Which book(s) left a lasting impression on you?
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Same here, top 10 but lower half. I used to re-read it every 4 or 5 years, but I reached an apex point where it held up less and less well, and even abandoned the last read.
That might also be a result of having kids and realising that, while he went through something horrifying in the end, his behaviour before that was rather obnoxious. That said, he could have chosen not to have painted himself in that light, I just never figured out whether he realised it himself or was oblivious / felt it was justified.
Still, some magnificent prose pieces about quality and perception that are highly quotable, and broadly useful as tools to interact with the world around you.
Lila I never quite got to grips with, but my old man said I should try it "when you're older, much older"
I feel the same way about Charles Bukowski. I can read, understand and appreciate the books without liking the guy. He also paints himself in a negative picture, but the thoughts are still worth considering or just knowing of. Whether or not it's intended, I think it's okay for litterature to provoke the reader to think that the author is wrong or plain crazy, because at least it makes me think about stuff instead of just entertaining my existing views.
I did read Lila 25 yeas ago, but I hardly remember it.
It's been a long time since I last read any books at all. Perhaps I ought to give it a second chance. -
Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Definitely not the bible. That shit is unreadable.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
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::: spoiler spoiler
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:::So much impact for so short a story. Great pick!
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul. It showed me how the world really works. Also The Doubter's Companion as a supplement to that.
Edit to add that after reading through all the comments, it's pleasing what a well-read community we have here.
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Survivor by Chuck "Fight Club" Palahniuk.
After Fight Club I went on a spree of reading this guys work. Survivor was the last of his written before the Fight Club movie made it big. It was also released a couple of years before 9/11 which killed its chance of being made into a movie.
I think it highlights how being passive in the world isn't enough to avoid doing bad things. You have to make your own choices to avoid a bad result. Interesting story structure and has some dark comedic moments too.
Such a good book, I too went on a tear through his work after Fight Club and I think this and Choke are fighting for my top spot.
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Consider Phlebas
I had been reading, mainly fantasy up until that point because of 2 less understandable sci-fi books.
The feel of realism and cynisism, mixed with optimistic philosophy. I'm not a very visual reader, but that book made some awe-inspiring scenes in my head.
It's just the very peak of 80s sci-fiStill one of my favourites that I have read several times. The pace is relentless.
The Player of Games is my second favourite Culture novel.
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Ender's Game is the first book that I ever read and then immediately re-read. And told people about how awesome it was. My librarian in middle school actually bought the book for me at a book fair. She saw that I was reading fantasy books to "fit in" but noticed that I seemed way more interested in Sci-Fi.
And Fight Club.
I read Ender's Game more or less in one sitting. What a page turner.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Anna Karenina. There's no better pshychological character study of upper class Russian culture (but at the same time, about people in general).
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Hatchet.
It taight me that you never have to give up. Even when all looks completely lost, keeping your head on a swivel and keeping yourself goal oriented, you can get yourself through almost anything.
Is that the one where the boy just up and decides to go live in a tree up in the Caskills and ends up with a pet falcon, or is that the one where the kid is stranded in the woods in a plane crash? I read those two books around the same time in later middle school and I think they ran together in my brain.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Tells you everything you need to know about war. First book which made me cry. Everybody should read it.
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I read Ender's Game more or less in one sitting. What a page turner.
Same, honestly. I think it was from the moment I got it in the afternoon at school all the way til past bed time.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
How to solve it by Polya.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
The Scar, China Meiville - It's an epic journey and the clear best, in my opinion, of the Bas Lag novels. It has such weight and magic to the journey. Mystery too. It's a book that leaves you feeling like you want to feel more.
The Wild Girls, Ursula K Le Guin - a tale so emotional that I was broken for two days after reading it. Couldn't bring myself to read, or really do much except think about what I'd read.
Its about a slaving raid on a village near a city state, family, love, and gender. -
Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]How to seize the means of computation
By cory Doctorow.Great author love all of his books. Love his its free to read any of his books on craphound. But i ended up buying physical copys because i just needed to own them.
The book talks about how things were with betamax and VHS. And how modern day tech is crap and how to fix it!
Its diffently the most influential books ive read.
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Same, honestly. I think it was from the moment I got it in the afternoon at school all the way til past bed time.
I know Orson Scott Card is persona non grata these days, but his sci-fi is still some of the best for my money. His short story collections, the Maps in a Mirror series, are great stuff and would be a goldmine for screenplay writers.
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So much impact for so short a story. Great pick!
wrote on last edited by [email protected]::: spoiler spoiler
aklsdfjaksl;dfjkl;asdf
::: -
Is that the one where the boy just up and decides to go live in a tree up in the Caskills and ends up with a pet falcon, or is that the one where the kid is stranded in the woods in a plane crash? I read those two books around the same time in later middle school and I think they ran together in my brain.
Plane crash
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Gave me fresh perspective on the state of America
