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!
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 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.
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!
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 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