Any autobiographical works that inspire you to dream?

[gruntingslime]

Does anyone know any autobiographical books, they can be strict biographies or just stories with real source material... I feel like I need to be getting realistic, so maybe tearing my mind away from fiction for a bit, getting some good advice from a book... maybe something with a role model type character, something mildly philosophical and inspiration, something that will get me dreaming... hopefully more realistic dreams.

Anyone know anything like this?

[keilj]

Ben Franklin's comes to mind

[Kyriakos]

Whatever you do stay away from Kafka

[gruntingslime]

heheh, i read Kafka's diaries, they were inspiration but definitely did not help me break free of my mind.

[keilj]

JFK's Profiles in Courage might be worth considering

[LuggageFan]

The Book of Job?

[Patrick_Bateman]

Given the title of the thread I can't resist proffering Martin Luther King Jnr's autobiography

JFK's Profiles in Courage might be worth considering

Yes yes yes yes yes

Whatever you do stay away from Kafka

and Mandela
one word

interminable

[EndSarcasm]

and Mandela
one word

interminable

Stop insulting my country's hero

[Patrick_Bateman]

Stop insulting my country's hero

I'm not insulting HIM just the particular biography I have.
It is so so boring for large sections


and it's a beast of a book so those large sections last a while.

[EndSarcasm]

I'm not insulting HIM just the particular biography I have.
It is so so boring for large sections


and it's a beast of a book so those large sections last a while.

Oh no, I completely agree. I was joking.

On topic; Lester Bangs' biography is interesting, though not sure how inspiring it would be for you :s

[grace86]

Jacqueline Novogratz's "The Blue Sweater"
Helped me to realize that no matter what field I go into, there's always a way to help other people with what I've learned.

Paul Farmer's works, not necessarily autobiographical - just the books he's published, and the one Tracy Kidder wrote about him, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" are some books that really inspire me.

[Silas Thorne]

The autobiography of Giacomo Casanova. I'm not sure if he should be a role model overall, but he is still a very interesting man who was in touch with a lot of the most famous people of his time.

'Liar' by Stephen Fry is also worth reading. It will certainly start you dreaming. It may be, partly, semi-autobiographical. He wrote something a lot more autobiographical in 'Moab is my Washpot'.

'A portrait of the artist as a young man' by James Joyce, and 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater' by Thomas de Quincey are also well worth reading, and the second actually attempts to describe the realistic opium dreams of the author.

Can never forget the novel 'Grass Soup' by Zhang Xianliang. In this book, the author secretly kept a diary of his experiences in a Chinese labour camp. Shocking depiction of a time of extreme starvation, and what it does to people.

[The Comedian]

Walden by Henry Thoreau could get you where you need to be.

[Desolation]

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and Ask the Dust by John Fante are the big ones for me.

[oshima]

Of Human Bondage by Maugham is compelling, though I find it difficult to articulate why. Go tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin is also quite good, but you might want a casual familiarity with Christian scripture before reading it.