Three books that shaped you

Hmmm...good question! The three you mention are outstanding, but I read them later in my teens. The first mention for me should probably be the Bible, but honestly, I never picked that up on my own as a young person. I would say that during my youth, say age 9-14, these three definitely impacted me most:

1) Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea - read when I was young. I loved fishing, so I understood both the old man and the boy. This is a book you can read multiple times in your life and each time come away from it with something different.

2) Charles Dickens - Great Expectations - so many good characterizations, a great tale of what matters in life.

3) Stephen Crane - Red Badge of Courage - also read when I was young, the book really vivified war from the perspective of a boy and the confrontation of fear is something we all deal with around that age.

Brilliant idea for a thread. Thanks.

Above are definitely not my favourite books but three that definitely had a big effect on me in terms of insights or inspirations

I studied Lord of the Flies at school but 'The Spire' blew me away as a young adult. Obsession, madness, religious fanaticism. An amazing read.

Eric Newby's travel books are all a delight but this one particularly opened the door to a world of delightfully amateurish and innocent travel. I think it influenced a period of adventurous travel in my twenties/thirties including to the Himalayan region several times.

Michael Balint's 1957 book is a little outdated now (partly because to modern readers it seems so obvious) but in the context of its time it was revolutionary. It champions a holistic model and a sophisticated analysis of the doctor-patient relationship. It makes it clear that the doctor is not a passive observer and how their own behaviours influence the consultation. It also looks at the expression of social and psychological distress through illness behaviours. Probably made me become a GP. Shame about the misanthropic title-another sign of the times in which it was written perhaps!

Bruce

If this thread goes well I think we should do the same for works of art.

No other book was ever able to match the excitement and pleasure that I experienced while reading at a very young age the Jules Verne adventure novels. They just set my imagination free and carried me to magical corners of our planet following plots and characters that never ceased from talking to me.

Later in life, reading Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22' while starting my own mandatory three years service in the military was instrumental in helping build the mental shield necessary to cop with being a soldier.

Catch 22, Animal Farm/1984 and Hitch Hikers Guide To The Universe.

There's one particular book that I have read and re-read and I'm still unsure of whether I have "got it", and that's John Fowles' The Magus.  Certainly it resonated for me much less in my 40s as it seemed to do in my early 20s.  I think Fowles himself had problems in resolving the story. In spite of it being one of his earliest books, he sat on it for ages before publishing and then re-issued a few years later having re-written the ending. And yet, whichever version you read, if you're of a certain age, it draws you in and you yearn to unravel the mystery. The influence of the Magus on other authors works is often easy to spot - The Secret History by Donna Tartt is practically an homage to Fowles work. Much like the book itself, It remains to me an enigma, but then perhaps that was Fowles' intention all along.  

Good thread - made me think.

As a boy of 10 or 11, I brought home Gordon Park's "The Learning Tree" from the school library. Having grown up in a very homogenous (i.e., all white) suburb, this was a shocking and emotional eye opener to growing up black in a world of violent racism.

As a teen, I fell in love with Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" (and for the same reasons Haim listed about Jules Verne, another great favorite of mine at the time). I can probably trace my interest in the U.K. back to this time, as Tolkien stirred my interest in Arthurian legends and medevial history.

Last one is a bit of oddball from my first year of college, but it has always stuck with me: Fritjof Capra's The "Tao of Physics".  It was a brief but enjoyable exposure to several different non-Western religions, and probably played a part in my taking a degree in Cultural Anthropology. One of his main themes was that at the extremes (e.g., the smallest known particles or the origins of the universe), the language of science and mysticism tends to converge.

Have been influenced in adult life by lots of great authors - both modern and classical - but obviously, I believe it is what we read and absorb in our younger days that shapes who we become. If I could sneak in just one more choice, it would be Willam H. McNeil's "A World History".

At school I didn't enjoy reading books, other than maths physics and geography.

As a young man I was posted to the Arabian Gulf area and with a bit more time on my hands started to read.

• Looking for Dilmun - Geoffrey Bibby
• The Territorial Imperative - Robert Ardrey
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

I'll explain how they influenced me, later.

Looking for Dilmun.

Dilmun was a land and civilisation dating from around 2,300 BC, centred on Bahrain but stretching from Kuwait to Oman. It opened my eyes to the reality of past civilisations and our place in this world The book was published c.1969 and I was regularly flying across the region from 1968 to 1973. In addition to occasional glances from the cockpit I started Land Rover expeditions on my days off, to find and investigate some of the trade routes and settlements for myself. This helped develop an interest in the migration of modern man from Sub-Saharan Africa to our current distribution around the globe.

The Territorial Imperative

What drives us ? Is it inherited ? Is it taught ? do we develop self-drive ? It was this book and regular Gin & Tonics when not Looking for Dilmun, that got me thinking !!

Wuthering Heights

One of the more intriguing and disturbing book I have read. Picked it up to read before going to see Heathcliff so as not to appear totally ignorant of the context setting for the show. Followed it up by working through the “Classics” section at Waterstones….Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters, Wilkie Collins , Dickens………….Jonathan Swift….. As Clemenza said, helped me develop my sense of what matters in life.

For my second book, I would choose Paul Tillich's Dynamics Of Faith, a book that we all had to read at school for our religion classes (along with Gandhi's All Men are Brothers and one or two there I've now forgotten about).  For the initiated, just the word "Tillich" would strike fear into the hearts of fourth formers, and for most it proved to be a pretty tough slog.  For some it remained unfathomable and something to be quickly forgotten, but for others, myself included, perseverance paid off and that wonderful moment when it all clicked and made perfect sense is still fresh in the mind.  Funnily enough it's a book that I look back on and cite perhaps more than any other - it makes so much sense of human existence and our desire for and need of faith.  

I have read lots of factual books, some of a spiritual subject that have had an effect on me but the three books that had the biggest and most lasting effect on me where all works of fiction which may or may not say something about me  I dont know.  To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee,  100 years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez  but the one that absolutely blew me away and had the biggest effect on me was The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist 

I think this thread is going to turn into a great reading list!

I believe that the few books able to 'shape' us are, like Mr _M says, read in our puberty or adolescence. My first one is a cheap collection of Čechov's short  stories I bought with my pocket money at 10 or 11. It gave me the wish to write myself. It taught me the beauty of the structure of the short story.

The second, and most important one, is  Freud's The psychopathology of everyday life, which I read at about 14 and which introduced me to the splendid idea of sub- and inconscious mind, revealing the wonderful ways in which the deeper layers scream to us for help and recognition, and showing me, for good, that there is no other way - psychoanalisys or not - of salvation but the knowledge of oneself, down to the darkest and  filthiest corner.

The third one is, probably, The Master and Margarita, read at 14 or so, from which I got my only and true capacity to give in to imagination, wry humour, and a certain taste for revenge, justice and compensation.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for all your contributions. I notice that Richard is delivering installments much like Hardy did with the serialisation of his novels in newspapers!

The thing that pleases me is the wider appeal of what was a brief discussion with a friend as we sheltered from wind and rain behind a hedge during a walk to a pub for lunch. Thanks.

Her choices btw were Animal Farm, Jane Eyre and Lord of the Flies.

C.

Christopher_M posted:

Thanks for all your contributions. I notice that Richard is delivering installments much like Hardy did with the serialisation of his novels in newspapers!

The thing that pleases me is the wider appeal of what was a brief discussion with a friend as we sheltered from wind and rain behind a hedge during a walk to a pub for lunch. Thanks.

Her choices btw were Animal Farm, Jane Eyre and Lord of the Flies.

C.

Same with Dickens and, I believe, Wilkie Collins.

Had the same experience with my wife who really enjoyed thinking about her reply.

Her answers were really interesting! Again books that are absolutely not favourites just that seem to have had a big impact.

She read a book called 'Colony Earth' by Richard Mooney in her early teens which I believe posits an extra-terrestrial origin to human life. Growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household she said this felt incredibly heretical and was the first time she really considered that the Old Testament, and indeed existence of God could be questioned. Not the sort of debate that would normally happen in her home or community.

Second was 'The Diving Bell and The Butterfly' by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Devastatingly sad yet deeply insightful book written by a man who was in 'locked in syndrome' at the time. Reminds all us doctors (she was one too) that we are powerless much of the time, and of the strength of human will.

Finally she nominated 'The Cruel Sea' (Nicholas Montserrat) which could also have been on my list. A book that says so much about male friendships and the experience of war without any jingoism. She chose this because it is so different from everything she would normally chose to read but found it had a powerful and lasting effect..

Bruce

Further to my earlier reply I think these books read in adolescence really do have a lasting and sometimes subconscious impact that stays with us. For me both To Kill a Mockingbird and the Ragged Trousered Philantropist both read in my mid teens shaped me in such a way that 30 years later I still look at life through a lens created by those authors and I still hold my actions up against those of the characters in those stories. 

So indeed a very interesting thread. I would think about three...

1. De Kameleon - a Dutch series of youth books about boys with a boat. It ignited my love for reading as a child. I could be found 2 times a week in the library.

2. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin Sharma, with deep insights into personal development and living a good life.

3. Recently I got introduced to the great world of audio books. Cicero from Robert Harris opened the doors.

Could be interesting in thinking about books that helped shape others that were known, but never got round to reading oneself : 

Remember quite a few making a fuss over this book, haven't yet got round looking into it. Am I missing anything ?

Another book that's accountable by its absence. One that I really should get round to reading one day :

I have read this book many times though !!

This book was an enormous influence. Studying Art History and painting when a little younger than I am now. This literally put the perspective on perspective and how evolution of looking  - and creative looking managed to flatten out images we know, to abstract images we want to know.

Mein Kampf, Das Kapital, The Prince.

In no particular order! 

Tony2011 posted:

Mein Kampf 

 

 

 

Yah, das ist very fanny!