It must be going back almost two decades ago, but I read Simon Weston's autobiography (Walking Tall) - the Falklands War veteran who suffered horrific burns. Whilst I already had a lot of admiration for him, reading that book took my admiration of him to a whole new level. Yes, it was a harrowing read that caused me to shed a good many tears, but there was also plenty of humour too.
Just seen how this comment was mangled by the filter. I think it's hilarious that the author of such classic science fiction as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly and Ubik can't actually be mentioned name on this site now.
The Bible,
The Fountainhead and Anthem by Ayn Rand,
1984 by George Orwell,
Going Postal by Mark Ames (not the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett),
Hammer of the Gods (Led Zeppelin bio) by Stephen Davis,
The Tylenol Mafia (true crime) by Scott Bartz.
Those are some of the books that made an impact on my thinking and life. There are probably more.
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. It's a post apocalypse novel. I read it at 16, and somehow it really 'spoke' to me, about conforming and not conforming, about human nature, and do on.
On the Beach, Nevil Shute. I read that at 17, thinking I would be able to handle it. I couldnt. Had nightmares for months afterwards and later got into the CND movement, and visited Greenham Common and Upper Heyford.
Someone has already mentioned Zen and the Art, and Colin Wilson's The Occult.
The Frost in May quartet. Antonia White. She lived the Catholic Church, but was also deeply damaged by it. The 80's TV miniseries was also superb.ut to my great regret, I missed the last episode!
The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels. Then later on, The Jesus Mysteries by Peter Gandy and Timothy Freke
City of Revelation John Michell. His esoterica take a direction I felt happy with.
Bio Centrism, Robert Lanza. Because after all.isnt it a bit egocentric and ethnocentric to assume consciousness only exists by accident in human brains, and there are no signs of it beyond our puny brains?
Psychology and Alchemy Carl Jung. Jung was said by a felluw psychologist and biographer to have suffered from childhood schizophrenia as a child. Well that might have been the cards he was dealt with, but without Jung a lot of ideas may never have come into bei g since him.
Monica Sjoo New Age and Armageddon. I was full of New Age idealism at 20 or so but then realised that New Ageism has a streak of something that did not sit right with me at at all. A lot of it didn't sit right with this author/artist either.
Barbara Hambly Immortal Blood. Her vampire series is so much more grownup than Anne Rice's, not to say Rice isn't a very seductive writer.. All this got me into goth big time. Anne Rice signed my book, but must say I didn't get the best of impressions of her.
There's probably plenty more I could add. Yes, I did ask for and got a children's bible at 7. A lot of the Old Testament stories are not particularly suitable for children though. I also read a lot of Enid Blyton as a child. Not the Famous Five, because George was a little too much like me in temperament.
I've got that book by Colin Wilson, though the pages are pretty yellow and brittle now.
I watched the 1989 BBC movie first, which I think is far better than the one with the Harry Potter guy in it.
The picture of Dorian Gray is a great chiller, and so is the movie
So many, but include these for different reasons:
To Kill A Mockingbird (walking in others' shoes),
Lord of the Flies (isolation),
1984 (conformity through fear),
Castaway (escapism),
Shuggie Bain (reality check),
How To Win Friends and Influence People (obvious!)
"Life isn't binary" is a great book that utterly transformed my thinking. It's about disability and sexuality and gender, and breaking the mold. Link: https://amzn.eu/d/jh3I297
Also "Neuroqueer Heresies" by Nick Walker who is autistic and challenges the need for people to fit in. It's radical but worth reading.
If we're going with kids books I'm going to add Room on the Broom.
Made me cry the first time I read it to my kids. That whole "is there room for me?" "YES!" thing still gets me. That's some pretty radical acceptance right there.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
A semi-autobiographical telling of a 17 day motorbike journey by the author and his son in the late 1960s as they travelled across America.
It has lots of philosophical discussions, and a descent into darkness and through the otherside of the author.
It can be a bit heavy but it resonated with a personal journey I was on myself at the time of reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
I was a huge fan of Dogger when I was a kid! I was an early reader and had separate lessons while the other kids in reception class were learning to read, and I distinctly remember spending a lot of time reading and discussing that book in those lessons.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I feel like those books have really shaped my view of the world and my sense of humour. They've also shaped my fashion sense, oddly enough- there are so many characters in them who wear all-black clothes with sensible boots that it seems to have permanently influenced my own choices.
