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The Ten Books That have stayed with you / Influenced You
For me I'll start with Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken and Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Tiwnsend . I read both these when I was 13 when i was stuck inside all summer with a broken arm and they played a huge part in my love of reading developing.
Then Dracula because its just a book that got right inside my head and i've loved everytime I've read it.
Next is Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett because it introduced me to the world of what became my favourute author.
Then The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, firstly because its amazing and secondly it was one of the first books Trelawn introduced me to.
The Hobbit because its level of imagination shows how fantasy can be at its best.
Harry Potter because its a set of books that can capture anyones imagination young or old and a series which never dissapointed me.
Wool by Hugh Howey because it came from nowhere and drew me right in.
American Gods by Neil Gaimanbecause it was a book that i really missed reading when i finished it.
World Without End by Ken Follett because i honestly felt i lived every page .
I've also posted elsewhere but only 7 so I'll put the full 10 here.Jane Eyre
The Shadow of the Wind
Gaudy Night
Mallory Towers
Harry Potter
The Hundred Year Old Man
The Bronze Horseman
Bleak House
Goodnight Mr Tom
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Yeah The Book of Lost Things is an amazing book. oh and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I knew i'd never be able to stick to 10 :-)
I forgot to respond to this when Jodell posted it. Got distracted by group stuff.
Let me see...
To kill a Mocking Bird- Harper Lee
Lord if the Flies- William Holding
Catch 22- Joseph Heller
Player of Game- Iain M. Banks
Use of Weapons- Iain M. Banks
Strumpet City- James Plunkett
Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha- Roddy Doyle
The Subtle Knife- Philip Pullman
Slaughterhouse V- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
These are three first ten books I can think of that made me go "whoa" when I read them. I'm sure there are more, but I didn't want to think to hard on it to keep in the spirit of the original post by Jodell.
Let me see...
To kill a Mocking Bird- Harper Lee
Lord if the Flies- William Holding
Catch 22- Joseph Heller
Player of Game- Iain M. Banks
Use of Weapons- Iain M. Banks
Strumpet City- James Plunkett
Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha- Roddy Doyle
The Subtle Knife- Philip Pullman
Slaughterhouse V- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
These are three first ten books I can think of that made me go "whoa" when I read them. I'm sure there are more, but I didn't want to think to hard on it to keep in the spirit of the original post by Jodell.
This is almost just the same as my all time top ten but not quite. For some reason I got it into my head that the key for this list was "life changing" books. But anyway. The top ten that came into my head:Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
Audrey Neffenegger - The Time traveller's Wife
Iain M Banks - The Player of Games
Sarah Winman - When God Was a rabbit
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
Donna Tartt - The Secret History
Tony Buzan - Master your memory
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting
p.s. Who / what is Jodell? is that a reference to another thread or something?
Oh thanks - sorry Jodell. I don't try to keep up with all the threads. Particularly "nothing to do with books". I've way too many other lists and groups for non book stuff already :)
Paul wrote: "Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4" Good call. Great book. Probably the best thing I read in my younger years.
Its one of the books i remember reading at that age and loving it.
Paul wrote: "Jodell Poses the interestong question of What are the top ten books you have read that have stayed with you . Don't think too long on it but post what comes to mind. Some explanations can help but..."Thank you Paul... Could we do one about Irish vs American food to?? I really want to know if its true that black pudding has pig blood??????
The Silent WifeThe End of the world as we know it:
Mostly Bob
A crowbar in a Buddhist garden
The Outsiders
The Reader
The Glass Castle
Dirty Red
Dusty
The Giving Tree
these are some that stayed with me, got lots more but just out the top of my head.
The only one i know without searching is the Giving Tree. I got a copy off my uncle when i was a kid and he was visiting from Kenya. Good choice
isn't it funny that how little we know about other people from other places until we talk. About what they eat, what they like, what they read. How different our day to day lives really are Paul. I mean its funny cuz the Giving Tree is like a rite of passage here a very popular book by a very popular Author. ha ha . Ill check out your list and make it a point to read one of your books.
Paul wrote: "For me I'll start with Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken and Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Tiwnsend . I read both these when I was 13 when i was stuck inside all summer with a broken arm and th..." I read the hobbit in high school.
Jamie Lynn wrote: "Burial Rites was very haunting. It's ending left me in a strange kind of WOW feeling and that book was on my mind for days. I'll probably post one of these books once in awhile as I think of them. ..." I liked the lovley bones I even liked the movie to and that rarely happens.
Jodell wrote: "The Silent WifeThe End of the world as we know it:
Mostly Bob
A crowbar in a Buddhist garden
The Outsiders
The Reader
The Glass Castle
Dirty Red
Dusty
The Giving Tree
Wuthering Height
these are some that stayed w..."
Good idea on borrowing a book from someone elses list Jodell. I rarely see the Giving Tree in Ireland. I did get excited when i saw a copy in London last year
ok Paul you choose the book off your list you would like me to read, Ill read it and report back. but you must do the same. If I picked a book for you to read off my list it probably be The End of the World as we know it or A crow bar in a Buddhist garden.
To learn a little something about Ireland and its history I'd say try Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken . Its set in the 1640's during the Cromwell wars in Ireland and is one of the most beautifully written Historical fictions ive ever read
yeha kind of a must read as a teenager in the united states. I read it in junior high, for school and then I read it to my daughters class in sixth grade. So it never gets old.
your so right Emma......, about Cathy, she was a weakling. Heathcliff deserved better...but as they say, The heart wants what the heart wants. Heathcliff wanted Cathy..
And Heathcliff needs the Jasper Fforde treatment :-)
Sad but true. maybe he needs a good slap too, or a swift kick in the shins. God, that book annoys me.
Ok, girls this is why I liked Wuthering Heights: because: when you take someone like Heathcliff who never had a family or anyone. The closest place he ever belonged or ever felt like he was wanted was with Cathy. Cathy was willfull and spoiled was not careful with his attentions. When you live in an adoptive or foster care family. You think, yes this is what I want. Then you find you don't really fit in or get the cravings of love attention and family you thought you would get.Others don't like you, don't want you there, treat you like crap so you set out on your own.
Heathcliff proves them wrong by becoming successful. But by then Cathy is married.
So Heathcliff is hurting badly and acts out. Most men act out in evil ways when hurt.
I myself grew up in foster care and I always felt like the outsider, and crushed on a boy I could never have because, who was I just a kid who was in foster care. So it hit a nerve with me.
If you never felt like the odd one out you know. That is what I took from it. Of course when I read this book I was a teenager. I wanted Heathcliff to get the happy ending. Choose a different girl, have a happy ending. But as we all know in books as in life there is not always a HEA>
I agree that,genarally speaking, it appeals amore to teenagers. They can relate to the angst and melodrama of it all. For me, it was just too over the top and like Jamie Lynn, I found Heathcliff to be cruel.
Wow - life changing? Don't know that my life has changed that often.Here's ten (maybe twelve) books that left the most profound effect on me though
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace - didn't know you could do that with a novel. Complex, funny, sad, needs at least two bookmarks, hugely influential
Ulysses, James Joyce - again, didn't see how you could do all that in a book. Just how could seem one write a book like that?
The Last Temptation, Nikos Kazantzikas - raised Catholic in Ireland in the 70s/80s; opened a new way of thinking about God, faith...: the big stuff
Laughing Gas, PG Wodehouse - probably not his best novel but the first of Plum's I read. Opened a wonderful world of books to me and showed me where so many other humorists got their influence
The Secret Diary of Adrain Mole, Aged 13 3/4, Sue Townsend - came along when I was 13 and 3/4 and was just perfect. Still funny
Empire Falls, Richard Russo - first Pulitzer winner I actively sought out. Ever since, the Pulitzers are my go-to prizes.
Jaws, Peter Benchley - Pulp, but the first "adult" book I read. At my age, the were no YA categories: you read the whole children's library, then plunk full on into the adult section. Never looked back. (Notable mention here could also go to The Godfather by Mario Puzo or The Rats by James Herbert)
The Modern Library, Colm Toibin & Carmen Callil - a list book that came out around the turn of the 20th century. A hundred books, written in English, published between 1950 and 1999. A great dipper and has pointed me in some great directions. Still one of the best lists. Totally subjective and as opinionated as goes with that.
Christine, Stephen King - read this when it came out first. I don't remember why I chose this particular one and not any of his others that had come out by then. I'm still reading him thirty odd years later
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien - this list isn't entirely about the good stuff. I hate LOTR so much! To this day, I'm allergic to anything with elves, dwarves, gold, dragons, etc. - the whole fantasy thing. It's had an influence on my taste in book-cover fonts! I can't even bring myself to say George RRRRRRR Martin's full name. To me, he's just George Martin and let the Beatles/Game of Thrones fans sort it out themselves.
Glad to see someone else add Adrian Mole. And also add a negative as well. A book you hate can have as lasting an impact as one you love.I should probably have added Ulysses for the same reason.
Dave wrote: "Wow - life changing? Don't know that my life has changed that often.Here's ten (maybe twelve) books that left the most profound effect on me though
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace - didn't kn..."
Dave, I didn't say life changing just books that kind of stayed with you. On your list Ive read Lord of the Rings while in high school.
Yeah... Don't know where THAT came from. So by missing the point, I kind of hit the target too. Good for me! ;)
Agree with Paul: Ulysses influenced me to stay away from Joyce for another couple of years. It might be a while until I can open a JJ novel again.
Great to see Wodehouse in there. I read a Jeeves anthology earlier this year, followed by some of the longer stories and they're just so good. Intelligent and silly and above all, fun.
When I was in school these are the books I was forced to read but ended up liking anyway because I loved to read were: Roots
Centennial
Othello
The Outsiders
Romeo and Juliet
Wuthering Heights
Diary of Anne Frank
My daughter list in school:
The Great Gasby
Ethan Frome
The Outsiders
Great Expectations
The Scarlett Letter
Ill bet in Ireland the kids were given different classics than Americans. Or maybe not. If I were a betting person Id say. (Different)
I did a few Anerican books for school, The Great Gatsby , Catcher in the Rye , The Pearl to name a few. Of your list I also did Othello and loved it.
For Shakespeare I read As You Like It and Hamlet. For novels I read Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, The Grass is Singing and December Bride. They were my exam year reads.For transition year I read Lord of the Flies and Reading in the Dark. Out of all of the above I enjoyed most but really hated The Grass is Singing and Lord of the Flies.
I compiled my list based on the fact that it's only really over the last 17 years or so that I've become a serious reader-while I read voraciously as a kid, it was more comics and magazines, with a few novels thrown in. My teenage and university years consisted of football or music related biographies and magazines-I associated reading with studying at that time. Thankfully I rediscovered a love of reading when I graduated! I've listed in order of my reading of the books. Unsurprisingly, for those that know me, it's a very NI centric list!
The list:
The Shankill Butchers - Martin Dillon - a very disturbing account of a UVF mass murder gang that I originally read as a teenager - more than anything before then, it brought home to me the futility of the conflict here
Balling the Jack - Frank Baldwin - not a big novel, but one that introduced me to contemporary fiction-previous to reading this, I mistakenly associated fiction with the classics / books I had to study in school
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby - totally appealed to the music obsessive in me
Eureka Street - Robert McLiam Wilson - one of my favourite ever books, which I first read in a day in Pompeii of all places - Wilson perfectly captured the city I was living in at the time in a poignant but often hilarious way
Divorcing Jack - Colin Bateman - another hilarious but very clever crime novel set in Belfast that has resulted in my shelf of over 20 Bateman books-it's only recently that he's become tired as a writer in my eyes
The International - Glenn Patterson - another book set in Belfast over a single day at the outset of the Troubles-the first novel that I read where the protagonist's sexuality was stated but incidental to the story-this book had a big impact on me, and is probably my favourite ever novel.
The Belfast Anthology - Patricia Craig - a great book that I pored over in my mid twenties and must read again sooner rather than later
Northline - Willy Vlautin - an amazingly evocative novel about a casino worker in Reno - I'm nearly scared to read it again in case I don't enjoy it as much as I did that first time.
The Life and Times of Harvey Milk - Randy Shilts - the biography of an inspirational character and the account of the shocking aftermath of his murder
Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann - the perfect NYC novel for me!
Well we all have Shakespeare in common. I wonder why we never learned of Edgar Allen Poe in our High School years. I never heard of a lot of the books you mention:The Cay,
Lies of Silence,
December Bride
The Grass is singing
Emma, I still like Wuthering Heights in my angst driven teenage world it was better than some tv I had to watch. ha ha ...FLipper.....
It's hard to distill a list of 10. Dave - I like your list for its variety and the fact Ulysses is there:)
There are books that impressed me years ago that I'd like to go back to to see if they hold up such as Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook. I loved Let the Great World Spin so that's be on my list. There may be a way to sort one's Ravelry library by star rating...that's help.
I am fascinated by this topic and reading everyone's lists. Here are some of the books that have stayed with me/influenced me----the Anne of Green Gables series.
--The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
--King Lear
--The Remains of the Day
--A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
--Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series (the first mysteries I ever read and started my addiction to them)
--In a Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson (the first of his I read--and have tried to read all of the rest of his travel nonfiction)
--The Return of the Native (the first Hardy novel I read--and then wanted to read all of his)
--Frank O'Connor's short stories
--Flannery O'Connor's short stories and letters
--A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
--The Turning by Tim Winston
--William Trevor's short stories
Even though this is a baker's dozen and not 10, I'm certain that I'll remember some life changing book about five minutes after I post this!
Jodell. Per "1001 Books You must read Before You Die": Ethan Frome is a limpid account of mental isolation, sexual frustration and moral despair in a turn of the century New England farming community.Wow! I bet they were beating the punters back with a stick when that came out
@Cathleen. I haven't read Bryson for a few years. I'll have to rectify that, soon.
Dave wrote: "Jodell. Per "1001 Books You must read Before You Die": Ethan Frome is a limpid account of mental isolation, sexual frustration and moral despair in a turn of the century New England farming commun..."Dave:
Well my Daughter had to read it for school then we watched the movie. It was quite Angsty, and sad. I don't understand what you mean on your last sentence. You guys have a witty sense of humor but its not the words we use so Yeha I have a hard time keeping up on some of the things you all say on here. Because I don't understand the wording or what your trying to convey....sorry.
Jodell The Grass is Singing is by Doris Lessing and is about the struggles of a poor white farmer and his wife in southern rhodesia. December Bride is by Sam Hanna Bell and considers life in a small community and the moral implications of our choices. A young girl lives as a maid with a father and his two sons and has an illegitimate child with one of the trio.
Trelawn - another Doris Lessing book that should go on my list.Cathleen - I am so glad you included short stories. I'd have to add Alice Munro to my list, and love Frank O'Connor and William Trevor.
Allan - I thought about adding Eureka Street. I think all the comments here will help me come up with a more definitive list of 10.
Allan - you are a "bad" influence. I just ordered The Shankill Butchers ($9.30 with Amazon Prime shipping) and Padraig O'Malley's The Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today.
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Don't think too long on it but post what comes to mind. Some explanations can help but arent required