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This book changed my life

The 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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Making a killing
Thomas de Quincey's Murder, Considered as one of the Fine Arts is great. And it has the potential to seed some fascinating Turner prize entries...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:07, 37 replies)

Ever read
any Jackie Collins or Jack Higgins?
(frankspencer, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:12, closed)

Nope...
But I'm assuming that there's some link...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:14, closed)

no link
I was just wondering if you've read anything of no inherent literary worth on purpose.
(frankspencer, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:22, closed)

Oh, yes...
... I think.

I must have.

Mustn't I?

Actually, I can't think of anything.

Ooooh - I did once start to read Clive Cussler's Sahara. Didn't get very far. It was drivel. And I read a few Tom Clancys when I was in my teens. No literary merit there, either.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:25, closed)

Hehe!
I bet he even refuses to read his shopping list.

Sorry Enzyme.
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girlinthehole, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:30, closed)

au contrair BGB
I think you'll find Enzymes shopping list is a quite exquisite breakdown of the relative merits of Ribena versus Bananas and how they fit into todays consumer driven society.

Oh, and kitten food.

and stamps.
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Bazongaloid, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:32, closed)

shopping lists are far too banal for Enzyme's great intellect
He probably just has to decide that there is weetabix in his cupboard and bam! it's there.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:32, closed)

Or
maybe he has a small turkish boy who gets the shopping in when he's not brushing the crushed velvet smoking jacket and slippers
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Bazongaloid, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:35, closed)

My shopping list...
... is, you'll be pleased to hear, in the form illuminated script on vellum. I have a catechism of monks who prepare it for me every week.

Not that I actually buy any of the things on there. Creatures as refined as I can survive on sunlight, y'know.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:36, closed)

hahaha!
Although I can't picture him wearing crushed velvet.

I did see him wear flying overalls though, on more than one occasion.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:36, closed)

Actually
if Enzyme is like most persons of an academic bent (and I include myself in this), then he'll find shopping lists indispensable.

Why? Well, he'll know lots about academic and intellectual stuff, but forget about important day to day issues like having to buy milk, or going to the dentist.

Or is that just me?
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:37, closed)

I didn't know that
the collective noun for monk was catechism

I thought a catechism was some sort of religious teaching?
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:38, closed)

@K2k6
Shhhhh! I'm trying to make myself sound all interesting here!

But you're right...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:39, closed)

@HLT
I have no idea what the collective noun for monks is. "Catechism" sounded nice, though.

A tonsure of monks?
A gnarl of monks - for some reason, that sounds quite good, as well...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:40, closed)

Shurely
It's an "order"?

edit: I like gnarl better though.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:41, closed)

I think having
a small turkish boy to clean your smoking jacket would be interesting.
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Bazongaloid, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:41, closed)

@HLT
The more I think about it, the more I like "gnarl".
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:42, closed)

Yes
There is something quite bewitching about a silent "g"
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:43, closed)

^^
*gbewitches*
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:46, closed)

^ Heh
gnice one!
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:47, closed)

oooOOOh
I'm all gnbewitched now

you gnaughty boys you
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:47, closed)

B*Witched
Actually, I've now got those horrid denim-clad Oirish pop spasms going round my head now...

C'est la vie...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:51, closed)

Mmmmm
gnaughty has wonderfully, well, naughty feel to it. Feels nice rolling around your mouth.

Edit - say you will, say you won't, say you'll do what I won't, say your true, say to me. C'est la vie!
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Bazongaloid, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:53, closed)

yet another pretentious cover story, Enzyme
Don't believe his highbrow bullshit, people. I saw a copy of Heat magazine in his car that time we went dogging.
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 20 May 2008, 15:21, closed)

I KNEW IT!
You've finally admitted it, I fucking knew you went dogging.
*screenshots page for proof*
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Cawl, Tue 20 May 2008, 15:25, closed)

^
dammit.
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 20 May 2008, 15:28, closed)

Ha!
Game, set and match.
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Cawl, Tue 20 May 2008, 15:34, closed)

LIES! CALUMNY!
I've never owned a copy of Heat.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:11, closed)

^
You could have borrowed it.

Which, if anything, is worse.
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:14, closed)

@K2k6
You're right - but I've never borrowed one either.

My friend R, by day a highly-educated and intelligent City lawyer, has a huge pile of Heats in her living room. On the face of things, she's the least likely person in the world to read it. Whenever I'm there, I do get kinda engrossed...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:20, closed)

@K2k6
it was well-~~fingered~~thumbed.
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:20, closed)

Well thumbed eh?
Was it stained?
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Cawl, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:24, closed)

@Kaol
There was a milky secretion on Kerry Katona's fat ass.
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crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:26, closed)

Hand on heart
I can say that I have never read/looked at the pictures/otherwise perused a 'celebrity' type magazine.

That's not to say that I wouldn't though. In fact I'm a bit scared to pick one up in case I fall victim to its dubious charms and then I'm forced to watch soaps so I know who these people are etc etc.
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:27, closed)

*shudders*
Why'd you take her dogging with you?
You'd need three cars, one for her gigantic mouth, another for her ego, and a third for the meats.
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Cawl, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:28, closed)

I read the Sun
Especially the Bizarre (showbiz) column. And I believe Titanic is as an important a document as the latest Salman Rushdie. I'm also reading a biography of the Marquis de Sade and a history of courtesans.
(frankspencer, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:33, closed)

@Frank
There have been times when I've dipped into Heat or something tabloid if it was, for some reason, nearby - there was always a copy of the Sun lying around when I used to be a lorry driver, for example, and there was frequently one knocking about when I worked on a bar. But they never really engaged, that's all. I can't see the point of reading froth.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:56, closed)

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