Books that have moved or impacted you

[BlackPack]

I've read most of Dostoevsky's works and they changed my life. I love Bukowski. I haven't read much literature anymore. I read mostly books on strategy now.

Films impacted me far more than novels.

 

[Alba]

it's weird that my first book ever was not a children book at all: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/790171.Kon_Tiki

Ha! Mine neither.

My first book was All Quiet on the Western Front and I thought it was boring.

 

[FSGMT]

I would say two great American books: "The Great Gatsby" and "The grapes of wrath", I could read them over and over again and again

 

[Meoima]

I find it funny that at the time I read Kon-tiki voyage, I thought it was the best book ever. Surely it had a huge impact on me by that time. Now that when I reread it, I don't feel the same magic. But anyways it's still my first book ever.

 

[noskates]

I enjoy Pat Conroy, too. But, as a friend says, the power of his writing and the emotion of his stories will "wear you out." He writes books to be savored slowly, not gulped.

Totally agree. He hadn't written a book in 12 years and then wrote South of Broad. I had a horrible time getting into it, was sorely disappointed, bored, etc. but because I had paid alot for a hardbound book I persisted. It ended up being a classic Conroy novel and I DID savor it to the end. But when I finished it I sat there for a few minutes mulling over what I had just read! Conroy was an alcoholic, serious dependency, years ago and I think a lot of the pain in his books comes from that place. Not sure if he's still drinking or not.

 

[TontoK]

I did not know that about Conroy, noskates.

But, it doesn't surprise me. Parts of South of Broad were very difficult to read... the pain oozed through the pages.

 

[Snow63]

Russian classics mostly.
'Преступление и наказание' (Crime and Punishment) by Dostoyevski
'Мертвые души' (Dead souls) by Gogol
'Мастер и Мартарита' (The Master and Margarita) by Bulgakov
Demons by Dostoyevski

A lot of other books, but these came to mind immediately.

And I'm glad I can read them on the original language.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I bought Dead Souls on my last trip to the bookstore. It's next in my list. Now I just need to make time for it.

 

[Interspectator]

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
I read it first when I was 13 and it is one that I can re-read at any time.

 

[Snow63]

I bought Dead Souls on my last trip to the bookstore. It's next in my list. Now I just need to make time for it.

I think this book is really hard to understand for non-post-soviet readers.
At least a couple of my friends from UK after I advised this book to them told me they think it's a piece of crap. And they barely got to 1/3
But IMO it's a masterpiece. I really hope you'll enjoy it

 

[WeakAnkles]

Ordinary People by Judith Guest. It's a rarity that a fine book gets turned into an equally fine movie.
Final Payments by Mary Gordon. It's an Irish Catholic/American thing.
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Hmm,there are times I think I AM Holden Caulfield.

There are quite a few poems that would fit here, but I guess that's another thread.

 

[peg]

I think this book is really hard to understand for non-post-soviet readers.
At least a couple of my friends from UK after I advised this book to them told me they think it's a piece of crap. And they barely got to 1/3
But IMO it's a masterpiece. I really hope you'll enjoy it

I thought it was very clever, but not something I would say really impacted me in a significant way. But then again, I didn't read it in the original Russian, and maybe that makes a difference.

 

[jimeonji]

I must confess that I haven't had much time to read for pleasure due to the enormous amounts of schoolwork I have, so I guess I'm lucky that I enjoyed the book we're reading currently in English so much: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. After the passing of my grandmother last December, the story of Mikage and her journey towards recovery from two major losses in her life impacted me greatly. Yoshimoto's language is beautiful and resonating; it's honest, and as a result was very real to me and my own experience with death and grief. The writing is straightfoward but is filled to the brim with underlying meaning. I'll be doing a major oral presentation on it in a few weeks and I'm actually looking forward to annotating the novel and pulling it apart to see it for all Yoshimoto meant it to be.

 

[skatedreamer]

Ordinary People by Judith Guest. It's a rarity that a fine book gets turned into an equally fine movie.
Final Payments by Mary Gordon. It's an Irish Catholic/American thing.
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Hmm,there are times I think I AM Holden Caulfield.

There are quite a few poems that would fit here, but I guess that's another thread.

Final Payments really got me, too. And not just Irish Catholics -- my guess is that just about anyone raised by strict Catholic parents (mine were Eastern European) could relate to that book.

It kind of embarrasses me now, but Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was huge for me. The "be true to yourself whatever the cost" theme in it was actually one of the factors in my decision to major in music, as opposed to the more practical choice of secondary ed. I've never earned a living as a musician but have never, ever regretted the choice. Have to be grateful to Rand for that even though the rest of her philosophy frustrates and sometimes angers me.

 

[Kitt]

Final Payments really got me, too. And not just Irish Catholics -- my guess is that just about anyone raised by strict Catholic parents (mine were Eastern European) could relate to that book.

It kind of embarrasses me now, but Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was huge for me. The "be true to yourself whatever the cost" theme in it was actually one of the factors in my decision to major in music, as opposed to the more practical choice of secondary ed. I've never earned a living as a musician but have never, ever regretted the choice. Have to be grateful to Rand for that even though the rest of her philosophy frustrates and sometimes angers me.

I have to admit I loved Rand's We the Living. I haven't read it in years, but I can still vividly picture the last scene.

 

[oriquey]

Has anyone read Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life by any chance? I need to cry/vent out/discuss this book to pieces.

 

[hamaguri]

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte's_Web

I recently know about this book. It’s for children, but I find it touching and read and listen to it over and over again. And I love the writing. There’s a lot to learn for me who is studying English as other language than mother tongue.

 

[Silvia451]

Fiction books
-Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
-Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
-The city and the stars by A.C.Clarke

Non fiction books
-QED the strange theory of light and matter by Richard Feynman
-Elegant universe by Brian Greene
and I would say Feynman's lectures on Physics second volume

 

[skylark]

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.

One of my favorite things about this book is that Steinbeck put his actual mother, grandfather and an uncle into the novel, in a story-within-the-story kind of thing. There's a hilarious story about Steinbeck's mother, Olive, during WWI when she won an aeroplane ride for raising money for war bonds.

But his Irish grandfather, Samuel, is a fabulous character who spins out stories and philosophy. He has long discussions with Lee, the Chinese houseboy/cook/nanny who cares for the main character's twins. Lee also belongs to a fabulous group of scholars (possibly mostly Chinese?) in San Francisco who meet once a week. At one point this group takes on the study of Genesis to search out meanings and translations for a particular phrase.

I love a triumphant, transcendent ending, too.

 

[VegMom]

I recently read Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It has stuck with me, I keep thinking about it.