What books have shaped your affected you?

by Eyebrow 39 Replies latest jw friends

  • slipnslidemaster
    slipnslidemaster

    Tolkien. nuf said.

    1984 too.

    Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Bobsey Twins. Agatha Christie. And and ALL SciFi. All fantasy.

    Slipnslidemaster:"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
    - Oscar Wilde

  • refiners fire
    refiners fire

    "Refiners Fire" by John L Brooke.
    "The True Believer" By Eric Hoffer.
    "Hostage to the Devil" by Malachi Martin.
    "Imperferct Company" by David Millikan.
    "When Prophecy Fails" by Leon Festinger.
    "Theory and practise of Communism" by R.N. Carew-Hunt.
    "History of Western Philosophy" Bertrand Russell.
    "Crucible of the Millenium" Michael Barkun.
    And Orwells good old "1984".
    Thats probably the major cult type books list.

  • COMF
    COMF

    The Rubaiyat, by Omar Kayyam: http://www.scarletmoon.com/fred/rubaiyat.html

    The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran: http://www.marsupial.com/babyroo/prophet/gibran.html

    Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: (excerpt) http://www.scarletmoon.com/fred/Lindbergh/Double_Sunrise1.html

    COMF

  • Athanasius
    Athanasius

    A Spiritual Aeneid by Ronald A. Knox.

    The Book Of Common Prayer.

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence.

    Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz.

  • HappyHeathen
    HappyHeathen

    Off the top of my head:

    Fiction:
    "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
    Anything by Daphne DuMaurier
    "The Stand" by Stephen King

    Non-fiction:
    "The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck

  • outonalimb
    outonalimb

    Great question:
    I'm not sure any have shaped me, but some certainly have had a profound effect on my thinking and thought process.

    Escape from Evil-Ernest Becker
    Divorced-CS Lewis
    Catcher in the Rye:)-JD Salinger
    People of the Lie-M. Scott Peck
    Don Quixote-Miguel De Servantes

    No wonder I'm so screwed up:D

    To bleed, or not to bleed......

  • Eyebrow
    Eyebrow

    Bobsey Twins!!! I loved them when I was a kid!

    Anyone read The Great Brain series by John Fitzgerald?

  • Trotafox
    Trotafox

    Crisis of Conscience was mine. However, has anyone read the books by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye on the LEFT BEHIND SERIES (Rapture, Desecration, Apollyon, etc.)? If so, what are your thoughts. They looked interesting but kind of dark. So I was just wondering. Sorry, I didn't read the thread real close. So I apologize is it has been mentioned. I will read more carefully after this post.

    Trot

    P.S. Just read post...Not mentioned so far.

    "Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love".... Aristotle. You can love and obey Christ without intervention from an organization.

  • wonderwoman77
    wonderwoman77

    I forgot Brave New World

  • Mommie Dark
    Mommie Dark

    _The Dispossessed_ by Ursula LeGuin. Although almost all of LeGuin's work is wonderful, this novel moved me most deeply. It discusses social responsibility, anarchy, conscience and free will without ever becoming preachy; her style is elegant and simple, her characters beautifully etched. I reread it every few years. Currently I am reading a translation of the Tao that she worked on with a Chinese colleague. She has been teacher and touchstone for me for many years. Her numerous awards have all been very well deserved. I wish I had a tenth of her talent and clarity of thought.

    A novelette by Roger Zelazny, _A Rose For Ecclesiastes_. A prose poem dedicated to the notion that free will can overcome prophetic doomsaying, set on Mars where 'the wind is a whip, the sun is a tarnished penny.'

    A cautionary tale by Cyril Kornbluth called "The Marching Morons" should IMO be required reading for all intelligent beings. This short story can be found in several seminal science fiction anthologies.

    Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Pick a book, enjoy mind expansion.

    _Be Here Now_ by Baba Ram Dass.

    Anything by Tom Robbins.

    _Cat's Cradle_ by Kurt Vonnegut.

    _Towing Jehovah_ by Robert Morrow.

    Oh all you King fans, do you love the Gunslinger series? These are by far my fave of his whole body of work.

    I read _Insomnia_ while I was in hospital a few years ago. I was reading the bit where the 'little doctors' were in the hospital cutting balloon threads... they were in room 213, room 215.... I sat in room 217 in my hospital sweating bullets; read right thru the night, too scared to turn the light off and go to sleep! LOL Talk about insomnia!

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