Ten Great Books

[StillStunned]

Various collections of The Far Side
Countless Garfield collections
Winnie-the-Pooh and related works
How To Learn French In 7 Easy Lessons
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
The underwear catalogues that arrived in the post every month when I was a kid
Oz Clarke's Wine Guide
Black's Law Dictionary
The Percival legend in all its various forms
Best of Baking

 

[Nynah]

The Hunt for Red October, Clancy - I read this in my teens and I think it had a major impact on my future writing style. If anybody hates how verbose I am, you can blame Tom Clancy.

My favorite Clancy book is Rainbow Six and even though it's longer than Hunt for Red October, I feel it reads... faster? Not quite as dense? Maybe because it has more of an ensemble cast (or Clancy's writing evolved slightly in the fourteen years between the books).

 

[TheLobster]

The underwear catalogues that arrived in the post every month when I was a kid

OMG! You're soooooo reported, sir!

 

[SimonDoom]

Master and Commander, O'Brian - Probably my favorite book of all time, read it a hundred times and probably have major portions memorized. The way O'Brian writes and his characterizations, plus his use of real history fictionalized has had a big impact on me.

I didn't read this book until about 2 years ago, so I cannot count it as "influential," but I was astonished at its literary quality, in addition to being a great story. The movie was excellent, too, although it's not strictly based on the book.

Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson - The single best book on the Civil War, as far as I'm concerned. I'm a big history nerd and I've read this book a few times.

I agree with your assessment. I've read many, many Civil War books. Catton, Foote, etc. I recently completed Donald Miller's Vicksburg, and I highly recommend it.

That's a whole other topic -- favorite history books. Or favorite war books.

 

[SimonDoom]

OMG! You're soooooo reported, sir!

I don't care if I get banned. I would be remiss if I did not mention the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue that showed up in the Middle School library and featured Cheryl Tiegs in a fishnet one-piece.

Suddenly, there were a lot more boys in the library.

If one were to compile a top ten list of "moments in erotic awakening" that might be one for me.

 

[StillStunned]

I don't care if I get banned. I would be remiss if I did not mention the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue that showed up in the Middle School library and featured Cheryl Tiegs in a fishnet one-piece.

Suddenly, there were a lot more boys in the library.

If one were to compile a top ten list of "moments in erotic awakening" that might be one for me.

The premise of the thread, from the OP, is to list "10 books that affected you and your thinking". I posit that things like this (and yes, Garfield and the Far Side) did far more to shape any of us than reading Dostoyevsky or Joyce ever did.

Or maybe I'm just not as erudite as some people here.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hmmmmm, only ten! That's tough...I'm going to do mine in formative order. LOL. I could easily go to a hundred, but as you can see, most of them are historical novels of one sort or another....

Age of Bronze - Comic Book version of the Iliad - read it when I was 5 and was hooked on the Iliad, I did a Show & Tell on the Iliad in SK and no-one except my teacher had any idea what I was talking about. Most of my SK classmates could barely read, LOL. Homer was a bit outside their envelope.



The Lost Squadron - this was one of my dad's books, about a squadron of P38 Lightnings that landed on the Greenland ice cap in WW2 and got left there - and an expedition went there, found them and dug down 250' under the icecap to recover one and restore it. It's flying now. Anyhow, I was fascinated by the story and worked my way thru this and did a Grade One Show and Tell on this with all the photos. It was wild, LOL. My dad's an engineer and he explained everything to me when I got stuck and I hijacked the entire Show & Tell - and I've been hooked on stuff like this ever since,



CS Lewis - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - what can I say. Mom and Dad gave me the set for my birthday and I read them all. Still love them. A whole new world of fantasy.....

Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons - the first in an English childrens adventure series set in the English Lake District. Thre's 12 books in the series and I used my allowance to buy all 12 and read them again and again and again. When I was 12 and we went to the UK on holiday, I begged, pleaded and cajoled my parents int going to the Lake District for a couple of days and visited all the actual real places in the books (I had a book on those, too LOL). I have new copies, I have old hardback copies with the original cover art, I have about 3 sets of this series. LOL.



Time for the Stars - Robert Heinlein - I read this when I was 10, picked it up in a library used book sale for a quarter. The first sci-fi novel I ever read, and I have been hooked on sci-fi ever since. I still have this old copy too....carefully preserved.



Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein - Christmas present when I was 12 and I read it cover to cover in 3 days without stopping except to sleep. I don't think I ever quite recovered. Peter Jackson is my hero!!!!!

Sword at Sunset - Rosemary Sutcliffe - best ever book about King Arthur, and I have a few. She wrote a lot of other good novels too.



The Alexander Trilogy - Mary Reneault (Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, Funeral Games) - a fictional life of Alexander the Great. Mary Reneault captures the soul of Alexander.



Georgette Heyer - These Old Shades - the first Regency Romance I ever read and I was totally hooked. I have every regency novel Heyer wrote, as well as a lot more by others, but bobody else comes close to Heyer. I re-read these all the time..... Devil's Cub, Arabella, Sylvester - or The Wicked Uncle, Charity Girl, The Corinthian - I love every single one of them!!!



Bulfinch's Mythology - what can I say. King Arthur! The Welsh legends of the The Mabinogion, the Song of Roland and the legends or Charlemagne, the Norse Gods - this book got me interested in all of these.....

 

[lovecraft68]

OMG! You're soooooo reported, sir!

I have also reported this sexual deviant and rule breaker, and I assure you my report was even more righteous than yours!

 

[vanmyers86]

P.S. How could I have forgotten Mad Magazine? Not a novel, but I subscribed starting in middle school, so I read probably a novel's worth of issues. It definitely shaped my sense of humor and my comic timing.

OK, back to the novels. Some of you read some very highbrow stuff in your youth!

 

[ChloeTzang]

I don't care if I get banned. I would be remiss if I did not mention the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue that showed up in the Middle School library and featured Cheryl Tiegs in a fishnet one-piece.

Suddenly, there were a lot more boys in the library.

If one were to compile a top ten list of "moments in erotic awakening" that might be one for me.

I am shocked! Shocked I tell you!

Altho I must admit, when I was a junior at high school and one of my friends had a pajama party, we raided her brother's bedroom and ransacked his stock of historic Penthouse magazines (he thought they were hidden, but you can hide nothing from little sisters) and we went absolutely hysterical reading some of the stuff in them. Very educational they were. LOL.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

The premise of the thread, from the OP, is to list "10 books that affected you and your thinking". I posit that things like this (and yes, Garfield and the Far Side) did far more to shape any of us than reading Dostoyevsky or Joyce ever did.

Calvin and Hobbes for me, lol

 

[lovecraft68]

P.S. How could I have forgotten Mad Magazine? Not a novel, but I subscribed starting in middle school, so I read probably a novel's worth of issues. It definitely shaped my sense of humor and my comic timing.

OK, back to the novels. Some of you read some very highbrow stuff in your youth!

What do you mean, they weren't novels?

 

[jaF0]

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

AG, by now you should know site rules well enough to leave things like that out. You know it would not be allowed in a story submission.

 

[jaF0]

Among the first books I recall reading that weren't part of a school assignment were The Choirboys and The Glitter Dome, both by ex-LAPD officer Joseph Wambaugh.

There were entertaining at the time, but that was before I knew how much of an asshole he and most of the LAPD really were.

 

[lovecraft68]

AG, by now you should know site rules well enough to leave things like that out. You know it would not be allowed in a story submission.

This isn't a story submission.

You mod the fetish forum, not the AH, and a skim through that forum suggests you should spend more time there.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

The premise of the thread, from the OP, is to list "10 books that affected you and your thinking". I posit that things like this (and yes, Garfield and the Far Side) did far more to shape any of us than reading Dostoyevsky or Joyce ever did.

Or maybe I'm just not as erudite as some people here.

The thread name is "Ten great books" so...

Personally, I was a huge comics fan as a kid and a teenager, and even as an adult to a lesser degree, and they did influence me. Adventurous books such as those of Jules Verne and Karl May as well. But discovering Dostoevsky's work at around eighteen was also one of the major influences on my mindset.

You need to keep in mind that the world was quite different when most of us were kids. It wasn't anywhere near as connected as it is now. For example, I craved fantasy comics and books but I never knew about anything beyond Tolkien. Eddings, Zelazny, Donaldson, Jordan, Pratchett, Le Guinn, Hobbs... I didn't find out about their work until much much later.

 

[CuriousRick]

The thread name is "Ten great books" so...

Personally, I was a huge comics fan as a kid and a teenager, and even as an adult to a lesser degree, and they did influence me. Adventurous books such as those of Jules Verne and Karl May as well. But discovering Dostoevsky's work at around eighteen was also one of the major influences on my mindset.

You need to keep in mind that the world was quite different when most of us were kids. It wasn't anywhere near as connected as it is now. For example, I craved fantasy comics and books but I never knew about anything beyond Tolkien. Eddings, Zelazny, Donaldson, Jordan, Pratchett, Le Guinn, Hobbs... I didn't about their work until much much later.

Glad to see another Pratchett fan!

 

[jaF0]

This isn't a story submission.

You mod the fetish forum, not the AH, and a skim through that forum suggests you should spend more time there.

That post would be removed there and the member Warned.

 

[Bamagan]

Many of mine have already appeared above. But, in no particular order:

• Lord of the Rings and associated works
• Dune and associated works
• Clan of the Cave Bear and some of the sequels
• The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Anthology
• Stranger in a Strange Land
• Far-Seer and its sequels
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• White Fang
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and sequels
• Harry Potter series

 

[MelissaBaby]

That post would be removed there and the member Warned.

I think there is a significant difference between discussing underage sex in the context of a fetish and as an aspect of a work of mainstream literature.

 

[AlexBailey]

In no particular order:

What Took You So Long? - Sheldon Kopp
I describe it as a philosophical coffee table picture book. To me it’s about the irony of how pain and suffering give us perspective to enjoy the good things in life. The prelude is a short story / Hindu myth, called “Sweet Narada, what took you so long?”

Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Huckleberry is better than the times he lives in but is constantly judging himself by the standards of his contemporaries.

Animal Farm - George Orwell
It was an early introduction to political philosophy in a very accessible package.

Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
To me it’s an epic exploration how individuals don’t have to buy into societal expectations.

Skinny Legs And All - Tom Robbins
It’s a deep irreverent dive into art and how so much of society is fractured over the myth of which son Abraham chose to sacrifice when God came calling.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
About American southern culture during the Great Depression. To me it shows how society can be selfish and corrupt while manipulating the legal system to legitimize their power over others, yet some good souls may see the big picture and be willing to fight the good fight even if they may be subjected to the fallout.

Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger
Coming of age story where the protagonist is struggling from existential loss and confusion while lacking relatable role models. To me it was an eye opener to the times and society my stepfather who had zero emotional intelligence came from. I think the narrative style inspired some of my writing.

Crime And Punishment- Dostoevsky
To me it’s about how conceit and denial can blind someone to how corrupt they really are.


The Plague - Albert Camus
It shows how disasters can bring out people’s inner nature, whether it be empathy or self interest, how some people will rail against authority and seek their own self-interests even when rules are enforced to prevent the greater spread of suffering. I was constantly reminded of it during the Covid lockdowns.

Bloody Jack (series) - L.A. Meyer
About an orphan ~ 1800 London, who passes herself off as a boy so she can escape the streets to work aboard a Navy ship. There is a lot that resonates with me in these stories for a variety of reasons.

The New Testament
Seriously. Reading it cover to cover was empowering for me because I no longer had to take someone else’s word for what is in it, and I found that a lot of the people who thump it the hardest are using their own interpretation to gaslight and manipulate others.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

AG, by now you should know site rules well enough to leave things like that out. You know it would not be allowed in a story submission.

from wikipedia:

Fourteen US states banned the book as pornography. The first was Massachusetts, whose attorney general cited 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions, and "10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men" as reasons for banning the novel.[2] Winsor denied that her book was particularly daring and said that she had no interest in explicit scenes. "I wrote only two sexy passages," she remarked, "and my publishers took both of them out. They put in ellipses instead. In those days, you know, you could solve everything with an ellipsis."

 

[MelissaBaby]

Interesting thread from a generational perspective. Did anyone but me name any books published since 2000?

I don't mean that to be snarky, I just find it interesting. At what age do people become less open to influence?

I know it's generally thought that most people lose interest in hearing new music around the age of 25. Is something similar true with literature?

 

[yowser]

Notes on a couple items on my list:

Nabokov’s Ada is likely the most erotically charged literary work I have ever read. In the first section of the novel he succeeds in capturing the early stages of first love, and manages to do it with characters that are not necessarily all that appealing. Without being explicit, he sends an electric erotic jolt into every interaction between his two main characters, and the sensory detail he does include is extraordinary, fine-grained and acutely perceptive. In reading this I also learned so much about how you can tell a lot by leaving out a lot, making hints rather than expositing at length. But that ‘hint’ has to be rich, a world into itself, and Nabokov makes sure to ‘reward’ the reader for their own intelligence and imagination. A masterpiece.

Gandhi’s autobiography introduced me, deeply, into a non-Western perspective for the first time, and taught me how to understand ahiṃsā, the Hindu notion of non-violence (which is not just the simple principle of pacifism, but multi-layered) and the central role he insisted it play in any acts of political civil disobedience. Amongst other things, this book made a vegetarian out of me, not an absolutely unheard of practice in my rural, backwoods town, but an upstream swim of significant proportions.

Borges is unique: infinities, mirrors, concise descriptions that encompass whole worlds. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius is one of the most amazing stories ever written.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger

Ban this person. The book describes a vivid encounter between a child and a prostitute. Never mind that the child's mind is filled with filth. It's a horrible book. Every copy of it ought to be burned.