I don’t mean which books have you had surgically implanted, although I guess it’s a possibility.
Which books have you so internalized that they’re always lurking in the back of your mind, form part of your mental furniture, or are practically memorised and you don’t need to look up sections?
I’ve taken a two-year break from LotR, because I found that I’ve read it so many times my past memories of reading it interfere with my current reading. I refer back to G. K. Chesterton all the time, mentally, especially Orthodoxy. I have Shevek’s thoughts about intimacy (from The Dispossessed)) pretty much memorised. I think that I’ll re-read Gilead at least twice a year for the rest of my life. A lot of my thoughts (and mental voice) are a combined dose of Kathleen Norris, Madeleine L’Engle, and Robin McKinley.
What’s kicking around in the back of your head?
Cheese. And an invisible pink monkey that throws things.
Oh, wait. Books.
Let’s see… Heinlein’s Double Star, Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, and especially Ethan of Athos, Pat Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia, Robert Frezza’s A Small Colonial War, Daniel Gallery’s U-505, and Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides.
Others, too. Some Nora Roberts, though nothing of hers is coming through in particular. Some flashes of PG Wodehouse, but that’s just Jeeves being evil again.
The Phantom Tollbooth; The Tale of the Land of Green Ginger; The Secret Garden; A Little Princess; The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and the Little House series (among others).
As an adult:
Most of the Georgette Heyer’s; all of Josephine Tey; most of Oliver Sack’s work (which I see at work sometimes–I mean neuro deficits, not Dr Sacks!); Mary Stewart’s novels and Arthurian Trilogy; Pride and Prejudice.
I’m sure there are more (Rendell, James, Christie, Crusie), but that’s enough for now.
I’d like to be able to say, why, The Brothers Karamazov, but let’s not fool ourselves…
Most of Stephen King’s stuff- I’ve reread some books so often I can almost quote them in my sleep. The characters are like old friends that I think of fondly.
The Trial by Franz Kafka. One of the most haunting books I’ve ever come across. It has to be read in the original German, though. I have yet to come across a decent translation into English.
Quite a bit by Cynthia Heimel. 3/4 of everything she’s written is crap, but that 25% is very, very good. I learned quite a bit about relationships from Cynthia, and she’s also the one who taught me how to trust myself and my own instincts. That said, she’s gotten crazy in her own age.
This is probably going to sound weird, but Kafka and Heimel are two authors that I feel I almost know. As in if I’m having a particularly awful day dealing with my bosses and the patrons, I could turn around after finishing work, and Kafka would be right there with his strange little smile, ready to steer me to a coffee house to debate some obscure philosophical point and get my mind off things. Or if I were reminiscing about old girlfriends, I could see Cynthia coming along to tell me what I did wrong and tell me how not to repeat it with Mrs. Fresh.
It’s doubly strange with Cynthia, because I don’t think we’d get along in real life. At all. I think Kafka and I would hit it off immediately.
Possibly it’s odd but, A Spell For Chameleon. The series got pretty sucky after a few novels, but Bink was a really solid character that could easily be identified with. I always wanted more Bink.
Tolkien saga
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series
Alice in Wonderland
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel
The Forever War
A Christmas Carol
The Lathe of Heaven
The Dispossessed (LeGuin, that is)
The Complete Walker
V. (Thomas Pynchon)
Ten Ever-Lovin’ Years with Pogo
Watchmen
V for Vendetta
Goedel, Escher, Bach
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Then Kill Him. Persuasion, the rest of Austen also, but this one the most. Mr God, This is Anna Doing Our Best (but only my own story) Wizard of Earthsea - the whole series, including The Other Wind The Hobbit Hawke’s Bay for the Happy Wanderer
I’ve been a late convert to PG Wodehouse, but random lines will pop into my memory and make me giggle. Likewise with Agatha Christie scenarios, I get rather Miss Marpleish and decide that someone I’ve just met is a bit like the butcher’s boy who ran off with the shop takings and the maid from the rectory.
Lord of the Barnyard, by Tristan Egolf, which is just maybe the best book I’ve ever read. And some stuff by Stephen King, like* Christine*, Firestarter, and Carrie.
Most everything by Lois McMaster Bujold, specifically the Vorkosigan books, and the 5 gods books; Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein; David Weber’s Honor Harrington books; Terry Pratchets books; Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and Much Ado anbout Nothing;
To Kill a Mockingbird; and in nonfiction Karmer Listen for a Lonesome Drum; Tilke’s Oriental Costume; Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d; Maenchen-Helfen World of the Huns
Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. It is a small comfort when I am feeling like the only sane man in a world gone mad.
Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, ‘Why, why, why?’
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land,
Man got to tell himself he understand.
The works of Robert Anton Wilson, primarily the Cosmic Trigger and Illuminatus! series (with Robert Shea). There’s the Principia Discordia too, of course.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, the bodies of work of Shakespeare - primarily The Tempest, Macbeth and Hamlet - and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nabokov. And Stephen King. It’s been years since I’ve read any of his stuff, but I read about 12 of his books between the ages of 11 and 13 or so, and most of my fiction ideas involve some supernatural elements and younger (mostly high school age) kids. Granted, I’m much closer to high school age to retirement and I came up with some of these ideas IN high school, but it was only a couple of years ago that I realized where all this came from.
