Fun Stuff > ENJOY
ok 5 life changing books, lets hear them
Misereatur:
Khar, a large portion of the book is about anti corporate activism. I think you should really read it.
--- Quote from: Johnny C on 05 Feb 2007, 18:30 ---
--- Quote from: Misereatur on 05 Feb 2007, 14:16 ---Naomi Klein - No Logo
--- End quote ---
If you liked that, you'll like Alissa Quart's Branded.
--- End quote ---
I heard about that book, I'll look it up. Thanks.
So I guess no one read Culture Jam?
Fiddler:
Books are absolutetly life changing experiences, you cant pour hours of your life into something without it having the potential to change you.
Its hard to decide which 5 books changed my life the most though but I will try...
1. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury Everyone has mentioned all the other books of this type and they all belong on lists like these. I put this one on here because I read it for the first time in 7th grade and it is the first thing that ever woke up me up and had me questioning the world around me. I look at the first time I read this book more as a marker for when I started thinking critically about the things I experienced in life and I can thank reading this book for it.
2. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut Yeah yeah, I'm sure everyone has avoided Vonnegut on the list because its a little cliche but still. I havent read the book all the way through in years but I occassionally crack it to read two parts, one is a speach an artist gives about a giant painting of his thats of a single neon line, which is really beautiful sounding to me, and the other is the following quote
"I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not. So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things. What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance. And all music is."
3. Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins I couldnt decide which book from Tom Robbins to talk about since every book of his that I read and every time I re-read them they seem to have a profound affect on me. This was the first one I read though so here it is. The books he writes if nothing else should teach you that language is meant to be played with, its no fun when we get boring and predicitable with it. He's a hold over from the 60's and 70's who still believes the world is magic and hasnt become a cynic and I like that.
I'll edit this and add in the last two later!
Hat:
--- Quote from: Fiddler on 06 Feb 2007, 09:24 ---2. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut Yeah yeah, I'm sure everyone has avoided Vonnegut on the list because its a little cliche
--- End quote ---
I don't see why its Clique. Admittedly, some of his books meander around, but Breakfast of Champions is easily the most qualified book in the "Having changed my life" stakes. In fact, the idea that anyone would even THINK of excluding Vonnegut for being clique (as opposed to for not liking him, and thinking he is in fact an old crank) has made me do this now.
1) Breakfast of Champions: This book is ridiculous. The childlike drawings of arseholes, the way every now and again he will just take a moment to compare the penis sizes of every male in a particular part of the book, all the weird shit really kind of distracted me from the message of this book at first, but after re-reading it, they only strengthened the theme; that ideas are the most powerful tools we as human beings have, when used correctly. This book changed the way I interacted with the world, made me think I was capable of so much more than what I previously thought.
2) Origin of Species: The book that made me sit upright and say to myself "Fucking hell, I might actually want to do this "Science" thing for a living one day
3) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: When I was a kid, the books I read were light fluff. I had read most of the Babysitters Club books for Christs sake, as well as the Famous Five series. This book was light fluff, but it was light fluff in such a ridiculously insane and excellently done way, that after finishing reading it, I couldn't go back to the shit I had been reading before. This book essentially acted as a gateway drug to ever other good book I ever read
4) The Time Machine: Once again, a gateway book, but this one sparked my interest in sci-fi. After I read this book I spent the better part of a year devouring any science fiction I could get my hands on.
5) The Colour of Magic: For turning me into a massive Pratchett fan, whose works dominate my bookshelf, I figure this needs to be in here.
Utopian:
1) Utopia by St Thomas More - interesting enough to be claimed as an inspiration for the Church, Marxism, Feminism and tons of stuff. And to inspire my username.
2) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - When I started reading them I really got into the whole Aes Sedai mindset. I think they're probably the most personality-changing books I've ever read in that I modified my behaviour and sought to be a better person because of them. Also thanks to related websites I am on most of the websites, wear most of the clothes, read all of the webcomics and know most of the people (IRL and online) that I do now. I owe that Jordan guy a lot! Perhaps not life-changing in the way that you mean but probably had the single biggest imparct on my life of anything I will ever read.
3) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume - his views are so similar to mine and he told me it's okay to take off my philosophy hat when I'm done in class and go back to being a normal person. None of this dreary existentialism! It's also a lot easier to read than the Treatise and I read it first.
4) Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery - introduced me to grown-up sci fi and fantasy fiction. Thanks to the Pern books I have found my niche. Particularly as they led on to reading WoT.
5) Hmm... This is hard. I think I'll leave it at 4 life-changing books or I'll open up the floodgates to all the "quite meaningful books" I've read. Plus I have a good 50 years reading to go, I'm sure I'll come across more in the future...
EDIT: Although, the Air Loom Gang by Mike Jay, which I read a couple of months ago, made me think really hard about pretty much everything - it involved aspects of every area that interests me (history, philosophy, pschology, tales of deceit and intrigue) and made me ask myself a lot of questions about how I look at the world. It's the true story of one James Tilly Matthews, the first case of what we consider schizophrenia, who was sent to Bedlam (infamous early mental institution) at the time of the French Revolution and thought to be completely barking, but in fact had played a role in the French Revolution which was hushed up here in Britain. It made me wonder who is really on my side and how easily could my best intentions lead to disastrous results - even the potential destruction of a nation. Not to mention just what would it take to make me lose my mind and who can really judge such a thing?
That can be my number 5.
Vanilla Gorilla:
Behold a Pale Horse - William Cooper
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Alive - Piers Paul Read
The Rule of 4 - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version