list books that influenced you in each decade of your life

[tigereye]

or books that just made a big impression in different times in your life.

here are mine:

spud, Make Way for Ducklings, McCloskey :)

pre-teen - The Borrowers, Norton; Charlotte's Web, EB White

early teen - A Wrinkle In Time, L'Engle

late teen - Stranger In a Strange Land, Heinlein; Nicholas and Alexandra, Stewart.

20s - early, The Waves, Woolf; later, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Miller

30s - Passages, Sheehy; Bios of Beat writers; Descent to the Goddess,Perera

40s - Our Band Could be Your Life, Azerrad, Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Judson.

[swag]

1. Azerrad pissed one friend off by seriously mischaracterizing the

circumstances of her coinage of a certain slogan of the DC scene, and he then refused to correct his blatant factual error prior to publication.

I reckon his is still a good book, though, regardless of the smurfed-over assholism and fluffed up mythmaking.

[tigereye]

17. I liked that book a lot

wasn't that close to any of those scenes really, to know what he got wrong!

did learn more about one guy we recorded with, though. ( drops hint)

;)

"smurfed over assholism" :rofl:

did you survive Portland? ( there's a movie quote in there somewhere)

[swag]

21. I think I know that guy from way way back.

Chicago, eh?

[tigereye]

39. uh, no

NYC - my one encounter with anyone remotely "famous" from the indie/alt/punk scene. Well, I think I saw Jad Fair once, and Calvin from K records, and we played in the room next to Fugazi in a great veggie venue in WV once, then drove home in a blizzard. And I did see the Leaving Trains play in someone's living room. And Mike Watt signed my bass player's bass once. Hmmm. I'm a terrible name dropper! :)

and BTW, what about your booklist? ;) I love seeing what books people pick.

[Midnight Rambler]

2. My list

Childhood - Maniac McGee; any and all books about science in general and dinosaurs in particular. Don't remember any specific titles

Preteen - The Hobbit; Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series (Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc.)

Teen - Desperation, Stephen King; The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; Light my Fire, Ray Mazarek

20's - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing; On the Campaign Trail '72, Hunter S. Thompson; 1984, George Orwell; Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser; Maximum Bob, Elmore Leonard; Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut

[tigereye]

18. I like the combo of King and Hawthorne

maybe there are some parallels there? :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Interesting question!

Teen - Dune; 1984; The Bible (esp. the Gospels); Lord of the Rings

College - Autobiography of a Yogi; The Bible (esp. the Gospels); Dune; The Tao of Pooh (and other Taoist books, incl. the Lao-Tze stuff); My Quantum Mechanics textbook; Slaughterhouse Five; Frankenstein; Shakespeare's plays; The Real Frank Zappa Book

Post-college: Lord of the Rings; The Belgariad and Mallorean; Dune; My other Quantum Mechanics textbook; my music theory books; Shakespeare; The Real Frank Zappa Book; The Bible (esp. Genesis and Exodus from the Old Testament)

Grad School: Thich Nhat Han's books; Dune; "Gay Theology without Apology"; von Rad's "Holy War in Ancient Israel"; Girard's "Violence and the Sacred"; Christopher Morse's "Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief"; Phylis Trible's "Texts of Terror"; The Real Frank Zappa Book; The Bible (esp. all of the Old Testament)

Post-grad school: Dune; Lord of the Rings; a book about Robert Wilson; and so many books I couldn't begin to list them; The Real Frank Zappa Book; Paul Harrington's "Cocktail"; The Bible (esp. the Psalms, and recently, the letters of Paul, and of course the Gospels).

[tigereye]

19. yeah I thought so!

:hi:

ooh, I forgot about my teen Vonnegut obsession!

And I like that Frank Zappa is your ongoing touchstone!

[Rabrrrrrr]

44. Yes, Zappa, Dune, and the Bible are the recurring ones that

never left me.

I've read Dune probably close to 15 times since high school. THe Bible, almost every day. And Zappa's book comes out about once every year or so for a few weeks of reading randomly in the bathroom or at night.

[ChaoticSilly]

4. Mine

Early Childhood - Dr Suess!

Childhood - various science books & subcriptions to Astronomy & Discover magazines

Teens - the Dune series, Lord of the Rings, 2001, 1984, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front

20's & 30's - The God Makers, Destination Void & The Jesus Incident series, Soul Catcher

[tigereye]

40. interesting how often

altruistic or utopia gone wrong books figure in people's adolescent reading... or was that just a sign of the times?

To Kill A Mockingbird is still very powerful. Book and movie.

You made me think of Brave New World. That was an eye-opener. Huxley and Orwell were very smart and savvy men.

[enigmatic]

5. What a question!

Let's see:

Teens- Beautiful Losers- Leonard Cohen, On The Road- Kerouac

20's- Everything by Bukowski up to that time; Winesburg, Ohio- Sherwood Anderson, and The Razor's Edge- Somerset Maughm

30's- Pretty much everything by Harry Crews

40's- Stiil looking, frankly..

[cleofus1]

11. hell yeah

bukowski lives!

in a sleazy bar down the street...

[cleofus1]

12. here he is with a friend

in all his glory

[tigereye]

22. oh my God!

I went through a period of reading Bukowski, and after I saw Barfly, the thought of alcohol became utterly abhorrent for a time.

I just found out my mailman is a Bukowski fan. That was pretty cool.

[cleofus1]

23. don't worry

that's not a real woman...

[tigereye]

36. ya know I didn't even consider that

yikes! The effects of excessive alcohol bad for either sex!

[cleofus1]

37. hey let's not jump the gun

they both look happy to me:evilgrin:

[tigereye]

41. uh

ok, whatever you say.... ;)

[enigmatic]

54. Bukowski's my hero

Made me want to become a writer, and he kept me alive for a long time through my own years of aimless, drunken wandering from city to city on Greyhound. Even wrote him in the early 90's when he was in the twlight of his life, and got an answer.

And Bukowski fan is a friend of mine:)

[cleofus1]

56. I modeled my life after his

for many years...

[WhollyHeretic]

6. Let's see...

Elementary School:

White Mountains by John Christopher- Introduced me to Sci-Fi

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by M. Weis and Tracy Hickman- Introduced me to Fantasy

Middle School:

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein Introduced me to a lot of interesting Ideas

High School:

Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - I've been reading that series for 12-13 years now, no real other importance to it, but I've got a lot of time invested in it.

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Abbey

Leaves of Grass by Whitman

After High School:

Oil by Upton Sinclair

All of Mark Twain's later stories

A Peoples History of the United States

Leaves of Grass by Whitman - I know I already mentioned that but it's worth mentioning twice dammit.

Edited to add one poem by Bukowski- The Strongest of the Strange

[WCGreen]

Just two times in my life

Before I quit drinking and after...

Before, A Wrinkle in Time, My side of the Mountain, The Hobbit and LOTR, The Foundation Series, Ayn Rand Fountainhead, The Best and the Brightest, A Rumor of War, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, All the Fear and Loathing Books,

After drinking....

The Bible, The Gnostic Gospels, The Gospel according to Jesus, The Red Tent, John Irving's Books, The Human Stain, It Can't Happen Here...

And a lot more........

[WCGreen]

7. Just two times in my life

Before I quit drinking and after...

Before, A Wrinkle in Time, My side of the Mountain, The Hobbit and LOTR, The Foundation Series, Ayn Rand Fountainhead, The Best and the Brightest, A Rumor of War, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, All the Fear and Loathing Books,

After drinking....

The Bible, The Gnostic Gospels, The Gospel according to Jesus, The Red Tent, John Irving's Books, The Human Stain, It Can't Happen Here...

And a lot more........

[bertha katzenengel]

20. My Side of the Mountain!

Good god, I wanted to be that kid. Just to escape. Be alone. Sigh.

[Throckmorton]

8. Mine,

Pre-school Go Dogs Go
Elementary School Henry and the Tree House
Junior High School Report from Engine Company 82
High School Watership Down
20's The Last Place on Earth
30's And the Band Played On.
40's The Third Chimpanzee

[tigereye]

24. huh Watership Down was a big deal

for a certain time....

[cleofus1]

9. this will take some thought

10 years alice in wonderland/nancy drew
20 years catcher in the rye/lord of the rings
30 year the gormenghast trilogy/poetry and short stories of charles bukowski
40 years miracle man comic books

[tigereye]

25. oh wow

Thought my husband was the only one who could get through the Gormenghast trilogy!

:)

[cleofus1]

27. i cried

when fuscia died

[johnnie]

10. Lordy..

This isn't a cut and dry answer.

The book I learned to read by was a "Science for Children" book. It had experiments and things like that. I was taught to read with that one.

Teen: Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger), On the Road (Jack Kerouac), The Great Philosophers (Jaspers), Helter Skelter (Bugliosi)

20s: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig), Confessions of a Medical Examiner (Michael M. Baden), The Tibetan Book of the Dead

30s: Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda), We Don't Die (George Anderson), The Meditative Mind (Daniel Goleman), Everything by Dalai Lama

40s: Only a year into it. I have read a lot of crap, but right now I am reading The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics. It's interesting, but I'm not sure it will change my life.

This is too hard, I have read so many books that changed me in some way. These are the ones that come to mind.

[tigereye]

26. I almost put down Helter SKelter

used to scare the crap out of me when I was a teen!

[johnnie]

32. The movie too

It still is creepy.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. I read "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

when I was twelve years old. I haven't been worth a damn since.

[tigereye]

43. Vonnegut will do that to you!

;)

[patcox2]

53. 12 is a good age to read Vonnegut.

But if it still impresses you as much, what does that say for your progress since the age of 12?

[XNASA]

14. You're forcing me to think....

And it's hurting.

Grade School - "20000 Leagues Under the Sea" - Verne

Early Teens - Any Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially the John Carter Series

Teens - "All Quiet on the Western Front" - Remarque (This book has had a huge impact on me.)

20's - "Childhood's End" - Clarke

30's - "Neuromancer" - Gibson

40's - I don't know. I read a lot more now than I ever did, and nothing really moves me as much as when I was younger. But the best book I've reak in the last 5 years or so is "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller.

[tigereye]

29. sorry to tax your brain and so early in the am, X

it's kind of an offshoot of how I make my living, I guess, and an interesting question, to boot! I really like thinking about what influences people over time!

Neuromancer - that is a great one! A totally different way of thinking, in some respects.

[Reverend_Smitty]

49. I read All Quiet on the Western Front

when I was about 14 years old. I sat down and read it in one day (which is probably the only time I've read a novel in one day). I couldn't put it down it was such a chilling book. That one had a big impact on me too.

[XNASA]

50. Prior to that, I'd read Vonnegut and some other adult books...

...but reading AWOTWF changed me forever.

I reread it a few months ago. It's a great book.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. Way of the Peaceful Warrior....Excellent book for teenagers.

MrG and I both read it in our youth.

[tigereye]

30. hmm

I don't know that one! what is it about Mrs. G? :hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. Here you go....

http://www.danmillman.com/store/way_of_the_peaceful_warrior.html

[tigereye]

35. sounds interesting!

thanks!

[cleofus1]

16. damn

gonna give this thread a bump

i actually read so much when i was a kid...it's just too hard to narrow it down to just one or two books....

sherlock holms...danny dunn and the anti gravity paint...raggedy ann...dr seuss...edgar allan poe...i robot...great expectations...the diary of anne frank...johnny tremaine...

and then later...ayn rand...crime and punishment...the hobbit...jaws...the godfather...the exorcist...joseph wanbaugh...police story...greek mythology...

what were you reading?

[tigereye]

33. I read so many it was hard to pick as well

But I was thinking about the ones that, when you look back on that period, made a big impression... either scary, or happy, or helping you through adolescence or other changes.

I lived in the library, books were my refuge, since I was pretty shy. And a giant nerd. Books made sense to me.

Johnny Tremaine, history of America and Britain, a lot of 30's - 50s Caldecott winners ( my mom worked in a bookstore before she got married, so she got us all the "good stuff.")

All the Lois Lenski books, The Hardy Boys, The Happy Hollisters, Nancy Drew, L'Engle, books about nuns and priests (Catholic), Vonnegut, LOTR, mysteries of all types ( I read them now like others eat snacks), historical fiction, all the Mary Stewart books, Ursula K. Leguin, modern and older sci-fi, sci-fi and other books by women authors, Ayn Rand phase (who didn't), Shakespeare, 17th cent. writers, Forster Woolf and Lawrence ( English Lit major), Kafka, Colette, existential philosphers, Thoreau, Mencken, New Yorker writers like Dorothy Parker, early and later feminist writers - germaine greer, etc., Checkov, Russian writers - Doestoevsky, obsessions with Updike and the other 60s exploratory guys like Phillip Roth; the Beats, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. This could go on and on.

I couldn't live without books! :)

[WoodrowFan]

28. Pat the Bunny

now THAT's a classic...

then after my teens....

[tigereye]

34. I read that to my kid

I'm sure I had it too, but I don't remember it!

[seemunkee]

38. Lets see

Early teen - The Hobbit and the Conan series
Late Teen - The Carlos Castaneda books and The Complete Walker
20s - A Cabinetmakers Notebook, The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, and The Impractical Cabinetmaker by James Krenov combining Zen philosophy with the art of woodworking.
30s - I really can't think of one book that had a major impact - OK, now I remember Critical Path by Buckminster Fuller
40s - We're Right, They're Wrong by James Carville

[Jara sang]

42. 1990s- Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

On the road

[RandomKoolzip]

45. Here's mine:

Kid:

Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas; the Oz books, the album reviews in Rolling Stone

pre-teen:

1984; The Stand (Stephen King), The Rolling Stone Record Guide Second Edition, Lord of the Flies, The Book of Rock Lists, all the Bloom County books, the Film Encyclopedia (Ephriam Katz)

teen:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Psychotic Reactions and Carbuerator Dung (Lester Bangs), Stairway to Hell (Chuck Eddy), The SCUM Manifesto (Valerie Solanis), Taking it all In (Pauline Kael), various issues of Forced Exposure magazine

twenties:

Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace), The Aesthetics of Rock (R. Meltzer), Rock and the Pop Narcotic (Joe Carducci), Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon)

Today:

The Republican Noise Machine (David Brock)

[tigereye]

46. wow

you are the only person I know (but I bet there are others here) who read the Scum Manifesto in their teens! And Pauline Kael. She's not for the faint of heart!

[Deep13]

47. these are a bit odd

0-10, Mr. Pine's Purple House. It is all about being a nonconformist. Some illustrated book about dinosaurs. What the Moon Astronauts Do (???)

11-20, New Testement, Cosmic Connection (Carl Sagan), Why We Can't Wait (MLK Jr.), Le Morte D'Arthur (Mallory)

21-30, Knock 'Em Dead (Yates) a job hunting guide. Bankruptcy Code practice guide. Ohio Civil Rules handbook.

31-present, Backyard Astronomer's Guide 1990 (Dickenson), Demon Haunted World (Sagan), Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion (Tolken), Ohio State Reporter, 3rd series

[tigereye]

48. not so odd

interesting...

[Deep13]

55. forgot a big one

teens through 30s: Chilton's Repair Manual, 1975-1979 Chev. Nova

[Taverner]

51. This will come across as bizarre....

pre-teen - The Shining
early teen - The World According to Garp
Teen - Catcher in the Rye
College - Nag Hamadi Library
Twenties - Grapes of Wrath
Thirties - Anything by Chuck Palahniuk

[patcox2]

52. What a question, from Robinson Crusoe to I don't know what.

First books I read were Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Then Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun."

Then Catch 22, the influence of which is stronger than anything else.

All of Vonnegut, then Voltaire, the psuedo-intellectual canon, late Twain, light reading, like potato chips.

The World According to Garp and everything that guy wrote.

Then poetry, Yeats, Byron, Beaudelaire, Rimbaud, Dowson, And finally and still, Pablo Neruda.

A History of God

Then theology, mostly exegesis textbooks and the new testament.