The Rats was the first 'grown up' book that I read too, followed by The Fog. They got me into reading.

Crime And Punishment and Wuthering Heights were the books which got me into 'serious' literature.

The Remains Of The Day has probably affected me the most.

Good thread:

I'd say that these had a large impact:

''Count Of Monte Cristo'' - Alexander Dumas
''The Air Conditioned Nightmare'' - Henry Miller
''The Picture Of Dorian Grey'' - Oscar Wilde
''Galapagos'' - Kurt Vonnegut

Hmm...when I read over these compared to what most have posted I feel illiterate.

^ Don't say that. Oscar Wilde rules.
*EDIT: And so does Kurt Vonnegut!
How should I feel then? ;)

Have a look at my list and cheer up.

Cool! As an Argentinean, I didn't know that.
The James Dean bit is also cool.
I'd rep you but you know...you must spread...

"A Perfect Spy", by Le Carre really woke me up to the novel as a teenager. Odd pick I guess. I've always been, and will always be a sucker for good, intelligent Cold War works.

"Ham on Rye", by Bukowski was a revelation.

In terms of Novellas... The Metamorphosis. Short stories, anything by Tolstoy and Chekov really.

No no no, nothing against the authors, I love them all, obviously because they were impressionable to me. My post, although a bit dramatic, was trying to point out that I wish I had been more diverse in my reading material, much like I am in music, but hey you have to start in the shallow end when you learn to swim right?

when i read junky that had a real impact on me. i just loved the way he described things and life, so unflinching.

also crime and punishment made an impact.

god i am not painting a very good picture of myself am i?

Well, I guess the first book to really have a big impact on me was probably Sebastien Faulks' Birdsong. I guess I was about 12 or 13 when I read it and it really made me think alot about love and sex and death and stuff in a way that most other people my age weren't.

The Outsider was a big one for me too, particularly in that it was precisely his honesty that got him condemed to death, and that gave me a lot of food for thought.

Also the Odyssey because I am a real nerd and I love the ancient Greeks, and this was the first piece of Greek literature that I read. It is fantastic and I would advise anybody and everybody to read it. It does take a bit of perseverence but it is worth it. Also the Iliad, which is better in many ways, but wasn't as life changing for me.

But I bet overall, Camus' The Fall has perhaps the most impact on me.

yes!! the odyssey was absolutely awesome. not exactly a "novel", but it can be seen that way since these days we don't have epic poems.

^^^^
what about 300??? :):(;)

It's OK, after all this thread is about books that really had an influence on you, not an account of everything you've read.
Seriously, I bet you know a lot more about music, than I for instance, and I understand perfectly the swimming comparison!

I remember high fidelity being one of the first books i really liked- connecting my music nerdism.



But beyondly-- on the road, of course. It kind of brought me back into reading after high school and introduced me to a lot of intresting things- also makes me want to leave home- but i've been a not going it seems.

I really enjoyed the crucible and huck finn in my junior english class- and i think i read the rime of the ancient mariner that year too- which was fuckin ace.

oh, i just spotted this!!!!!!!!! she's AWESOME.

(some of cortazar too but im tired oh so tired of cronopios)

"Trout Fishing In America" - Richard Brautigan
"In Watermelon Sugar" - Richard Brautigan
"The Abortion" - Richard Brautigan


"At The Mountains Of Madness" - H.P. Lovecraft (yes, I know this is technically a novella, and you can get bent, !@#$%!)

Yes, yes and YES!!!!!!!

you mean you'll get mad if i say schlocky...??













:D:D <-- i know you love those, had to add them

The Left Behind series.



psych!

How cool! Have you read her in Spanish or was it a translation?

en casteSHano como dices tu

Sí, shuvia, y todo eso. ¿De dónde sos?

de por ahi... ja ja ja

(perdona, pero mi identidad secreta... es secreta).

(en serio).

No, te entiendo perfectamente.
Pero sé que hay un latino dando vueltas por ahí.
¡Nos vemos pebete!

eso sí!

Ah, read that one twice, which is highly unusual for me. If I were to add Lovecraft to my list though, and of course I should, I'd have to put Dream-Quest to Unknown Kaddath at the top.

Man! I've read the stand about ten times too, probably eleven or so. I don't know what it is, each year (and usually the time's around when I get the flu or something) I simply pick it up and start it off and, damn, the week flies by. I guess it's such a well written thing, clolsely describing the shape of the world we all know slowly fading away, and being replaced by a new order... (weird to notice you're under the influence too, floatingslowly!!!)

fascinating.
most prolly the biggest impact on me, as far as it goes. I really enjoy S. King's body of work (and yes, DIFFERENT SEASONS kicks ass! Skeleton Crew is also badass... THE MIST!!!!).

i'd also have to put WSB's THE SOFT MACHINE in here too... awesum.

then... the NEW YORK TRILOGY by Paul Auster dramatically changed something in my perspective also... doppelgänger, anyone? truly bizzarre, and a very fucking cool scenario.

A Poet in New York- Federico Garica Lorca God he made me look for poets in my language.

Residence on Earth- Pablo Neruda he made me think of the sadness of the world.

The Art of Dreaming & The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda, were a trip.

The first novels to impress me were 1984, read in 1984, and Faulkner's Noise and Fury.
The latter has since been blown to pieces after I read Ulysses. This one is far more subtle, and Joyce's kindness is heart-warming.

Other, lesser impacts, but, well, still :
Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, if you can't go through Joyce.
Bulgakov's White Guard, which lead me to read another great book (nic fit told it before) The Master and Margarita.
Dostoîevski's Crime & Punishment.
Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit for its rhythm, the pulsating images of war and chaos, the humanity of the author through the character of Robinson - I know that it's odd to talk about humanity when mentioning Céline, a writer who hated everybody and would be sued for antisemitism after WWII, but you can see that in this book, his first.
Malcolm Lowry's Beyond the Volcano, for apparent chaos brilliantly arranged too.
PKDick's Radio Free Albemuth (I had read in a Lee Ranaldo interview that that book in particular had made the Youth want to pay a hommage to the man on Sister) - there's a chapter there that makes your sanity shiver : the narrator, a writer named Philip stops talking about the current action to claim that he is not a drug addict, that his readers shouldn't trust what people, including his own editor, say about a former book he wrote, the subject of which being something 100% like A Scanner Darkly... After that chapter I closed the book ad listened to the Butthole Surfers USSA and madly laughed out loud.

And recently, among authors whose hearts are still beating, Deadkidsongs by Toby Litt, fot its perversity, and Eugenides' Middlesex for its wideness.

Danny the Champion of the World is my most memorable from childhood.
Fear and Loathing and The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks) will always have special places in my head.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Story of B by Daniel Quinn
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by I can't remember. (anyone know this book? It was stolen from me and I can't remember the author. )
Famous Last Words by Timothy Findlay

oh and..
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (read the german original and the english translation. The german being the better one naturally, as translations tend to lose grasp of certain elements.)

Almost anything by Truman Capote
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Jack Kerouac - On The Road

I'm absolutely serious. The first one that made me really love to read. This was like in 4th grade.

I searched Amazon.com and it says it was written by Robert M. Pirsig.
Somehow that title rings a bell, but not the author.
Good luck.

I am proud to report that I have never read that book by Pirsig even though people have personally recommended it to me tens of times.

Similarly, The Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy (Douglas Adams) is one I've never read & probably never will...ditto for Generation X by Coupland.

Utter crap I tells ye!

Now, don't fuck wit me 'bout this. I've never read any of these in full, but, you know, every douchebag on the planet seems has these literary colostomy bags on their bookshelf, so I've scanned each many, many times.

Please just read & ignore this & carry on with this nice, civilized thread.

I like atari's burstouts of (almost senseless) rage. It's good to know someone is alive on planet Earth!

Well, thanks for the slack, max.

To clarify for others:
It's just that if pressed I would rather read something entertaining rather than fluff pop-psychology/pop-philosophy poisoning by some idiot hippie philosopher charlatan.

Someone mentioned Simon Le Carre and I would rather read one of those or maybe a rock bio, good sci-fi, an Elmore Leonard, a Barry Gifford, a Vonnegut, an Ian Fleming, (shit, maybe even a Louis L'amour) instead of Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Man, I've really got to get going.



That's like, so deep, man.:rolleyes:

Again, just read & tell me I'm fucked in abbreviated fashion if you disagree. I'm not intending to "hijack" the thread; I'm just in a bit of a sour mood.

Dude! I'm totally on yr side. I was taking note actually, I mean... I'm pretty pissed off myself. And sometimes all I see, is a shitty stupid world where the trend and the fashion rule the mind of the stupid.

...and not having found a label for my band's output really gets on my nerves.