For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
The demon haunted world by Carl Sagan
Ok! I don’t see Island of the Blue Dolphins but this was the book that opened my world view as a 3rd grader. A female heroine, who survived on her own, alone mostly but for a dog companion. Over coming her fears through the years. Learning about basically art, cooking, hunting, history/values of an indigenous culture, problem solving. True story from 1700’s California Island. I like many many on this list but this was my first mindblowing read
little naruto
Slaughterhouse Five.
‘So it goes.’
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller really showed me how absurd war, and life is. It’s hilarious and devastatingly depressing.
The Tao of Pooh opened my eyes to Eastern philosophy and in a direction I was heading towards anyway.
Freakonomics. Realising that humans are inherently selfish and associating their actions with how they stand to benefit made me understand people and relationships also better.
I hate to break it to you, but almost everything in Freakonomics has been disproven by modern psychological, sociological, and economic research. The authors published their pop science project a little too early.
It may have but since reading it I have tried to step in the shoes of any person I am dealing with and tried to understand their objectives from any interaction and it has definitely helped me understand people better and interact with them better. Its the philosophy that the book purports that most actions are driven by self-interest either consciously or subconsciously and I have definitely realized it to be true in most cases.
Its the philosophy that the book purports that most actions are driven by self-interest either consciously
In the book’s anecdote about bagels, 100% of people had the incentive to steal the bagels, but only 10% did. In the example with teachers cheating, 100% of teachers had the incentive to cheat, but only 5% did. Understanding incentives is not shown to be predictive of behavior even within the anecdotal narratives presented to reach that specific conclusion.
There’s also the issue that the book is entirely about statistics, and almost all the statistics are done incorrectly. The comparison between the relative safety of playing at a house with a gun vs a pool demonstrates three common errors in the book:
1.) Conceptual error. The author examines deaths per gun vs deaths per pool. This is wrong. Households with guns tend to have more than one gun, while households with pools tend to have exactly one pool, so this question doesn’t adequately control for the relative distribution of guns and pools among households.
2.) Research error. The figure for drownings per year doesn’t distinguish between drowning deaths in residential pools vs drowning deaths in bath tubs or natural water sources.
3.) Statistical error. The work done is meant to show the probability of death by gun vs the probability of death by pool, but the way its worked is specifically asking the question “what is the probability of drowning or dying by gunshot given that I don’t know whether the household has a gun, a pool, both, or neither.” It should have included the Bayesian, ie “What is the probability of dying by gunshot in a household given I know that household has a gun vs the probability of drowning in a pool given I know the household has a pool.”
Anyway, humans are actually genetically pre-disposed to be altruistic. Hopefully, this new information offers similar, but more correct, insights.
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. Fantastic character study in a military setting. Who is the real bad guy? Things can be deceiving.
Masters of solitude - Parke Godwin and Marvin Kaye. The hero tends to be a bit annoying? Pretentious? Not sure how to say it. But the hero isn’t all good, and that was a switch compared to books I read before.
“Stay gold, Ponyboy.”
I get goosebumps every time!
Also this quote has always stayed with me
‘Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset’.
My brother and I still say that to each other
Green Mars, the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy.
Now, whilst I thoroughly enjoy the series I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. To say it can be “dry” in places is a bit of an understatement. I tell people it feels as much like a technical manual on how to terraform the red planet as it does a fictional story.
But when I first read it in my early twenties I was having a bit of an existential crisis. I knew Abrahamism wasn’t for me so I had began exploring Eastern religion/philosophy but again that didn’t scratch the itch I had.
And then I read this passage;
And because we are alive, the universe must be said to be alive. We are its consciousness as well as our own. We rise out of the cosmos and we see its mesh of patterns, and it strikes us as beautiful. And that feeling is the most important thing in all the universe—its culmination, like the color of the flower at first bloom on a wet morning.
It caused a mini-epiphany. I stopped searching for a greater truth because that was all I ever needed. It basically taught me to stop worrying and just enjoy existing.
ooh i love this. i love this i love this. definitely going to get this book, sounds right up my alley.
This is what Carl Sagan youtube videos did for me
I tell people it feels as much like a technical manual on how to terraform the red planet as it does a fictional story.
LOL. I’ve only read his novel “2312” and describe it in a very similar way.
It’s like he wrote a book about how technology and humanity could look in 300 years and thought, “I guess I have to shove a story in there too!”
The actual world is far more interesting than the story.
Farenheit 451 I read it at 19 alone on a bike tour that lasted for about a month. it was the only book i had with me for 250’000 km of cycling. i reread it many times. there is this one passage when the protagonist gets asked if he is truly happy. and it made me ask myself the same and it is the first time i really, deeply thought about it. it was the summer before uni and this book made me follow my dream. its still one of the best decisions i have made in my life so far even 6 years later
I am yet to read this classic, but it is on my list! I have read neuromancer by William Gibson which is a fantastic bit of classic dystopian literature. So if you haven’t, read it!
I knew that for a lot of people this book changed our lifes.
thats true, as a writer / translator myself i strive to one day work on such a great piece of literature. these kinds of books are where literature has been used to its fullest potential
What is your dream???
to become a literary translator. I am well on the way there, just need to become more established i guess and make a name for myself. 3 (2 more in the works) of my translations have been published already in the past 2 years. but its a tough business
by extension (this is the part of my dream that is least realistic) i want to become an athor of my own books :') maybe one day
I read Fahrenheit 451 on a school trip - I read it really quickly and only once so I don’t remember much, but the part where the protagonist reads Dover Beach to the women… Usually I skim poems in books, but after he reads the poem, one of the women burst into tears. That surprised me, so I went back and actually read the poem. I loved it so much that I read it over and over. Basically I paused my reading of the book to just read this poem so many times in a row that I memorized it (and I still have it memorized to this day) and then I continued on and finished the book. That passage is all I remember, but I will always love that moment of that book. It showed me the powerful reactions that people can have to art, and it helped me take a closer look at a poem that been one of my favorites for years now.
Plato’s The Republic, especially the section on the Cave. Also the New Testament.
My biggest takeaway from the republic is that despite societal changes that politics really hasn’t changed. I had also read the leviathan after it and felt it to be very complimentary to the republic.
The allegory of the cave absolutely blew my mind
Of Mice and Men. We read it in English class and it was the first book I had read where the ending wasn’t happy and the author didn’t provide how all the characters ended up. The ending caught me off guard and it was the first time it was up to me (the reader) to interpret the moral and theme of the story.
The Once And Future King by T H White. The transitions between animals to teach the various versions of political spectrums has stood with my me for 40+ years. Obviously liked the geese…
Yes, great book.
But I remember the animals teaching being in The Book of Merlin, which was a separate volume from The One and Future King. Am I remembering wrong?
No, and yes! My copy in the 80’s had it all together.
A final part called The Book of Merlyn (written 1941, published 1977) was published separately following White’s death. It chronicles Arthur’s final lessons from Merlyn before his death, although some parts of it were incorporated into the final editions of the previous books, mostly The Sword in the Stone, after White became aware that the compiled text of The Once and Future King would not include his final volume.
But now I have to go back and find my old copy. I had no idea it was separate!
I reread it a while ago and was just blown away by its beautiful language. Now, they don’t want you to write above an 8th grade level. I’m glad he wrote it before dunbing down became a thing.
Not particularly religious, but I loved the depiction of God in The Sword and the Stone section
Yes!! I don’t see this book mentioned much, but that was such a beautiful book. Love it.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
This book was the first domino for me that started a long line of thinking that ultimately led me away from religion. The first half of the book is an entertaining retelling of various scientific escapades and the second half is an informative and easy to follow blow by blow of basically the creation of the universe as we currently understand it - from the big bang all the way through to evolution and ending at the modern day.
Really love that book… Would love to reread it someday
This is one of the most important reads of my life as well, and I’m curious to hear specifically in what way it impacted you.