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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/29/2009 10:25:04 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		Wow! So many, I've probably read a few thousand books in my life all or most of the classics.
I'd say The Grapes of Wrath, War and Peace, Johnny got his gun, and one of the best in business, What they don't teach you at Harvard business school.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 12:59:49 AM   
FangsNfeet


Posts: 3758
Joined: 12/3/2004
Status: offline 		Duct Shui or rather the Duct Tape series.

Tao of Pooh

Kama Sutra

Taming of The Shrew

The Art of War

Jump Start Your Brain

Dracula



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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 5:51:02 AM   
slaveluci


Posts: 4294
Joined: 3/2/2007
From: Little Rock, AR
Status: offline 		How could I have forgotten "Johnny Got His Gun?" Thanks for reminding me, Popeye..........luci

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 8:16:15 AM   
Marc2b


Posts: 6660
Joined: 8/7/2006
Status: offline 		This list is off the top of my head at the moment so should not be consider conclusive; I’ve read so many books I’m sure there are a great many more.

In no particular order:

Anything by Shakespeare (not sure if he really counts because I’ve watched his plays – like their supposed to be – much more than I’ve read him, but he has certainly been an influence)

1894 - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World – Adolos (however the hell you spell it) Huxley
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury (and many others by Bradbury)
Dune - Frank Herbert (plus many other works by Herbert)
The Gor Books - John Norman (If it wasn’t for him I would probably not be on these boards today)
The Naked Ape - Desmond Morris (plus many other works by Morris)
Anything by Thomas Sowell
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Candide – Voltaire
Anything by H. G. Wells
Anything by Isaac Asimov
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twin.
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephan Crane
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein

Edited to add:  Oh yeah!  Johny Got his Gun.  I too thank you for reminding me, Popeye.

< Message edited by Marc2b -- 4/30/2009 8:18:14 AM >

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 9:09:32 AM   
Fitznicely


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Status: offline 		Hmm...

There was a short-lived comic book named "Crisis" that had a lot to say about multinational corporations and their activities in the third world. That shaped my early years, drove me to investigate more and generally keep an eye on the business news rather than the headlines if I wanted to get an idea of what was REALLY going on in the world...

Aside from that, John Norman's had an influence, as has David Feintuch, Tolkien, Orwell and a few others whose names escape me...

Significant mention should go to the rafts of books on "fortune telling" and paganism I read as a teen. They pretty much shaped my sprituality and love of philosophy and theology...

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 9:17:59 AM   
GreedyTop


Posts: 52100
Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Savannah, GA
Status: offline 		the Ender books (ORson Scott Card)

Heinlein

Orwell

many others....


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 9:58:06 AM   
amoryblane


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quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

The first couple of titles that come to mind are The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould and The Second Sex ("On ne naît pas femme: on le devient.") by Simone de Beauvoir. They were very much part of my formative years. There are many more, but these two titles sprang from my memory like a 'Jack in a box'.



I didn't read The Second Sex until my senior year of high school, but when I finally did I was in awe of Simone de Beauvoir.  To be honest, I only read it to impress a girl (a college kid who was helping coach our debate team) on whom I had an overwhelming crush, but my love for the book lasted much longer than the crush.

Your list reminded me (because Gould and Hofstadter are/were both great at popularizing very difficult concepts) how much Godel, Escher, Bach meant to me growing up.  It was the first book that ever really made me think about what it means to be conscious, which has since become a kind of fixation.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 10:00:09 AM   
amoryblane


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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

1984
 
Animal Farm
 
The Gulag Archipeligo
 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
 
Principia Discordia
 
Dune


The first several times I read through the Principia Discordia I couldn't stop laughing.  It was so funny I didn't even realize how close to the bone it was hitting until later.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 10:12:30 AM   
tiinkerbell


Posts: 96
Status: offline 		Moralia by Plutarch
Human, All -too-Human by Nietzsche
and
The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Charden
 
those three come to mind the quickest.
 
I wish you the best
 
Allison

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 10:17:27 AM   
RCdc


Posts: 8674
Status: offline 		The Bible and Apocrypha
The Prophet by Kahil Gibran
The Book of Taliesin
Karma Sutra
The Pendragon Cycle By Stephen Lawhead
The Diary of Anne Frank
Even the stars look lonesome - Maya Angelou
Bhagavad Gita
Guess How Much I love You - Sam McBratney
Lines in the sand - Mary Hoffman
Where the wild things are - Maurice Sendak
The House at Pooh Corner - A.A.Milne
I, Robot - Asimov
Little House on the Prairie -  Laura Ingles Wilder
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Famous Five Books - Enid Blyton
My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Oxford Dictionary
A Midsummer Nights Dream - Shakespeare
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Grays Anatomy of the Human Body
Books of Rupert Bear

the.dark.








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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 10:41:22 AM   
igor2003


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Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline 		Fast reply.

Probably the books that taught me the most about trying to see things from every angle before making a decision was the Thieves World series created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978 and edited by Lynn Abbey. Contributing authors included such SF greats as Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Andre J. Offutt, C.J. Cherryh, Janet Morris and more.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 11:04:58 AM   
breatheasone


Posts: 4004
Joined: 7/14/2007
Status: offline 		In ALL seriousness, the ONLY book i have read that has TRULY changed and CONTINUES to change my life is the Bible. The great thing about the Bible is you can get one FREE....lol now even i can afford that! LOL
Be well Y'all


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 11:15:17 AM   
Reyn


Posts: 10
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Status: offline 		Orwell =1984, Animal Farm
Asimov -
Tolkien -
Aristotle, Lilly, Ptolomey et al -
Solzhenitsyn
Many Manuals - Principle of Operations, Original UNIX material,VW Bus etc.,
Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
D.T. Suzuki on Bhuddism
Benjamin Franklin
Bible

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 11:15:32 AM   
cbtok


Posts: 70
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Status: offline 		Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Dispossessed."
Frank Herbert's "Dune."
Robert Heinlien's "Stranger in a Strange Land."

Not a book, but Arthur C. Clarke's paper on achieving geostationary orbit, published in Wireless World in 1945.


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 12:29:03 PM   
Vendaval


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Joined: 1/15/2005
Status: offline 		The list of books that have shaped my life have been long and varied.  A couple that have not been mentioned so far by other readers that I would like to recommend are:
 
The Temple of My Familiar - Alice Walker
The Mists of Avalon and Firebrand - Marion Zimmer Bradley
 
My list includes a long list of social protest literature, science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, natural history, poetry, plays, songs, and a whole host of other genres.

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 2:40:07 PM   
LaTigresse


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Joined: 1/15/2006
Status: offline 		This is going to sound terrible but the thing is, I have been reading voraciously since early grade school.

I read every book in the school library 2 years before I left elementary school. I would read anything just to read. My dad's survival books, Popular Mechanics magazines and western novels. My mother's stupid romance novels and Reader's Digest, both the magazine and the books. My grandmother and great aunt would collect books for me. About the only thing I had no interest in was the bible, though I was forced to read it for years.

I still devour books, though less so than I did when I worked less. I adore books. Hate parting even with the occasional weird freebies that come in the mail.

Yet........I cannot think of specific books. When I was very little, all of the Black Stallion books were my obsession. I was primarily a fiction reader until about 15 years ago. Now less fiction and more learning. Still, to try and make a list would be tantamount to writing a book.


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 2:44:04 PM   
Lashra


Posts: 4900
Joined: 2/9/2006
Status: offline 		Ms. Magazine- My Father bought me a subscription to this when I was teenager.
Life-Dad bought this for me too
Playgirl-I bought this for ME as soon as I was old enough
Vampirella Comics
MAD magazine
Cracked-The last two shaped my quirky sense of humor.

~Lashra


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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 2:48:34 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: slaveluci

How could I have forgotten "Johnny Got His Gun?" Thanks for reminding me, Popeye..........luci


Slaveluci, that book should be *required* reading for everyone!
Especially those in the senate and house when they're voting for veteran's programs!

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 3:29:01 PM   
LaTigresse


Posts: 26123
Joined: 1/15/2006
Status: offline 		It was required reading when I was in school. I remember loving it even though I did have to do a bloody book report on it......

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My twisted, self deprecating, sense of humour, finds alot to laugh about, in your lack of one!

Just because you are well educated, articulate, and can use big, fancy words, properly........does not mean you are right!

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RE: Which books most shaped how you see things? - 4/30/2009 3:38:40 PM   
kittinSol


Posts: 16926
Status: offline 		Dostoyevsky is horibly absent from this thread. As are Flaubert, Zola and Tolstoi, Stendhal and Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters (especially Charlotte, Wuthering Heights - what a story!) and Joseph Heller... So many amazing writers...

Literature, my best friend :-) .

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