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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Slightly off topic...... but a lot of people have mentioned Catch-22 - and rightly so. It is wonderful.
A few years ago, Joe Heller was being interviewed. I'm paraphrasing, but one part of the conversation went something like this:
INTERVIEWER: Would it be fair to say that in the years since Catch-22, you've not written anything comparable?
HELLER: But then, who has?
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:51,
8 replies)
I must be thick or summatI read catch 22 last year, and although I could appreciate some of the wit and general twistedness, I really didn't think it was that great.
Does it have some sort of amazing subtextual storyline? I'm not very good at discerning those. I would credit it as being the best (and probably only) book of self-contradictory humour and military in-jokes I've read. That's not really saying much though is it.
(, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:00, closed)
Yes, it's a wonderful bookalthough one of the chapters near the end ("The Eternal City") which details Yossarian's journey through a night-time Rome full of human suffering and inhuman actions is one of the bleakest pieces of writing I've ever come across. (the image of the drunk woman saying "Please don't" is making me feel sick as I type this).
I think a great companion to this book is "The Tin Drum" which again presents an unorthodox view of WW2.
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I_Was_Mordred, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:10,
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it's up there withSlaughterhouse-Five as a bloody brilliant book on war (but also a bloody brilliant book in its own right).
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:23,
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@CHCBAre you sure it's not Slaughterhouse 5.
*Sorry Enzyme*
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girlinthehole, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:31,
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*grins*Spine of my copy says "Slaughterhouse 5" but Amazon lists it as "Slaughterhouse-five".
Me? I'm quite happy Enzyme-baiting.
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:34,
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...*changes all references to Catch Twenty-Two*
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 16 May 2008, 15:39,
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i couldn't finish it the first timeIt is the most depressing thing i have ever read.
(, Fri 16 May 2008, 17:21, closed)
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