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.
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.
