1scunliffe
I have been away from this group for several years, and sixty is even more remote than it was before.
An equally elderly friend and I recently exchanged lists of the ten most influential books we have read over our life time, 70+ years of reading Would anyone like to join in? If invited I would be happy to start. Warning: it takes quite a bit of thinking to come up with this list. It's not just best books, but most influential books, although there will certainly be some overlap.
An equally elderly friend and I recently exchanged lists of the ten most influential books we have read over our life time, 70+ years of reading Would anyone like to join in? If invited I would be happy to start. Warning: it takes quite a bit of thinking to come up with this list. It's not just best books, but most influential books, although there will certainly be some overlap.
2librorumamans
Interesting idea. I'll ponder this.
6Crypto-Willobie
books=novels?
7scunliffe
Books= fiction + nonfiction. As you will see from my lifetime list of most influential books which, drumroll, is here!
Stephen’s List of Most Influential Books
Pre-teens
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Fist in series of books describing the idyllic vacation life and two girls and two boys, in the English Lake District, sailing around in a little boat. I wished for a similar experience, similar friends, and similar upper middle class life. Gave me an ongoing love of lakes and mountains, and an incentive to live a more exciting life than my parents.
Teens
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
My mother leant me her copy (I still have it) while I was ill in bed for a couple of weeks. I was fascinated and developed a love for history, military history, Russian literature in general. After that I did not fear any huge book.
Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man by Siefried Sassoon. Started my interest in the contrast between life and society before and during the First World War.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I had to read it twice to figure it out, but I learned as an English youth just how good American literature could be.
Twenties
The Alexander Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.
I have a general summary of my reading tastes…’other times, other places.’ These four books set the tone. I felt I really was in Alexandria in the 40’s.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.
Who could not be fascinated by the career of Hitler, set in the broader context of German history, after reading this book. Especially for someone like me who grew up in literally in the shadow of WWII, never more than a few hundred yards from a London Bombsite? I have since gone on to study the first and second German reichs.
Forties, after moving to the U.S.
Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov. Made me take a hard look at Bleak House which I have re-read several times since and is my favorite Dickens novel, followed by Great Expectations. It inspired a love of Victorian English literature.
The Face of Battle by John Keegan.
A bit of a revolution in the writing of military history, talking of what it must have been like, from distant to recent past, to take part as a regular soldier, a theme which has continued to interest me.
Sixties
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman.
This is the book which really opened my immigrant eyes to the machinations of conservatism since the 1960’s
Seventies
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Gave me real insight into the history and meaning of structural racism.
I really recommend giving this process a try. It takes some serious thinking, and you will learn a lot about what you read and why, and how reading has shaped your tastes and understanding of this apparently chaotic thing we call our life.
Stephen’s List of Most Influential Books
Pre-teens
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Fist in series of books describing the idyllic vacation life and two girls and two boys, in the English Lake District, sailing around in a little boat. I wished for a similar experience, similar friends, and similar upper middle class life. Gave me an ongoing love of lakes and mountains, and an incentive to live a more exciting life than my parents.
Teens
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
My mother leant me her copy (I still have it) while I was ill in bed for a couple of weeks. I was fascinated and developed a love for history, military history, Russian literature in general. After that I did not fear any huge book.
Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man by Siefried Sassoon. Started my interest in the contrast between life and society before and during the First World War.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I had to read it twice to figure it out, but I learned as an English youth just how good American literature could be.
Twenties
The Alexander Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.
I have a general summary of my reading tastes…’other times, other places.’ These four books set the tone. I felt I really was in Alexandria in the 40’s.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.
Who could not be fascinated by the career of Hitler, set in the broader context of German history, after reading this book. Especially for someone like me who grew up in literally in the shadow of WWII, never more than a few hundred yards from a London Bombsite? I have since gone on to study the first and second German reichs.
Forties, after moving to the U.S.
Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov. Made me take a hard look at Bleak House which I have re-read several times since and is my favorite Dickens novel, followed by Great Expectations. It inspired a love of Victorian English literature.
The Face of Battle by John Keegan.
A bit of a revolution in the writing of military history, talking of what it must have been like, from distant to recent past, to take part as a regular soldier, a theme which has continued to interest me.
Sixties
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman.
This is the book which really opened my immigrant eyes to the machinations of conservatism since the 1960’s
Seventies
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Gave me real insight into the history and meaning of structural racism.
I really recommend giving this process a try. It takes some serious thinking, and you will learn a lot about what you read and why, and how reading has shaped your tastes and understanding of this apparently chaotic thing we call our life.
8vwinsloe
This was a really interesting suggestion, but not a quick project! Here are mine.
1. Franny and Zooey/ 2. Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction/ 3. Nine Stories I read these really as a tween because my father had them. They piqued my interest in philosophy and religion which I went on to study in college.
4. Slaughterhouse Five and all of Vonnegut really, in High School, and his books awakened my interest in ethics.
5. The World According to Garp also in High School, and again, all of Irving's oeuvre though which I gained an appreciation of differences related to sexuality and gender.
6. The Spice-box of Earth the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen have been hugely influential throughout my life in the areas of art and spirituality.
7. Man’s Search for Meaning one of the best books that I read in college about finding meaning in my life.
8. Still Life With Woodpecker/ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues most important to me I think because they illustrated strange and different ways of looking at the world.
9. The Sparrow this devastating little book ended whatever remnants of religious belief that I still held after college.
10. The Denial of Death the work of Ernest Becker explained so much to me about people's beliefs and behavior and is as relevant today as it ever was.
1. Franny and Zooey/ 2. Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction/ 3. Nine Stories I read these really as a tween because my father had them. They piqued my interest in philosophy and religion which I went on to study in college.
4. Slaughterhouse Five and all of Vonnegut really, in High School, and his books awakened my interest in ethics.
5. The World According to Garp also in High School, and again, all of Irving's oeuvre though which I gained an appreciation of differences related to sexuality and gender.
6. The Spice-box of Earth the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen have been hugely influential throughout my life in the areas of art and spirituality.
7. Man’s Search for Meaning one of the best books that I read in college about finding meaning in my life.
8. Still Life With Woodpecker/ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues most important to me I think because they illustrated strange and different ways of looking at the world.
9. The Sparrow this devastating little book ended whatever remnants of religious belief that I still held after college.
10. The Denial of Death the work of Ernest Becker explained so much to me about people's beliefs and behavior and is as relevant today as it ever was.
10Tess_W
>7 scunliffe: I like how you placed the books in different eras of your life.
11Tess_W
In no particular order
1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank First read this in junior high. Was shocked! I had never heard of such a thing as the holocaust. I had never read about a girl questioning her growing breasts or what menses was. I read this book over and again. Eventually I would go on to study history and my PhD work was on the holocaust.
2. Once is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann Aroused great "grief" in me. Life is not fair.
3. Night by Elie Wiesel “My faith went up in flames along with the babies in the gasoline soaked ditch.” There is more sadness and cruelty in the world than most of us have suffered or even imagined.
4. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough The search of happiness is elusive, people will disappoint you. The grass is always greener......
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Neither money nor love can guarantee happiness. Sometimes you can not "take it back."
6. Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Epic poetry Made this list because of the use of the most beautiful words and phrases I've ever read.
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell I finally understood communism.
8. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe the best descriptive novel about slavery I have read
9. Bible my owner's manual
10. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck The first "adult" book I read as a teen. This cemented my love of reading as an adult. It holds a special place in my heart.
1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank First read this in junior high. Was shocked! I had never heard of such a thing as the holocaust. I had never read about a girl questioning her growing breasts or what menses was. I read this book over and again. Eventually I would go on to study history and my PhD work was on the holocaust.
2. Once is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann Aroused great "grief" in me. Life is not fair.
3. Night by Elie Wiesel “My faith went up in flames along with the babies in the gasoline soaked ditch.” There is more sadness and cruelty in the world than most of us have suffered or even imagined.
4. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough The search of happiness is elusive, people will disappoint you. The grass is always greener......
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Neither money nor love can guarantee happiness. Sometimes you can not "take it back."
6. Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Epic poetry Made this list because of the use of the most beautiful words and phrases I've ever read.
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell I finally understood communism.
8. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe the best descriptive novel about slavery I have read
9. Bible my owner's manual
10. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck The first "adult" book I read as a teen. This cemented my love of reading as an adult. It holds a special place in my heart.
12Crypto-Willobie
First Folio of Shakespeare (1623, one volume)
Tristram Shandy - Sterne
Great Expectations
Importance of Being Earnest
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Personae - Ezra Pound
Jurgen - James branch Cabell
Lord of the Rings
The Jacobean and Caroline Stage - GE Bentley
and something by William Faulkner or Philip Roth
Tristram Shandy - Sterne
Great Expectations
Importance of Being Earnest
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Personae - Ezra Pound
Jurgen - James branch Cabell
Lord of the Rings
The Jacobean and Caroline Stage - GE Bentley
and something by William Faulkner or Philip Roth
13Tess_W
>12 Crypto-Willobie: Ooooo I debated on Shakespeare! (only the tragedies)
14librorumamans
The most influential books come from earlier in my life; perhaps that is typical. Some context may make the list more interesting.
The Flesherton Advance was not a book but the weekly newspaper of the small community near my family's cottage. When I was likely six (and certainly not older than seven), my father dropped into the newspaper office where I beheld, and smelled, a Linotype, a country press, a make-up stone and type. I was smitten at first sight. Although that whole technology is long gone, letterpress printing and typography have remained a passion for the ensuing almost seventy years.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After I finished reading Lewis's book at maybe nine or ten years of age, I wandered into the kitchen and asked my mother, "Is it possible that Aslan is supposed to represent Jesus?" My mother, wisely, replied, "You might take it that way." Many years later, I repeated that exchange to my sister when she mentioned that she had just read the book aloud to my niece. My sister, the statistician, was astonished first, that at forty-some years of age the thought had never crossed her mind and, second, that I had figured that out when I had been reading big books for only a few years. Apparently I was destined to major in English Lit.
A Midsummer's Night Dream stands for all of Shakespeare, but was my first exposure when, in 1959, a friend's parents took us to Stratford, Ontario to see a performance. A good production of the Dream is the best way to introduce children to the Bard.
The Razor's Edge was an assigned novel in grade 9. It introduced me to the world of philosophy, a world I continue to explore.
Honest to God. Back when grade 13 was a thing, we were assigned in English class to write a brief essay/book review (I don't actually remember which) on a book of our choice. John Robinson's proposal for a revised understanding of Christian theology was causing an uproar, so I chose to read it. The result was an invitation to examine critically and imaginatively orthodox teaching. I still am.
As a category, ethology; starting with Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring, On Aggression, and Jane Goodall, and later E. O. Wilson and Niko Tinbergen. Pace the Bible, Homo sapiens is not so special.
Iliad. When a colleague switched schools mid-year, I suddenly found myself teaching this book, never having read it before, although aware of its reputation. Many weeks later I and my classes finished Book XXIV and I was teaching a summing up class hoping to show how the threads and themes fitted together. As I was drawing diagrams on the board, I had a flash of insight and said to myself, "My God, this really is the greatest work of literature the West has produced." I phoned my former colleague that evening to tell her what had happened and she replied, "Yes, isn't it? I've had that feeling every time I've taught it."
The Magic Mountain. Since a group of us in grad school did a close reading of it, Mann's novel has never left me.
The Flesherton Advance was not a book but the weekly newspaper of the small community near my family's cottage. When I was likely six (and certainly not older than seven), my father dropped into the newspaper office where I beheld, and smelled, a Linotype, a country press, a make-up stone and type. I was smitten at first sight. Although that whole technology is long gone, letterpress printing and typography have remained a passion for the ensuing almost seventy years.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After I finished reading Lewis's book at maybe nine or ten years of age, I wandered into the kitchen and asked my mother, "Is it possible that Aslan is supposed to represent Jesus?" My mother, wisely, replied, "You might take it that way." Many years later, I repeated that exchange to my sister when she mentioned that she had just read the book aloud to my niece. My sister, the statistician, was astonished first, that at forty-some years of age the thought had never crossed her mind and, second, that I had figured that out when I had been reading big books for only a few years. Apparently I was destined to major in English Lit.
A Midsummer's Night Dream stands for all of Shakespeare, but was my first exposure when, in 1959, a friend's parents took us to Stratford, Ontario to see a performance. A good production of the Dream is the best way to introduce children to the Bard.
The Razor's Edge was an assigned novel in grade 9. It introduced me to the world of philosophy, a world I continue to explore.
Honest to God. Back when grade 13 was a thing, we were assigned in English class to write a brief essay/book review (I don't actually remember which) on a book of our choice. John Robinson's proposal for a revised understanding of Christian theology was causing an uproar, so I chose to read it. The result was an invitation to examine critically and imaginatively orthodox teaching. I still am.
As a category, ethology; starting with Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring, On Aggression, and Jane Goodall, and later E. O. Wilson and Niko Tinbergen. Pace the Bible, Homo sapiens is not so special.
Iliad. When a colleague switched schools mid-year, I suddenly found myself teaching this book, never having read it before, although aware of its reputation. Many weeks later I and my classes finished Book XXIV and I was teaching a summing up class hoping to show how the threads and themes fitted together. As I was drawing diagrams on the board, I had a flash of insight and said to myself, "My God, this really is the greatest work of literature the West has produced." I phoned my former colleague that evening to tell her what had happened and she replied, "Yes, isn't it? I've had that feeling every time I've taught it."
The Magic Mountain. Since a group of us in grad school did a close reading of it, Mann's novel has never left me.
15vwinsloe
>14 librorumamans: Ah, yes, W. Somerset Maugham. I went through a Maugham period way back when, but I had forgotten about him.
16mnleona
When I was in JR.Hi. in the 1950s, I read Journey to the Earth by Jules Verne. Not really an influence but I still remember that book and have re-read it.
