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What books have made an impact in your life?

I'll start with what was, I think, the first novel I read: Roald Dahl's "The BFG"

He was such an amazing storyteller that his books should be made compulsory reading for primary school pupils from 4th year on. The BFG would make me seek out more of Dahl's work and onto the road of similar imaginative fiction.

“We is in Dream Country,' the BFG said. 'This is where all dreams is beginning!”

What books have made an impact in your life, childhood or otherwise?

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biko wrote: »

Is this another "recommend me a book" thread that didn't find its way to the Literature forum?

No, its "What books have made an impact in your life?"

The first book which really had an impact on me & one which I can vividly remember many years later was Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. The realisation that a skilful enough writer could conjure up characters & scenes so vividly that the book actually played like a film in your head was an amazing revelation for me & gave me a thirst for reading which over the years has provided a very helpful escape whenever the real world has threatened to overwhelm me.

Wibbs wrote: »

TBH I'm a right oddball in that I have read very very few fiction books in my life. 5 tops. As a kid I read encyclopedias and factual stuff. Fiction never revved my engine. So encyclopedias, specifically the kids Encyclopedia Britannica that I read from A to Z. ten books IIRC? So that one made the most impact, cos it was a launchpad to other areas of interest.

Exactly the same. Cannot get into it. Im just constantly there trudging through thinking to myself "yeah this is going to take me ages to read and it's all just the work of someone's overactive imagination! I could be reading about something that actually happened" It's odd cos I love some of the movies based on these books. It's just the time Im unwilling to invest in them I suppose.

A favourite of mine is "A Season with Verona" which is about a British ex-pat living in Italy who chronicles his travels up and down the country following Hellas Verona in Serie A, back in 2000/2001. The writer is an academic who happens to love football so its much more than just a simple set of results from chapter to chapter. It's a really great deconstruction of Italian society, far better than a lot of the cliched muck that clogs up Amazon on the same subject. As for impact on me, I suppose it was one of the things that made me into an Italophile‎ and spurred me on to go there several times in the last few years and hopefully many more in the future.

Elessar wrote: »

I don't have time to be reading books. Must be over 10 years since I read one.

I'd cut down on all other forms of media before I'd cut down my reading :pac:

Hard to say in terms of individual books that made an impact on me, but my dad reading Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" really laid down the marker for my love of reading I'd say, despite being hilariously out of date to a 5 year old in the 90's

The Backwards Man

The Mr.Twiddle books by Enid Blyton. Unfortunately, I can relate to the lead character a lot more than I probably should admit.

Mein Kampf

Wibbs wrote: »

TBH I'm a right oddball in that I have read very very few fiction books in my life.

Agricola wrote: »

Exactly the same. Cannot get into it. Im just constantly there trudging through thinking to myself "yeah this is going to take me ages to read and it's all just the work of someone's overactive imagination! I could be reading about something that actually happened"

Non Fiction books are welcome too. Some of the all time best books Ive read were Biographies

Where's Wally, never could find that stripey bastard at the zoo.

In all seriousness though my fav books have to be watership down, 1984, of mice and men and the stand.

Willow Farm by Enid Blyton. The first 'big' book that I read cover to cover on my own. Got it for my sixth birthday and it started an obsession that has cost me thousands but has enriched my life more than I can express.

NegativeCreep wrote: »

How to lose friends and alienate people.

Awwwww

For me it wad the Road Less Travelled. My dad gave it to me in my late teens and it really had an impact on me moving forward and understanding how to recognise when your past is effecting how you feel and its not the here and now. Hard to explain. ..but it really has had a huge impact on how I think.

Other than that Seamus Heaneys Mid Term break kind of hit me. I didn't identify with it or anything tragic like that. But I always remember my teacher reading it and sensing how the boy felt among all these adults and how the coffin was 4 ft, a foot for every year and I gasped because I felt so sad for him lol. That's not really a book though so probably doesn't count

On the Road by Jack Keroac
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
1984 by George Orwell
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Birdsong by Sebastien Faulks
Mary Lavelle by Kate O'Brien

...

Mostly because I read all these books at precisely the right moment in my life... And rereading reminds me of who I was and how I've developed and grown up.

I'd say this is the book that had the biggist impact on my life.

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

For me it wad the Road Less Travelled

A great book and one that is - ideally - passed onto a friend after you're finished reading it

Mostly:

The RTE Guide
The Farmer's Journal
Max Power
Nuts

There is a book my father gave me called "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence" by Robert M. Pirsig. He read it when he was in his 20's and gave it to me when I was around the same age. The book made such an impact on me that I now have the cover art as a tattoo on my arm. Amazing book.

kidcash wrote: »

There is a book my father gave me called "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence" by Robert M. Pirsig.

Another book that I see on many "Essential Books" lists and one I definitely plan to read

I'm not sure if it made any actual real impact on my life, but one I read over twenty years ago & still think about a fair bit is The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, must get it again.

Wibbs wrote: »

So encyclopedias, specifically the kids Encyclopedia Britannica that I read from A to Z.

Were they the ones with the red cover? They were great. Though I remember sometimes when doing homework you'd have to go to the grown up ones with the black cover.

I got Around the World in Eighty Days when I was 7 or 8. Read it all in about a week, even though I couldn't understand half the words. About 10 years later I uncovered it in the back of the bookshelf and decided to give it a go again. Still couldn't understand half the words! Great read though.

greedygoblin wrote: »

Were they the ones with the red cover? They were great. Though I remember sometimes when doing homework you'd have to go to the grown up ones with the black cover.

Apparently encyclopaedia sales (and the printing of them) are next to non existent these days with the advent of the internet and Wikipedia.

A shame really as I used to love going through them in school. I would imagine fact based books like The Guinness Book Of Records are also suffering

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals.
I first read this about 25 years ago and it gave me a longing to visit Corfu...so I did

I fell in love with the island so much that I have to go there every year.
Having been there about 20 times at this stage, I can't imagine what my life would be like without the wonderful friends I've made there over the years.

Every time I book the flights I say I'm going home because it feels like home

There's a wonderful quote from the book that says :“Gradually the magic of the island [Corfu] settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen.”

*sigh*

Potential-Monke

To Kill a Mockingbird - It grounded the fact that English is a totally useless subject once you get passed being able to read/write.

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, life doesn't have be humdrum and pedestrian, flip a coin, let fate be your master.Read it when I was a teenager, I'm in IT now

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. Behind all the bizarre surrealist nonsense is a great satire on the Irish psyche.

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Apparently encyclopaedia sales (and the printing of them) are next to non existent these days with the advent of the internet and Wikipedia.

A shame really as I used to love going through them in school. I would imagine fact based books like The Guinness Book Of Records are also suffering

True. It was only a couple of years ago too that Encyclopedia Britannica stopped printing to concentrate on their internet business. It is a shame considering they'd been around for 150 years or more.

But at the rate technology is progressing, the Internet as we know it now will be unrecognisable in 10 years time. I only saw today some study that predicted Facebook would be practically dead by 2017.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

how to live with std,s

Harry Potter.

That book series is my life.

the third police man. always wanted one of those knives with a point so sharp the last 5 inches are invisible. truly life changing stuff

Money by Martin Amis, swept me away with its raw, visceral energy.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It made an impact in the sense that I believed I would be rich some day for about a week.