My humble list
This is in danger of becoming a list of my favourite books rather than the book which changed my life but I ask your indulgence.

In no particular order:

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

Read in a single sitting whilst crossing to Dublin by Ferry - it was the only time that pure creepiness jumped off the page and into my brain.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Basically "Apocalypse Now" without the helicopters and the Vietnam War (which is no surprise as the film is a bald retelling of the novella). It knocked the pretension out of me. Conrad was a Polish immigrant writing in English (his second language!!!) and he still wrote a haunting, brilliant book. I am merely a nematode worm in comparison.

I am Legend - Ian Matheson

Still my favourite book (for now). It speaks to my soul! what a lonely bastard I am. Like all the very best ones I remember exactly where I was when I devoured it. Curled up in a third storey bed-sit, overlooking the high street, in my University town. People outside going about their business totally oblivious to the desperate plight of Robert Neville. I was mortified when Hollywood shat it onto the silver screen last year. The final act was like a drawn-out violent arse-fucking for anyone who treasures the book. Cunts!

The Time Machine - HG Wells

My very first science fiction. It inflamed my passion for the most underrated genre in fiction (yes, I'm going to be a twat about this point - science fiction is nerdy? Good, Nerds are the world's clever people). It made me want to become a writer, something at which I have failed dismally for years.

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Yossarian lives! Turned me into the cowardly liberal I am today. Except…. Yossarian is actually pretty brave outwardly. Catch 22 made me see the sordid nature of war and the human condition (getting right up my own arse now aren’t I?). It’s pretty bleak out there.

A Scanner Darkly – Phillip K Dick

This is my favourite P.K Dick book and pretty much kick started my adoration of the unappreciated genius. It made me laugh and cry and question what is real. Thirty years before the Matrix got everyone frothing their panties Philip K Dick was smashing reality into disturbing pieces. Oh, and there’s a pretty decent adaption by Richard Linklater which preserves the mood of the book and retains the dedication at the end. I think P.K. Dick would have been proud.

Non Stop – Brian W Aldiss
Hot House – Brian W Aldiss

Another wonderful British Author. Both books are clever and entertaining. Possibly not “great” fiction but I’ve included them because me and my dad wasted hours talking about them together.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

The next time you watch your 50” Plasma television think of “The Family” (Big Brother would probably be a good approximation). Ironically this posits a future altogether without books. There’s no B3ta though so it’s a pretty grim world. Also, can anyone think of anything as horrendous as being chased down by the Mechanical Hound which has a hypo for a face?
The last act where an innocent bystander is sacrificed to make the government seem competent is eerily reminiscent of Dr David Kelly’s suicide over the Iraq Dossier. Life grimly imitating art.

1984 – George Orwell
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

All three of my copies are battered from re-reading. These three books should exist as a canon on their own. They scared the hell out of me as a teenager and their prescience terrifies me daily. When O’Brien tells Winston in 1984 that the stars can exist simultaneously as burning gas a few thousand miles away and gigantic bodies in space trillions of miles away (for the purposes of astronomical calculations) it says everything you need to know about the state versus the citizen. Depressing and brilliant. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever”

The Stand – Stephen King

This is a guilty pleasure. It changed my life because I was convinced at the time that 99% of mankind was going to buy the farm any minute. As a thirteen year old I had been subjected to “Threads” (BBC Drama shot in semi documentary style about a nuclear attack on the UK) by my R.E. teacher. The Stand seemed perfectly plausible to me.

And so endeth the sermon….. there are many, many more and hopefully some to add in the future. Books are awesome. I hope they live forever.
( Hitler's Barber Soylent Green is high in saturated fat, Tue 20 May 2008, 13:56, 2 replies)

Ooooh..
I am legend
I really liked the latest movie. The ending annoyed me, but oddly didn't enrage me. It was apprent from very early on that it was "Based on" rather than "the film of" the book, so I think I was prepared.
There's an alternative ending on the DvD which adds several scenes and completely changes the outcome. It is, in my opinion, far, far better than the theatrical version.

Neither is as good as the book, of course, but both make fine entertainment in their own right.


The Stand
**spoiler warning**


Suffers from Stephen King Syndrome - It's a really, really enjoyable story with excellent characters and a good pace, it's tense and exciting, and then a couple of chapters before the end he suddenly goes "and... The bad guy's the devil. Yeah. that explains it."

Fuck off, Stephen. Every single book does not have to have a scooby-doo "ooh it's a vampire" ending.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Tue 20 May 2008, 15:17, closed)

I made sure
I read I am Legend before I saw the film. Have you seen the alternative ending? Better than the original, but still not as good as the book.
I'm rereading The Wasp Factory now, as it happens.
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Wed 21 May 2008, 13:27, closed)