Which book(s) left a lasting impression on you?

[carbonicedragon@pawb.social]

"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.

[positivewhat@lemmy.world]

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

[thetechnician27@lemmy.world]

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.

[flashmobofone@lemmy.world]

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)

[wewbull@feddit.uk]

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.

[eezeebee@lemmy.ca]

1984 and Brave New World

[wewbull@feddit.uk]

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.

[beaker@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guinn

[mydarkesttimeline01@ani.social]

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.

[wewbull@feddit.uk]

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.

[theleadensea@sh.itjust.works]

His Dark Materials

Singularity Sky (and its sequel, Iron Sunrise)

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (a fanfiction novel that is far better than the original series)

What If (and What If 2, by Randall Munroe)

The Planiverse

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Society After an Apocalypse

Sophie's World

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy

[paige@piefed.ca]

The Selfish Gene.
As soon as the concept clicked halfway through the book my days as an evangelical were over.
It was interesting to me to hear years later that Wall Street types found it influential, because the thing I found most compelling was the explanation of why altruism and social generosity were rational traits.

[sbv@sh.itjust.works]

Welp, I know what I'm reading next. Thanks!

[rich_benzina@feddit.it]

Two books that made me cry at the end and helped me shape my idea of war and what really is for the common men are "Il sergente nella neve" (the sargent in the snow) by Mario Rigoni Stern, which is about the retreat of the Armir (italian army in Russia) after the second Don offensive by the Red Army from the point of view of Stern, as they started the endless march back to Italy on foot, with the Red Army biting their asses. Almost 80.000 between dead and missing. Amazing piece of literature and yet another reason to despise fascism; and All quiet on the western front, which doesnt need many explanations.

Absolute chills everytime i think about those books and the images of tragedy and hopelessness they shaped so vividly in my mind.

[killeronthecorner@lemmy.world]

in no particular order

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Not sure if intentional but made me chuckle.

[m_f@discuss.online]

Neat, looks like the author got a publishing deal and has a new version of it coming out later this year:

https://qntm.org/antimemetics

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.

[sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml]

Flowers for Algernon

Blackshirts and Reds - Parenti

[fredselfish@lemmy.world]

She's Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed both by Wally Lamb have made a immersion on me. They are both wonderful and hesrtwreathing novels. Also The Long Walk by Stephen King is frightening book that makes me wonder, what would happen if we allowed that in American.

[hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org]

Whale Done by Ken Blanchard

[tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Time enough for love - Heinlein

Nor crystal tears - Foster

A world out of time - Niven

Ringworld - Niven

Sassinak - McCaffrey

The Martian - Weir