Posted on 05/01/2018 3:18:41 PM PDT by Simon Green
Here's one that definitely influenced me: "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Planet_(novel)
It's the first novel I can recall reading, around age 8 or so. It was the start of a lifelong love of speculative fiction, and Heinlein's Libertarian(ish) philosophy certainly put its imprint on me.
(The main chsracter's father discusses getting a pistol permit for his daughter. The grandfather chimes in:)
"That a free citizen should have to go before a committee, hat in hand, and pray for permission to bear arms - fantastic! Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats."
Just finished One Second After and the follow up One Year After. Makes one think.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The study of calculus.
It ought me to think about the extremes in decision making decisions.
What would be the worst outcome and what would be the best outcome.
It has severed me well in a variety of life decisions. Even though for the most part I could not understand the lecturer.
BIBLE, Yes that’s the book for me!
LOL. Some of us have had such extreme childhoods, we tend to naturally think in terms of best and worst. LOL.
The “Big Book” from Alcoholics Anonymous
+1
The Bible, of course but I found Learned Optimism by Martin P Seligman fascinating.
1. The Bible (totally changed my life from bad to living for God)
2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Other than the Bible, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
“Animal Farm”
“Atlas Shrugged”
Exactly!!
The Catcher in the Rye
Dick and Jane.
Atlas Shrugged, in 1965. New Orleans, 21 years old.
(Influenced my whole life)
The one I wrote which helped me to overcome 30 years of health decline, now with the incredible reality of facing an entirely new 30 years of adulthood with 30 years of mature wisdom under my belt.
:)
1984
Alas, Babylon
Animal Farm
Anthem
The Art of War
Atlas Shrugged
Brave New World
Childhood’s End
Earth Abides
Foundation
The Hunt for Red October
One Second After
One Year After
The Narnia Series
Red Planet
The Screwtape Letters
Starship Troopers
Time Enough for Love
I read this book around age 30, which was much later in life than most people get to it.
I had read Hemingway short stories in junior high, and I read a couple Hemingway novels in high school. Frankly, the guy left me cold, and I had no idea where his reputation came from.
More than a decade later, I picked up “The Sun” at my brother's apartment and started reading. I was completely hooked after a couple pages.
It was like being magically transported to the streets of Paris in the 1920s. Even more dazzling was how he could pack so much information and so much meaning into short simple sentences using every day language.
It reminded of Kafka's writing style, except Kafka is tedious and repetitive, and I have almost no emotional involvement with Kafka's characters or stories.
In total contrast, four decades after I read “The Sun Also Rises,” I still carry vivid images of Jake and Brett and Robert Cohn and Mike Campbell and Paris and Spain in my mind's eye.
2 actually...
Quo Vadis
The Sheep Look Up John Brunner
Very influential to me
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