Books that have shaped you

[AshtonBlack]

"Neuromancer" Gary Gibson. The first cyberpunk novel that drove my search for knowledge about everything computer related.

I prefer the book of the same title written by his brother William...

Ahh my mistake, I don't know why but I was thinking of E. Gary Gygax when wtiting this.... (I started playing AD&D at about the same time. )

[orpheus]

Pretty much everything by Samuel Beckett. But if I had to pick, I'd choose his great trilogy of novels: Molloy; Malone Dies; and The Unnamable.

Beckett gets down to bedrock like no other. No other way to put it.

[lordpasternack]

The only one I can think of is:



It changed my views on the value of serendipity and finding one's own path.

That would be on my list, too. As would To Kill A Mockingbird.

Definitely bits and pieces of Shakespeare, too - where you really get a crystal clear insight into how repetitive and universal certain patterns of human behaviour are, all articulated impossibly perfectly - with some purely beautiful lines.

I'm also a fan of poetry, and just recently I'm getting quite into good old Robert Burns. That man was a true gem.

Here's just a few of the stanzas that I like:

Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord
Wha struts an' stares an' a' that
Tho' hundreds worship at his word
He's but a coof for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
His ribband, star and a' that
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that

- From "Is There For Honest Poverty?"

'Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?'
Began the rev'rend Sage,
'Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,
Or youthful pleasure's rage?
Or haply, prest with cares and woes,
Too soon thou hast began
To wander forth, with me to mourn
The miseries of Man.

- From "Man Was Made To Mourn"

There are others, but I need to retire now. So, later...

Edit: Actually - what a nice coincidence - The Catcher in the Rye is named after a poem by Robert Burns: http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/322.html

[Clinton Huxley]

This may come as a shock but the Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser may have left their mark....

Also - the entire works of Douglas Adams, plus about a billion pulpy sci-fi and fantasy novs.

The Blind Watchmaker was the first Dawk book and it was like a light going on in my withered brain.

Getting into Patrick O'Brien now - peerless, I'd say.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Hornblower novels.

[charlou]

The derail posts have been split to a thread in the pub, here: http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2791

[redunderthebed]

Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels- I'd always being interested in Politics and current affairs but this was like an epiphany it just clicked with me and made sense and blew away any pre-conceived notions of what communism is (granted they where shaped by capitalist properganda but yeah..).It has shaped my politics and led me to become a communist and the way i see the world in a way which no other book has done since.

[leo-rcc]

I have always read a lot, but not much in the fiction genres. I always found non-fiction to be vastly more interesting than fiction. The only real exceptions being the Hitchhikers Guide, Animal Farm, and Watership down. I can't really say these book shaped me though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it. I always loved history. Most of what I read was about historical facts and people.

I couldn't tell you which books really shaped me, I must have read pretty much the whole history section of the library of my home town by the time I was 17. It did lead me to investigate some parts of history further than just what was written, but that was in my opinion more because I wasn't satisfied with the information given to me in the books than because of the books.

[redunderthebed]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

[Lozzer]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

Indeed. And as I recall, Snowball (the communist pig) was supposed to reflect Leon Trotsky. The bad communist pig (Napoleon) was Stalin.

Orwell was a socialist progressive and again, I agree. I'm reading the Communist Manifesto, and before that I read Orwell's novels.

[Transgirlofnofaith]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT! You really need to read this:

[Pappa]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

If his view in Homage to Catalonia is anything to go by, he didn't have much time for communists at all.

[Lozzer]

So then, perhaps Animal Farm is more of a comment on Russian politics at the time, and not in fact a direct attack or an endorsement of Communism?

[leo-rcc]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

I dare you, no I double dare you to find anything in my post that says what my position on communism is or what I think "the point" of Animal Farm is. Let alone whether I missed the point or not.

[redunderthebed]

though Animal Farm gave me an insight into communism from an early age I wouldn't have had if I hadn't read it.

You're missing the point leo George Orwell wrote it as a critique of stalin not of communism.He believed in the principles of socialism and wasn't anti-communist by any stretch of the imagine.The only problem with such critiques is that it can be abused by capitalist to further there own political ends.

ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT! You really need to read this:

I would rather eat my own shit than read *anything* by that fucking wanker.

If his view in Homage to Catalonia is anything to go by, he didn't have much time for communists at all.

I don't doubt that but animal farm isn't a critique of communism that all i was saying.