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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Some (of many)Life, a User's Manual
Georges Perec's masterpiece. How anyone can tie together such a bizarre amount of stories, wrap them up, and come up with a genius novel (with humour) is beyond me. Read the original (La vie, Mode d'Emploi) or the translation by David Bellos (one of my professors at university, and a self-effacing source of many gems of alternative literature) and enjoy, for once the translation is every bit as good as the original. Utter brilliance. Also leads on to a deep appreciation of Paul Auster.
Down and Out in Paris and London
Again, you can read this one again and again and again, and get something new from it. 1984 was great, but this is writing on a human scale at its best.
The Master and Margarita.
Impossible to read this and believe it was written before the Second World War- like an acid trip that never seems to end. And, yes, the Stones based Sympathy For The Devil on this, but the song (with no disrespect) never scales the heights of the book.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.
Laurie Lee walks across Spain just before the civil war. The pages bleed sunlight (and poverty). One of the reasons that the country holds such a spell on anyone (to get deeper, read "South from Granada" by Gerald Brennan. Amazingly as good as Laurie Lee, if not better...) And if you've read this, read the Northern European version, A Time For Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermour. As good, if not better.
Foucault's Pendulum.
Makes the Da Vinci Code look like a sad comic. Which it may be, but at least people read it. Go here for the real deal- Umberto Eco knew what he was doing (a good 15 years before Dan Brown).
Add to this some others that come to mind now..
On the Road, Kerouac
Cancer Ward, Solzenitsyn
The Sea, John Banville
The Risk Pool, Richard Russo
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez
... and you have a good few month's reading ahead of you.
(A nod to everyone here who has recommended things I haven't heard of-I'll be busy for a while thanks to you...)
(, Sat 17 May 2008, 15:32, 2 replies)
The Master and the Magaritais absolutely stunning, i don't think I've read anything like it before or since...
(, Sat 17 May 2008, 17:45, closed)
At last'Foucault's Pendulum' gets a mention.
It is to 'The Da Vinci Code' what Nick Hornby's 'About a Boy' is to 'Great Expectations' - if that isn't too obscure an analogy. [EDIT: other way round of course]
Fantastic book - full of interesting stuff not just the Templars and Joseph of Aremathea, but what't great is that the puzzle takes our hero over a decade to solve, not a frantic 24 hours like the Dan Brown tripe.
Oh, and 'Down & Out...' is great too.
(, Mon 19 May 2008, 11:57, closed)
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