Which books define you

Okay, this is going to be a weird one, because it spans so many genres, but here it goes:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court and Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov (just the initial trilogy)
All of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories
The Food of the Gods by HG Wells - can't tell you how many times I re-read that story as a young boy.
Of course, Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) by JRR Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
The Once and Future King, by TH White
The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran
So, this last one is going to sound strange for a 41-year-old man, but the Harry Potter books. My wife and met at the beginning of the Harry Potter craze, and I started reading the books because she was really into them and I was really into her (and wanted her to be into me). Turns out, I loved them. Not necessarily the writing, but the stories. I found myself standing in line for them on release day, and devouring them in a single day (and then going back and reading them again).
 
Sorry, posting in my own thread...

I'm re-reading The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley for the first time in years. It's one of those books I can't do without and feel like me. When I got it in 1990 I underlined bits I liked. I see now, it's the character moments, and the lines of dialogue that are spot on, and character movements ( like cracking nuts with bare hands) that I love, not her lovely description.

Now I write like that. So I think it defined me. :) perhaps I'm writing the books I love because I read the books I adored?
 
springs said:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I don't, especially, like it, but some of its feel soaked into me, particularly the being and not the doing of life.
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I feel similarly about Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. The writing is nothing special, and the philosophy is interesting but very pop culture-fied (did I make that word up?). Nonetheless, it took the angst and disenchantment I'd long felt with my relatively conservative Catholic upbringing and gave it words and logic. Nowadays, it would probably seem hokey or overwrought, but the notion of humans as a small piece of the puzzle on Earth really struck me and seemed revelatory at the time.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton had the same effect. I read it at a pretty young age and while I was thrilled by the dinosaurs and suspense, it was really Malcom's analysis of how narrow human perspective is and how small our part in this endless universe that snared me.
 
For me possibly Nevil Shute's On the Beach which has always stuck with me. Not because it was one of my earliest SF reads, or because it was an early post-apocalyptic book (or was it really apocalyptic rather than post?), but because I read it around 12-14 and it was the probably the first time my emerging adolescent mind realised that the adult world was seriously messed up and that adults didn't have all the answers. It's hard to explain but I guess it opened my eyes to the fact that the real world does not always 'live happily ever after.' One of the passages that has always been in the back of my mind was the idea that someone would deliberately kill themselves in a car race rather than wait for a slow death from radioactivity. For a young 12-14 year-old this was a major eye opener.
 
What books define me?

I don't have an answer to that, it's an interesting question though. I've read so much, that probably they all in some way and at the same time, none singular book. Different books have given different things to me, it's the combination of them all that has changed me. :cool: Often, I don't even necessarily remember an individual book just by looking at it - can't be sure if I've read it or not, haha. :p

springs said:
This came from a discussion about films tonight (Withnail and I of all things) but, to ask the book question - which book could you imagine not having read and your life would be poorer for it. Not reccommendations, not favourites, but some that have become part of you, that you carry with you in some way?
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springs said:
Sorry, posting in my own thread...

I'm re-reading The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley for the first time in years. It's one of those books I can't do without and feel like me. When I got it in 1990 I underlined bits I liked. I see now, it's the character moments, and the lines of dialogue that are spot on, and character movements ( like cracking nuts with bare hands) that I love, not her lovely description.

Now I write like that. So I think it defined me. :) perhaps I'm writing the books I love because I read the books I adored?
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I used to like Bradley as an author, too. I say "used to" because after the revelation of her decades of child abuse...
 
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Waves, Virginia Woolf
 
springs said:
Yes. i will never read The Catch Trap again and have got rid of any of her stuff. Very, very sad. And unbelievably creepy.
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There has not been any proof, has there? Everything I have read about it is in the terms of 'allegations.' Granted, it is as despicable to have known about her husband's abuse and not done anything about it for so long.
 
Jane Austen's Persuasion - Because it's a poignant reminder that sometimes you can get second chances in life.

L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables - Because I am so much like Anne Shirley :)
 
Michael Colton said:
There has not been any proof, has there? Everything I have read about it is in the terms of 'allegations.' Granted, it is as despicable to have known about her husband's abuse and not done anything about it for so long.
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There are some transcripts of evidence she gave where she clearly stated she knew about her husband's abuse and did nothing to safeguard her own and other children. The whole transcript is damning enough for me, on record, and in her own words.
 
Looks like the world has past me by the last few months. This is the first I've heard of the Bradley abuse. I'll never be able to read Mists of Avalon again, nor will I recommend it ever again.
 
New here, but a good place to start... hi!

I guess a part of me would have to say 1984.
Its the year of my birth for a start (a vintage year i might add ;)) - but the story also contained the first depiction of a government that i actually understood, and its big brother themes, even more relevant today, have lived with me ever since.

At least in this life i can still rebel in my mind!
 
From childhood onwards.

The Jungle books (1 and 2)
Swallows and Amazons
The Silver Brumby series.
H. G Wells. War of the Worlds
John Wyndham. The Chrysalids
Heinlein juveniles (YA) Farmer in the Sky
Norah Lofts. Haunting of Gad's Hall series.
Jean Plaidy aka Victoria Holt aka Philppia Carr. (any)
Georgette Heyer. (Any)
Egar Rice Borroughs (John Carter of Mars series)
E.E. (Doc) Smith (Lensman series)
Michael Moorcock. (Eternal Champion series)
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Jenny Wurts Empire Series with Raymond E. Feist

I could go on, but these made an impression on me when I was younger. I need to get some of them for my kindle.
 
The Dragonlance Chronicles series. I still remember clearly when I first cracked open "Dragons of Autumn Twilight", having no idea what it was or what to expect. I think that series literally changed my life, not necessarily the direction or anything, but just how I viewed life and people. Right and wrong, good versus evil, honor and hubris, power and humility, ambition and duty, all things I had never really contemplated before were present in these books. From the most powerful God or Dragon to the meekest Kender or Gully Dwarf (I've actually named my recliner, where I do a lot of my reading, the Throne of the High Bulp). I used to lay in bed at night imagining what character I would be if I was in the story, and how I would fit in with the companions. It still resonates strongly with me today, I've gone back and read it a couple times now as an adult, I think I might have to do it again soon.
 
dannymcg said:
I like seeing these old threads being revived!
War of the Worlds
Rogue Male
The 39 steps
And Dune - quite a few have picked this and LOTR
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Those are all standouts for me except Dune, which I probably read in high school 40+ years ago.

But I wanted to ask a question about Rogue Male. Many years ago I was talking with another comp teacher, and it turned out we both had the kind of Geoffrey Household-moment sometimes when rolling along on a car trip -- Where and how could I hide in this landscape if I were being pursued?

I've wondered if that's a common mental scenario, for males especially.

Other guys relate to that?

And, of course, do we have women readers who get into the same scenario?

Possibly relevant -- dannymcg, do these interest you?

Topographic Romance - Fancyclopedia 3

Cartographic Romance - Fancyclopedia 3
 
There are definitely books that I feel expanded my understanding of the world or helped me flesh out ideas that were more vague until I read the concrete words. Stephenson's The Diamond Age would be one. But I don't think I'm different for those experiences.

Only one book made an apparent change in the vector of my life. I was a "gifted" kid who blew off Reading and Language Arts in grade school because they were tiresome compared to math and science. A reading teacher who knew I was under-achieving suggested reading and reporting on Dune, and I started getting all around good grades after that.

Dune was also my first real exposure to subtlety, a concept that Stephenson would later comment further on. Herbert presented a fully formed universe that can't be understood by looking at any one part, and that was very influential to my thinking.
 
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Extollager said:
Those are all standouts for me except Dune, which I probably read in high school 40+ years ago.

But I wanted to ask a question about Rogue Male. Many years ago I was talking with another comp teacher, and it turned out we both had the kind of Geoffrey Household-moment sometimes when rolling along on a car trip -- Where and how could I hide in this landscape if I were being pursued?

I've wondered if that's a common mental scenario, for males especially.

Other guys relate to that?

And, of course, do we have women readers who get into the same scenario?

Possibly relevant -- dannymcg, do these interest you?

Topographic Romance - Fancyclopedia 3

Cartographic Romance - Fancyclopedia 3
Click to expand...

Yep! Found the links interesting and also yes to your query.
A few hundred feet from my childhood home was a large abandoned pond surrounded by thick woodland. One field further away was two deep gullies , again heavily wooded. In between was a maze of old coal mine extract pumping tunnels. These were blocked off by girders but the bolder kid could gain access. Many a time I had my Rogue Male hide out planned in there!
This seemed to follow me through life and various jobs/homes as I often had a quiet moment staring over the landscapes looking for suitable hides. I think people would need to read the book and then they might understand.
Also many years ago me and a mate had a few large scale maps of London and Home Counties taped together.We spent several days with different colours highlighters and hand written post it labels plotting out the Martian advances exactly as described in WotW. Great fun and a bit scary when you saw how quickly the different columns spread
..
 
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