The Little Book Of Calm
it was the first episode of Black Books and is the reason why Manny came to meet Bernard.

3 series of comedy perfection

On a geeky note, the BBC Micro users' guide. Very empowering for a 10-year old to start to learn how to program a computer to make it do what you want but it taught me about binary, hexadecimal and machine code which I still use on a daily basis at work 26 years later.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 15 May 2008, 19:00, 1 reply)

Books have rocked my world
I was never an avid reader until I left school. Although there was no one book that changed my life they have always been there shaping my interests and intellect.

When my first bout of real depression hit me at 18, having no money and no social life I hit the town library and never looked back. I discovered Orwell, Asimov, Anthony Burgess, Murial Spark and many many more. I went through books like a whirling dervish and they stopped me from feeling totally alone.

Jump forwards to my early twenties and starting Polytechnic to do fine art. As all budding artists need an ism, I decided feminism was going to be my thing and I devoured all the literature I could find on this subject, (as well as art of course). It was here my eyes were opened to the fact that history, philosophy, archaeology and many more ologies have been shaped by men's views of the world and have dismissed women's input completely. It also shaped my social life to some extent as I became more women orientated and even got a girlfriend. Although my lesbian phase wasn't contrived in any way, I feel my reading habits smoothed the journey somewhat and discovering lesbian erotica certainly helped. Don't get me wrong, I kept a tentative foot in the land of teh cock. After all I didn't want to burn my bridges as well as my bra. I still had some male friends and enjoyed their company.

We jump forward to my mid thirties and my second serious bout of depression. Again books were my solace and my escape. I even delved into a few high brow authors although it was heavy going. I battled Kafka, I tussled with Joyce and I even ploughed my way through Fermat's last theorem. I have never regretted reading a book, even those I've understood little of.

I still get a little tingle of excitement when I start a new book and I often get a little nervy when I've nearly finished one and haven't yet decided what to read next.

There is no one book that can change my life but there have been many books that have helped me through life and made me think and laugh and cry and hope.
( girlinthehole, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:53, 11 replies)

The Bible & The Quran
Changed all our life's really haven't they.
(PassTheKhat, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:53, 1 reply)

Catch 22
Another one that no one seems to have brought up yet. It's an amazing book like no other, very funny, very vicious and quite moving at times, but my favourite thing about it is the way it messes with time. Chapters shift back and forward with no indication at all. The only way to keep track of it is to note the number of missions the characters are due to fly at each stage. It's not until about half-way through that you get any sense of how it all fits together (after which it gradually gets more linear).
( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:53, Reply)

The God of Small Things
Not least because it's beautiful, but last year I loaned my copy to my best friend. I'd been silently and deeply in love with this man for years but somehow managed to convince myself that the soulmate-y connections between us were all platonic - it was the only thing to do as he was both in a relationship and an extremely close friend of not only me but my fiance. Anyway, I gave him my book and he read it, loved it, and gave it back to me. I re-read it straight afterwards as him falling in love with it so much had made me want to revisit it. All fine until I got to the passage 'if he touched her, he couldn't talk to her, if he loved her, he couldn't leave, if he spoke he couldn't listen, if he fought he couldn't win'. This was underlined. My heart stopped for what felt like a minute when i realised that he had done it, and he felt exactly the same way about me.

So - it's almost a year later, life has been turned upside down, our ex-es loathe us both (and are well within their rights) but the facts are that I am now with the man of my dreams and despite the hurt I've caused other people, I could not be happier. I truly believe I've found The One, if you think that the one exists. And if it hadn't been for me re-reading the book I would never have confessed how I felt.

My favourite book for many many reasons, and I'm never loaning my copy to anyone ever again. It's incredibly precious to me.
(mookroolz, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:52, 1 reply)

Johnny Got His Gun & Moby Dick
This is kind of a weird one really. It's the first book I've purchased on the basis of a music video (Metallica's 'One'). It took me ages to find out what the film clips were from and to then find a copy of the original book.

Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' (1938)

I can't explain it any better than Wikipedia:

"Joe Bonham, a young soldier serving in World War I, awakes in a hospital bed after being hit by a mortar shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost all of his mobility and his senses except for touch — his arms, legs, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, both jaws and all of his face have been blown off — but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. He tries to kill himself by suffocation but he has been given a tracheostomy, which he cannot remove or control. He attempts to communicate with his doctors (by banging his head on his pillow in Morse code) his wish is that he may be put in a glass tube and tour the country, to show the people the true horrors of war. His wish to die is never granted and throughout the several years the book covers it is implied that he will live the rest of his natural life in this condition.

As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight."

I'm anti-war anyway, but to read this book and to realise what soldiers may go through is just devastating. Please, please, please read this book yourself.

And last but not least, Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I believe it can be a lesson for all humans. And it has my favourite phrase ever in it:

"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

A beautifully written book.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:51, 3 replies)

Lord of the rings - j.r.r.tolkein
when i finished the bastard in a week i was proud
(leedaflea is not gay, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:47, Reply)

One that didn't change my life, but is very important nonetheless.
The Tao Te Ching, translated by Gia fu Feng with photos by Jane English.

I read it now and then when I feel stressed out and go cover to cover through it in one sitting- it's not very long. Invariably I feel much more balanced when I'm done, and have a better perspective on my problems.

Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 15 May 2008, 18:40, Reply)

The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
I bought this thinking I'd get his unfinished Dirk Gently novel, but what I actually got totally blew my mind. After his untimely death, a bunch of Douglas's friends got together and raided his Mac for unfinished writings, musings, columns, articles and anything else he might have stored in there. Edited together, they were released as the Salmon of Doubt, and if it has a theme it's his wonder at the world we live in, coupled with his emphatic atheism. Reading it was (as my girlfriend said at the time) like sitting down and having a long chat with a really good friend, and even Richard Dawkins acknowledges the huge blow struck to the atheist movement when we lost Douglas.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:38, Reply)

"Prezza" By John Prescott
It's a rollercoaster ride of fun, frolics, politics, self-induced vomiting, barely coherent sentences, cuckoldry, all steeped in pseudo-believable quasi-socialist politics.

There are many snippets of this tome which caused me to seriously rethink my life, here are a selection of the best.

1. When talking about his eating disorder, Prescott observes.
"I was in the Golden Buddah in Whitechapel. Having eaten my way through 36 courses, I was tempted with the deep fried apple fritters in lard, but settled for a wafer thin mint. Then I was overcome with the urge to purge myself of all this avarace to which I had partaken. I remember stumbling semi-coherently to the toilets, and choosing a cubicle near the window. Once safely ensconced within, I inserted my burly digits into my cavernous mouth and pressed them to their target.
It would be an understatement to suggest that the ensuing tsunami of semi-digested Eastern Fayre was of gargantuan proportions. Lets just say that once I filled the pan to the brim, I hastily moved onto the next cubicle and filled that one too."

A lesson there for everyone, I feel.

2. On his affair with Tracey Temple..
"She was lying prostrate on my desk, legs akimbo, skirt hitched up around her waist, her hairy haven glistening in the half light like a badly packed kebab.
I resisted the urge to pop out for a greek sandwich and after 15 minutes of searching for my manhood under half a ton of blubber, grasped the old chap firmly betwixt thumb and forefinger and pressed him to his goal. She moaned and writhed under me, so I transferred my not inconsiderable bulk off of her and onto the desk and she was able to breathe again.
'Is it in yet?' She enquired.
(Vic Flange, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:36, 2 replies)

On holiday aged 11
in Alnwick. Staying in a large, draughty house, and unable to do much as it pissed with rain the first few days. Started scanning the bookshelves one wet afternoon and found a copy of Triplanetary, by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. It's the first part of the Lensman series, it's pure 30's pulp science fiction, and it was exactly what I needed there and then. From a wet Tuesday in Alnwick to galaxy-spanning adventure with super-weapons and melting cities took all of about 5 pages, as Doc Smith didn't muck about.

I'd read some Trigan Empire as my parents bought me Look and Learn every week on the grounds that it was educational. I'd seen some episodes of Star Trek, so I knew I liked all this lasers and spaceships stuff, but I didn't really know what it was called, and I didn't know it came in book form. Before the holiday was out, I'd bought all the Lensmen books I could afford with my holiday money - Galactic Patrol, Grey Lensman and Second Stage Lensman. I'd been into the SF section of a bookshop and realised there was an absolute ton of this stuff out there.

From there, I got to know every librarian in my home town by name, because I couldn't afford to buy books very often. A lot of the libraries didn't carry much SF, so I had to cycle around them to see which ones had which books. Because I didn't know how broad the market was, I read anything and everything that sounded even vaguely like SF. All the usual suspects, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Shaw, Sheckley etc. but also Walter Miller, Philip K Dick, Alfred Bester, and a whole heap of books that confused the coitus out of me because I was wondering where the spaceships and aliens were.

I've been reading SF, fantasy, and just about everything else ever since. My house has rooms filled with books, and overflow shelves in the living room, and bedroom. It all started with Triplanetary. Thanks, 'Doc'.
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:33, 1 reply)

"Moon Palace" by Paul Auster
I'm a quick reader, and I read this book in a day; I can remember how I felt when I finished it, "stunned" I think is the only word to describe it. I'm a prolific reader, but that's the first book that's ever had that effect on me - this was over 15 years ago and the impact has yet to be replicated.

Since then I've bought about 6 other copies for other people, and I doubt (as with most books I like) I've still got a copy in the house - good books tend to get "lent" to people, but hey why not. Anyway...

It's difficult for me to say exactly why the book meant so much at the time of reading; but what strengthened its importance to me was the fact that unknown to me, it was also the favourite book of my French half-brother and half-sister. That's surprising, as it's hardly a famous book, although Auster's a relatively well-known author.

When you have siblings you didn't grow up with, who speak a different language to you, such connections have so much value. Somehow, independently, we all read that book and it moved us greatly.

There's a "Moon Palace" hotel in Mexico - one day, we *are* going to go there, all of us, to celebrate the connection we have at some unfathomable level that made the book touch us as it did.
( I_Was_Mordred, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:24, Reply)

Clive Barker - The Great and Secret Show
I read this when I was thinking about bringing my first marriage to an end.
Reading about Quiddity, the dream sea, and how you only swim in it 3 times.......the first time is when you are born, the 2nd time is when you sleep with the true love of your life, and the final time is when you die......I loved the concept of Quiddity and realised that I never felt that with hubby the first. And thus, I left him.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:20, 3 replies)

Bookworm
'I was a teenage dominatrix' what a book, that opened my eyes. It was 5 years ago now, and it's pretty safe to say I'm a dab hand with a riding crop.

I'd also like to say 1984 by good old Orwell. That book not only shit me up, but stopped me from going postal amongst the group of stuck up posh kids in the school I had to attend for my English lit classes at college.
(vampyre_gem has been dead since, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:20, Reply)

"His Dark Materials"
I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet.
From the moment i started to read it i was captivated.

It's one of the most intriguing books i have ever read. The best thing about this book, is the author manages to relate his feelings of happiness to you, (do i hear a woo!), by means of making you recall such moments in your life.

Why does he do this?

SO HE CAN DESTROY THEM. It sucks, hard. I hardly ever feel down because of a book, but this just made me feel shite.

Boo.

That is all.
( Axai is in Montréal, Canada O.o, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:14, 6 replies)

I know I'm in for a bumming here,
but the Bible. It is full of great literary devices, and is the origin for many of the myths of Western conscience. Western literature, like Dante and Shakespeare, cannot be properly understood without it.

If you use it as a guide for life that's up to you. It cannot be denied that it is the most influential book ever, for good and bad.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:10, 1 reply)

This book rocks,

bit strong for kids though.

Sorry...ish
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:06, 3 replies)

see
abran godfellow's mild myteries
(hieronymus bosch pcmechanic 4ver in ar harts, goodnite sweet angle, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:05, Reply)

Quite a recent addition
but everyone has to read We need to talk about Kevin. As someone who goes through at least a book a week, and has done since I was about 8, not many books really leave an impression on me. This is one of the most poignant and beautifully written books that I have ever read, and stands out from anything else I have ever encountered. Especially recommended to anyone who has doubts about their ability as a parent.

And don't read American Psycho. It put the fear into me for a long time, that there is someone out there with that wrong a brain.


EDIT: Preacher. How could I forget. Made me cry more than a few times along the way.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:04, 4 replies)

Some of my Favourite books
Best get this in now as a good chunk have already been mentioned and loathe to repeat others, but hey, im going to waffle and this might be an epic!

1) Douglas Arthur Hill - The last legionary series. When I was in junior school my reading was considered slow, and I had a small childs level apparently. However, discovering this old sci-fi series just enveloped me and I was lost to Sci-fi forever. The plot is lost in the midsts of guinness and a few thousand novels but the last surviving warrior with armoured bones fights to find who slaughtered his race.

2) Miles Gibson - The Sandman. This is a spiteful, nasty evil little book and I loved it, picked it up at an oxfam, it was battered and yellow but I devoured it many times, lent it to loads of people who all agreed until one day it never came back. Eventually got a copy from amazon but hated the cover and it didn't feel or smell right, the seedy grim state of the book helped the seedy grim contents come across so much better, should have gone into one of my favoured possessions really thinking about it.
This is where it statrts to get a bit geek sad! I read a lot, but not really ploughed through the classics but anyhow . . .

3) 2000AD and Battle. Read these growing up and they were unbelievable, I luckily caught 2000AD in one of the classic aras, with Zenith, Ballad of Halo Jones,ABC Warriors, Nemesis, Slaine the horned God, Chopper, Harlem Heroes and when Judge Death first rocked up and battle (then Eagle I think) for one reason only . . .

4) Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun - Charleys War. Words fail me, this blew me away, the absolute horror portrayed in this is just not what you expect as a young kid, the artwork is brutally realistic and the stroyline would make a peacemonger out of anyone.

5) while we are at it Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen. nothing I can say will explain the greatness of it so wont even try.

6) Jeff Noon - Pollen & Vurt. Awesome books, again struck gold picking one of these up at oxfam and kicked off my love of cyberpunk and then found neuromancer again in the same shop!

7) Iain M Banks - Player of games & Against a dark background. Think I have read these books about 60 times put together, its the book version of comfy slippers, pipe and smoking jacket, love em love em love em.

8) Clive Barker - pretty much anything, always enjoyed his dark "happy to smash the whole thing up halfway through and start again from scratch" visions and short stories.

9) Richard Morgan - The Takeshi Kovacs books. Absolute fantastic brutal sci-fi pulp can recommend this to all and sundry, nasty, violent and hardcore, brilliant. The blackman and Market forces however are abominations to be reviled and burned.

10) Anything else by Alan Moore. He is god. nuff said

11) Michael Moorcock, another one where i found on a whim, picked up 50 books at a carboot for a £5 and most of them were hawkmoon, Elric, Corum and others in the eternal champion saga and never looked back, great stuff that I lose myself in for a few hours per book (he didn't hang around and churned out lots of 150 pagers)

12) Seamus Healey - Beowulf. Fuck the film, read this, read various versions of it in my youth (love mythologies from norse to Celtic to greek / roman) but this is my favourite

edit 13) Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard Thief books. Great stuff, the best Fantasy twaddle I have read for years

14) Azzarello & Risso - 100 bullets. check it out, great violent gangster noir graphic novels

thats about it for now, there are many many more, but im hunting down the posts already made and replying to them rather than repeating here.
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:04, 4 replies)

Not intresting to most but...
The PADI book Adventures In Diving. Completing this book enabled me to finish my diving course and has since opened up a whole new world of underwater wonders and shipwrecks.
(quagarr, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:03, 2 replies)

George Orwell Essay
Didn't change my life as such, but made me realise something which has stayed with me ever since.

Can't remember the exact name of the book, but was a collection of Orwell's essays. One describes his time in the Indian Raj and how he had to oversee an execution... After reading it, I now cannot understand how anyone can support capital punishment. There was no description of the actual hanging or the horror of death, simply a brutal description of how a man was alive one minute, then dead (forever) the next. Really brought it home to me how black and white (and wrong wrong wrong) the practice is.

Check out Mister Serious sat in the serious corner eating serious pie
(yearsofpractice, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:02, 1 reply)

My own first novel
I wrote it in 1994, then it sat in a filing cabinet for 13 years. I loved the characters and the setting, and couldn't stand to give them over to the book lice, mold or recycle bin. So I dug it out, polished it up and got it published (Yay!).

My only regret is that I went with a rather ill-thought-of Print on Demand (POD) publisher who charges about double what the book is worth ($20 for a 144 page soft-cover novella!). Looking back, I would have tried harder to get a more reputable publisher.

If you want to write, do so. Little will change you more than the experience of creating your own world with your own people and having it all somehow make sense, if only in your own mind. Don't worry about who will read it, know that the right people will read it. I'm now into my second novel and I love it even more than the first! I wouldn't have had the courage if I hadn't written the first one.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:01, 1 reply)

Well, I wouldn't say it changed my life,
But I've just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusman/Zuzan/zu-something, and it was ace.

Read it!
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:01, 1 reply)

Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis
This isn't a book that changed my view of the world, nor did it have a profound effect on how I live my life.

It did, however, change the way I viewed story writing, and did so for the better.

I was blown away by the unhinged flow of the story; the constant subversion of reality and the fact that you could feel the terror the narrator was going through as confusion reigned throughout.

I think it's the only book that I've restarted as soon as I'd finished it.
( Moey, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:59, Reply)

I wouldn't say that any book has changed my life really
However, there is one book that I read on holiday that really got me back into reading, and I'm glad for that. I was quite a voracious reader as a child, but it sort of dropped by the wayside when I got older, and it was only when I decided to sit an English A level at 26 that my appetite was whetted a bit. Half a dozen texts to get through, including one book I would definitely recommend - Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Powerful, disturbing but bloody good.

However, One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night, by Christopher Brookmyre, really set me back on the road to reading.

Normally, my holidays wouldn't allow much time for reading, but this one was planned as a chill out and relax trip to the South of France. I can't just lie on a beach and do fuck all as I get bored too easily, so I went on a book hunt. Mr Brookmyre's works have very distinctive covers, which was what caught my eye initially. Then I read the blurb on the back and thought it sounded worth a go.

I devoured it within two days. When we got back to Blighty, I sought out the rest of his works. But One Fine Day remains my favourite - a tale violence and mayhem at a school reunion on an oil rig converted into a floating holiday island. Marvellous, and often very funny.

*Makes note to purchase 'The Tale of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks' asap*.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 15 May 2008, 17:56, 7 replies)

3 pages in and no-one's mentioned the Hitchhiker's Guide
So I will.

The only book I've ever started re-reading as soon as I've finished.

"Hey doll, is this guy boring you? Why don't you talk to me, I'm from another planet"

Best pick-up line ever.

If you've never read this, I urge you to find a copy on ebay NOW. Anyone who likes b3ta will like this book, simple as that.

If you've seen the film, do what I did and have a Pangalactic Gargle Blaster, then read the book.
( DrPrunesquallor is determined to post more as of, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:55, 9 replies)

Life-changing eh?

Just like the Dirty Weeker, both '1984' and 'Catch 22' made a big impact on me too. I seriously believe that 'Catch 22' is the best book to come out of the USA during the 20th Century (with 'The Grapes of Wrath' a close second). The combination of great writing, chopping & changing narrative, superb and memorable characterisations, content and just the right length for a great novel, plus - and this is really important - a superb ending, make it a must-read book. So many books are great, but are let down by having a cop-out or weak ending - 'Catch 22' is brilliant to the last page. The heights and lows of the story, the insights! All brilliant. To take just one example: the episode where Hungry Joe wants to kill Colonel Cathcart - he has a plan, he has the means, he is willing to do it - all he needs is Yossarian to tell him to go ahead. "Why the hell didn't you just go ahead do it?" (or something similar) Yossarian asks him, "I need you to tell me to go ahead". Or "T.S. Elliot"; and I still can't follow how Milo can buy eggs for 20c in Sicily and sell them for a profit at 15c each.

I'm not sure it's actually changed my life, but if I ever get around to writing a book, it will be there to remind me what I'm aiming at.

One book that may have changed my life is V.S. Naipaul's 'A House for Mr Biswas'. I would recommend this book to anyone, and frequently do. It would be a remarkable book anyway, but when it was written it was probably the first book published in English to use vernacular language from the colonies - Trinidad in this case. The language is superb and it has added the word 'arseness' to my vocabulary as well as the term 'to paddle your own canoe'. It also has a great ability to draw vivid pictures, I can see Mr Biswas lying on his bed with one leg crossed on the other, as he prods the muscle of his calf and makes it swing for his own amusement and to annoy his wife. This is another book which scales the highs and lows of life; from clinical depression to joy - "That's right kids, Daddy's coming home...in a box!" - you have to read it. I first read it (as did Mrs Grimsdale) when we were about 26 or 27, had been married a couple of years and we had a toddler. Since then I've read it every few years or so and each time I get something else out of it, and I empathise more and more with Mr Biswas.

If anyone else has read it - gaz me and we can exchange favourite passages. My very favourite comes when Biswas has been working for a newspaper, which has changed hands and gone downhill. He gets a letter from an old colleague who moved to the States and replies to him with a light-hearted letter bemoaning the state of the paper now; when he reads it over, he realises it is full of bitterness and bile so throws it away. He never gets around to re-writing it, and eventually he realises he'll never reply to it and so loses touch with a good friend forever. The pathos in that short passage of writing is incredible.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:55, 1 reply)

Dr. Zhivago
This book opened the door for me to Russian Literature, culminating in being able to read War and Peace, the best novel in any language ever.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:54, Reply)

Huckleberry Finn
What a great way to deal light heartedly with some heavy issues: Slavery, child abuse, poverty, death of a parent.

As a writer, this is what I aspire to.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:52, Reply)