a few to be getting along with
'Iron In The Soul' Jean-Paul Sartre taught me it's ok to think my own thoughts

'The Gormenghast Trilogy' Mervyn Peake taught me there is no limit to the imagination or how much you can know/learn

'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' Robert M. Pirsig taught me everything can be explained if you spend a little time working it out

'The Foundation Trilogy' Isaac Asimov taught me it's all happened before and it will again and there's fuck all we can do about it
(bazmorningstar of Bethlehem Meal Of Yule On Time. Xmas dinner must be punctual, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:54, closed)

Ahhh... the Foundation Trilogy...
I haven't read that since I was 12... I've been meaning to revisit it for years...
( Enzyme is in ur [noun]z, [verb]in' ur [noun]z, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:55, closed)

do it!
blew my mind wide open that one and I was a little more than 12 when i read it - here's this crusty science guy telling an ageless story with robots and space ships - devastating!
(bazmorningstar of Bethlehem Meal Of Yule On Time. Xmas dinner must be punctual, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:57, closed)

sartre
I liked Nausea - key Existentialist text along with Camus.
(frankspencer, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:08, closed)

...
Nausea is great. Sartre's a much better novelist than he is philosopher. Camus, though, is utter garbage on all fronts - except, perhaps, goalkeeping. He's the only Nobel prizewinner ever to have played international football.
( Enzyme is in ur [noun]z, [verb]in' ur [noun]z, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:11, closed)

Camus fiction is decent
he tells a good yarn, the boy.
(bazmorningstar of Bethlehem Meal Of Yule On Time. Xmas dinner must be punctual, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:19, closed)

The first two
of the Gormenghast Trilogy definately, and the Foundation "trilogy" is now about 9 books worth, im sure I have at lest 5 of them in the attic, good but not his greatest.

My list is going to be full of arse I think!
(Half a turkey carcass still left on the 29thy Shit Tesco petrol broke my car apparently, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:23, closed)

The whole 'Roads to Freedom' trilogy
Very life changing "I am free!"

...am I fuck. But at least I tried dammit.
(Che Grimsdale More fridge-magnet than babe-magnet, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:04, closed)

Titus Alone
I read the third of the Gormenghast trio first, and that's what got me into it. The other two are better in their construction and invention, but the third is wonderful for its bleakness and relevance to 20th century
(Ruddles, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:53, closed)