This book changed my lifeThe Goat writes, "Some books have made a huge impact on my life." It's true. It wasn't until the b3ta mods read the Flashman novels that we changed from mild-mannered computer operators into heavily-whiskered copulators, poltroons and all round bastards in a well-known cavalry regiment.
What books have changed the way you think, the way you live, or just gave you a rollicking good time?
Friendly hint: A bit of background rather than just a bunch of book titles would make your stories more readable
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chthonic, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:11)
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Two...Notes from a small island - Bill Bryson.
Read this one (rapidly followed by everything else he had ever written) when I was probably 13 or 14. It's had a big impact both on my writing style and sense of humour in a way that no other author (and I read a lot) has done.
A Devils Chaplain - Richard Dawkins
As much as Dawkins annoys me in part (I personally find his writings on religion too aggressive to actually be of any use in encouraging those with religious beliefs - his target, he claims - to actually think; they're more likely to send them onto the offensive), he's clearly a very intelligent and interesting man, and I find very little that I disagree with him on. This book (along with one of my teachers at A-level) was one of the first things to really encourage me to adopt a rational way of thought - to base my decisions and beliefs on empirical evidence.
(, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:42, 2 replies)
Such an amiable chap..Bill Bryson is one of those rare authors who can make any topic interesting (currently reading his "Shakespear" one). Having read everything he's done I can agree how much of an impact he can make.
I loved the line about him hanging from the loft hatch when the ladder fell away. "They (women) can hear a dollop of jam hit the carpet from 100 yeards but couldn't hear his screams from upstairs..."
(, Fri 16 May 2008, 13:46, closed)
BrysonBill Bryson is truly fantastic. My primary school teacher when I was in Year 6 lent me a copy f 'A Walk in the Woods' and, aside from being simpy thrilled it had swear words in it, thought it was the best thing I'd ever read. In the ten years that followed I gradually aquired everything he'd ever written. Legend!
PS. Basing your decisions and beliefs on empirical evidence is not necessarily always the best way to go. (I am a pretentious philosohy student.)
(, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:21, closed)
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