Don Draper Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) . Edited July 5, 2020 by Don Draper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Sounds like a cool suggestion! So far: The Autobiography of Malcolm X is my favorite non-fiction book, or maybe anything, yet, and definitely the one that most made me think as a teenager. Not sure what it was, whether it was just about hearing the stories it told, the insight on race (however biased by perspective it may have been), or the force of will behind it, but it really floored me when I was 16. Herman Hesse's Steppenwolfe is my favorite novel. Reading it, it felt like somebody else took everything I could possibly think to say about depression and say it a million times more conscientiously, more artfully, more just plain better than I could hope to, at least at the time. On top of that, I find it stimulated/stimulates my imagination wonderfully. Feeling Good could be the best self-help book I've read yet at commanding my attention, but I probably can't say it has really influenced me yet. maybe if I read more than a couple chapters I'll be able to get back to you on that Edited April 26, 2012 by Rehab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttmuncher.ops Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 A Fairy Tale of New York by J.P. Dunleavy i've always striven to be as witty and manly as the main character in that book since elementary school and i'd say it's paid off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile. Fuck Mein Kampf. Edited April 26, 2012 by Jet Black Gunner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone2Ground Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Un utterly impartial history of Britain OR: Two thousand years of upper-class idiots in charge by John Farrel. Learning history has never been so funny, and my sense of humor has been changed forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 The only thing I actually know of that I'm consciously aware of having influenced me was Aristotle's perspective that there are five classifications to life: the atomic, the physical, life which is organic, life which is aware, and life which is self-aware (human). It is the only thing that I've taken for granted, and no matter how much it bugs me, it always seems like a safe fall-back. It still bugs me to no end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Starwind Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 The scriptures, Doctrines of Salvation, and probably Les Miserables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balcerzak Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 The Fountainhead. It was assigned reading in high school, and it rocked my worldview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 I'm kinda torn between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes; the former has some nice themes to live by, while the latter's a reminder that even the greatest of us are still human. Next-closest things would be a tie between The Art of War and Death of a Salesman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dondon151 Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 The Fountainhead. It was assigned reading in high school, and it rocked my worldview. same here (except it wasn't assigned reading) of course i'm well aware that there's a lot of idealistic crap, but it did shape my opinions on individualism and collectivism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBM Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Well, I might as well list a fiction book, since most of you have listed non-fiction ones. It would have to be Harry Potter. Whatever flaws it might have, it was probably the series that sparked my interest in writing as a career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.M. Gei Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ender's Game influenced me a ton back when I was like 14... thankfully that influence is gone, because I got all the wrong messages from the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 The Giver by Lois Lowry The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut That one book of a guy who loves to sleep, eat, sex. Ends up killing a guy because it was hot and ends up getting executed because he didn't cry at his mother's funeral. I forgot the name and the author's name and I feel bad about that. Why can't remember the damn names? But yeah. I was assigned these books in school but they left an impact on me alright in how I think and perceive the world which changes constantly. My mind is funny like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 You're meaning Albert Camus's The Stranger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 You're meaning Albert Camus's The Stranger Ah. Thank you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself for at least 4 hours if I didn't figure/find out the name and author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Banzai Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Kafka - The Castle Kafka - The Trial Stoppard - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Heller - Catch-22 Cervantes - Don Quixote Shakespeare - King Lear Shakespeare - Hamlet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zanarkin Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 About the most significant thing i have read is Hamlet... Specially the phrase the readiness is all... I have been having trouble with procrastination for the past year or so, and that seems to have made it better... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just call me AL Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451. It's really freaking scary how we're headed in a direction not unlike what's presented in that book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Oh, here's a serious one...in general, the book did not influence me at all, but this passage from Mastering the Art of War (which is actually really from the Dao De Jing, but that's where I read it first) has stayed with me. Skilled warriors of old were subtle,mysteriously powerful, so deep they were unknowable, Just because they are unknowable, I will try to describe them. Their wariness was as that of one crossing a river in winter, their caution was as that of one in fear of all around, their gravity was that of a guest, their relaxation was as that of ice at the melting point. Simple as uncarved wood, open as the valleys, they were inscrutable as murky water. Who can, in turbidity, use the gradual clarification of stillness? Who can, long at rest, use the gradual enlivening of movement? Those who preserve this Way do not want fullness, Just because of not wanting fullness, it is possible to use the full and not make anew. It's not so much what is trying to be described as the act of description, itself condemned by the author as futile, that struck me (well, actually, it, primarily for the paradoxical nature of the description, but not so much so as the paradoxical nature of describing what cannot be described). It's actually possible that the words given are misleading as to the author's original intent, and there are many translations of this passage with different meanings, but I still like this one, the first one I stumbled upon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anouleth Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451. It's really freaking scary how we're headed in a direction not unlike what's presented in that book. Ridiculous. Book sales have been increasing in recent years, not decreasing. E-books might change that, but there will always be some demand for real books, and reading is never going to disappear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) Ridiculous. Book sales have been increasing in recent years, not decreasing. E-books might change that, but there will always be some demand for real books, and reading is never going to disappear. He's not talking about readership going down...he's talking about people going around memorizing the text of their favorite books so that they will never be lost. Except instead of books, they memorize and recite their favorite episodes from Family Guy and the script (and intonations) of Borat. Edited April 27, 2012 by Jet Black Gunner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatEclipse Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy had a profound effect on my thinking about the subject, as did his negative reaction to Shakespeare. It was enough to motivate me to read through his complete works on my own spare time to come to my own conclusions. Choosing something more recent, Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change by Clive Hamilton is the single most depressing thing I ever read. He demonstrates, in the most sober way possible, that it is already too late (For all practical purposes) to prevent the worst effects of global warming, and that all we can do from here is make the most of the world we will inherit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 I knew I was forgetting something. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was another book I really enjoyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Banzai Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 He's not talking about readership going down...he's talking about people going around memorizing the text of their favorite books so that they will never be lost. Except instead of books, they memorize and recite their favorite episodes from Family Guy and the script (and intonations) of Borat. I think you missed the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 I think you missed the point. I'd love to know what you're talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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