Animal Farm and 1984 in terms of political awareness, Lord of the Rings and Pillars of the Earth for shaping a lot of my entertainment and friend choices. The last 2 along with Count of Monte...
Animal Farm and 1984 in terms of political awareness, Lord of the Rings and Pillars of the Earth for shaping a lot of my entertainment and friend choices. The last 2 along with Count of Monte Cristo and Shogun for what a gripping and thrilling book should feel like.
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman was a book about the negative effects of television on public discourse, and I would argue it is far more relevant in application to the WWW today than...
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman was a book about the negative effects of television on public discourse, and I would argue it is far more relevant in application to the WWW today than it was back in the 1980's. Reading that book changed the way I look at public discourse and its importance in democratic society. Sorry if I've talked about this book way too much on tildes.net. I think someone here recently posted an article about Stop Reading the News, and it was perfectly fitting within the argument Postman lays out. I failed to comment on that when it was still on the front page.
Hitchhiker's Guide, all the Discworld books - I bought The Colour of Magic when it came out and it was the first book I took up to the counter and bought all by myself (albeit with my parent's...
Hitchhiker's Guide, all the Discworld books - I bought The Colour of Magic when it came out and it was the first book I took up to the counter and bought all by myself (albeit with my parent's money!) - and I've bought every one since. I feel like between them Adams and Pratchett have helped me develop a healthy degree of both cynicism and a sense of the general absurdity of life.
A little later in life I read The Tao of Pooh and that was pretty influential on mid-teenaged me.
Two books come to mind for me and both where books I read in high school: The first is Grendel by John Gardner. The book is a retelling of the story of Beowulf, but from the monster Grendel's...
Two books come to mind for me and both where books I read in high school:
The first is Grendel by John Gardner. The book is a retelling of the story of Beowulf, but from the monster Grendel's perspective. It was one of the first books that I read that was positioned from the antagonist's perspective, and it really helped me to realize there can be so much to a conflict than one side. I realized that sometimes the "Good Guys" aren't really that good, and that the bad guys are real people with real and valid experiences.
In short, it helped me to realize the world wasn't as black and white as I thought it was.
The second book was Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood. I was really sheltered growing up, and this book helped me realize how horrifying the world can be. There is so much we intentionally ignore and we pretend does not exist as a society.
They are both really good books that helped to expand my horizons and I still go back and reread them every few years
I'm pretty basic so there are a few epochs, as it were, that were pretty defining for me. The His Dark Materials trilogy was a big one for me. We had been given a little box of them and they were...
I'm pretty basic so there are a few epochs, as it were, that were pretty defining for me. The His Dark Materials trilogy was a big one for me. We had been given a little box of them and they were up for grabs at our house so I decided to pick them up. I picked it up around 10 or younger and God those books are so fucking good. They were without a doubt the first books I read that had really and truly great and timeless writing. It brought me into the light and I still read them now.
The second was around high-school for me and it was without a doubt the Percy Jackson series. They were so fun and adventurous and was something for me, a writer, to aspire to.
The third is right after I graduated high school. I picked up the first book to The Expanse series. Never had I really read Sci fi and it was my first real foray into it and oh lawd now I'm steeped in it. Sci Fi overcame all other genres as my absolute favorite. There's so much flavor and such incredibly powerful stories; both as short stories and novels. This was also the biggest shift in my writing. I was like holy shit this is great I wanna write this!
So mostly it boils down to the books that influenced me the most as a writer and how i write. Still got nothing on Pullman though.
Animal Farm and 1984 in terms of political awareness, Lord of the Rings and Pillars of the Earth for shaping a lot of my entertainment and friend choices. The last 2 along with Count of Monte Cristo and Shogun for what a gripping and thrilling book should feel like.
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman was a book about the negative effects of television on public discourse, and I would argue it is far more relevant in application to the WWW today than it was back in the 1980's. Reading that book changed the way I look at public discourse and its importance in democratic society. Sorry if I've talked about this book way too much on tildes.net. I think someone here recently posted an article about Stop Reading the News, and it was perfectly fitting within the argument Postman lays out. I failed to comment on that when it was still on the front page.
Hitchhiker's Guide, all the Discworld books - I bought The Colour of Magic when it came out and it was the first book I took up to the counter and bought all by myself (albeit with my parent's money!) - and I've bought every one since. I feel like between them Adams and Pratchett have helped me develop a healthy degree of both cynicism and a sense of the general absurdity of life.
A little later in life I read The Tao of Pooh and that was pretty influential on mid-teenaged me.
For me it is Jonathon Livingston Seagull during my teenage years and Edgar Allen Poe as a young adult.
Two books come to mind for me and both where books I read in high school:
The first is Grendel by John Gardner. The book is a retelling of the story of Beowulf, but from the monster Grendel's perspective. It was one of the first books that I read that was positioned from the antagonist's perspective, and it really helped me to realize there can be so much to a conflict than one side. I realized that sometimes the "Good Guys" aren't really that good, and that the bad guys are real people with real and valid experiences.
In short, it helped me to realize the world wasn't as black and white as I thought it was.
The second book was Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood. I was really sheltered growing up, and this book helped me realize how horrifying the world can be. There is so much we intentionally ignore and we pretend does not exist as a society.
They are both really good books that helped to expand my horizons and I still go back and reread them every few years
I'm pretty basic so there are a few epochs, as it were, that were pretty defining for me. The His Dark Materials trilogy was a big one for me. We had been given a little box of them and they were up for grabs at our house so I decided to pick them up. I picked it up around 10 or younger and God those books are so fucking good. They were without a doubt the first books I read that had really and truly great and timeless writing. It brought me into the light and I still read them now.
The second was around high-school for me and it was without a doubt the Percy Jackson series. They were so fun and adventurous and was something for me, a writer, to aspire to.
The third is right after I graduated high school. I picked up the first book to The Expanse series. Never had I really read Sci fi and it was my first real foray into it and oh lawd now I'm steeped in it. Sci Fi overcame all other genres as my absolute favorite. There's so much flavor and such incredibly powerful stories; both as short stories and novels. This was also the biggest shift in my writing. I was like holy shit this is great I wanna write this!
So mostly it boils down to the books that influenced me the most as a writer and how i write. Still got nothing on Pullman though.