i was only born in
'87 so my life has pretty much just begun, seeing as my memory only reaches back about 5 years when important and interesting things started happening.
I was hooked on goosebumps, point horror and lots of fantasy novels when I was a kid. my sisters thought i was wierd because I loved reading so much and i would go mental at cracked spines/bent covers (i'm over that now though).
Lots of books have made me ponder religion, think about philosophy and marvel that the world could either be millions of years old or just 6000 years old. I'm going with millions. Makes sense, right?

But, dear reader, the one book that has made me go, 'oh my science, this is the awesomest thing I've ever read' is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
'Reader, I married him' is the only line from a book that has ever stuck in my head. I had tears in my eyes and grinned like a fool in the orchard scene. I'm waiting another 6 months so I can forget it and then read it all over again.

Bret Easton Ellis makes me LOL.
(saf, Fri 16 May 2008, 1:23, 1 reply)

No doubt someone's already posted this:


But that's not the one that changed my life. It was the next book he wrote - a book of anally-themed pornography called 'Structural Elements of Late 19th Century Composition'.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 16 May 2008, 1:23, 1 reply)

How to Talk to Girls
This book defined my life, ever since I completely failed to read it at the age of 13.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 16 May 2008, 1:20, Reply)

Oof...
Almost forgot to mention all the Discworld novels (by Terry Pratchett). Brilliant humor...

We should have a poll for this QOTW, not a board. Board's gonna explode!
(Captain Panic, Fri 16 May 2008, 1:20, Reply)

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Confirmed once again everything I always knew was true anyway. My holy book.
(Captain Panic, Fri 16 May 2008, 1:13, Reply)

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
The most hilariously funny and absurd book I have ever read. It is a short story of, unsurprisingly, three men and a dog on a boating holiday, on which they fall foul of various ridiculous situations.

I'm always a bit reserved when reccommending books to people too strongly, but with this book I am willing to make an exception.

It quite simply is the most amusing book I have ever read. The interaction between these victorian gentlemen aboard a boat, annoying each other and bickering like schoolkids is gold.

One of the scenes with the dog being a pest on the boat and one of the men sitting on the butter had me crying with laughter the first time I read it, and writing this I have a stupid smirk on my face. I'm going to read it now actually.
(Stevie Ruggling, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:45, 3 replies)

Dom Camillo
I'm buggered if I can remember who wrote them off the top of my head.

These little snippets of life always make me smile...
(faragher dub, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:16, 1 reply)

Mini-Maladicta's favourite books
The Worst Witch Now that was a world I wanted to live in - broomsticks and kittins and magic spells. I'm also as clumsy as Mildred so I would have fitted right in.

Anything by Roald Dahl I recently gave all my Dahl books to charity and have been kicking myself ever since. My favourites were Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Glass Elevator. I owe the man my black sense of humour.

The aforementioned LOTR

The Sophie Stories As well as sharing my name - you didn't know that, did you? - the little girl in the books was the image of me as a little girl - always muddy, dress-hating scruff desperate for a pet of some kind. I was very disappointed to not get my own pony when I turned eight. And of course, she had a friend called Andrew...

Ramona Quimby Timeless and adorable, and I had a friend with boingable curls too!

Law of the Wolf Tower If you know me anywhere other than b3ta, you may know that my nickname is Claidi. It's a self-given nickname, but it comes from this book and the three that followed it. They're a little like Lord of the Rings, but aimed at young adults and they just plain rock.
( Maladicta, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:13, Reply)

S, M, L, XL by Rem Koolhaas
Came out in 1995 or so, and I got it in '98 (I think). I'd been vaguely interested in Architecture, saw it on sale, and picked it up - which took both hands, the thing is massive, and could be deadly.

It's a wee bit mind-blowing: a series of speculative projects he designed, with all kinds of weird ideas about "program", "bigness", and warped geometry. What really got my attention is that the ones that were actually built were just as mad as those that only exist on paper. Since then, Rem's gotten even crazier, won a Pritzker Prize (the Nobel Prize of Architecture), and gets more of his projects built. Look up the Beijng CCTV Headquarters, for example, or the new OMA "eyeball" started in Hamburg.

Based on that and other books, I came to the conclusion that I'm not "creative" enough to be an Architect. I can't draw for shit, and when I see something weirdly complicated, my urge is to make it simpler. However, I credit S, M, L, XL with unearthing an urge that grew over the next few years. I still wanted to be involved in building, somehow, to get out of the IT business and back in to the real world. Eventually, just over a year ago, I applied for a mature student university place, to study Structural Engineering & Architecture, and got in after an interview.

The last exam of my first year is tomorrow, and while there have been some worries - Money! Maths! - I still think I did the right thing. I never got to go to university straight from school, so this is a way of pre-empting that inevitable midlife crisis. No more Second Life till I sort out this First Life, thanks.
( bnt what, me worry?, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:10, Reply)

generally
reading books by danny wallace have changed my life, 'yes man' and 'join me'.
they inspire that part of me that hopes for a modern day adventure
(Just Harry What should I put here?, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:06, 1 reply)

Fat by Rob Grant
This book is treasured in that I decided I could write a better book.
I am currently writing two books, both are half way through, and both are probably going to end up worse than his book.

I loved Red Dwarf, but was sooooo disappointed by this book it shocked me into writing my own.
(Opanoid Look sweats dripping off them, Fri 16 May 2008, 0:00, 4 replies)

Dead and Alive
When I was 14, my dad handed me 'In Search of Schrodinger's Cat' by John Gribbin. He'd been getting right into popular science books at the time, but this was the first he'd passed on to me to read - "It's great," he said, "you'll enjoy it."

And I did - I fucking loved it. The book itself was enjoyable by itself, but the concepts of quantum mechanics that it described were what really entranced me. It was all just so bloody weird, so amazingly different from anything I'd ever experience in the normal world. And what's more, it was all real - this is how the world works at a tiny level.

I enjoyed it so much that by the time I reached the last page, I'd decided that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. This is what I was going to go study at university and come to grips with. I wanted to truly understand it all.

So four years later, when it came to pick courses to study at university I made no hesitation - physics, physics and physics. I had pretty good grades, so I got into my first choice of uni and that's where I am now.

University, however, has been a different story. I've struggled, barely scraping the marks needed to stay on the course. It's the maths - the maths proves a constant barrier to a deeper understanding of it all. No matter what I do, it only gets more dense and obscure.

So that puts me here, a couple days before the start of my junior honours exams. I'm shitting enough bricks to rebuild Sichuan, and I'm staring down the barrel of a pretty crap degree. My nerves are wrecked, I can barely sleep and I want to be sick.

Do I regret it? No. I still love physics, though it's a pity it doesn't love me back.

Did the book change my life? Most definitely, though whether for better or worse remains to be seen.

Length- if it appears too long, you should probably go faster.
(TheSphericalCow, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:56, 5 replies)

Witches Abroad
It changed my life! Well... not my life exactly... but the books I hold dear at least.

Yes! I still remember to this day... sat there 13 Years old in the library and my friend Joe 'sidling' up to me grinning from ear to ear and saying the fateful words.... "mate look.... it says 'shit'.... best book ever!"

And that was me hooked, there I was getting hold of any other Terry Pratchet books I could find for the (perceived) 'gratuitous swearing' their pages concealed...

And now? Well I would like to say that; now that I am the proud owner of the full works of Pratchet I understand the humour, in jokes, subtle references to the more 'geeky pleasures' in life scattered though their pages, and the way he manages to, with this fantasy world of his, hold up a mirror to our own world and comment on all things great, bad and just plain weird about us and our species.

But no matter how high my esteem for this writer and no matter how much joy he has bought me though his writings I still remember my first introduction:

Shit (snigger)
( weekendsession, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:53, 2 replies)

Never forget it
I’ll always remember crouching under the blankets reading ‘Summertime in Icarus’ by Arthur C Clarke on a visit to my great uncle’s house in Scotland. I’d read stuff before but this just grabbed me, and I read it again and again until the torch batteries failed.

Thankfully, rather than leading to some frankspencer perversion, it inspired a happy life writing about science, technology and all things rational.
(paxvobiscum, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:52, Reply)

Roger Red Hat
That was ace. Also I'd advise anyone reading this to try "Crap questions and the reasons they don't get replies"
(Merrick I cure cats with hammers, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:42, Reply)

A Child Called 'it'
brought me to tears before the end of the first chapter. A beautiful book which everyone should read. I dare everyone to read it and not cry like girl.
(Tirtingsquirtle, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:12, 5 replies)

Too young...
The Rats by James Herbert.

This book, while primarily a jolly horror romp, had an unexpected chapter where a chap called Alan takes his colleague Barbara into the woods for an illicit seeing to. At the tender age of 11, outside of lingerie pages from catalogues, this was to be my first introduction to the realm of sexual self-gratification.

I still remember two lovely quotes :

"At 24, Alan was up and coming. At 35, Barbara was down and hadn't been coming enough."

and the immortal :

"she'd used his tie to bind his testicles and yanked him yelping around the filing room, had straddled, ridden and raped him".

Suffice to say, the post-coital glow of their adulterous liasion is cut short by them being viciously devoured by giant rats - and if I hadn't quite finished punishing myself, I'd read that bit as well.

I'd love to say it's not affected my relationships later on in life, but I'd be fibbing.
(PCheese, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:11, 5 replies)

Going out on a limb
Does anyone remember 'The Church Mice' books by Graham Oakley? They had Arthur, Humphrey (the church mice) and Sampson (the mouse loving cat).

Out of the several books I have mentioned so far, these are possibly the most relevant to 'life changing' for me.

When I was 8'ish, my Dad had two fairly major operations on his spine, resulting in him being bed-ridden for three years. Most kids of that age got to play football with their Dads, but I got to read with mine.

I'd just joined the library at the time and I remember The Church Mice series and The Hobbit as being the books my Dad and myself read together.

The Church Mice I particularly remember because of my Dad crying. I was so scared, why was Dad crying?! It was because of laughter! The story and the illustrations were so funny that even now I can picture them in my mind.

I think it was at this point that I realised I was my Father's Son. I'd taken on his sense of humour. I might not have had the same thing that other lads had with their Fathers, but we had laughter!


(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Thu 15 May 2008, 23:02, 3 replies)

Theres only one that i can think of
Harry Potter and the Unexpected Pregnancy.

The way he and Hermione invited Ron in aswell was just beautiful.
(Big Ginge putting the laughter into manslaughter, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:57, 1 reply)

A Few Spring to my mind....
Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth

This book was recommended to me at a young age, but it seems to be book that I can't put down. Again and again i read it!

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

I read this before the movie came out and it was incredible

Any Red Dwarf - These books changed my outlook of the universe as a whole

Anything by Alan Moore - The man is amazing, his stories reach you like no other and reawakened my love for comics
( Random Image Yes, yes, I'll speak to you on Monday, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:56, Reply)

not life changing
Other than milligans stuff like Puckoon and his war diaries, the funniest books ive read are the Wilt books. Theres a lot of books that make you smile but not many that make you really laugh.
(i dont get it tell them a badger got me, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:53, Reply)

Skunkworks
By Ben Rich and Leo Janos

I have two reasons.

Now, I am not an Engineer. But what the guys in the Lockheed Martin special projects division achieved astounds me. The U2 spyplane, the SR71 blackbird (in my opinion, the only plane to equal the achievements of concorde), the F117 nighthawk - all of these mechanical miracles did their jobs to their specification and are masterpieces of the modern age. I are in awe of their brainy hugeness.

Also - I am no an political activist, CND person, or similar, but...

The amount of money thrown at this company during the cold war is mindblowing. This book, perhaps more than any other source, clearly demonstrates to me the monomaniacial focus historically shown by the USA government for the achievement of their geo-political goals. Reading this shows how easily the money for Iraq (I & II), Star Wars, and probably Iran is made easily available "in the name of freedom".

This is probably the first of many posts on this QOTW.

Length - 12 inches more at Mach 3+
( Fireflier La la la la, not listening on, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:52, Reply)

Book-ake
Best thought of as an anthology...
(TheSpudTeam, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:50, Reply)

So many...
I'll start with the simple one: the one I hated. The Da Vinci Code. As a younger Edmund I was taking a long train journey from Prague to Minsk (for the craic) and, having been delayed, picked up the first English language paperback I could find. On the upside, it did make super absorbent toilet roll on the journey and was far more useful in that capacity than as a work of literary genius.

On the list of good books would be:

Give War A Chance and Age and Guile, both by PJO'Rourke, a profoundly funny journalist who appears to have spent his life collecting experiences. From his writing I have felt transported to the 60s and 70s in the US - works of brilliance.

Catch22 - beautifully written, and a perfect demonstration of the concept that in the face of disaster defiance is the only sensible option!

As I Live Dying - PTSD from the perspective of an outsider, a friend of mine (and to which I contributed)

In Search of Schrodingers.Cat - irrespective of my hatred of cats I love this book (injoke for my fellow mathematician/physicist readers)

A Beautiful Mind - only because one of my PhD supervisors (John Nash) was so beautifully, caringly portrayed in it

The Gulag Archipelago - again, from a long ago trip to Siberia for a month, before I spoke enough Russian to understand local TV

There are others but I'm writing this on a Blackberry ...
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:47, Reply)

looking back now...
... the first 'grown up' novel/book i read must of had an effect on me, subconcious or otherwise. I was in the first year of secondary school and needed a book to read in an English leason.
By now i was fed up of the usual goosebumps and wanted a real book, so ask my mum. and what do i get? 'Rachels holiday' bu marian keynes(sp?.
Sounds nice and innocent. but no. its about a drug addict who has a lot of sex going through rehab...
hmm... my past makes more sense now :(
(Emily Salvage, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:45, 1 reply)

'The Young Ones' book cira 1982
Not sure when it came out - but to a 7 year old boy it was fucking awesome. The TV show was equally awesome spawning many many lines you could repeat at school the next day but the book was brilliant. Up there with the copies of 'Razzle' we'd find stuffed in hedges.

Even now I remember the bit entitled "How to Swear Part 1"

Bum
Bits
Boob
Hole
Jobbie
Fart
Knob
Wick
Cheeks
Pants
Thatcher

Awesome.



Also, a book I read at school called 'Z for Zachariah' about a girl that survives a nuclear blast - it was proper gripping and i couldn't put it down! Books were GOOD! anyone read it at school? or remember it?
(TheManofScience, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:44, 6 replies)

Easy:
This Book Will Change Your Life

www.amazon.co.uk/This-Book-Will-Change-Your/dp/0452284899
( Peregr1n @peregr1n, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:42, Reply)

Lost in a Good Book
Lots of people claim that books have shaped their life, and it's true. They shape the way we think, the way we react, the way we prefer our Martinis. One book, however, has done far more than that for me - and it's because of one thing the author wrote:

His name.

The book was The Eyre Affair, and the author Jasper Fforde. I had already read the sequel - Lost in a Good Book - and had been drawn into an inventive, hypnotic crime thriller set in the dirty backstories of the English canon. Miss Haversham was a girl racer, Poe's Raven a poetry prison, Wales a communist state where it sometimes doesn't rain.

I could tell you the whole story of how I discovered Fforde - the nervous breakdown at university; the summer spent avoiding the world by staying under a duvet with Mallory, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Melville; the moment of serendipity where I suffered a panic attack in WH Smith and grabbed a book at random just so that I could get out and hide from the world again without anyone thinking I was odd. Instead, I won't. All I will tell you is that I ended up with a sequel that made no sense as all the explanation was in the first book, that I read the whole thing in one overnight session, and that I laughed for the first time in months.

Then I bought The Eyre Affair, and my life was changed forever.

When I got home, I wasn't sure if I could cope with the excitement. I hadn't felt anticipation for anything since the breakdown, and I felt giddy with the emotion. Like Charlie with the chocolate bar, the only way to cope was to nibble the very corner and ease myself in gently. I opened the title page and saw a biro mark. Someone had written in MY book, that I had only just bought.

The penny dropped.

It was signed. At least, there was a biro scribble in the book, on the right page and with approximately the same letters as the author's name. But surely authors weren't coming to Evesham (pop. two asparagus fields) to sign books, were they? Terrified that I had been fooled by a biro-wielding ned, I settled down to read.

The book was everything I hoped for. Honestly, if you like literature than read The Eyre Affair - the central gag is that Jane Eyre is kidnapped and the book ceases to exist because it's written in the first person, but there's plenty more lunacy where that came from. The signature nagged at me though, and the only course of action was to turn to the interweb.

Again, I'll skip the story - the hunting for the website, the discovery that the author regularly signs books at random as they're packed for distribution, that my signature was real. All that matters is I started posting on the forums on his website. Stupid things - literary parodies, Eminem's Stan as written by Shakespeare, the Curious Case of Getrude Jekyl and Mr Hyde... The author even borrowed a couple of my jokes and slipped me into another book as an extremely minor character.

BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT CHANGED MY LIFE.

What changed my life was a girl who I met on the forums. She was German and liked Shakespeare. She was funny and taught me how to read critically. She could beat me in an argument, could spend all night typing rubbish and could spot the rare moments I was being sensible. I invited her over to England to see the RSC and she never left.

We're now expecting our first child and get married next year. That book changed the whole direction of my life. It started by giving me a good laugh when I was at my lowest ebb, and it's left me - through an enormous slice of luck and fortune - happier than I've ever known.

Not bad for an inch thickness of dead tree.

Actual length depends on soft- or hardback edition...
(psd eats stuff. Often., Thu 15 May 2008, 22:37, 5 replies)

"The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov
A ten page short story about entropy and the death of the universe. The ending makes it possibly the best short story I've ever read.

www.multivax.com/last_question.html

I don't care how popular this post gets; you just need to read this story. DON'T SKIP AHEAD.
( AgentMuu hentai coordination, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:33, 4 replies)