Literary works....which one ...

[MissTaken]

If you could chose a literary work that had the most significant impact on your life, which would it be?


And why?

 

[BigDawg69]

I would have to say Shakespeare's Hamlet. Not because I fancy myself some sort fo modern day Hamlet, but becuase of the exquisite characterization and deep emotions that Shakespeare evolves throughout the play. There is method in the madness! I played Hamlet in college, and have read the show many times. I have the collection (Olivier, Gibson, Branaugh, and Kline) Hamlet is perhaps the best fictional character created.

 

[Laurel]

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Read it when I was 7. It was the first novel I ever read on my own, and it made me believe (despite the indications of the frazzled adults around me) that life could be an adventure. It's still in my top 10 favorites. It's the type of novel that you can read as a child and understand, then read as an adult and appreciate even more.

 

[MissTaken]

I have several and for different reasons.

The first I will mention are

L'etranger and Madame Bovary. Both were the deciding factor concerning my major in college....French.

Existentialism intrigued me and I loved Madame B. Simply enjoyed the story and symbolism.

Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearian work. It was the first I had read that I couldn't put down. I devoured it.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

I have more than one also, just like MissTaken.

First off, "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. Changed my life at the tender age of 15. First book that I read where my entire perspective on life, politics, and humanity was changed.

Secondly, "Othello" by Master Will. It is possibly the best intrigue story ever.

Lastly, everything Vonnegut has every written. Now there is one fucked up beautiful mind!

 

[JazzManJim]

I'd have to put a couple up there.

First, I'd go with "Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien. It was the first thing I can remember choosing on my own to read that was "adult" and it opened my imagination in a way that I don't think it's been opened since.

Second, I'd choose the Bible. I've grown up with it my entire life and every time I open it, I find something there worth serious thought.

Lastly, I'd have to say Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". It was the first book I read that showed me that just because great minds consider it a classic, and entertaining, I can't as fervently believe it a pile of shite.

 

[Krypto]

The enemy's gate is down!

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. First picked it up when I was...oh..10, maybe. To this day, still in my top 3, though it's actual placement I'm unsure of. And why? Because it reminds me that no matter how far you push yourself, you can stilll push harder and that I can always endure more.

 

[MissTaken]

Death on White Bear Lake also catches my top five.

It is a true account, written before the true crime fad, concerning a child who had been adopted and subsequently died by mysterious causes. It wasn't the plot that so impacted my life. The book reminded me of the enormity of the decisions I was making in my professional life and revitalized my efforts and outlook.

 

[riff]

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Read it when I was 7. It was the first novel I ever read on my own, and it made me believe (despite the indications of the frazzled adults around me) that life could be an adventure. It's still in my top 10 favorites. It's the type of novel that you can read as a child and understand, then read as an adult and appreciate even more.

I have to agree with you and no, I am not gonna suck your dick.

I have always been an EXCELLENT reader and I think that part of the reason for this is that I have always loved reading and writing, though in truth, probably learned later than a lot of people- if first grade is late.

My first literary experience as a word reader was in the first grade and to this day it was one of the most exhilerating, momentous, and positive days in my life. And I can't even remember what I read. All I can remember is getting off the school bus and RUNNING to and through the house yelling "MOMMADADDY MY ASS CAN READ! MY ASS CAN READ!!!" I can't say I have ever had a prouder moment. No shit.

Since it felt so good, I kept doing it. I loved it like crack.

Like jim, the bible was an impact. nuns. priests. family. that's heavy shit.

I got into history and shit. people fighting and killing each other. of course non of that was really real to me as a child. What was vietnam? who was hitler? who were sharon tate and charles manson?

watching the man on the moon was cool

richard nixon's resignation from the office of president of the united states. my world changed.

penthouse magazine

I got wacked in the head in college. Anything do with humanities. The Myth of Sisyphus gripped me truly and impacted my psyche, i think. As profound as it was for me, I made a joke about it to my professor. This was a graduate level drama class and we were reading it as background on a play- I can't remember, but it might have been Mother Courage And Her Children or Hedda Gabler. Anyway, she tried to explain to the class that Sisyphus was more than just making good of a bad situation. I was hooked. In anycase, while expounding upon the moment of consciousness, and clarity, that Sisyphus experiences as he stands on the top of the mountain and watches his rock go rolling back down, I commented, "hell, it's like breaking up with your girlfriend!" The class, including the professor fucking roared.

There was a lot of mind-bending and paradigm shifting when I was in graduate school, late 20's. I'm still weirded out.

I have all my books and continue to buy books and maintain and expand my own personal private library. One day I thought about counting them and said fuck it. who gives a shit. but the thing of it is that i always go back to all those books over the years. I pick up a book i have had for 15 years and i can see that it is like scripture for me. Sisyphus is like that. Damn, I am not getting laid enough. Anyone can see it.

past couple of years i have been even more scatterbrained. we got porno, we got the internet, i got my classes and studies that are not books or literary shit. we got people. nice people. bad people. fucked up people, punks. All of that is literary too. I had have dreams about all of that.

what I like about literature is that if I take it to the freaking beach it comes back smelling like suntan oil. yeah, baby.

Vonnegut was my hero for years in my early 20s. I wrote him a letter and he wrote me back in 2 weeks. i told him i was glad he was born. he told me about loneliness and and "narrowness of science."

Got the letter right here: "That says something about the narrowness of science in this century. It misses so damned much that it damn near misses everything. The Strategic Defense Intitiative will surely make us safe and happy and whole again, supposedly, when what's killing most Americans is loneliness."
(August 31, 1987, Letter to ____ aka riff),.

Think about that literature.

I got so horny reading Lady Chatterly's Lover, my girlfriend had to take care of me. I cried out to her to please come fuck me and she came and she fucked me. THAT is fucking literature!

Damn, my attention deficit disorder. I didn't mean to write that much.

 

[gleam]

Great influence on my life....hmmmmm.....I don't know about that, but I think I can name some books that are deeply rooted in my mind.

I doubt anyone's heard of this one:

"Queen of Angels" by Greg Bear.

This is the one and only book that truly convinced me that a machine can think.

Another one: "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I don't consider myself a Randite, but that book has certainly taught me to look at the world in a different way.

Another book that has stuck with me (well, I only finished it a month ago is "Godel, Escher, Bach", by Douglas Hofstader. A pretty good layman's explanations of certain mathematical theorems that set limits on what a computer can do.

 

[gleam]

Oh!!

I almost forgot:

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

Despite the fact that it's beyond funny, the book makes you think long and hard about just why we're here.

 

[Cheyenne]

Lastly, I'd have to say Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". It was the first book I read that showed me that just because great minds consider it a classic, and entertaining, I can't as fervently believe it a pile of shite.

LMAO! I had to memorize and recite the prologue to that damned thing when I was in high school! I was at Chaucer's grave in London in St. Paul's (I think) about 25 years later. I wanted to recite it, since it is still stuck in my brain taking up space, and then spit on his grave. The relative I was with didn't think that would be proper American tourist ettiquette though.

 

[riff]

Re: Oh!!

I almost forgot:

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

Despite the fact that it's beyond funny, the book makes you think long and hard about just why we're here.

I loved his books too.

 

[MissTaken]

Vonnegut, Adams....wooweee

A few of the names I remember from my psychedelic college days. The age of enlightenment and not of reason. A time of good times, sex, and rock and roll!


My first books...Dr. Seuss. I was reading them at age four and love having the opportunity to read them to my children.

Oh and Hustler....age 10...I say my first naked men in Hustler. It was a spoof on Star Trek. I wonder if that was why I became a hard core fan in college?

 

[Desdemona]

The Lysystrata by Aeschlus.

The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy by Tolkein.

Confessions of a failed southern lady by Florence King.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

Macbeth by Shakespear.

The Sleeping Beauty books by Anne Rice.

 

[riff]

Oh and Hustler....age 10...I say my first naked men in Hustler. It was a spoof on Star Trek. I wonder if that was why I became a hard core fan in college?

I remember that layout well. I remember it. Swear! hehehe

I think the first Hustler I ever saw was April 1976. We were eating dinner at some other family's house. Both families, all together. I was just a little punk then. I had ta piss, went back into the people's master bedroom bath and found my dad's associate's Hustler on a shelf above the toilet.

Stuck the muthrfucker in my pants and took it home with me. Hehehehehe

I think I may have a scan of the cover. If ever I find it in this mass of porn over here, i'll post it.

LMAO

 

[Debbie]

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Im not sure how old I was. About 9 or 10 I think. I loved the book.
The way Anna Sewell wrote? The book came alive and I was transported to the world of Black Beauty.


Why? That book? It was the first book I read that captured my imagination and made me realise that words were so powerful.

To create an image in the mind of a child with simple words was
an amazing thing to be able to do. I knew then I wanted to be able to do the same.

 

[MissTaken]

Okay. It is time for the truth. There is no one book that has influenced my life. From a very young age, I learned to find an alternate reality in books.

the Little House Series also were special. I aspired to be a teacher from a very young age and follow in Laura Ingall's footsteps.

 

[p_p_man]

Lastly, I'd have to say Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". It was the first book I read that showed me that just because great minds consider it a classic, and entertaining, I can't as fervently believe it a pile of shite.

I had to learn Chanteclere e Pertelote once (I can't remember how to spell it now!) in it's original middle english.

What you said JazzManJim.

Nothing but unintelligible rubbish...

 

[PrincessSalome]

literary works

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Joy of Sex, the seventies edition and all my parents' other sex books

 

[MissTaken]

Illusions by Richard S Bach


It really made me think about how fragile our belief systems, mores and codes are. It also made me give some serious thought to my religious beliefs.

 

[JazzManJim]

LMAO! I had to memorize and recite the prologue to that damned thing when I was in high school! I was at Chaucer's grave in London in St. Paul's (I think) about 25 years later. I wanted to recite it, since it is still stuck in my brain taking up space, and then spit on his grave. The relative I was with didn't think that would be proper American tourist ettiquette though.

I swear, I have friends who simply rave about that book and look at me as if I sprouted a chicken out of the top of my head when I scowl. I just hated the damned thing. I can't explain for sure why, but it never struck me as being all that outstanding.

And for whoever mentioned "Godel, Escher, Bach", way to go! I recommend that book to *everyone*, not only as a great introduction to math, logic, music, computers, and how we think, but also as a very profound-thought maker.

But most of all, it's pure fun to read. Hofstadter really had fun making his points and he did so with such ease that you hardly know that he's getting into very deep and sticky subjects. And it won the Pulitzer. Very heavy stuff. Get it now!

Oh and MissTaken? I read the "White Bear Lake" book years ago. I thought I was the only one!

 

[Amoreena]

When I was a little girl, the one book I cherished most was "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. That one book led me on a journey of reading - for that I am grateful.

 

[MissTaken]

White Bear Lake

No way, Jim!

I know I was the only one

 

[JazzManJim]

Re: White Bear Lake

No way, Jim!

I know I was the only one

Nope.

Hardback was, as I recall, a stark black cover with a white rectangle in which was a picture. There was a lakescape, also very stark..and may have been kind of a drawing...a couple trees on the back of the lake and a lonely cabin. The lettering was red.

That's the image I'm getting. I'll admit, I read it ten years ago.