Post by: Felonious Monk/Fignozzle on November 28, 2005, 06:05:22 PM
We can do that one, too at some point.
Right now, grampster made a suggestion that sparked a book thread along the same lines, though.
What books have you read that have truly made a change in your life, and how?
If you'll permit me, I'd like to put the "primary spiritual books" to the side.
The Bible
The Torah, and Talmud
The Koran
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Necronomicon
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
(I'm sure I missed somebody's spiritual holy book--sorry)
...are all set aside as must-reads, and it's obvious that some or all of them have made maximum impact on humanity.
For me, M. Scott Peck's "The Road Less Travelled" is at the top of the list, because it taught me that
1) Life is Tough
2) Pain is Mandatory, Suffering is Optional.
3) Pain can be managed to an extent, by applying self-discipline.
4) The extent to which you apply self-discipline is the extent to which you can control and alleviate pain in life.
What about you?
Post by: Unisaw on November 28, 2005, 06:12:30 PM
Post by: Felonious Monk/Fignozzle on November 28, 2005, 06:21:52 PM
Post by: MaterDei on November 28, 2005, 07:09:58 PM
Bill Watterson is also great.
Post by: Standing Wolf on November 28, 2005, 07:16:45 PM
Post by: Sylvilagus Aquaticus on November 28, 2005, 07:40:15 PM
The Art of War James Clavell annotated edition, attr. Sun Tzu.
Most of Wm. Faulkner's works.
Most of Anton Chekhov's works.
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Regards,
Rabbit.
Post by: Greg Levy on November 28, 2005, 07:46:07 PM
From The Moon is a Harsh Mistress I learned all about TANSTAAFL.
Stranger in a Strange Land had a lot of great stuff about independent thought and doing things your own way. I learned that somday I want to be Jubal Harshaw.
Those two books, and his 'Future Histories' books really shaped who I am today.
greg
Post by: SpookyPistolero on November 28, 2005, 08:03:48 PM
A book I read a while back called 'The Power of Now' was fairly important to me. Thought it would be a bit contrived and new-age, but really was like practical buddhism. I'm starting to read more things from that area now.
Post by: Vodka7 on November 28, 2005, 08:08:39 PM
Pretty much everything by Bukowski, Ibsen, Andrew Marvell, and John Donne
Celine's Journey to the End of the Night
Camus's The Stranger
Ellison's Invisible Man
I have many more that are favorites, but those are the ones that taught me the most about dealing with myself and with other people. Except Marvell and Donne--they're just for fun but provide me with, word-for-word, more entertainment than anything else on Earth.
Post by: Guest on November 28, 2005, 09:40:36 PM
"1984" - George Orwell
"Animal Farm" - George Orwell
"Utopia" - Sir Thomas Moore
"Atlas Shrugged" - Ayn Rand
'The Pillars of the Earth" Follett
Robert Ruark. Everything he wrote.
Hemingway, Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, and too many more to name of The Classics.
Nelson DeMille - again another Author in works such a "Plum Island" and "Charm School" - I read everything he writes.
"Shotgunning: The Art and the Science" - Brister
"Score Better at Skeet" Fred Misseldine
The exact title I forget, not handy - My Anatomy and Physiology texts and related Medical texts.
"Unintended Consequenses"-John Ross
"Enemies Foreign and Domestic - Matthew Bracken
These come to mind quickly - there are others...
Steve
Post by: 280plus on November 29, 2005, 02:06:31 AM
other authors:
Ayn Rand
Thomas Hardy
If you've read Rand you must counterbalance with Hardy...
I would suggest reading him in order.
I just read Chesty Puller's and Carlos Hathcock's bios. Both very inspiring.
Post by: garrettwc on November 29, 2005, 03:30:47 AM
Principles of Personal Defense, and Art of the Rifle by Jeff Cooper
Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
Post by: Seymour Skinner on November 29, 2005, 03:36:35 AM
Quote
(I'm sure I missed somebody's spiritual holy book--sorry)
Well, since this is about books that have "changed our lives" and you missed it, I'm going to say it. The Book of Mormon. I don't read books, but that one has raw light and intelligence that has helped me with things I couldn't even number. I have stacks of good hard core informative books that chronical the destruction of liberty in this land since 1913, and the forces behind it, but as interested as I am in that subject, I rarely finish them, and I get more hope from reading the Book of Mormon. Few know that the Book of Mormon contains little about it's compiler (mormon) and is 90% about what Christ has done/will do to inhabitants of this land if/when they reject correct principles. Those who love liberty would benefit from reading it, whether they believe in Christ or not.Those good hard core informative books that have also changed me but I rarely finish:
Post by: Antibubba on November 29, 2005, 06:15:20 AM
Wittgenstein's Philisophical Investigations.
Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil.
Lord of the Rings.
Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, and when I was still quite young, C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.
Everything written by P.J. O'Rourke.
James Gleick's Chaos.
And Shakespeare.
Post by: grampster on November 29, 2005, 07:12:32 AM
I think of some others.
Post by: Chris on November 29, 2005, 07:57:26 AM
The books of John Douglas (Mindhunter, Journey Into Darkness, etc.). Yes, there really are monsters out there. All I have to do is read one case study to get motivated for a range session.
Post by: ...has left the building. on November 29, 2005, 08:29:49 AM
-"Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke"
-"Moving Towards Stillness" by David Lowry
-"Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry
-"The Lord of the Rings" series by Tolkien
-"Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare...okay not a book...
-"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
-"Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman
-"Wild Swans" by Jung Chang
...and the list goes on
Post by: Nathaniel Firethorn on November 29, 2005, 09:39:15 AM
- NF
Post by: Brad Johnson on November 29, 2005, 09:39:46 AM
Brad
Post by: matis on November 29, 2005, 08:53:33 PM
Many authors excited me that no longer do. Something to do with growing up, which process I delayed as long as possible.
Authors that changed me include Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein, especially Stranger in a Strange land.
A book that helped me break out was one by Harry Browne: How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World. I developed the courage to give up a psychotherapy practice a few years after reading his book. I'd struggled years to go from high-school drop-out (I'm offically still that, though
), going to school nights, working days -- took me years.At first I loved my work. But after a few years it became boring. Just why is another story --some of it hilarious. And I didn't much like my colleagues, nor the milieu. But who would give up a profession with its prestige and other perks, after struggling so long and hard to get there? Unheard of. Some people die in that trap.
I might have broken out, anyway, who can know?
But Harry can sure teach you about breaking out of "boxes".
What actually happened is that I moved gradually from far left to pretty much far right. Along the way I shed my old infatuations and even my professional interests.
Funny part is that I have NO friends from my days as a professional.
But once I turned to business pursuits (always small-time stuff, I hate fitting in to an organization) the friends I made as soon as I changed my line of work are, some of them, still with me, 20 and 25 years later.
So as a "hustler" and now a landlord, I have close, long-time friends. Before, not really. Also was an unhappy person, even depressed before "breaking out". Never since. (And I've taken some hard knocks {who hasn't?}, since).
My conclusion: the left-wing philosophy and its associated values cannot sustain happiness, thankfulness, joy. The "Far RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY" can. A left-winger looks out over a beautiful vista and must immediately obsess over global warming and habitat encroachment. I take it in, thank G-d that it's there and that I'm here to see it.
He smokes grass; I get high on life.
One example: I love the poetry of Dylan Thomas, especially his DON'T GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT. I still love it.
But then it spoke FOR me. I truly raged against many things and had I found myself dying then would certainly have raged at the dying of the (my) light (lotta good it woulda done me, right?). Now, although I love his poetry, I could keel over even as I type this and I would die happy. He on the other hand drank himself to death young.
Many of the writers I revered then drank themselves to death or suicided or died in car accidents. One way or another, they checked out early. Glad I cut loose from them. Even Ayn Rand, whom I still value, might have done better (for herself) to have immersed herself in Torah study instead (her "real" name was Alissa Rosenbaum). Must have been at least something amiss in her philosophy: she died alone and unhappy.
I'm reading 4 -5 books at once right now. But although I enjoy them they certainly don't count as life-changing.
Authors "left over" from my prior life include Kafka, Camus, Jean Genet, Bertrand Russel.
One I wouldn't recommend to you, but he still moves me. With his way of seeing and expressing that. Not his politics -- he was a Communist. Bertold Brecht.
Of course he was a Communist who loved $500 suits and $5 cigars (you do the adjustment for inflation). His play, CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE haunted me. Still can. Or his THREE PENNY OPERA. I loved his irony.
One author who wrote, seemingly, about MY personal life (then) was Franz Kafka. His books, THE CASTLE and THE TRIAL, but especially his short story A REPORT TO AN ACADEMY got to my core. I loved most of his stuff.
Camus, THE PLAGUE stayed with me a long time. I might still like it. But his NEVER A VICTIM OR AN EXECUTIONER BE, although I loved it then, leaves me cold now.
I loved OUR LADY OF THE FLOWERS by Jean Genet. Then. Probably would no longer identify with his underdogs the same way, now. His power, though, was incredible.
The authors that excite me now probably wouldn't interest most of you: Rabbi Meir Kahane is one of the most important. He changed me -- tore me open.
Leon Uris' EXODUS had a lasting effect.
Want to know real joy? My 17 year old daughter, who is a chip off the old block -- stubborn, tough, but smarter -- on the outside she's polite and charming (but me she gives a terrible hard time) -- much better looking, too! -- she reads some of the books I recommend. AND SHE LIKES THEM! Asks if she can keep them! Now do you see why I can die happy, whenever my lights go out? She relates to the literature AND to the Judaism.
And I mean JOY! When that happens with her rockets burst, volcanoes thunder, the earth shakes -- I don't dare tell you what befalls the moon and stars!
So I run to my GF and the poor woman has to absord all this energy.
On the other hand, I get high just looking at her, too. She thinks she getting older at 53. I see beauty. femininity, softness ('till she punches me!), pulchritude, darling ways, she's funny, too. We get off laughing at stuff. We go nuts laughing together. That is, of course, when we're not busy yelling at each other. On the third hand I get high looking at my Alaskan Malamute. Love my road bike and my truck, too. I mean just staring at 'em.
I think it's working out fantastic! Unhappy the first part of my life. But just look at the mess I've become now. Much better than the other way 'round.
I love books. Brought myself up on them. The authors were surrogate parents. In the case of books, you CAN choose your parents. But better be careful which ones you choose. They'll change you alright.
matis
Post by: brimic on November 29, 2005, 09:19:08 PM
Rich Dad, Poor Dad Kiyosaki
Starship Troopers Heinlein
All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque
The Bible
Post by: Capteddie on November 29, 2005, 09:27:01 PM
Post by: esheato on November 29, 2005, 11:48:38 PM
A book that I never would have thought about if it wasn't for our 30 days of dating. I'd never seen her or the book before...we started dating and she pleaded with me to read it. It opened my eyes. We broke up and she seemingly vanished. I still have the book. In fact, I've bought many and passed it on to people that I care about.
You see, it's a fable about following your dreams and that is what I'm doing...
Ed
Post by: Guest on November 30, 2005, 09:10:00 AM
Post by: jefnvk on November 30, 2005, 09:49:41 AM
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is another good one
I don't know if they have changed my life, but definitely how I look at life.
Post by: SpookyPistolero on November 30, 2005, 10:40:59 AM
Post by: Ready on the Right on November 30, 2005, 11:28:37 AM
Post by: grampster on November 30, 2005, 01:59:11 PM
So...I can't sit here and tell you titles and authors, only that I read everything, just like he taught me. Science fiction, mysteries, fiction, non fiction, history and on and on and on. I am not one for remembering who or why or what, only that I have read and absorbed. As a result am truly lettered in observation, but a master of nothing. I am content.
SWMBO always tells me that other people's opinions that deviate from mine are as strongly held as mine. I tell her that it's true, but there is a difference. I am right and they are wrong. Unless of course they have read more stuff than I.
Post by: esheato on November 30, 2005, 10:05:06 PM
Ed
Post by: Bemidjiblade on December 01, 2005, 04:11:23 AM
The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber.
Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge
The Holy Bible, by God.
Post by: Guest on December 01, 2005, 08:10:14 AM
Post by: matis on December 01, 2005, 04:53:36 PM
I've just ordered "Ordinary Men" on half.com
Thanks,
matis
Post by: Sindawe on December 01, 2005, 06:07:25 PM
"The Black Company" - Glen Cook, along with the rest of the Books of the North, Books of the South & Glittering Stone.
"Rites of Odin" - Ed Fitch (drek though it is, was my first introduction to Ãsatrú at the tail end of my Crazy Years)
"Cat's Kingdom" - Jeremy Angel. This is what I want to do when I grow up, keep hundreds of cats.
"Molecular Biology of the Gene" - James D. Watson. Stumbled across an earlier edition of this in High School, set my feet on the path that still dominates my life today.
Post by: J.J. on December 01, 2005, 07:36:22 PM
I read that book when I was 12 or 13... Before I read that book I despised reading. Now I am an avid reader and have trouble putting books down. If it wasnt for that book, I dont know if I would have ever found my niche, and may have not become such a prolific reader. Being a book worm defines a major part of who I am.
Post by: Headless Thompson Gunner on December 01, 2005, 11:24:22 PM
Ayn Rand
RA Heinlein
Aldous Huxley
George Orwell
Mark Twain
Neal Stevensons 'Baroque Cycle'
de Tocqueville
The Federalist/Anti-Federalist papers
Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks (creepy in the same way 1984 is creepy, but REAL!)
CS Lewis
JRR Tolkein (The Silmarillian is even better than Lord of the Rings)
Alan Eckert (The Frontiersmen is one of the best books I've ever read )
Philip K Dick
F Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series
Any of the classics, especially Shakespear (Most suck, but they're all worth reading anyway)
Any book that teaches you how to do something; read as many as you can, no matter what they're about.
Post by: Headless Thompson Gunner on December 01, 2005, 11:40:47 PM
I'll mail the following books to anyone who''ll read them:
Time Enough for Love - RA Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land - RA Heinlein
We the Living - Ayn Rand
The Frontiersmen - Alan Eckert
All I ask is that you mail something worthwile to me, and that you send my books back to me when you're done.
Anyone interested?
Post by: esheato on December 02, 2005, 05:04:53 AM
Ed
Post by: Felonious Monk/Fignozzle on December 02, 2005, 06:15:36 AM
...I'll also be happy to pass it on once finished.
Post by: esheato on December 02, 2005, 03:00:00 PM
It's yours.
Got your email and it will be in the mail tomorrow.
Ed
Post by: Ron on December 02, 2005, 03:35:29 PM
Big +1 on The Road Less Traveled. Many books have influenced me but none have had such a profound influence on my behavior like that one. Absolutey the right book at the right time for me. I read excerpts in the paper and went out and bought it.
Only one book has meant more to me and that would be the King James Bible.
Tom Sawyer was a fav I reread as a kid numerous times, Atlas Shrugged, works by CS Lewis and Francis A Schaeffer all get mentions as influential.
Post by: esheato on December 02, 2005, 03:41:29 PM
Ed
Post by: Felonious Monk/Fignozzle on December 02, 2005, 03:59:46 PM
I've bought more than one copy of Road over the years, but 99% of my book collection is still in boxes in a storage unit. Let me dig around and see if I can unearth one of my copies, so I can share. I'll let you know if I come across it.
Post by: Ex-MA Hole on December 04, 2005, 07:22:04 AM
Ken Follet
Ian Fleming
Robert Ludlum
...er, Playboy...
Post by: grampster on December 04, 2005, 12:01:27 PM
Did you know Allan Eckert has a group of books? I have The Frontiersman. A friend who is a Revolutionary War historian gave me the titles of the other Eckert books but I mislaid them. I gotta get em again and find out if they can still be purchased. Do you want to have the titles if I can get them?
Post by: Headless Thompson Gunner on December 04, 2005, 01:41:07 PM
If you live within 200 miles of the Ohio River you absolutely must read The Frontiersmen.
If you live elsewhere, you should find the appropriate Eckert narrative for your area and read it. Better yet, just read all of them, in order. They will make you appreciate your country in a whole new way.
Post by: garrettwc on December 04, 2005, 06:22:25 PM
Quote
If you live within 200 miles of the Ohio River you absolutely must read The Frontiersmen.
I am within walking distance of the river. A quick glance at the notes for this book sounds like a read of local landmarks. George Rogers Clark, William Henry Harrison, all of that is within walking/short driving distance.This one just got added to the must read list.
Post by: Winston Smith on December 04, 2005, 07:54:59 PM
All holy books, judeo-christian especially. Essential influences to forming my moral code.
However, Neil Gaiman's "American God's" taught me that it's the belief that holds the power, not the recipient thereof.
I always can't bring to mind what Fight Club taught me, but I remember it having a huge effect.
Post by: SkunkApe on December 04, 2005, 09:41:06 PM
Quote from: grampster
My dad, when I was young, told me that reading was the best thing a person could do. It didn't matter what you read, only that you did so. He said that it opened the world up for you through the eyes, words and opinions of others. He died in 1999 at the age of 92. He saw it all. He mostly did it all as well. He was a combat infantryman in WWII as well as a POW for a time. His life straddled the days of horses and crapping in an outhouse against watching men land upon the moon while we tried to bridge the divides of race and other things that set us apart. He never finished the 10th grade, but he read everything between dust jackets. He taught himself algebra, geometry, physics and other sciences late at night when he got home from his job at the Post Office. He was a master welder and a fisherman par excellance. He communed with his God on the banks of a trout stream. He was the best man I ever knew.
So...I can't sit here and tell you titles and authors, only that I read everything, just like he taught me. Science fiction, mysteries, fiction, non fiction, history and on and on and on. I am not one for remembering who or why or what, only that I have read and absorbed. As a result am truly lettered in observation, but a master of nothing. I am content.
SWMBO always tells me that other people's opinions that deviate from mine are as strongly held as mine. I tell her that it's true, but there is a difference. I am right and they are wrong. Unless of course they have read more stuff than I.
Thanks for that, Grampster. Reminds me of my mother, in that she always encourgaed me to read. As a child, I had a bedtime, but was allowed to read in bed as late as I wanted. So many nights I fell asleep with the headboard lamp on and a book on my chest. I still do it today. The greatest gift my mother ever gave me was the encouragement to read.So...I can't sit here and tell you titles and authors, only that I read everything, just like he taught me. Science fiction, mysteries, fiction, non fiction, history and on and on and on. I am not one for remembering who or why or what, only that I have read and absorbed. As a result am truly lettered in observation, but a master of nothing. I am content.
SWMBO always tells me that other people's opinions that deviate from mine are as strongly held as mine. I tell her that it's true, but there is a difference. I am right and they are wrong. Unless of course they have read more stuff than I.
Like you, Grampster, I've read many books (probably not as many), but the only one I can say really changed my life was Atlas Shrugged.
Post by: brimic on December 04, 2005, 11:22:48 PM
Post by: peteinct on December 06, 2005, 05:21:18 AM
It was sort of a hippie bible but there is a lot of value in it. It talks about values and it had a great affect on me. pete
Post by: Iain on December 06, 2005, 05:27:39 AM
For a long time I was a novel person. Love Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Kazuo Ishiguro is a more recent favourite author, I love how spare he is.
Huck Finn too though. Wanted to raft the Mississippi until a THR member told me I'd probably be killed if I tried.
When I was very young I had a book about a family that built a log house in the woods. That's all it was about, simple story and simple words. I read it way beyond the age range it was intended for because the idea was so appealing to me. Anyone has any idea what that book was called I'd be eternally grateful.