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
(
chthonic, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:11)
« Go Back
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.This book is the epitomy of the phrase :-
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
(The more things change the more things stay the same)
Published in the mid nineteenth century but it's history and examples can go back a few hundred years before that. It's a compendium of ridiculous human folly and stupidity, mixed in with a healthy dose of satire and analysis. If you want to understand that history repeats itself and there really is nothing new under the sun (concerning human behaviour) then read this book. It covers popular fads and social obsessions that, if you changed the names, are happening all around us today. The South Sea bubble, Tulipomania, witchhunts, catchphrases, spiritual healers and mediums, all in our modern world in different guise but Charles Mackay gives examples of what they were like in the past and anyone with a keen sense of understanding will see that it's all just same shit different day.
After I finished reading it, the world was never the same as I could see through a lot of the culture for what it was, just a bunch of monkeys fucking around with sticks.
(
Brandy_Bumwinkle, Mon 19 May 2008, 10:07,
Reply)
« Go Back