Books that influenced your life

jsmoke

jsmoke

jsmoke

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I am not a big book reader however someone posted this on fb so may as well give it a try, so what books have had significant influence of you. Here's a couple.

1. Death of a salesman, Arthur Miller (did this at school and a favourite of mine)
2. The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
3. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. Humble Pie, Gordon Ramsay
5. Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile, Geraint Anderson
6. The Beano and Beezer, and Dandy
7. 1984, George Orwell
8. Gulag Archipeligo, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
9. Bible
10. Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date, Robert X. Cringely
 

Clark the White

Clark the White

Clark the White

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The Spirits Book - Allan Kardec.
basically the foundation of spiritism.

over 1000 questions and answers to "high up" spirits about life, why we are here etc, spirit world, "ghosts" etc. changed my life. very good read intellectually even if you think it's all nonsense.

I distinctly remember reading parts of it thinking "ahh! that actually makes sense" imho a very interesting read. start from about page 60 though where the questions and answers begin if you read it and you want an easier read. because the whole book is pretty much a Q&A it's not even that taxing to blast through it.
 

semi-pro waster

semi-pro waster

semi-pro waster

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Might this be more interesting if people gave reasons why the book was of significant influence and how it has influenced you? Otherwise it could simply be a list of books you've enjoyed.

I've read a fair few books in my life so far and while I've enjoyed lots of them I'm not so sure that any have influenced me in a way I could recognise.
1984 - George Orwell is a fantastic novel, worthy of most of the praise it receives and has affected our lexicon as well as societal thinking to a degree but as prescient novels go Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is arguably the more accurate book even though I like it less. In terms of influence I used it for my review of personal reading in English at high school and despite the levels of painstaking analysis it required I found I could still enjoy it at the end, it's partly the process and partly the book but realising that good novels could stand up to that sort of scrutiny without ruining the enjoyment inherent to them entirely was a useful thing to learn.
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller is an influence but in an odd way. It's a hugely influential book with impact across much of society and again brought new words into our lexicon but for me it was nowhere near as good as it has been made out to be and was overlong to explain a fairly simple idea - if it has an influence then for me it's that critical or popular acclaim doesn't make it a brilliant example of the art that everyone must enjoy. I'm glad I've read it as I can at least offer my views based on that but I'd be in no hurry to read it again.
 

asim18

asim18

asim18

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I vividly recall two books I used to absolutely love when I was about five years old. One was an encyclopaedia of some sort and the other was a DK educational book entitled "Astronaut". I can even recall a photographic image of a couple of my favourite pages in those books.

We also had a medical encyclopaedia which had an article for "Premature ejaculation" which has been scarred into my memory. I can vividly recall the illustration of a man holding a penis and pushing his thumb into the bottom of his helmet, and I can remember trying to do that with my own todger with absolutely no idea what I was trying to achieve.

Which is pure influence as I spend most of my free time reading science/astronomy articles on Wikipedia, and my extra free time fapping.
 
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