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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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 ...
(, Thu 15 May 2008, 22:47, Reply)
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