NationStates Jolt Archive

So I need to expand my summer reading list before school starts. So, here is what im looking for- Good books which changed your life. In other words, not just books you liked like some crappy romance novel that was a good quick read, but books which had a serious impact on your life and why (and maybe a blurb about what it is so we may all know). DONT tell me the bible, i read it, i dont care... (even though it's a pretty well written novel). Post away... and i'll get my pen out.

To Kill a Mockingbird falls into that category for me.

But if you just want a good read, try The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum

by the way, mine is (most recent)- Brave New World by Huxley:

Its about a futuristic society where everyone is relatively happy and people conform to set standards. I loved this book because of it's ideas about suffering, conformity to society and it's norms, as well as it's ideas on happiness, god and spirituality. Another reason is because it can be applied to today's world. Huxley is also a very eloquent writer!!!

i don't know if i would call it a "good" book, but Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand gave me several things to think about. if you were unimpressed with the Bible then i can strongly recommend Demian by Herman Hesse. The Cat Who Walked Through Walls by Robert Heinlein is very fun, provided you are okay with sci fi, and The Mind Of God (i forget the author) is a thoughful and cheering piece of work.

i'm moving next week, and so for the first time saw all of my books stacked up in one big pile (preparing for packing them); it turns out my library weighs four and a half times as much as i do.

To Kill a Mockingbird falls into that category for me.

But if you just want a good read, try The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum

To kill a mockingbird is amazing! I love that book!

I'd reccomend anything by Christopher Brookymre, although they're not life changers they're sarcastic and funny. Maybe a little too "British" for some, I don't know...

As for life changing, The Animals of Farthing Wood was a big influence on me, although I can't specifically say why.

Me too. It actually spurred my interest in reading when I was young. Now I'm a book fanatic.

The Animals of Farthing Wood was a big influence on me, although I can't specifically say why.

who's it by?

Two suggestions (sorta):

#1 - Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil. A real-life account of a reporter's "adventures" in Savannah, GA. It was a best-seller for a while years ago, but I recently discovered it, and loved it.

#2 - Ender's Game and the subsequent Ender and Shadow serieses (what's the plural of "series"? That just looks so wrong...). They're all sci-fi books, but they're just incredible. Orson Scott Card is a fantastic writer, and his stories of the child prodigy Ender Wiggin and his travels (the Ender Series) are excellent. Even better is the Shadow series, which follows Bean, Petra, and Achilles, Ender's companions after they return to Earth from the academy. Excellent, excellent books. My highest recommendations.

Two suggestions (sorta):

#1 - Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil. A real-life account of a reporter's "adventures" in Savannah, GA. It was a best-seller for a while years ago, but I recently discovered it, and loved it.

#2 - Ender's Game and the subsequent Ender and Shadow serieses (what's the plural of "series"? That just looks so wrong...). They're all sci-fi books, but they're just incredible. Orson Scott Card is a fantastic writer, and his stories of the child prodigy Ender Wiggin and his travels (the Ender Series) are excellent. Even better is the Shadow series, which follows Bean, Petra, and Achilles, Ender's companions after they return to Earth from the academy. Excellent, excellent books. My highest recommendations.

i read them both, good good books :)

Asimov. Isaac Asmiov. Anything by Isaac Asimov. However, since he's written over 450 novels and I doubt you're going to read all 450, I'll recommend the Foundation Trilogy.

It takes place in the future. The distant future. The future so distant that humanity isn't even sure which planet it first evolved on. Faster than Light travel is a reality and millions of planets have been colonised (estimated population of the Milky Way Galaxy is 1 quadrillion people). However, history must repeat itself.

The human race is stagnating and receding, technology slowly being forgotten and science quickly fading to mythology. The Galactic Empire is falling apart and the various sections are plunging into anarachy and constant war.

The Foundation Trilogy (Being composed of Foundation, Foundation & Empire, and Second Foundation) tells the tale of The Foundation, a group of scientists on an isolated planet who are trying to keep together the science of humanity and eventually re-connect the now scattered planets and people.

It is phenominal. Buy it, read it, love it.

who's it by?
Colin Dann, just grabbed my battered copy off of the shelf.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

By Douglas Hofstadter.

Opened my eyes to a lot of things. Very interesting book, not fiction though. Not light reading either.

Books, good. Since when did those two words coexist.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

By Douglas Hofstadter.

Opened my eyes to a lot of things. Very interesting book, not fiction though. Not light reading either.

I liked that book a lot, as well. Did he ever write anything else?

Well theres always the ubiquitous LOTR by Tolkien, although perhaps your a bit too old for a first-time read to have the effect it generally does on younger readers.

Apart from that...

Fight Club by Chuck P...(no idea how to spell his last name) is a great book. A lot deeper and darker than the movie, its all about men reclaiming their masculinity and freedom by rejecting modern society.

Also most of the books written by Jack London (sea-wolf, call of the wild and white fang are favourites). There all about survival and dominance over extraodrinary dangers and obstacles. The exact opposite of Tolkien in that his works are better read as adults than as children.

Asimov. Isaac Asmiov. Anything by Isaac Asimov. However, since he's written over 450 novels and I doubt you're going to read all 450, I'll recommend the Foundation Trilogy.



Klonor, for someone that keeps on claiming to know so much about Asimov, why do you keep posting hideously erroneus and inaccurate information about him? "Over 450 novels" - pah! I make it 39 novels give or take a few.

Perhaps you still haven't worked out the difference between a 'novel' and a 'book' yet?

I own more than 39 novels personally, and I have seen dozens more in the library and the homes of friends. So how do you figure 39?

here are my recommendations:
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Street Boys - Lorenzo Carcaterra
Spartan - Valario Massimo Manfredi
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
Lady Oracle - Margret Atwood
No Great Mischief - Alaistor McLeod

I own more than 39 novels personally, and I have seen dozens more in the library and the homes of friends. So how do you figure 39?

Based on http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html

I'm not saying that the list given there is authoritative and final, but you must admit that neither anthologies, non-fiction works nor short story collections are novels.

Note: I'm not just intruding here for the sake of pedantry: I'm still trying to think which books I have read which I would classify as life-changing and worth recommending to others.

Mine is Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky.

It's a novel that explores what commiting a crime (in this case murder) does to a person's mind, especially if it had been fragile before it was commited. It also tries to find out how the guilty can truly repent of their crimes.
It was not only an interesting look into a convoluted mind, but a book that makes you look at society, and think of what responsibilities it does and doesn't have.
After reading it, I knew that it had a powerful effect on me. What, though, I still don't know exactly. I think it's made me appreciate life a little more, among other things.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse is one of the best books I've ever read.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. I think effected me more for my age rather then anything else.

Behold the Man, by Micheal Moorcock. It is only a short book, and has an interesting twist to the life of 'Jesus.'

Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, really because I had never read any books not originally written in English.

EDIT:

Also The Power and the Glory by Greame Greene.

The Dune series by Frank Herbert. I'd stay away from the preludes, I've read them all well almost stuck half way on the last one and they're boring as hell. No I haven't read the one that came out a few weeks ago :(

Frank Herbert is spinning in his grave!!

Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy is really good. It's by Douglas Adams and is hilarious. Read the sequals too.

Asimov. Isaac Asmiov. Anything by Isaac Asimov. However, since he's written over 450 novels and I doubt you're going to read all 450, I'll recommend the Foundation Trilogy.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with ya. Asimov is a hack writer with poor style and predictable stories, and the whole idea behind the Foundation series--that being that human behavior can be broken down into a set of equasions--is just moronic. Having put out 450 books is not a good thing in my opinion. It shows a lack of depth in the stories and that the writer was just cramming as much as he/she could into a high demand market. Good business, not good art.

But that's just my opinion! This is just an opinion! You don't have to argue it with me! No one has to believe me! :D I'm VERY picky about my books, but I read a lot of them. I also found To Kill a Mockingbird trite, preachy, boring, and poorly written, but I was forced to read it in HS and Catcher In The Rye the only public school enforced book I could really stomach and that's probably because I was an underachieving malcontent disenchanted with mainstream society too.

I love the Harry Potter books and highly recommend them. In spite of the preteen style of the first, the story is engaging and the style grows with the characters and the books. I'm also chugging through Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and I find it very engaging when I have time for it. The Dune series is an excellent set of six books by Frank Herbert and is very popular. The prequils by his son, Brian Herbert are rather new but also excellent.

Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre

India at the time of Ghandi.

any book by kurt vonnegut is a good book.

also, hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy, there's an edition out now that has all the sequels and the original in one book.

by the way, mine is (most recent)- Brave New World by Huxley:

Its about a futuristic society where everyone is relatively happy and people conform to set standards. I loved this book because of it's ideas about suffering, conformity to society and it's norms, as well as it's ideas on happiness, god and spirituality. Another reason is because it can be applied to today's world. Huxley is also a very eloquent writer!!!
I strongly agree.

I recommend George Orwell's 1984 very much. A must read if you are interested in politics, society and all that shiz.

For something more recent (and an example of when Pulitzer actually got it right) check out The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. He's a great writer who just knows Pittsburgh very well (though this one is set in New York City, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic among other places...quite epic) and wrote Wonder Boys, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and many great short stories.

It's the story of two cousins, one a magician/daredevil who just escaped to New York from the clutches of the Nazis, the other a plucky, comic book obsessed kid, who come together to create a hit comic book, "The Escapist", and encounter anti-Semitism, legal battles, lots of money, death, homophobia, and even war-time in this epic, epic story that has what most epics lack: a ton of heart. I almost cried when I was finished because Sam Clay wasn't real. I wanted to meet him. And I definitely cried numerous times throughout the book.

It requires a dictionary at your side, but I still sped through it in just a few days. Michael Chabon, a straight man, sure knows how to capture the experience of discovering your sexuality. And according to my father, who's quite homophobic, he knows how to really get you involved without being "grossed out" by the gay characters (only two).

Al Franken

"Lies and the Lying Liers Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"

'Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right'

Book of Mormon, you only said no bible :)

Storm Testament Vi :Rockwell, its about a real story involving a gunman in the 1800's. Great story. Written by Lee Nelson

Harry Potter series

D&D lol

A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by Legrande Richards

Our Search for Happiness by M. Russel Ballard

Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmadge


Couple others but that is good for now.

"The Illiad." One of the finest works of literature western civilization has ever had the honor of producing.

My favorite is Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

"The Illiad." One of the finest works of literature western civilization has ever had the honor of producing.
That is so true!

Please DONT write anything religious, cuz i pretty much read it all... and i dont care for it. Im looking for good literature: Here are more of my favorites...

1) Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
2) Notes from the Underground - Dostoyevsky (if you liked crime and punishment you should read this
3) Mishima, pretty much anything by him, if it's not too long.

Also dont list any current political books, like about GWB or Kerry, i dont care, i read enough political opinions.

Books, good. Since when did those two words coexist.

The gent's magazines are over there Cuneo, to the left.

Now that we can discuss good literature, George Orwell's 1984 is pretty good -- and quite topical given the state of the world today.

I've always enjoyed Shakespeare, especially his tragedies (Macbeth and Hamlet, for a start).

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima is good, too.

the life of pi
novel about an indian teenager lost in a lifeboat with a bengal tiger

good omens by terry pratchet and neil gaiman