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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Terribly geeky this one...... but when I was (relatively) little - old enough to be able to read but only just - I picked up a copy of a book my Dad brought home from work. He'd recently taken over a large railway workshop and was fitting it out as a truck garage, and had found a couple of old books in a dusty corner of the office. This book was (and this is the geeky part) "Diesel Traction - a Manual for Enginemen". It's pretty much as the title sounds. It was published in the late 50s or early 60s as a guide for train drivers and mechanics to get their heads around these new diesel trains that were rapidly replacing steam.
The main thing that affected me about it was the diagrams. Flicking through it I realised that you could understand and explain just about anything if you could make a diagram of it. It also covered a lot of stuff about not coming to a conclusion too early when you're tracking down problems, rather like the bits about formal scientific method in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
If I hadn't read it, I'd probably be doing something highly-paid and dull, and hating it.
Oh, and is it just me, or was The God Delusion a pile of self-indulgent wank?
(, Thu 22 May 2008, 7:58, 1 reply)
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