I can aspire. The ending is incredible too.

  5. Memiors of a Geisha, Arthur Golden - any reader will love Golden’s prose - his paragraphs are like poems. It’s the story of a girl sold to a okita and trained to be a geisha, and also a love story that lasts nearly twenty years before it is fulfilled. The detail is exquisite, the introspection of Sayuri is enlightening, and it influenced my concept of fate and destiny.

  6. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert - you know how sometimes you get what you want but are not satisfied anyway? Or how some people seem to choose to be unhappy no matter what? Emma Bovary is that person, and the book explains what can happen when you live like this. The prose is also beautiful, and the plot is surprisingly deep.

  7. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - I love this book, I’m not even sure why. It’s VERY long, very detailed, almost to the point of anal-retentiveness. But the prose is awesome and the story is gripping - you can’t turn away. I wanted to be Anna, so that I could make the decisions for her. This book made me see how important it is to follow your heart but not lose your mind when you love someone.

  8. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb - I can’t even list the ways in which this book changed my thinking. Just read it, you will love it. It’s about a man, Dominic, with a schizophrenic twin brother. It’s Dominic’s search for his real father, how he comes to grips with his twin brother’s illness, the loss of the only women he truly loves, his memories of his abusive step-father. This book is absolutely incredible. Lamb also writes a lot about fate, destiny, and the roundness of life.

Happy Reading!

10

Italo Calvino’s “If on a winter’s night a traveler”. A most wonderful book for and about Readers. What compels you to read? And if his fictional exploration of that wasn’t brain-twisting enough, it’s also a brilliant author’s attempts at ten or so perfect beginnings of stories. Beyond the joy of reading it, when I first read it the book gave me a context for something so important to me as reading; I hail from one of the culturally benighted midwestern areas of the country where access is limited not only to the more obvious cultural delights (music, dance, theater, openly queer communities) but also to plain old good books. I don’t mean to revile the people themselves - there’s a mix of good and bad, as anywhere - but NO ONE READS, at least nothing more stimulating than a romance novel. Stifling. And then I went to artsy liberal arts college where people seemed to read not for pleasure but in order to analyze and critique to death - not that I’m against ALL mental masturbation. :slight_smile: Anyway, sweeping generalizations, and of course I don’t feel THAT critically about those that surrounded me, but the book was a godsend when I first found it. Any other Calvino fans out there?

“The Mind’s I”, by Hofstadter and Dennett, was my easy introduction to philosophical questions of consciousness, self, and soul. Some of the best excerpts from “Godel, Escher, Bach” make it in there, too, so it’s a good leaping-off point…

I’ll second “The Master and Margarita”, “The Cat’s Eye”, and “The Crying of Lot 49”, though I found Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” a different, richer version of “Lot 49”. I managed to get through high school without reading “Catcher in the Rye”, but just recently read Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and “Nine Stories.” I’m utterly fascinated by Seymour Glass now, and that reading had the added effect of making Coldfire’s posts on remembrance of WWII even more touching.

I just acquired a new edition of Borges’ collected stories, with the most delicious hand-cut pages. Have only previously read a few selections from “Labyrinths”, so I was drooling near it (not on it!) :slight_smile:

Am totally excited to go out and read some of these other mentioned books.

11

Italo Calvino’s “If on a winter’s night a traveler”. A most wonderful book for and about Readers. What compels you to read? And if his fictional exploration of that wasn’t brain-twisting enough, it’s also a brilliant author’s attempts at ten or so perfect beginnings of stories. Beyond the joy of reading it, when I first read it the book gave me a context for something so important to me as reading; I hail from one of the culturally benighted midwestern areas of the country where access is limited not only to the more obvious cultural delights (music, dance, theater, openly queer communities) but also to plain old good books. I don’t mean to revile the people themselves - there’s a mix of good and bad, as anywhere - but NO ONE READS, at least nothing more stimulating than a romance novel. Stifling. And then I went to artsy liberal arts college where people seemed to read not for pleasure but in order to analyze and critique to death - not that I’m against ALL mental masturbation. :slight_smile: Anyway, sweeping generalizations, and of course I don’t feel THAT critically about those that surrounded me, but the book was a godsend when I first found it. Any other Calvino fans out there?

“The Mind’s I”, by Hofstadter and Dennett, was my easy introduction to philosophical questions of consciousness, self, and soul. Some of the best excerpts from “Godel, Escher, Bach” make it in there, too, so it’s a good leaping-off point…

I’ll second “The Master and Margarita”, “The Cat’s Eye”, and “The Crying of Lot 49”, though I found Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” a different, richer version of “Lot 49”. I managed to get through high school without reading “Catcher in the Rye”, but just recently read Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and “Nine Stories.” I’m utterly fascinated by Seymour Glass now, and that reading had the added effect of making Coldfire’s posts on remembrance of WWII even more touching.

I just acquired a new edition of Borges’ collected stories, with the most delicious hand-cut pages. Have only previously read a few selections from “Labyrinths”, so I was drooling near it (not on it!) :slight_smile:

Am totally excited to go out and read some of these other mentioned books.

12

Just wanted to let you guys know that I just ordered “The Master and Maragarita” from Amazon…I should get it in a week or so and I’ll tell ya’ll if I like it - I’m sure I will! :slight_smile:

Also, I forgot “Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crudade” by Kurt Vonnegut. Very good book, Vonnegut flits between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, with incredible ease, reading his work is like being let in on an incredibly deep secret joke.

13

Titan by John Varley. In some inexplicable way (it’s an OK book, but not a great one), it was the catalyst that made me stop dreaming about being a science fiction writer and start actually trying to become one.

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. The great American novel. Hilarious and somehow inspired me to some of my best work. Barth is also responsible for one of my favorite quotes: “Science fiction writers aren’t like you or I. They have more fun.”

14

Box Man: A Professional Thief’s Journey by Harry King, as told to Bill Chambliss.

I ran across this book one day while working at the library, and I couldn’t stop reading it. I became aware of an underworld very different from what I saw on television and in the movies – of hardworking professionals who weren’t gangsters or desperados, but who happened to make their living by stealing and were supported and protected by a network of informants, fixers, fences, and even members of the legal system.

From that point on, this became the focus of my research and writing. Where Faulkner wrote about poor southern farmers and rich southern aristocrats, I write about pickpockets and hustlers in Chicago.

15

I’m in a hurry but i couldn’t leave this thread without mentioning:

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski. Extremely brutal, but it taught me so much about human nature, paranoid “outsider” mentality, resilience, the power of the spirit, and appreciating small moments of joy and ill-fated love. It opened my eyes and made me look at everything in a new light - I actually respond to people differently because of this book. I highly recommend it!!! I read it about once a year now.

The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas. Hey, I always knew that Freud stuff wasn’t bullshit. Made me appreciate the power of sexual symbolism. It’s a stunningly beautiful book.

I, also, loved The Poisonwood Bible. The Master and Margarita is a must, but I have to admit I would have never read it but for having dated a Russian man for 6 months who taught me much about literature.

-sulla

16

1984 - Same reasons others have provided.

Orientalism, by Edward Said. This book completely changed my perspective on culture. I could almost feel my brain expanding as I read it.

The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve read most of Vonnegut’s work, and liked/loved them all, but this is my favorite.

There are more, but these are the first to come to mind.

17

As a kid I remember being affected by all the Judy Bloom books :slight_smile: I remember when they were banned from schools for being “objectionable” for young women… <chucklesnort>

As I got older and developed a love for the stage I found myself drawn to anything written by William Shakespeare.

Then I had my daughter.Now I find my Shakespeare books are a bit dusty… but hell… Now I can recite “Goodnight Moon” like there is no tomorrow…:cool:

18

I’ll second Foucault’s Pendulum, Paradocs, and offer The Leopard by Guiseppe Di Lampedusa, City of Glass by Paul Auster and A.S. Byatt’s Posession.

19

Sexual Character by Marva Dawn. I had to read it for a class, and it was my first introduction to character ethics. The idea that who we are is formed by the choices we make, and that therefore we can make choices based on who we want to be absolutely blew me away. I can honestly say that I look back and see this in action in my life, and everything has been profoundly different since I discovered this key.

The Punkyova

20

paradocs:

Interesting. I don’t think I’d even compare the two. Though they both deal with conspiracies and the preservation of organizations across centuries, that’s one of the main themes of Pendulum, while I’d argue that Lot 49 is fundamentally about information theory: the reliability of communication channels, analog vs. digital encoding of messages, and the relationship (posited by Claude Shannon in the 1940s) of a fundamental similarity between the mathematical descriptions of thermodynamic entropy and the information content that can be transmitted by a noisy channel. In any case, it made my list primarily because of the intellectual interest in information theory it kindled in me; Foucault’s Pendulum, much as I enjoyed it, only led to a brief resumption of a passing interest in secret societies, one that dwindeled away again soon after. I’m still following up trails that started from my reading of Lot 49 fifteen years ago.