This book changed my lifeThe Goat writes, "Some books have made a huge impact on my life." It's true. It wasn't until the b3ta mods read the Flashman novels that we changed from mild-mannered computer operators into heavily-whiskered copulators, poltroons and all round bastards in a well-known cavalry regiment.
What books have changed the way you think, the way you live, or just gave you a rollicking good time?
Friendly hint: A bit of background rather than just a bunch of book titles would make your stories more readable
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chthonic, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:11)
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I read this questionand I thought "what a pants question that is. I imagine that'll be me clamped until next thursday".
But it seems I have read a number of books that I have really enjoyed, and the floodgates are opened.
I have a bit of a strange taste in what I find enjoyable. After that first holiday, I have never travelled anywhere without a good book to read. I know it might seem an odd choice, but some of the best cowering-under-a-beach-umbrella reading I've ever had has come from the series of books about the first world war by Lyn McDonald.
Books like "To the last man - Spring 1918", "They called it Passchendale" and "Somme" are some of the most compelling reads I've ever had. Although much of them are retellings of the great battles that were fought, they are interspersed with interviews with soldiers who were there in the horror of the trenches. Reading the words of the people who lived through what I think was the most brutal conflict the world has ever seen is a humbling experience. It brings modern conflicts into sharp focus, I can tell you.
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baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Thu 15 May 2008, 21:54,
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Yep, uh-huh, oui...Went through a phase of being totally into WWI lit and history . . . . to the (now somewhat embarrassing) extent of doing my MA research in this area. But Lyn McDonald's books were, I agree, nice collections of oral histories. Her books, along with Dennis Winter's and some of those dead Gayer WWI poets, got me flying across the Atlantic on several trips to poke around ditches in N. France/Belgium.
(, Thu 15 May 2008, 21:58, closed)
HeheI've always wanted to do a "war walk" around the old battlefields, I even suggested one to the ex wife, and she agreed!
Of course, I worded it as "go to france for a short holiday" but she wouldn't have noticed I'm sure.....
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baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:12,
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Paul ReedPaul Reed has several good walking guides to WWI areas - look 'em up and book yer ticket. I will entertain your wife while you're away.
(, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:15, closed)
I've taken a note of it :DYou'll have to get in a queue for the ex though, and she's not cheap from what I hear :P
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baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:17,
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