Books that changed your life

[rosco rathbone]

Yeah, it's not so much a life changing thing as a finding the right one at the right time.

If I think about the best book hookup in my life, it's actually probably a book a lot of people will find royally irritating: It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden.

I think of it as a self help book, mercifully slim, for people like me who DETEST the self-help and positive thinking voodoo genre. It helped me transition away from being someone's wage stooge, so yeah, that's changing I guess.

I prefer the negative thinking genre. But I read "The Unnameable" for laughs.

 

[Netzach]

I prefer the negative thinking genre. But I read "The Unnameable" for laughs.

I keep meaning to get to "Bright Sided."

 

[Netzach]

And Beckett put the laughs in there academia took them out. ALLLL the juggernaut of lit guys have lulz. Joyce has them by the boatload, but you'd never know it from listening to his experts.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I keep meaning to get to "Bright Sided."

There are very few people who would turn me into a googly eyed, autograph seeking fanboy, but she's up there.

 

[intothewoods]

I have a lot of favorite books, but none of them really changed my life.

Ha, this is completely embarassing, but I freaked out over The Beauty Myth when I read it. Naomi Wolf is really kind of a douchebag. Actually, I think that same summer I was really into Wendy Wasserstein and Thelma and Louise. Ha ha ha, that is really terrible, but I was only 17 or 18. Cut me some slack.

In slightly better news, I loved Christopher Durang's plays when I first discovered them in high school. I always had a sick sense of humor, and I was really psyched to find out that there was a whole world out there filled with other weirdos.

 

[rosco rathbone]

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick.

First full novel of his that I read, and it totally blew my mind. I had read a ton of his short stories before, but A Scanner Darkly really pushed me over the edge. Not just that one book, but pretty much everything of Philip K. Dick's that I've read has made me evaluate and re-evaluate my notions of authority and reality. A Scanner Darkly in particular made me question reality, because while in a lot of his other books the unreality of the worlds, or the multiple realities, are more explicit, but in A Scanner Darkly it mind-fucked reality within the brain, in a way that made me wonder about my own mind.

Philip K. Dick is still one of my greatest inspirations in how I live my life, and he helped me not take everything so seriously because you never know, this could all just be a fever dream of an opium-addled mind.

It's a great book in the reality-evaluating sense, but an even better work of black, surreal comedy. It's really about the early 70s. One of my favorite works of fiction and by far the best thing he ever wrote.

I don't know if you've ever read a bio of Dick, but you should if you are big fan.

 

[Netzach]

I have a lot of favorite books, but none of them really changed my life.

Ha, this is completely embarassing, but I freaked out over The Beauty Myth when I read it. Naomi Wolf is really kind of a douchebag. Actually, I think that same summer I was really into Wendy Wasserstein and Thelma and Louise. Ha ha ha, that is really terrible, but I was only 17 or 18. Cut me some slack.

In slightly better news, I loved Christopher Durang's plays when I first discovered them in high school. I always had a sick sense of humor, and I was really psyched to find out that there was a whole world out there filled with other weirdos.

I was also nuts for those. Laughing Wild. The consumerist meltdown over tuna.

 

[Cattypuss]

Yay, someone else!

Those three, esp. the first two are kind of dependent on being really immersed in the US East Coast Jewish familial experience, now that I think about it.

Philip Roth comparisons are fair. Expecting them to resonate with a UK audience hugely is not.

Hmmmm that may explain things a bit, yes. I'm not even Jewish, let alone East Coast, let alone American.

I wondered the other day, when I watched A Serious Man (by the Coen Bros, who I generally LOVE) and found it pretty unengaging and unfunny, whether my problem was that I'm neither Jewish nor American.

If you like Picture This try "Still Life with a Bridle" by Zbigniew Herbert - another treatment of a remarkably similar subject.

Noted - thanks!

 

[Netzach]

Hmmmm that may explain things a bit, yes. I'm not even Jewish, let alone East Coast, let alone American.

I wondered the other day, when I watched A Serious Man (by the Coen Bros, who I generally LOVE) and found it pretty unengaging and unfunny, whether my problem was that I'm neither Jewish nor American.




Noted - thanks!

It definitely helps with that film too, though M liked it enough for me to think he would not have liked or gotten it were he not married to me for 5+ years.

 

[00Syd]

It's a great book in the reality-evaluating sense, but an even better work of black, surreal comedy. It's really about the early 70s. One of my favorite works of fiction and by far the best thing he ever wrote.

I don't know if you've ever read a bio of Dick, but you should if you are big fan.

Yes, a complete period piece. In a surreal way. And I agree that it's the best thing he wrote (at least that I've read so far. He was SO prolific that I'm not sure I'll ever make it through his complete bibliography).

Aside from the brief bio in some articles, I haven't. I would love to, though.

I don't know if you like The Kinks or anything, but if you do, I highly recommend reading Ray Davies autobiography, X-Ray. Every time I read it I can't help but think that Ray sat down and thought, if Philip K. Dick ever wrote an autobiography, how would he go about it? And then did that.

 

[00Syd]

I wondered the other day, when I watched A Serious Man (by the Coen Bros, who I generally LOVE) and found it pretty unengaging and unfunny, whether my problem was that I'm neither Jewish nor American.

Wow, I loved A Serious Man, thought it was in The Coen Bros. top 5, without question. It could just be because I'm Jewish and American, but I don't think so, I've spoken to a couple of gentiles who thought it was great, too. A lot of people talked about the films "Jewish sense of humor," and it definitely had that, but it also just had this, I don't even know how to describe it, general feeling of Jewish heritage. From the old world shtetl to American Suburbia, without ever loosing that feeling of general malaise and impending doom.

 

[Netzach]

Wow, I loved A Serious Man, thought it was in The Coen Bros. top 5, without question. It could just be because I'm Jewish and American, but I don't think so, I've spoken to a couple of gentiles who thought it was great, too. A lot of people talked about the films "Jewish sense of humor," and it definitely had that, but it also just had this, I don't even know how to describe it, general feeling of Jewish heritage. From the old world shtetl to American Suburbia, without ever loosing that feeling of general malaise and impending doom.

I definitely think there's lost in translation stuff though - just like I love Mike Leigh but I think I'd love Mike Leigh differently if I were from the UK.

 

[eastern sun]

In my childhood, The Book of Three series opened my mind to the possibility that someone very small and insignificant could still be capable of great things. And a favorite "how to" book published by the Morningstar Ranch commune that taught everything from how to prepare a garden bed, build a shack, bake bread, birth a child and bury your dead convinced me that life was going to be manageable despite its appearances otherwise.

When I was 18, I was also deeply struck by the call for Quality in Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and followed it up over the next few years with the Tao of Physics, Goedel Escher Bach, and Levi-Strauss' Linguistics to build a semantic model of the universe I live in.

I also have to credit The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it's little companion Living Sober. To say they changed my life is an understatement. Though Carlos Castanedas' The Teachings of Don Juan held an equally important position before. . . I've since updated that strain of thinking with The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz which meshes beautifully with my sobriety.

Just a few years ago, I came across The Great Eastern Sun, by Chogyam Trungpa (after I'd been calling myself eastern sun in a number of forums) and that set in motion a study of Buddhism that fed backwards into the philosophy of my youth and informs most of my thinking today.

 

[Homburg]

I was gonna say, not really any books that have "changed my life" but this one might count. Single-handedly got me into philosophy. I own every book he ever wrote and I've read most of them at least 4 times.

Nice, I don't think I've ever had anybody else even recognise the bloody thing, let alone have read it. Amazing book though.

And, honestly, when I answer the "life-changing" question, I would say "none" were I being strict. No individual book has changed my life, but the couple that I mentioned changed my perceptions in meaningful, material ways. At which point, they were the closest I can come to.

 

[Yesspleasse]

.....Ha, this is completely embarassing, but I freaked out over The Beauty Myth when I read it. Naomi Wolf is really kind of a douchebag. ..........

Naomi may (or may not) be a douchebag. I tend to strongly support womens' rights but not Feminism (which I think is inherently biased, I'm afraid) though I do accept that women need a specific voice in what is a historically patriarchal world.

Anyhow, didn't mean to get on that dull track.

Just thought this was good:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyLSstqMvH8

Actually, she comes across as quite reasonable in this. :]

 

[rosco rathbone]

Yes, a complete period piece. In a surreal way. And I agree that it's the best thing he wrote (at least that I've read so far. He was SO prolific that I'm not sure I'll ever make it through his complete bibliography).

Aside from the brief bio in some articles, I haven't. I would love to, though.

I don't know if you like The Kinks or anything, but if you do, I highly recommend reading Ray Davies autobiography, X-Ray. Every time I read it I can't help but think that Ray sat down and thought, if Philip K. Dick ever wrote an autobiography, how would he go about it? And then did that.

I used to read tons of music bios but I stopped when I stopped playing in bands. Hate feeling all wistful.

Nice, I don't think I've ever had anybody else even recognise the bloody thing, let alone have read it. Amazing book though.

And, honestly, when I answer the "life-changing" question, I would say "none" were I being strict. No individual book has changed my life, but the couple that I mentioned changed my perceptions in meaningful, material ways. At which point, they were the closest I can come to.

I used to be rather metaphysical and very concerned with the astral or unseen component of existence. Reading that book made me a hard materialist.

 

[00Syd]

I definitely think there's lost in translation stuff though - just like I love Mike Leigh but I think I'd love Mike Leigh differently if I were from the UK.

No argument here.

 

[00Syd]

I used to read tons of music bios but I stopped when I stopped playing in bands. Hate feeling all wistful.

Well if you are going to read any music bio, read X-Ray. Seriously. Ray Davies is nuts, and tries his darnedest to prove it.

 

[midwestyankee]

Yeah, it's not so much a life changing thing as a finding the right one at the right time.

If I think about the best book hookup in my life, it's actually probably a book a lot of people will find royally irritating: It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden.

I think of it as a self help book, mercifully slim, for people like me who DETEST the self-help and positive thinking voodoo genre. It helped me transition away from being someone's wage stooge, so yeah, that's changing I guess.

Just ordered it. Thanks for the recommend, Netz.

Another book that I'll add to my list of changers: The Inner Game of Golf, by Tim Gallwey. I actually learned a great deal about how people learn from this book and, as a matter of fact, also improved my golf game. You can apply the inner game learning methods to almost any activity. I'm currently working on a training seminar for salespeople in which I will be using some of the inner game techniques.

 

[Cattypuss]

I definitely think there's lost in translation stuff though - just like I love Mike Leigh but I think I'd love Mike Leigh differently if I were from the UK.

Yeah, Mike Leigh (god love him) is probably a good example.

 

[Daddy2mylilgirl]

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Didn't really change my life but did get me interested in American history. It just really impressed me how many things one man could be and do.

He is the epitome of a renaissance man.

 

[Harryandsally]

Really so many books. I could go on and on.

Animal Farm

Rat Boy

1984

every erotic book I have read that expanded my ideals of what is appropriate sexual behavior for adults.

Great choice of books. Orwell was perhaps the only influence from my school days that have stayed with me.

I liked your other quote too, i wash more people adopted this attitude. People shouldn't be shocked by what others deem as pleasure.

 

[Harryandsally]

For me,

Michel Houellebecq - Platform & Atomised

JG Ballard - Cocaine Nights

Martin Amis - London Fields

These books opened me up to a lot of what seemed at the time, Kinky or sleazy things. They were a complete awakening.

I also love the dark, complexed characters each of these books feature.

 

[Xelebes]

Michael Crichton - Sphere

 

[rosco rathbone]

Michel Houellebecq - Platform & Atomised

Another comic mastermind.