Ten Great Books

[yowser]

I just finished a biography of Oppenheimer (not the one that turned into the recent movie, but Monk's.) Late in life, after his fame had begun to recover from the beating his reputation took after his security clearance was revoked, a journalist asked him for a list of the 'ten books that most shaped your attitudes in your vocation and philosophy of life.'

I'm in List Mode myself, and although these 'best of' things can be so problematic (how can you really answer this sort of question?), it did get me thinking.

For you writers here in the AH, what are the ten books that most affected you and your own thinking? Impacted your life?

I'm not done with mine, but two titles that will be on there are:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Wind in the Willows

What are your top ten influential books? I'll compile a list when we're done...

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

A wizard of earthsea
The Hobbit
The house of the spirits
Anna Karenina
The Silence of the Lambs
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Pride and Prejudice
Wind Sand and Stars
Love in the time of Cholera
Bridge to terabithia

The list will change if you ask me again next week

 

[TheLobster]

Master and Margarita
Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid
Norwegian Wood
Lord of the Rings
Crime and Punishment
1984
Ringworld
Diamond Age
The God Delusion

I could probably swap about half of the titles for others if I thought about it a bit more.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is tentative and off the cuff. With more thought I might make significant changes. This is roughly in chronological order in which I read them.

Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach.
William Golding, Lord of the Flies.
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Orwell, Animal Farm.
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
Twain, Huckleyberry Finn.
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
George Eliot, Middlemarch
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones.

I've limited the list to influential works of fiction. I could probably come up with an equally important list of nonfiction works. I chafed at leaving out Dickens and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but I didn't know what to remove from the list to include them.

Something that struck me is that, despite my fondness for erotica, I couldn't think of an erotic work of fiction I'd include. I feel like erotica is something that mainstream and classical "art" authors still haven't quite mastered.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Finnegans Wake (Joyce)
Ulysses (Joyce)
The Origin of Species (Darwin)
La Pensée Sauvage (Lévi-Strauss)
Totemisme Au'jourdhui (Lévi-Strauss)
Giles Goat Boy (Barth)
The Concept of Culture (Geertz)
Flatland (Abbot)
Le Don (Mauss)
The Name of the Rose (Eco)

There are a few more competitors for top ten, so my list is subject to re and re and re arrangement.

 

[AwkwardMD]

A list of one

Gideon The Ninth (Muir)

 

[soflabbwlvr]

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)
Dune (Herbert)
Steppenwolf (Hesse)
The Rise of Endymion* (The Hyperion Cantos)(Simmons)
Chaos and Order* (The Gap Cycle) (Donaldson)
The Reality Dysfunction* (The Night's Dawn Trilogy) (Hamilton)
The Infinite Plan (Allende)
Speaker for the Dead* (Ender's Game Series) (Card)
A Clash of Kings* (A Song of Ice and Fire) (Martin)
Foundation's Edge* (Foundation Series) (Asimov)

Approximate list off the top of my head.
Asterisks represent books that are part of a series.
Actually, I did not follow instructions. These are some of my favorite books, not necessarily influential books.

 

[Nynah]

I allowed myself more fiction books than non-fiction but I think it's a good blend that summarizes what I'm interested in intellectually. Plus I love lists and avoiding working on writing because I'm too scared to at this moment, so this is great for me. In no particular order (aside from separating fiction and non-fiction):

Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
This is just Romeo & Juliet in space against the backdrop of Star Wars. Meant for a younger audience, but just very well-written and tugs at heartstrings in all the right places.

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
I first read this in high school and then the subsequent ones and I'm pretty sure this is where my interest in erotica started because they were way hornier than they had any right to be.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar
Probably the best book I've read in the past few years, this is a wonderfully sapphic epistolary tale of dueling agents through time and space with lush prose and that enemies-to-lovers trope I'm weak for.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Another novel I read in high school, was my introduction into bildungsroman and honestly I'm still trying to be as independent and strong as Jane all these years later.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Super cozy low-stakes read with just a dash of magic, honestly very needed to redeem the whole witch/wizardry genre given the past few years. Plus there's a hint of spice at the end that was unexpected but welcome.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Probably the most polarizing book on my list, this is just a love letter to New York City and a big "fuck you" to Staten Island and white supremacy in general. Thoroughly enjoyed every moment reading it.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Very readable high-level overview of cancer with a lot of good insight.

Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell
I have a dream of writing a novel one day and this book has helped me at least get a partial draft off the ground and has a lot of good writing advice just in general.

The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of essays on writing sci-fi/fantasy specifically, came out in 1979 but still very applicable to today.

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler
On its face, a book of essays about sea creatures (which I love anyway), but deeper down also deeper narratives about how their lives also relate to conditions that queer and marginalized humans face every day.

 

[AG31]

I'm in the process of building my list. Here's a request to subsequent responders: Can you tell us how each book was important?

 

[Comshaw]

In no particular order here is my list.

"Captains Courageous" Rudyard Kipling

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Dee Brown

"Sometimes A Great Notion" Ken Kesey

"Dune" Frank Herbert

"Mindbridge" Joe Haldeman

"Fahrenheit 451" Ray Bradbury

"Red Badge of Courage" Stephen Crane

"Mother West Wind" stories by Thornton W. Burgess

​

"Dark Sea Running" George Morrell

​

And lastly, in the late 1950's I read a biography of Jack London. I can't remember who wrote it but as an impressionable pre-teen it profoundly infuenced my thinking.


Comshaw

 

[Dearelliot]

Great for me when I read them.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Under the Red Sea Sun
Clan of the Cave bear. Guy above reminded me, I hadn't read a book in a while and I was so impressed.
I remember as a kid, when I read 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' I could hardly believe it...Reading was fun!

 

[onehitwanda]

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Tailchaser's Song - Tad Williams
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K le Guin
The Assassin Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Road - Cormack McCarthy - a book I will never, ever, under any circumstances absolufuckinglutely whatever, read again.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Duncton Wood - William Horwood
American Gods - Niel Gaiman
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

edit: some that should be on the list as well were it longer:

The once and future King - T H White
Ivanhoe - Walter Scott
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

 

[KittyOfSteele]

"The Prophet," by Kahlil Gibran
"Story of the Eye," by Georges Bataille
"Tropic of Cancer," by Henry Miller
"Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson
"Neuromancer," by William Gibson
"Mort," by Terry Pratchett
"The Book of Nod," by Sam Chupp and Andrew Greenberg
"The Art of War," by Sun Tzu
"Amadis of Gaul," by Anonymous
"The Knight in Rusty Armor," by Robert Fisher

There's no particular order to this list. Other people would put Don Quixote instead of Amadis of Gaul, but Amadis of Gaul was far much more influential for me than Don Quixote. Not to take merit off from Don Quixote though, I actually like Don Quixote. It's just that Amadis of Gaul influenced me more.

 

[onehitwanda]

Diamond Age

Love this book. My headcanon is that Miss Matheson in Diamond Age is YT from Snow Crash.

 

[vanmyers86]

I tend to do deep dives into authors whose work resonates with me, so in some cases, I can't pinpoint just one book:

1. The Dragonriders of Pern (series by Anne McCaffrey - greatly influenced my vocabulary)
2. Expanded Universe, plus many others (Robert Heinlein - introduced me to ideas I'd never encountered before in my conservative upbringing)
3. Death Comes as the End (Agatha Christie - I've read all her mysteries multiple times - her genius for plotting is unparalleled)
4. Outlander series (Diana Gabaldon - very sensual descriptions, even of non-sexual situations; character building is excellent)
5. The Mating Season (P.G. Wodehouse - delightful, clever humor)
6. The Earthsea trilogy and The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin - more new ideas for my teenaged self, including gender - also clean and crisp writing)
7. The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (Edna Buchanan - at the time I was a newspaper reporter; this greatly influenced my style and taught me new questions to ask)
8. An Acceptable Time and A Severed Wasp (Madeleine L'Engle - themes of growing up and what it means to become oneself - also some beautiful writing)
9. Proof (Dick Francis - their pacing and plot twists taught me how to keep a story moving)
10. Dave Barry's columns - he taught me a lot about humor writing

 

[AG31]

[Discussions promoting and/or accusations involving under-18-year-old sexuality prohibited per our forum guidelines.]

 

[yowser]

Fascinating lists, notable both for range and overlaps.

Mine (as others have said, could easily, and perhaps would likely, change on further reflection):

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle Vladimir Nabokov
Either/Or Søren Kierkegaard
Against the Day Thomas Pynchon
Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges
An autobiography, or, The story of my experiments with truth M..K. Gandhi
On the Road Jack Kerouac
Moby Dick Melville
Middlemarch George Eliot

 

[Bramblethorn]

Gödel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter) - introduction to some fascinating philosophical concepts
Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series; Adams) - sheer invention and sneakily thought-provoking stuff
Space Opera (Valente) - owes an acknowledged debt to HHGTTG but very much its own thing
On Authority (Milgram) - research into what makes people willing to comply with unethical orders, or to reject them. The accuracy of Milgram's reporting has been called into question by later researchers, but even if one takes it with some skepticism, the questions asked are still important enough to put this one on my list.
The Silmarillion (Tolkien) - helps make sense of a lot of LotR.
Calculus (Swokowski) and Chaos (Gleick) - introductions to tremendously important concepts that shape how I think about almost everything
Locked Tomb series (Muir) - come for the necromancer lesbians in space, stay for the bizarre tonal shifts and use of fanfiction devices to tell an original story.
The Devil Comes Courting, Wedgeford Trials series (Milan) - changed my ideas about what romance stories could be.
Companions on the Road (Lee) - chanced across this in the city library as a kid, I think it was the first horror story I read. Haven't re-read it in a very long time but I remember it feeling compelling and just the right degree of scary. Recently I learned Lee also wrote lesbian erotica under a pseudonym; I'd be intrigued to read that.

And yes, ask me tomorrow, or in an hour, and I'd have a different list.

 

[AG31]

Help!
I'm putting together my list of 10 and I'm blocking on the first sexually explicit novel I read, definitely during elementary school (1950-1957). It took place in London during the time of the plague. I've Googled and Googled. Definitely a popular book. My uncle left a paper back copy at our house.
Ideas?

Got it! Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.

 

[AG31]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig

Gotta read this sometome. I see it referenced all the time. You're not the only one in this list. I think I'll go request it from the library now, at least to skim it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm in the process of building my list. Here's a request to subsequent responders: Can you tell us how each book was important?

Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach. This book resonated with me at a very early age for its combination of very dark, twisted humor with a tolerant and open-minded view toward people. That combination has stuck with me and greatly influenced my perspective.
William Golding, Lord of the Flies. Again, its rather dark view of human nature has stuck with me. As well as the indelibly drawn characters.
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. A wonderful epic tale that is uplifting and humane, and amid all the great deeds and wizards and monsters keeps the humble hobbits at the center, reminding us that real greatness isn't a matter of inheritance or titles but lies within.
Orwell, Animal Farm. Much of what I think about human nature and politics came from this book.
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle. My first Vonnegut novel, and still my favorite. The dark humor and irreverence always resonated with me. To this day I think about karasses and grandfaloons.
Twain, Huckleyberry Finn. I've always enjoyed Twain's sense of humor and his prose is second to none among American authors.
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I enjoy the theme of self-liberation through art. And nobody wrote English prose better.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. The combination of humor with close observation of human vanity and manners, and it's a good romance, too.
George Eliot, Middlemarch. I think it set the standard for me of what a "great novel" is. Excellent prose and close observation of human ego, striving, and vulnerability.
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones. Fielding's dark comic way of looking at things influenced my own.

 

[AG31]

Thanks for this post! This was great fun.

I read all the time. I take books to doctors' appointments and such so I never have to just sit. But to single out books that influenced my life? Not sure about that. I've not been able to come up with 10. Just these, in the order in which I thought of them.

The Story of O by Pauline Reage
I read it 60 years ago and now find it cropping up in my current erotic stories. It must have made an impression.

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
I don't know how this has affected me, but I frequently report that I remember it vividly, having read it in middle school, after my uncle left it at the house. Again, I'm not sure what affect it had on me except to teach me that great literature can leave a lasking impression.

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor [REMOVED BY ADMIN]

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - I think I read it 6 or 7 times and cried every time I got to "And they all thanked God that Beth was well at last."

Winnie the Pooh by A A Milne - Just LOVED all four of those books. I remember sitting on the sofa while my mother read them to me. Likewise reading them to my children and grandchildren. I (and they) liked Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young as well.

Markings by Dag Hammarskjold - It made a great impression on me in high school about how a human being could be guided to lead a moral life.

Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich - Opened my eyes to how a thinking girl raised in a town founded by fundamentalists could find a place in Christianity.

Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelley - a very congenial autobiography of the spiritual life.

Dying We Live, The Final Messages and Records of the Resistance, Ed Witzer, Kuhn, Schneider
Farewell letters written in the face of death by men and women of the German resistance. I think this book was important to that part of my psyche that responds to surrender with dignity. Someday I'll be able to explain this accurately.

Edit: #10 - Enslaving Eli by Billierosie - This book crystallized for me what my late life erotic tastes were. Unfortunately it's no longer available except for an audio book on Amazon.

 

[SimonDoom]

10 Non fiction books:

Insects of North America: Read it in 6th grade (or maybe 5th) and I've been interested in the subject ever since.
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War. I've always loved history and this is the most influential history book.
Darwin, The Origin of Species. The book that made sense of it all and changed the world.
Gleick, Chaos. I read this after being introduced to chaos theory in Crichton's Jurassic Park. The concepts of chaos, strange attractors, and complex order changed the way I think about things.
Manchester, The Glory and the Dream. The book that turned me on to American history.
The Federalist Papers.
Nozick, Philosophical Explanations. I didn't understand all of it but it influenced the way I think about philosophy as an open-minded attempt to treat philosophy as a way to explain how we think about basic philosophical subjects rather than to prove that one way is the right way.
Alan Watts, The Way of Zen. A refreshing new way of looking at things for someone who had always looked at things in a linear, Western way.
Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. A paradigm shifting book on how to look at life.
Holmes, The Common Law. The opening line: "The life of the law is not logic, it is experience." I've never forgotten that.

 

[AchtungNight]

In no particular order-

Orwell’s 1984. Great horror story and got me into rebel ladies.

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss is a badass and her writer is great at plot and characters.

Stephen King’s The Stand. Great characters, hot sex, some plot development I still don’t get today because I favor fighting bad guys over just standing up to them, but I still couldn’t stop cheering for the good team.

Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. Great plot and characters, another awesome apocalyptic story. Why have they not made a movie or miniseries of it?

Stephen King’s IT. Another great horror story with inspirational characters and this time they fight the monster and win by their own strength rather than a deus ex machina.

L Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth series. A lot of it was racist misogynist crap, but reading it in my adolescence taught me a lot about weaving a story together and what kind of characters I liked and despised. It also inspired my own writing later in life. Read The Rendezvous, Counseling, and Passion series on this site to see how.

David & Leigh Eddings’ Belgariad and Malloreon series. Another great fantasy series that inspired me in my youth. I would enjoy it as a miniseries.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. Badass heroes, awesome plot twists, great magic system. What’s not to like?

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Great fantasy with awesome characters and plot.

Eric Lustbader’s Sirens. Inspiring bisexual hottie makes it big in Hollywood as a hostage who fights back against terrorists on screen after a past as a street kid and faces off with a serial killer in her private life. Many great sex scenes and action sequences.

I’d list more but the opening post said ten books and counting series as one work is already pushing it.

 

[barefootgirl69]

Thanks for this post! This was great fun.



Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
[Edited this out just like the forum moderator did]

This is the second time you've mentioned how old you were when you found this book, and you should probably read the rules where anything underage is verboten. Maybe change it before I report you.