Three books that shaped you

Got these two for Christmas (as published by Marks & Spencer) at various Christmases back in the 1970s. Each prompted a love of, and study of, movies and art. Finler's book ranges between The Great Train Robbery (1903) to through to Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973); while the Vaizey moves from Giotto and Cimabue through to David Hockney.

Still the funniest book ever written:

Possibly the greatest of novels. Took me over a year (1984-5) to read it, in the Penguin CK Scott-Moncrieff translation. I got lost many times but it was worth it. I have since tried to re-read it in the original French but I had to admit defeat. Maybe one day... Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure!

Three books I read when I was in my teens. The first was Animal Farm, after seeing the famous Halas & Batchelor cartoon on the telly aged 11. I was lucky enough to have a brilliant English teacher at school who was passionate about Orwell and he passed his love of the great man on to me.

Koestler is little-read these days, which is a pity, as his profoundly sceptical stance is a useful corrective to the religious mania, surveillance, moral panics and truth-twisting of our current troubled era.

All three helped shape my political and moral outlook.

Teenage books that sowed the seeds for a love of literature.

1) Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead revisited.

A good read about a exceptionally wealthy family torn apart by alcoholism and Catholicism.

Beautiful and evocative language.

2) Martin Amis - London Fields.

It was the first Amis I read and enjoyed it a great deal.A dictionary was very handy as there was so many new words that I'd never heard so it was educational as well.I thought it very clever how Amis narrates the story even talking to a the main character Keith Talent when Keith picks Martin up from Heathrow airport.

3) Frederick Forsythe - The day of the Jackal.

I as 19 and inter- railing for a month with my girlfriend round Europe and my travelling beautifully dovetailed the Jackals mission as he was also moving around Europe .A great thriller and memories of travel.

There's been loads of other favourites but have reread the 3 above at least 4 times so they must have touched me.

Great thread it always interesting reading other people's likes and why .

Reading is such a joy as is music as that can be equally literal.Maybe The Beatles Sargent Pepper is the ultimate talking book,well you know what I mean it could be Dylan or.........

Bert Schurink posted:

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.

Same here. My 9 yr old kid is now going to s/h shops to collect them.

Great thread - difficult to pick 3... these read roughly 30, 20 and 10 years ago respectively 

EH Gobrich - The Story of Modern Art - for providing the doctrine that opened an understanding of Modern Art and the route into a heap of questions / ideas about the representation of architectural space and its creation.

John Steinbeck- East of Eden - a beautiful lesson in forgiveness that changed the path of a relationship decision for me which led to marriage and three awesome children.

Joe Friel - The Cyclists Training Bible - For showing me that application of self devised plan could in a few months take a fat smoker of 17 years to a competitive club racer, who's never looked back, been healthier or been out in nature seeing more of the world than ever before.

Holmes posted:

EH Gobrich - The Story of Modern Art - for providing the doctrine that opened an understanding of Modern Art and the route into a heap of questions / ideas about the representation of architectural space and its creation.

Don't you mean The Story of Art? That's Gombrich's classic 1950 tome (along with Art and Illusion, first published in 1960).

TSOA's 'modern art' equivalents are The Story of Modern Art (1979) by Norbert Lynton and Robert Hughes' Shock of the New (1980).

Kevin-W posted:

Holmes posted:

EH Gobrich - The Story of Modern Art - for providing the doctrine that opened an understanding of Modern Art and the route into a heap of questions / ideas about the representation of architectural space and its creation.

Don't you mean The Story of Art? That's Gombrich's classic 1950 tome (along with Art and Illusion, first published in 1960).

TSOA's 'modern art' equivalents are The Story of Modern Art (1979) by Norbert Lynton and Robert Hughes' Shock of the New (1980).

I did mean the Story of Art 

TOBYJUG posted:

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 ?

I've read it twice, and the only thing I remember clearly is the 'dramaturgic' contraposition of two characters, one of whom refuses to fix the gas knob of his motorbike unless he has an original BMW part, the other (the narrating ego) is ready to do the job with the first thing at hand (a cut from a beer can).

In this I believe is the essence of the book. If you want, you can read just that chapter. 

Re "Zen and the art...." - I must confess that as a biker I was initially hoping to be transformed by reading it into a ninja mechanic.

In fact it is basically a philisophical treatise on the notion of "quality" - the motorcycle being mostly a vehicle (device if you are allergic to puns!) to anchor this rather abstract notion. It is surprisingly readable even for non bikers and very thought provoking but not really life changing - at least for me.

The Brothers Karamazov. Was a page turner for me. All those dialogues in ever floating environment. I still can't understand Dostojevski's mind.

Naim gave me a second encounter with Russia. I finally had full dynamics in my living.

a great many books have had a influence on me and as someone points out above, they are not necessarily my favourites. Three that have a deep effect on me over the years are:

Wuthering Heights  taught me about the poetry and power of the english language. Like many I did this at school and while I never got on with Jane Austin, this book captured me and as I reread it occasionally, I remain astonished at its power.

A Women on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy is an astonishing novel about a women clinging to the edges of her violent and abused life in this world who hallucinates into a utopian world of true sexual equality where women are true equals in society and men breast feed babies etc. I read it in the mid 70s when Virago and the Women's Press were starting out. It showed me a world that could be and one that I have happily strived for since.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. It is a story of hope and perseverance where small steps, may painful, can take you to place of comfort and security.

I have several sets of three books I could nominate but I think the first of the sets would be the books by Vance Packard

- The Hidden Persuaders  about the advertising industry

- The Waste Makers about how eventually it will be uneconomic to stop factories producing goods that a lot of the output will be directed to the waste dump.

- The Status Seekers - about the social structure and the labels that are assigned to the various groups.

These books were on every sixth former's and student's bookcase in the early 60s.

In some respects they are a very accurate description of society today.  

As a passionate reader, it took me a while to come up with just three books, but these were  probably the most influential ones:

Astrid Lindgren, Wir Kinder aus Bullerbü (couldn't figure out the English title) - my favorite of the books my parents read to me. Unlike many books for children fully developed stories, not some superficial stuff full of holes. These stories completely drew me in and took me to Sweden.

 I read many more books, including the ones from Jules Verne, mentioned above, until I met Douglas Adams Hitchhiker trilogy in my teens. They thought me how to think outside the box. "So long..." still is one of my favorites.

 The third one is "Outsider in Amsterdam" by Janwillem van de Wetering. His books widened my horizon again and still resonate every time I re-read one, some perhaps for the thirtieth time.

Almost as difficult a question as the best gig thread but if I had to pick three they would be; To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a book a love to this day that contains some of the most likeable characters ever and a deeply moral story; The Lord Of The Rings by Tolkien, which I know is a bit predictable but I love it deeply and reading it is like visiting an old friend.  It helps too that some of my favourite Rush music is so evocative of that genre and I would have to say any book by Sir Terry Pratchett, one of my heroes, a creator of wondrous worlds and characters so human that I felt I knew them, and a man who could make me laugh and cry at the same time.  Sadly missed, GNU Sir Terry Pratchett.

1. Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray

2. Kundera  - The unbearable lightness of being

3. When Nietzsche wept - Irvin D. Yalom

I can come up with two definitely:

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

The Mersey Sound - Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri

Stuck for a third.

steve

Richard Bach - Illusions

Dickens - David Copperfield

Ladybird Book of the Human Body

First two re self-determination. 

Third was endlessly fascinating as a child and led to asking more questions than it answered. Pretty sure it helped pass O-level biology and eventually to career in medicine and many more unanswered questions. 

Looking through the lists, Kevin-W's choises made waver. Both Darkness at Noon and 1984 (and Animal Farm to a slightly lesser extent) had a huge imact on my values and political views.

Neverthelsess my personal choises (this week) are:

1. The Penal Colony - Franz Kafka. I found this by chance in the school library when I was 16 and it had a profound impact on me. A scary book that led to many other 20th century classics including more Kafka, Joseph Conrad, Celine, Bulgakow, Rybakov, Kevin-W choices mentioned above, and the books mentioned below.

2. The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil. This is an unfinished 1600 page novel in four volumes that I read while at University. So full of ideas and thoughts. I remember reading a page and lying thinking about it for 15-20 minutes before going on to the next page. It took me a year to read. Profound. 

3. Crowds and Power - Elias Canetti. The first non-fiction book i read for pleasure. An amazing expose of the hyman psyche. An alternative psychology to Freud and Junge. Amazing depth and insight. 

Hans

Paper Plane posted:

The Mersey Sound - Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri

An old favourite. I particularly liked the line "Discretion is the better part of Valerie, although all of her is nice"

I recently came across an old photo of myself reading a Rupert the Bear annual when I was about 4 years old so I suspect that had an early influence.

sjbabbey posted:

Paper Plane posted:

The Mersey Sound - Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri

An old favourite. I particularly liked the line "Discretion is the better part of Valerie, although all of her is nice"

I recently came across an old photo of myself reading a Rupert the Bear annual when I was about 4 years old so I suspect that had an early influence.

Do you mean this one? I rember having it at school and thinking the cover was really cool...

Yes, that's the one, Kevin. My other favourite McGough poem is "40 Love" which is very cleverly structured to read across 2 pages like a tennis rally.

Always struggled with fiction, because it is just make believe and ultimately of no intrinsic value except as escapism. That isn't to say I don't read it, but to me it can never count as significant.

Do Feynman's Lectures, all 3 volumes, count as one choice or all 3? If only one then I will include

Richard Rhodes; The making of the atomic bomb. Infinitely more interesting and exciting than any fiction.

and

Professor Hawking; A brief moment in time. A lighthearted look at the physics of the very small and very large

Writers who I keep going back to re-read their books over and over again are the British Graham Greene and the American Cormack McCarthy.