The 5 Most Influential Books in My Life

[madrotter]

Stephen (and Bick too) I guess I understand what you're saying about Dawkins but he just put so much stuff in words in that book, and yes, most of it I had thought out by myself but he articulated it for me in a way that I hadn't be able to up to that point...he had me laughing out loud at times and going, yes, yes....

And I've read one book from Karen Armstrong, Muhammed, A Biography of the Prophet which was pretty good but not nearly as good as Reza Aslan's No God But God and maybe I should've listed that one as one of the 5 most influential books I've read instead of Dawkins....

Incredible book really, I'm married with an Indonesian woman and she and her whole family are Muslim, I've been reading loads about it but only after reading this book I started understanding.... What Islam has become is a completely different thing from what the Prophet Muhammed meant it to be, in fact, they started changing it from the moment he died.....

I can really recommend it. I was going to put a link up but it seems I don't have sufficient posts yet to do that....

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm curious to know how you approached reading this extraordinary book.

Have you discovered Nicholas Humphrey yet?

Hmmm. Interesting question. I guess I would say that I was delighted to have the author entertain me with all his jokes, games, and charming digressions, all while learning about the emergence of consciousness as a meta-phenomenon of sufficiently complex self-referential systems. (That sounds quite pretentious, but there is nothing pretentious about the book.)

I have to admit that I am not familiar with Humphrey's work at all. The most recent book I read on the subject was Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett.

 

[Liz Bent]

I will say, very briefly, that the following books changed my life, and I'll try to put them down in the order they came into my life:

1. The Last Battle (from the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis) - I was a child when I read this and I found the ending tremendously comforting and philosophically satisfying.
2. Steppenwolf (Hermann Hesse) - I was a teenager when I read this and it helped me realize that there were people in the world just as angry, who were just as much outcasts from society, as I felt much of the time. It made me feel less alone.
3. Cosmos (Carl Sagan) - A brilliant book, the ending of which blew my mind completely. I sincerely hope someday someone does the experiment from the end of the book and finds the same results!
4. Lavondyss: Journey to an Unknown Region (Robert Holdstock) - Another brilliant book. It has influenced my thinking when it comes to the importance of ritual, mythology, and traditions.
5. The Art of Happiness (HH the Dalai Lama) - I was in my mid-twenties when I read this, and it cemented many of my ideas regarding what was morally right, and how to treat other people.

There are other books that have been important or influential, but these ones stand out. In five or ten years, I may choose a different list of books, but this is my list for right now.

 

[hitmouse]

Hmmm. Interesting question. I guess I would say that I was delighted to have the author entertain me with all his jokes, games, and charming digressions, all while learning about the emergence of consciousness as a meta-phenomenon of sufficiently complex self-referential systems. (That sounds quite pretentious, but there is nothing pretentious about the book.)

I have to admit that I am not familiar with Humphrey's work at all. The most recent book I read on the subject was Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett.

I haven't thought about GEB for ages. Thanks for bringing it up.
No doubt Godel Escher Bach was part of an important phase for me, though I have sort of dismissed it for about the last 30 years

I read it as an 18 year old on a year out before university whilst working as a teacher in a school in the hills in South India. A very interesting time and quite psychedelic : the surroundings, the freedom, the culture, and copious amounts of weed. I got the book from the school library and devoured it along with others such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Prophet, Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, The Teachings of Don Juan, whilst listening to Beatles, Doors, early Pink Floyd. Basically having the hippy experience I had dreamed about during a very boring provincial 6th form in the late 1980s listening to Sgt Pepper and reading SF.

Subsequently I consigned these to the category of "books I thought were profound when I was in my late teens but now find a bit naff." I think I might be being a bit unfair. Possibly this is retrospective embarassment from a more cynical perspective, or possibly because I met a lot of very earnest people at the time who went on about how these books and, like everything man, were really profound.

Other books I read that year that I still like include the Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, Nausea JP Sartre, The Outsider Camus, The Blind Watchmaker Dawkins, and Karma Cola Gita Mehta

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Hmmm. Interesting question. I guess I would say that I was delighted to have the author entertain me with all his jokes, games, and charming digressions, all while learning about the emergence of consciousness as a meta-phenomenon of sufficiently complex self-referential systems. (That sounds quite pretentious, but there is nothing pretentious about the book.)

I have to admit that I am not familiar with Humphrey's work at all. The most recent book I read on the subject was Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett.

A fantastic book by a great author. You'd love Nicholas Humphrey, I'm sure! Perhaps (if you can) begin with The Inner Eye, then A History Of The mind, Seeing Red (although this is quite a technical liitle book), and his most recent and excellent Soul Dust.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Subsequently I consigned these to the category of "books I thought were profound when I was in my late teens but now find a bit naff." I think I might be being a bit unfair. Possibly this is retrospective embarassment from a more cynical perspective, or possibly because I met a lot of very earnest people at the time who went on about how these books and, like everything man, were really profound.

We all do that when we're younger, of course - but then again, some of them really are profound...

 

[kythe]

We all do that when we're younger, of course - but then again, some of them really are profound...

I find this a really interesting phenomenon. Maybe its not a mind blowing revelation to anyone else, but I've noticed about myself that 6th grade - or about 12 years old - was a real turning point in my interests. I still find myself rereading books I was first introduced to that year, more than any other year of my life. Those books shaped my fiction interests for life.

I think its fascinating to see this trend. Several others have posted here that books have greater influence in your life at a certain young age than at any other time.

On that note, it occurs to me that I skipped one of my most influencial books in my list - so hard to narrow it down to 5! "A Wrinkle in Time", the famous YA book by Madeleine L'Engle. My username is taken from the sequels. I have identified with the concept of "kything" since I first read of it (at age 12!), and have used this username online for probably 10 years.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I think a lot of this is to do with the fact that, when you're young, you don't know so much how artistic things are put together - you just experience them. Later, whether you become an artist or not, maturity brings the ability to dissect other people's creations. I've heard a good few authors say how they find it more difficult now to enjoy a novel because they're always checking out how the author put it together. This effect is definitely true of films and film-makers too.

All the novels I re-read are the ones I first discovered in my teens or early twenties.

 

[Extollager]

C. S. Lewis's inaugural address (1954) as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge has made a lasting impression on me. It is available online and I guarantee that it will get you thinking.

Full text of "De Descriptione Temporum"

 

[Liz Bent]

C. S. Lewis's inaugural address (1954) as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge has made a lasting impression on me. It is available online and I guarantee that it will get you thinking.

Thanks!

 

[Liz Bent]

I think a lot of this is to do with the fact that, when you're young, you don't know so much how artistic things are put together - you just experience them. Later, whether you become an artist or not, maturity brings the ability to dissect other people's creations. I've heard a good few authors say how they find it more difficult now to enjoy a novel because they're always checking out how the author put it together. This effect is definitely true of films and film-makers too.

All the novels I re-read are the ones I first discovered in my teens or early twenties.

I've found this to be very true- and also, my scientific training has made it hard for me to enjoy a lot of more "science fantasy"-type writing that used to enthrall me as a child. For example, there was a story by Tainith Lee that described a certain kind of genetic engineering that I thought was amazing when I first read it at maybe 14-15, but as an adult I read it and cringed because the science was all wrong.

I kind of regret this- it's like a source of wonder in the world has been snuffed out for me. I enjoy my job and the challenge of presenting more realistic science in writing in an entertaining way, but there was something to be said for the innocent excitement I had before I knew way too much.

 

[triviadave]

I read this question in two ways, first are the books that I have read that have most influenced me (mostly by affecting my reading habits), in no particular order:

1) The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
This seems a popular choice here. For me, the entity known as the H2G2 has been in my life for about as long as I can remember, starting off listening to it on the radio with my parents, and continuing through the books, a bit of the tv programme and then the film (and the books again several times throughout). It makes me laugh, think and feels like coming home, it is as close as I come to a literary comfort blanket, but is one I can share with others.

2) Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Suspicion - Mike McQuay - I had to look up the author for this book. In some ways the book shouldn't be included. I have read the book, but don't recall it being amazing. I heard this (or another book in the series) on the radio, and decided I wanted to read the book. The reason it is on this list is that it led to reading other Asimov books, in particular, the Foundation Series (and then onto Sci-Fi in general), which has had an impact on many aspects of my life ever since.

3) Boy: Tales of Childhood - Roald Dahl - I loved Roald Dahl books when I was a kid (probably still do now), but this was probably the one that had the biggest impact on me. I am not sure why; my childhood was very different to his, but I felt a kinship (probably more to do with his writing and me being an impressionable age than anything else) that drew me in, and probably started me on the road to enjoying reading so much.

4) Mort - Terry Pratchett - This was not my first Discworld novel. I had previously read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and not been impressed. Someone convinced me to try Mort, and I am very glad they did because I loved it, as I have loved most of the rest of the Discworld novels. It (and the other Discworld novels to follow) changed what I read so much, and as a result how I see the world so much that it has to be in the list.

5) "How Things Work" - My parents are "looking after" this book at the moment so I don't know the author, it may not even be the proper title. But it represents the first book I received telling me about how things work (fairly obvious really) - I think my dad wanted me to become an engineer. I instilled an interest in why things are the way they are, why things happen the way they do, and essentially gave me an interest in science. This stuck around as I have ended up with a degree and a career in science, and still have a deep and abiding love of finding out "How Things Work".

I also thought about books that I may not have read but have influenced my life. The books above have influenced the way I think about a limited number of things in my life, other books have probably had a bigger effect. Books such as the Bible and the Quran, I may not have read them (I have read parts of the Bible, but less than 10% in total I would imagine), but they have changed the way I have lived my life, because they have changed the way other people behave. I would include "The Little Red Book" because of the impact it had on my dad, and therefore me and other similar books. Don't know what people think of the alternative interpretation but I haven't been able to get it out of my head for the last week or so, so I felt I should share it with people.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Jesse412]

I couldn't narrow it down to five.

• Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
• Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung
• Be Here Now by Ram Dass
• On The Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Lords and the New Creatures by Jim Morrison

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard - a 1957 book about media manipulation and advertising techniques that turned my 12 year-old self into a hardened cynic and really really difficult to sell things to. Reading that book has saved me a lot of grief and money over the decades.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by neurologist Oliver Sacks - confirmed my belief (which is obviously true) that my subjective reality is as weird as yours and no one can prove anything from their own subjective experience and that God is therefore unprovable and obviously therefore does not exist.

Tokyo Style by Kyochi Tsuzuki - a thick, small format book containing hundreds of pictures of Japanese house interiors. Not nice, elegant, classically traditional, Zenny interiors but cluttered, everyday, untidied messes. Unmade beds, and piles of unwashed pots. When I get depressed, fed up with the state my kids leave this house, I go read it for a bit and cheer myself up. All the text is in Japanese. I have no idea what 99.9% of the words mean - but wanting to know is one of the reasons I'm trying to teach myself the language.

The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne - the first book which made me cry like a baby at the end of it. And then I turned back to the first page and the characters were still there and it hadn't ended. I could repeat the experience! It was a revelation!! I was in my mid-twenties; I think I must have been stoned out of my box. (It was still a revelation though.)

Have Space Suit Will Travel by R A Heinlein. The Golden Age of SF is 12. I read all Heinlein's 'Juvenile's when I was 10/11/12. The Sense of Wonder those books generated in me is something I will never recapture - partially because I went and read The Hidden Persuaders so it's my own fault - but I miss it. Been looking for it ever since.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard - a 1957 book about media manipulation and advertising techniques that turned my 12 year-old self into a hardened cynic and really really difficult to sell things to. Reading that book has saved me a lot of grief and money over the decades.

Yep, and The Screwing of the Average Man by David Hapgood took it to the next level for me.

Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski. I suppose anyone who reads a lot must think about the relationship between words and reality and miscommunication. But that is a difficult book to understand.

The Ultimate Frontier by Richard Kieninger, under the pen name Eklal Kueshana: Weirder than any sci-fi book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07cncstelle.html?_r=0

Star Surgeon by Alan E. Nourse. Not inherently influential but started me reading science fiction which was.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18492/18492-h/18492-h.htm

psik