Which book prompted you to leave your safe, comfortable home and venture out into the wide world? For me, it has to be “The Razor’s Edge,” by Somerset Maugham. After reading that, I knew I could never be happy in my small city in Texas. I’d suspected that before, but it was reading this book that made me know I had to leave, no matter what happened to me. And it’s been a wild ride ever since, one that I would never ask a refund for.
Reading other books may have left an impression on me or given me new insights and such. But THIS was the book that kicked me out into the cold world.
I don’t know about the triple-breasted whores, but you can get a Gargle-Blaster in Ottawa. I’ve never been, so I can’t tell you whether it’s like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick, but I’m pretty sure it’s got booze in it, at least.
I guess it would have to be Gone With The Wind. I decided I wanted to be feisty and strong like Scarlet O’Hara. Every time I read the book I wonder more and more what the hell I was thinking!
For me it was a combination of three books: Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five”, Richard Bach’s “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah” and Anthony Burgess’s “A Clockwork Orange”. I stayed up all night reading them one after another, fell asleep and woke up with a sense of humor and a sense of the ridiculous.
The Executioner’s Song- it made me realize “Hey! There really are other guys like me out there- alleged bastard grandsons of Harry Houdini who really don’t want the white picket fence paradigm as a life goal!”
Ah, call me Hemingway cause I slay myself… but seriously folks…
Since I haven’t ventured that far geographically I’ll go with the ones that helped change my perspectives.
Fates Worse Than Death and Wampeters, Foma & Granfaloons by Kurt Vonnegut for the influence it had on my writing and worldview, especially his depiction of absurdity and his voiced realization “I realized I really don’t have to write like a cultured Englishman who’s been dead for a century to say something worth reading” [or words to that effect, I don’t have it in front of me])
Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell- things I always thought but he said so much better
Cosmos- the union of history, science and practically all other matters of study in a readable format was fantastic and made me understand the practical application of math and science I [hadn’t] learned in school. Also one of the reasons I decided not to pursue a Ph.D. in history.
John Varley’s Titan. It made me stop dreaming about it and actually make an effort to write SF and get it published. I can’t for the life of me explain why, but once I finished it, I was on my way.
In my family, the assumption was that one would not stay where one started. My great-aunt sent me a postcard map of the London Underground on my 10th birthday, inscribed that she was sure I’d need it some day.
My family are also book people so we sort of share a common language of childhood books. Lots of Kipling, that both my parents read growing up, and then I read as a child. Kim, especially, for that sense of the mysteries of the world.
My mother still likes me to send her books I read so that she can allude to them and know I have the reference. This is tricky as she has a much better memory than I do.
One of my best recent moments with Mum was when she came to visit from Sydney to Boston. I made her read the Sandman series, and then on a quick trip down to NYC, she dragged me to Washington Square. She was insistent that we find it because of The Sound of Her Wings.
There isn’t one book that actually caused me to up and leave. It was always clear that I was going, it was just a matter of turning 18 and buying a plane ticket somewhere. The literary platform of knowledge, wisdom and inspiration I stood on was broad. Almost everywhere I visit I have old friends from books waiting for me.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I don’t worship it as totally as I once did, but that book was the kicker that got me started on a long (and not yet finished, I hope) personal transformation.
Come to think of it, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was another.
Shoot, I’m one of those people who can list 50 Books That Changed My Life Forever.
The two most notable with regards to my ADULT life:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche… I dunno, he just gave me permission to let go of the old and start from scratch, destroy the old values and create new ones, destroy the old self and create a new sense of reality. I was 19. Nothing was ever the same after that. I describe this in detail in what may very well have been my first post here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8110372&postcount=30
Essentially,
And this is going to maybe sound a little weird, but…
**‘‘Why People Believe Weird Things’’ by Michael Shermer. **
Now it’s kind of a funny book, the sort that breaks down pseudoscientific claims. It’s not an overwhelmingly great book but the first chapter, which is a basic ‘‘Introduction to the difference between science and pseudoscience’’ changed my life and the way I look at the world forever. I had never had anyone sit down and explain to me what science was until that moment (for the record, ‘‘that moment’’ was about three months ago.) I understood and respected science, but I was still in the Nietzsche camp with regard to, ‘‘science is just one of many equally valid perspectives.’’ I didn’t understand the difference between a bad argument and a good argument. I didn’t understand the value of empiricism or rationality with regards to my personal life philosophy.
Shermer’s book kind of shot the idea of ‘‘science as just another philosophical interpretation’’ all to hell. That first chapter wiped the floor with my misconceptions about science.
I don’t know if I can really properly convey the impact this book had on me.
Let me put it this way:
BEFORE reading Why People Believe Weird Things: Husband: I don’t think therapists at Christian clinics are as effective as therapists at secular clinics. Their personal beliefs can get in the way of their ability to be effective clinicians. Me: Well, I don’t know if I agree with you. It seems to me that religion can be a very effective healer and you want to go and invalidate people’s religious experiences blah blah blah
AFTER reading Why People Believe Weird Things: Husband: I don’t think therapists at Christian clinics are as effective as therapists at secular clinics. Their personal beliefs can get in the way of their ability to be effective clinicians. Me: What evidence do you have to suggest that is true? Have there been studies that indicate this is the case?
[note: I make no claims as to the veracity of husband’s argument. Just pointing out how this book changed the way I approach life.]
It started there, and before I knew it I was using the same rational/empirical approach to guiding my own life and dealing with my own emotional shit, and it’s completely transformed my mental health in a way I can’t describe. Now when I feel like I worthless P.O.S. I just look at all the evidence, smack myself into rationality and accept the conclusion that my intellect has gifted me. I trust myself again. You can’t really get much more valuable than that.
I think of learning as walking around in a big house opening different doors. You never know until you open the door that there was a room in the house the whole time you weren’t aware of. Reading Nietzsche and Shermer’s book was like opening the door and discovering a whole freakin’ other city… and then going and living in that city. So yes. Books that launched me into the world!
I don’t think it was any one specific book, but all of the books that I have read point me in new directions and send me to new places. I have always known that Texas is not for me and that I could not spend my life there, and books were always a way for me to leave without getting out of bed. Once I finally got to a point where I knew it was time to leave I sought out many books that helped me know I made the right decision and gave me information I need for my journey but it was a combination of all of the books that I have read that have led me to where I am now as well as where I will go in the future.
The Wind In The Willows did it for me - all about striking out into the world but having home comforts to come back to. Even at 12, I could identify with that sentiment.
You needed a book? Sorry, I found out it was possible to “go places! WITHOUT your parents!” from hearing a great-aunt relate her trip to Chile and Argentina. I was 3 and could already read but hadn’t started Verne yet
Hum, I don’t know. I read everything I could get my hands on, but the actual catalyst was a talk given by a 17-yo girl when I was 12, telling about her foreign exchange experience. I promptly conceived an ambition to do the same, and went at 15. I suppose the reading was the compost of my mind, but something else provided the seeds.
I don’t think there was a book in my life that first impressed “experiencing something new” to me. I knew that going to new and exotic places was always an option because I had people around me who had done so. We had lots of family friends who had come from other places, and some of them lived in “exotic locales” [one lived in Kenya for a number of years] as part of the life that they had experienced. If anything, I feel too tied down at the moment and am ambivalent about settling down where I am. However, I realize that there are more important goals for me to achieve before I can go on more adventurous journeying.
