Which book(s) left a lasting impression on you?
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in no particular order
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Not sure if intentional but made me chuckle.
It's worth a read.
I think it's often frowned upon for being somewhat of a naive juvenile pocket philosophical rambling, or the dairy of a madman, but I'd say that it introduces some valid points about the concept of quality that you can then think about yourself.
It's definitely on my top 10 list of books. Not because it's great, but because I can often relate to it in miscellaneous situations even 30 years after reading it.
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Neat, looks like the author got a publishing deal and has a new version of it coming out later this year:
Here's the author's blurb about it, if it piques anyone else's interest that hasn't read it yet:
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.
Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams...
But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?
Welcome to the Antimemetics Division.
No, this is not your first day.
Thank you for putting the blurb. I was in a waiting room and I got called as I posted. I hope someone enjoys this book as much as I do.
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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.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The first book I read was "Guards, Guards" and it's still one of my favourites. I own the series and every few years I read through it again.
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It's worth a read.
I think it's often frowned upon for being somewhat of a naive juvenile pocket philosophical rambling, or the dairy of a madman, but I'd say that it introduces some valid points about the concept of quality that you can then think about yourself.
It's definitely on my top 10 list of books. Not because it's great, but because I can often relate to it in miscellaneous situations even 30 years after reading it.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]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"
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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.
John Darnielle's Devil House is a GREAT novel. All of his books are but it's particularly great
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.
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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.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
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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.
Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky.
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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.
When I saw that book in the elementary school library it was a revelation: There are books explaining the cool mysterious stuff like that! And written for kids to understand!
I think that one book is a big part of what sent me on the path to geekdom.
It wasn't technically my first nonfiction science book, which would be "Our Friend the Atom" but I wasn't old enough to actually read that when I had it (probably got destroyed before I could). I liked the pictures though.
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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.
Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they're funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry's view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
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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 technological society by Jacques Ellul.
This book introduces a new way of looking at the world. -
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]::: spoiler spoiler
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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.
