I'm currently looking for some new books to get into. What are some books you read that had an impact on your life and why?
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance both philisophical and deep rooted...
Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoevski -- I read this in high school. I thought the premise was fascinating, though essentially flawed -- that murder in pursuit of a higher purpose is acceptable. Of Mice and Men -- Steinbeck -- Another morality story, which frightened me a little. The idea that George would hang on to a caretaker friendship with Lenny was very challenging, and the denouement forces one to consider what real love and compassion are about.
I loved Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, I think it changed my perspective on many things. Im not going to say too much, I know there are a lot of Ayn Rand haters on this site lol.
Um.........that's the hypothesis which Fyodor decidedly rejects by writing the book. The premise is that murder isn't really OK.
ender's game So many people have read it and ive never heard anything bad about it. It's even on the Marine Corps reading list and i think it's mandatory for officers to read.
right. I probably didn't amplify the idea enough. Raskolnikov's initially presented attitude about murder seemed to be that he could commit one and deal with the psychological ramifications. Rodya probably would have been able to justify killing Alyona Ivanova but the sister's death created a more profound moral dilemma.
Eh. Personally, I think Crime and Punishment is one of the most overrated books of the Western canon. Its characters are so obvious that their names describe them and its conclusion is a hackneyed plea to the hugely annoying concept of the "Russian soul".
Easy. Voltaire's Candide I was out the day everyone in my Senior Literature class got first pickings of the books available for their term paper...so I got stuck with this last book that nobody else wanted to suffer through. Voltaire's work found me and it was a kick butt read for a 17 year old that questioned so much in his life. The thought provoking effort of "some witty French dude", as I recall telling people as I tore through it, really helped a bent but not broken optimist like me grow in God via such an independent intellect against humans being so optimistic.
I used to be an insufferably pretentious, narcissistic, egotistical asshole; reading "A Fan's Notes" by Frederick Exley was an important step in taking the wind out of my sails and setting me on the journey to being the self-depreciating, self-loathing jackass I am today. I'm only half-kidding. In all seriousness, it was one of those books which was teaching me lessons I didn't understand until later. ************ Another book that had a big impact on me--please don't laugh--was "The Source" by James Michner. I know, I know--but I read it over the course of a week at church camp when I was maybe 13 years old, and I'm convinced that at least some of my later understand of how ideas and knowledge get transmitted imperfectly through generations came from that book.
Salem Possessed by Boyer and Nissenbaum. I started out in college as a government/foreign affairs/economics triple major because they seemed "more useful", but after reading Salem Possessed I discovered what studying history could offer. It really blew me away. I became a history major and never looked back.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing. The story of Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition that went awry in 1916. An incredible story of leadership, courage and mental toughness. I friend sent it to me at the beginning of my 9-month adventure living in the Saudi Desert during Desert Shield/Storm in '90-'91. It really helped me keep my sense of humor and perspective. Things can always be worse.
Primo Levi, If this is a man. I keep on repeating it on here in the hope that more people will read it. It's an autobiographical story by Primo Levi, a jewish Italian chemist, about his time in Auschwitz. But this is not your typical holocaust survival story. Especially considering that he wrote this in 1946 it is amazing how he managed to look at that episode from a broader perspective, labelling the concentration camp as a unique social experiment. He wonders to himself what is left of civilisation, morals, ethics etc when there is no need or indeed pay off for being civil or good in general - everybody in there was put there to die, after all, and no amount of sucking up to the nazis, or by contrast criminal behaviour could save you. He describes how people who were considered social outcasts and criminals in normal society typically thrived in the concentration camp environment, whereas by contrast people who in normal society were seen as upstanding citizens turned into beasts, how he himself stole the boots of a dying man which probably saved his life and how he didn't know what to think of it all, especially himself and his own morals. When you read the book you can't help but be in awe of someone who went through such a great ordeal yet still managed to look at himself and his own behaviour, even when obviously he was not to blame. I first read this book when I was 24 and when I looked at world affairs mostly in a heroes and villains (or Bush) manner, and Primo Levi gave me a completely different way of looking at things and indeed myself. The book can turn you into a bit of a cynic: most people will be good only if it pays off to be good, but when all need for dignity is stripped away, what indeed is left of a man and is he more than a beast. Considering that Levi himself committed suicide later on in life, you can't help but think that that was his conclusion too. But the book also teaches a positive lesson: do not judge. You cannot know what you yourself would do when put into a life or death situation, and do not judge others who are in that situation by your own normal peacetime suburban standards. Above all be aware what people, including yourself, are capable of. You are not better than anyone else, or indeed less.
Speaking of the USMC reading list: • Fields of Fire, James Webb. One of the very best Vietnam novels of all time. • 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu =========== As for the above poster who suggested Primo Levi's 'If This is a Man,' I'll definitely add it to my Amazon Wish List.
Ender's Game is morally and philosophically objectionable for a variety of reasons, but arguably the biggest one is the attitude that Card takes toward violence throughout the entire book. He basically seems to imply that even the most horrific acts imaginable are okay if the person who committed them didn't intend to, creating in the process a protagonist who can quite literally get away with murder. That's also to say nothing of the fact that Card also seems to take a pretty casual attitude with regard to violence against women and children in the sequels.
Two books that I read as a teenager changed my life and channeled me towards a career: To Sir With Love, by E.R. Braithwaite, and Up the Down Staircase, by Bel Kaufman After reading these two books, I wanted to be a school teacher even though I was just entering high school at the time. I am now in my 31st year teaching in the elementary school system.
FWIW--and this really doesn't mean anything--when I was a little kid my parents (both of whom were teachers) took me to see our local high school drama department's production of "Up the Down Staircase". That's a memory I'd forgot until I read this.
