Printable View
An arabic novel called "The return of the soul" or in arabic عودة الروح by Tawfeek Al Hakim. It has certain memories connected to it..plus it was probably the first long novel I ever read, either in English or Arabic.
PS: The translation of the name is MY translation, I'm not even sure if the novel was translated.
Even though I absolutely love reading, it is essentially all I do, I've never thought that a book could have a life-changing effect on a person's life. They, each book, seems, to me, more like one more stair to a long, long winding staircase towards eventuality and wherever else it leads.
Rant is his newest. I've just finished Diary...it really bothered me. I'm not sure why...but I couldn't sleep after I finished it. I guess its because her daughter is so insane!! And the fact I felt really bad about Angel and Peter not ending up together or whatever...made me sad.:( :bawling: Plus, the fact that no one told her...Quote:
Originally Posted by IWilKikU
I really liked Choke though...
The Perks of Being a Wallflower really affected me...my mom told me I wasn't allowed to read it anymore because it made me feel really funny.
"1984" by George Orwell and "Bu Ülke" by Cemil Meriç
some novels that come to mind:
Grapes of Wrath
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
these books really moved me to think and hopefully act more compassionately
Dawkins' The God Delusion -- not for the quality of the book itself (although it isn't bad) so much as it being my 'intro' to non-fiction with the exception of some Nietzsche when I was too young to really get a grasp on it. It opened up a whole new world for me. Science, history, philosophy....
Also Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series since that really got me to dig into fantasy and into reading since he is bar none the best character builder I have seen thus far and also has an amazing grasp on the English language.
Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther is another one since that introduced me to his genius, although to be fair, I'd already been building a Goethe collection at that point...but, I digress. He's one of my favorite authors and what I'm sure will be a lifelong interest of mine.
EDIT: The Dhammapada translated by Ananda Maitreya also comes to mind since that was my introduction to Buddhism and while I am not a Buddhist, it kicked off my interest in that religion which has lead to a study of many texts and books on the subject and a developing interest in meditation.
For now:
1984
The Girl Next Door
Totally forgot...Night by Elie Wiesel...the most moving book that I have ever read.
The Bible.
In general because I feel it dealt with such basic principles for a life of integrity, stewardship, quality, and love, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I usually read it in total or in part once a year.
Second to that was the reading of a book I did in the early 70's. An unlikely exercise a friend of mine then challenged me to do. Although there is nothing in particular I remember (except Divine Right's Trip) the experience was nothing short of an epiphany.
The book was The Last Whole Earth Catalogue. I read every single page and, unless you have done it, there is no way to describe the effect of reading a synopsis of the world's tools, technological and otherwise. And of course on each page, in the bottom right hand corner, was the next frame of Divine Right's Trip.
And then, when I was finished, even though I had viewed the back cover before, it finally hit me: It was a very clear photograph taken from the surface of the Moon of the earth suspended in space and the caption read, "We can't put it together, it is together."
We are all together. We are all together. Nothing has ever in our entire history demonstrated that more than that photograph taken by a person on the moon looking at, not a globe, not a map, not an illustration, but the magnificent thing itself.
Don't fight. Don't support the politics of fighting. Show everyone we are together. No one owns anything, rules anything, we are all masters of the same cosmic egg. Don't break it. There is something very special inside.
1984 by Orwell
This is a literature topic, but for me it would be my philosophy textbook.
I took an introductory philosophy course in college years ago and it gave me a whole new perspective of how I view the world.
More importantly, the analytical skills I developed from reading passages by Socrates, Descartes, etc. gave me a greater appreciation for literature--reading and understanding it.
For tying my brain in knots trying to work out the ways in which it both indicted and proclaimed Christianity, Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood."
For stretching my mind, Carlos Castaneda's "Journey to Ixtlan."
As the first works I ever wrote anything close to literary criticism about, Kawabata's "Thousand Cranes" and Enchi's "Masks."
For teaching me that fantastic literature isn't confined to traditional boundaries, Art Spiegelman's "MAUS."
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. This is the book that made me want to be an English major.