Which book(s) left a lasting impression on you?
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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.
House of Leaves. I don't know if I want to read it again, but that book was a cool experience.
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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.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
it was the first book I ever read, and I decided to do it on my own. I was 16 and it was the greatest thing I had done for myself up to that point. It was such a big thing for me. I had never read a book front to back before, let alone deciding to do it on my own.
And so I checked that book out at the library. Went home and started to read the first couple chapters. Got some tomato soup and a grilled cheese and then next thing I know its 2AM and I read that whole book in almost one sitting!!!
The freedom it gave my mind was a gift I can never reply. Douglass Adams is and always will be one of my favorite humans for what he gave me in that story.
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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 Arsonist in the Office" by Pete Havel
Helped me recognize that the incredibly toxic job I was in was not sustainable.
"It's Your Ship" by D. Michael Abrashoff
Excellent book on leadership. Should be required reading for anyone who manages people.
"Psychopath Free" by Jackson MacKenzie
Most people probably have no idea what it's like to be in a relationship with someone who has a personality disorder. It can be absolute hell. It certainly was for me. This book provided some good insights but also helped me feel less alone.
There are other books but those are three big ones for me.
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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.
Shantaram.
It was very much booth, a captivating pleasure to read and the utmost inspiration of willing to live life to its fullest and be a compassionate human being. -
House of Leaves. I don't know if I want to read it again, but that book was a cool experience.
Yes! You may want to write in this one, it's kind of made for this.
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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]It's more of a short story in a book filled with time traveling short stories.
I'm trying to find what it's called, but I still have the book. After reading it, I had a brief period of time where I was questioning my own freewill and choices.
Basically it starts with a time machine being in a warehouse and scientists all around. The person inside is doing everything backwards and they are attempting to communicate with paper, often getting answers before there is a question. It's a good read and I won't spoil the end.
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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.
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.
The main character’s reflection on his past and continuation of growth really resonates with me.
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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.
in no particular order:
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Swallows and Amazons
- How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People
- The Wizard of Earthsea
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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.
As a kid I read Paulo Coelho's 'Veronika decides to die' and it kinda reframed some of my thinking. From what I recall, it's a very wholesome and light read!
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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.
I read that book when I was younger and couldn’t remember the name until a few years ago. It resonated with me in a profound way. Having to be resourceful and not just make do, but survive, with what you have around you is something I’ve ingrained into my life. And not just in emergency situations but all the time. Seeing other uses for things, coming up with novel solutions, and yes, not giving up. My boss really appreciates my outlook at work for this reason.
I really liked the movie cast away for the same reasons.
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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.
"Entering Space: Creating a Spacefairing Civilization" by Robert Zubrin. My mother's work when I was growing up had a "free book shelf" that someone had put it on and she'd brought it home because I liked sciency stuff, and I've been extremely interested in space development and futurism ever since.
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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]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-fi -
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.
Something Happened, the other, far lesser-known work by Catch-22 author Joseph Heller. It's too apples-to-oranges to throw around "better", but I already love Catch-22 and still prefer Something Happened. It's considerably longer, but in my opinion, it's criminally overlooked.
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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]These two changed my whole perspective on American history and the public school system, as I learned a lot of information that had been deliberately withheld from me.
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- A People's History of the United States
As for fiction:
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (Beautiful and a little sad)
- The Tapestry Series by Henry Neff (Just a wonderful series to read)
- Night Shift by Stephen King (Read it way too young, in elementary school)
- The Bible (in a bad way, God is an asshole)
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (A trip through my childhood, basically)
- Incidents Around the House (A scary book that touches on all our worst fears as kid)
- The Witches by Roald Dahl (Just a great kids horror book)
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Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
it was the first book I ever read, and I decided to do it on my own. I was 16 and it was the greatest thing I had done for myself up to that point. It was such a big thing for me. I had never read a book front to back before, let alone deciding to do it on my own.
And so I checked that book out at the library. Went home and started to read the first couple chapters. Got some tomato soup and a grilled cheese and then next thing I know its 2AM and I read that whole book in almost one sitting!!!
The freedom it gave my mind was a gift I can never reply. Douglass Adams is and always will be one of my favorite humans for what he gave me in that story.
I agree. I've introduced it to a number of people and I find it's a bit of a litmus test for me. If they come back with "that's just stupid" I know they're missing a sense of play that comes with messing with the rules of life.
We lost DA far too early, but he left us a wonderful gift.
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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.
1984 and Brave New World
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When I was young and exposed to these stories, they had a different meaning
but as I have gotten older, wow those books sure do hit a bullseye but not always for what meaning popular culture puts on them
1984 to me is not about the government as much as it is about political ideas and opinions. Big Brother only punished the Winston because he broke the rules while being an insider. If he ran away to the proles, he would have been free but nope, he was theirs and they were going to punish him for his deviancy. They prepared for it even.
An in my opinion, those MAGA dupes are Winston of our age.
Animal Farm is similar but even more on point of our nature allowing these pigs to rule us with "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"
Its good we call cops PIGS, because they are.
Add Brave New World by Aldous Huxley to the list. I think he actually managed to get closer to where we were heading before Trump. Things took a right turn 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.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guinn
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
