Books that have influenced you in the past year
Because my reading list is exhausted, and because I'm honestly curious....
They can be of any genre, as long as a reading, re-reading, or mere re-examination has changed your opinion on something, given you a new perspective, or just made you think.
For me:
1. Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy
2. A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls
3. Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
4. God and the State, by Mikhail Bakunin
5. The Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond
6. Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity, by Dan Berger
Cannot think of a name
29-10-2006, 07:43
War With the Newts by Karl Capek.
Arabian Nights Trans. by Husain Haddawy
The Constant Gardner by John Lecarre
A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man by James Joyce
Twilight of The Idols by Friedrich Nietszche
The Bible King James Version
The Tanakh Trans. by Jewish Publication Society
Q'uran Yusef Ali Translation
The Battle for God Karen Armstrong
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Um lets see. What have I read.
Objects First With Java. My opinion of Java has reached a new low.
Terrorist Cakes
29-10-2006, 07:45
Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and a book-version of some of Oscar Widle's plays influenced my writing style.
But it was Lord of the Flies that really f.cked me up.
But it was Lord of the Flies that really f.cked me up.
I hate that book. The plot is forced to meet Golding's conclusion, and the writing style isn't exceptional.
Terrorist Cakes
29-10-2006, 07:50
I hate that book. The plot is forced to meet Golding's conclusion, and the writing style isn't exceptional.
Yeah, I completely disagree with Golding, and the writing was darn mediocre, but man did it screw me up.
Boonytopia
29-10-2006, 08:02
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.
Personas Libres
29-10-2006, 12:45
Vita Brevis, by Jostein Gaarder
Sumerhill, by a.s. neill
The Earthsea Series, by Ursula K. Leguin (though mostly it's due to having an interesting discussion -read: lurking in various blogs ;)- on the web about race in fantasy fiction and rereading it just after).
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (made me realize that I can't help being a romance reader :(, and that feminism is so relative)
Harry Potter, by JKR (fandom has sucked me in, help!)
But I'm realizing that this year I have read far too many stuff that don't require critical thinking (rereading The Wheel of Time Series is taking its toll on my time).
hele (so, ehrm, hi!, I'm a newby)
Pure Metal
29-10-2006, 13:16
Hard Work by Polly Toynbee
Yeah, I completely disagree with Golding
How so? I read it many years ago, and I remember it made quite an impression on me. I'd be interested to hear what makes you disagree with it.
Recently I've had to focus on reading for research. Among the most interesting books I've read are Making Peoples and Parafise Reforged (James Belich) and Tokelau: A Historical Ethnography (Huntsman & Hooper), but the list is fairly long and most are very interesting.
Other than that, I discovered Joseph Conrad not that long ago, and now consider him one of the best writers ever. Lord Jim made me go out and buy all his books I could find. I got round to reading Heart of Darkness (which I recommend to everyone), but not the others yet.
Kiryu-shi
29-10-2006, 15:23
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vinzini (sp?) really struck close to home.
Ulysses by James Joyce did, but not in a positive way.
I expected Jane Eyre too, and it was good, but didn't really strike me. Same with A Tale of Two Cities.
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, cause I wrote about 50 pages about it for school.
I'm in the middle of Empire Falls by Richard Russo, and it is very good, although I'm not sure if it falls into the life-changing category.
Fleckenstein
29-10-2006, 18:10
The Stranger, Albert Camus.
The Men of Company K.
Thats about it.
Anti-Social Darwinism
29-10-2006, 19:41
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Lao Tzu The Way
Leon Uris Exodus
Herman Wouk The Winds of War and War and Remembrance
Ultraextreme Sanity
29-10-2006, 19:59
War lord Illario Pantero...opened my eyes a bit more about failures in Iraq.
military as well as political and also killed any illusions I may have had that the civilian leadership was competant in its planning and handling of not only the war but the information or propaganda aspect of it. Not to mention that the Civilian leadership , working with miltary puppets, will burn whomever they want to cover their ass no matter how brave or what sacrifice he or she makes .
The Fulcrum
29-10-2006, 20:05
House of Leaves
The Fulcrum
29-10-2006, 20:13
Oh, and I must add:
A Hacker's Manifesto, by Mckenzie Wark
Copyrights and Copywrongs, by Siva Vaidhyanathan
Watchmen, by Alan Moore
Hi, I'm a newb too.
East of Eden is Nod
29-10-2006, 20:19
lots of programming and user manuals various authors
the Bible various versions various authors
the Kebra Nagast translated by Miguel F. Brooks
various verses from the Koran various authors
many texts from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature various authors
A Test of Time, Legend, From Eden to Exile all David Rohl
Josephus, the complete works translated by William Whiston
Herodotus, 9 Books of History translator unnamed
Atlas of the Ancient World various authors
In The Country of the Blue Nile C. F. Rey
The Silmarillion (re-reading) Christopher Tolkien
parts of LotR (re-reading) J.R.R. Tolkien
.
Ashmoria
29-10-2006, 20:30
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Lao Tzu The Way
Leon Uris Exodus
Herman Wouk The Winds of War and War and Remembrance
wouk's "the caine mutiny" is one of my favorite books of all time. the psychology of command and how it can be subtly undermined is fascinating and the speech by the jewish lawyer who gets the mutineers off at the end of the book is chilling. it was like getting my face slapped for ever entertaining the notion that captain queeg deserved what he got.
i highly recommend it.
Ashmoria
29-10-2006, 20:41
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
by Henry Wiencek
i picked it up in the hastings audio book bargin bin. it changed and humanized my view of george washington. it focuses on his attitudes towards blacks and black slaves. the transition from typical plantation owner bigot to a man who understood the humanity of black people through his experiences in the revolutionary war shows the strength of washintons character. that he could not convince any of his family to share his view (he owned a minority of the slaves at mt vernon) and that he could only bring himself to free his slaves in his will (they were to be freed after martha's death but she was sure they would kill her so she freed them herself) shows his weakness.
you can get it for $7 on the barnes and noble webpage
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780641746666&itm=8
No God but God by Reza Aslan. Gave me a new view of Islam, and monotheism as a whole.
Brothers by Ben Bova. (A novel.) Made me seriously reconsider the way I act with women. (And, incidentally, my brother.)
East of Eden is Nod
29-10-2006, 23:06
No God but God by Reza Aslan. Gave me a new view of Islam, and monotheism as a whole.You mean the inexistence of any singular god?
.