i remember reading the book 'sounder', by william h. armstrong, when i was young. at the time, no book had had that sort of affect on me, ever. it still haunts me.


"A landmark in children's literature, winner of the 1970 Newbery Medal, and the basis of an acclaimed film, Sounder traces the keen sorrow and the abiding faith of a poor African-American boy in the 19th-century South. The boy's father is a sharecropper, struggling to feed his family in hard times. Night after night, he and his great coon dog, Sounder, return to the cabin empty-handed. Then, one morning, almost like a miracle, a sweet-smelling ham is cooking in the family's kitchen. At last the family will have a good meal. But that night, an angry sheriff and his deputies come..."

The Lion the Which and the Wardrobe had a big affect on me.
Also all of Madeline L'Engle's work which taught me that you can be a christian writer and still be good.
And Anne Lammott, who taught me that honesty can be charming.

Amen to what Bethany said.

And I cried at the end of Old Yeller, though I've yet to read the book.

C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed was so great. I couldn't put it down. I love his style of just writing what seems to come to his mind- it wanders and changes subject easily, but all comes together to make reading the book seem more like an experience that you have with the author. I love his in depth thoughts that really hashes things out in an honest, almost rugged way.

excellent thread idea...

Love and Living by Thomas Merton had one of the most profound effects on my life. perhaps I'll expound on that later... I became comfortable with silence, and started learning the art of un-clinging to people for validation (poor way to put it, but for now...)

Reaching Out by Henri Nouwen (for the concept of offering a free space to others)

John Fischer - Real Christians *Don't* Dance (among a few others similar). Along with Brennan Manning's Raggamuffin Gospel, crystalized and focused for me why I felt growing dis-ease with the christian subculture. basic stuff to me now, but at the time i was too close to it all to see clearly. helped pull me out of the ghetto. at the same time, I discovered Over the Rhine and Vigilantes of Love, who led me by the hand to a world where people still had faith (of a much more real and genuine character I felt) out in the real world, struggled with that faith in the context of life, and didn't hide behind stained-glass walls. opened my eyes to a world of christian authors and artists who didn't fall into the CCM category, but were very much believers nonetheless. Flannery O'Conner, Thomas Merton, Bruce Cockburn, Frederick Buechner, etc. etc. ad nauseum...

Lion, Witch and Wardrobe also when I was in 6th grade, for opening my imagination up like nothing else had before.

just about anything I've ever read by Frederick Buechner, especially Alphabet of Grace. helped get me nice and comfortable with mystery and the unexplained in life, as well as infusing my imagination with awe and appreciation of it all...

Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water (and Circle of Quiet later), for (among other things) suggesting that perhaps the Christian life isn't all about being a good commercial for Jesus, that there are at least other valid options available than those being sold by the christian mainstream.

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, for more fully awakening in me the desire to be a writer...

C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, for just this one partial paragraph: "When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

to be continued...

yeah, that was the first c.s.lewis book i loved (hadnt read LWW yet). it's a bit awkward that the pacing and length of the book make it seem as though he had come to terms with it too easliy.
i love it though!
d.

great book for going through any depression, esp. the beginning.

Oh gosh, there have been lots of them, which I think of as "wow" books:

A Wrinkle in Time (wow, books are incredibly cool)

To Kill a Mockingbird (wow, I guess things are different outside of New York)

Lord of the Rings (wow, just... wow)

Steppenwolf (wow, I've been taking myself way too seriously)

Portnoy's Complaint (wow, I'm not the only teenage male totally obsessed with sex)

Shakespeare's plays & sonnets (wow, why did anybody else bother writing after this guy?)

Twilight of the Idols (wow, maybe Man created God instead of vice versa)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X (wow, whole lotta oppression goin' on)

Dostoevsky's novels (wow, so this is how we'd act if we actually said what's on our minds)

Games People Play (wow, there are frustrated four-year-olds inside us guiding a lot of our behavior)

In the Shadow of Man (wow, we really don't behave so differently from apes)

Relativity: A Popular Exposition (wow, the universe is a whole lot different than the way we perceive it)

Behind the Mirror (wow, everything we are capable of knowing was shaped by our evolution)

In no particular order ...

Seal Child, Sylvia Peck ("There's no love without danger. Not true love.")

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (You mean the nerdy girl gets the boy in the end without undergoing a makeover? No way! And the philosophy and explanations of tesseracts were pretty cool, too.)

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (Holy crap ... white people suck worse than I thought.)

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning (You mean guilt and Christianity aren't supposed to go together?)

Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott (Her "salvation prayer" won me over here ... "F*** it. You can come in.")

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (The religious right will eventually turn all women into sex objects! Vote Democrat!) <--- mostly hyperbole, by the way

Unsung, Linford Deweiler (This is why I want to be a writer.)

Troilus and Cressida, William Shakespeare (Cressida's view of men was entirely my own at seventeen, so I related.)

1984, George Orwell (Never put full faith in either the government or the media. Or yourself, for that matter.)

My Antonia, Willa Cather (Leaves me on a week-long high everytime I read it, the prose is so beautiful.)

I'm going to have to second a lot of what these people of good taste have already said. . .

A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (this is the book that made me a reader for life)

Fear and Trembling - Kierkegaard (this book changed the way that I viewed my relationship with God and the world)

All of Doestoevsky (like keith said, this is how we think? Good God, we're all nutjobs!)

The Trial - Kafka (just a superb piece of literature)

Invisible Man - Ellison (reopened my eyes to how much people, white people included, can truly suck)

1984, Animal Farm, Essays - Orwell (this man is a genius at explaining the true nature of sociology)

Be Here Now - Dass (a creative outlook on life)

Tao Te Ching - Lao-Tzu (introduction to Taoism and the peace that lies within)

The Things They Carried - O'Brien (a great insight of the soldier's life in Vietnam)

Complete Works of Bill Shakespeare (really this in addition to having a great professor, thanks Captain.)

and last, definitely not least,

The Bible (this is the book that shaped my spirituality)

I am sure I have read many books and without thought there has been some impact.
A few that hit me at that age of early molding.
All' Quite on the Western Front, it was the first book of required reading in Jr High that I secretly loved and related to.
The Trail; the challenge of freshman year english, a book from a fish bowl, critiqued in german, I learned more about myself from this paper than I ever thought
Anything written by Molly Ivans, I met her once at an Anne Richard's thing in Texas, she is a real
human!
Salems Lot, first Stephen King book, began my like of vampires, along with classic horror books
To Kill a Mocking Bird, learning that fairness and justice in life is in the way you live it

The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) by Herman Hesse...really interesting perspective on life and what it should and should not be...

Yes. Just, yes. I can't say enough about Kierkegaard. Reading him fostered the closest thing to an epiphany that I've ever had. I *literally* changed the way I was living after reading him.

The book that single-handedly made me love to read *drum roll*..

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I wanted to live in the woods for years after I read this (until i went on a real survival trip at 15, and found out how much gathering your own water for everything s-u-c-k-s)

So many... But here are the some of the most significant of the past five years or so...

God.com - James Alexander Langteaux

The Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard

The Sacred Romance - Brent Curtis & John Eldredge

Abba's Child - Brennan Manning

Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott

A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey - Brian McLaren

What's So Amazing About Grace? - Philip Yancey

Matt

Also:

The Scarlet Letter--- exciting symbolism!
Lord of the Rings-- This is a comforting book to read, even in the war scenes. I think it's because of all the vivid details given. Gotta love the elves and trees.
Hatchet--- THIS book made me want to live in the woods forever I read it in middle school and have appreciated the use of a hatchet ever since.
A Brave New World-- along the same lines as 1984
Through Gates of Splendor- by Elizabeth Elliot!!!!! good and inspiring.
Revolution in World Missions- appreciated the free copy from Gospel to Asia. Very good.
Back to a Grief Observed, it was actually a book that helped me out a lot with depression. I've had seasonal depression for years, really kind of since I was little. What he wrote just seemed to be my thought process through all of that, and it was so nice to hear someone else say the same things, and then talk through it.

I've gotta read To Kill a Mockingbird, and Uncle Tom's Cabin... along with a long list of other classics.

Hmmm, probably Byzantium by Lawhead and The great divorce by CS Lewis. Mainly because I saw myself in those books so many times, in good and bad ways.

many books have changed my life positively. but sadly, what i thought of in the context of "books that changed your life" was the insipid and brain-deadening series that is the "baby-sitter's club." i read my first one in the first grade (it was my first chapter book!), and proceeded to read about fifty or sixty more. why, oh why, was i reading ann m. martin when my illustrious peers were dipping in the waters of c.s. lewis and madeleine l'engle?? i really think those stupid babysitter's club books (which, incidentally, begin with almost the exact same chapter, detailing how kristy is the tomboy, stacy is the cool diabetic, dawn is the funky californian, mary anne is shy but has the boy [logan], and claudia is the artist) made me a less bright kid, and to this day i'm still in literary recovery.

it's depressing to think that i wasted my eyesight on that juvenile smut.

Hey, don't feel bad Katherine. I think I spent the entire 4th grade reading all 26 books in the Freddy the Detective series by Walter R. Brooks (about a barnyard pig who solves crimes).

cool! i wish i had these! is the pig related to wilber of charlotte's web?

I read Old Yeller and Savage Sam (about the son of Old Yeller) in 4th grade after my teacher had read parts of Old Yeller to us in class. I loved both books.

: )

Others that affected me deeply:

-- All of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (eating maple syrup STILL reminds me of the Ingalls family)

-- Charlotte's Web

-- A whole batch of Beverly Cleary books (the ones featuring Beezus, Ramona, Henry and Ribsy)

-- The Rats of NIMH (my 5th-grade teacher read us portions of this one, and I had to follow up on my own)

-- The Little Prince

-- A couple of Shel Silverstein books: The Missing Piece and The Giving Tree

-- Jonathan Livingston Seagull (my stepbrother raved about this one when we were growing up; I didn't read it until I was an adult)

The earliest books I can remember were Nancy Drew Mysteries.
I think I must have read every one. Loved 'em. I wanted to be Nancy.
I also loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder series....read those several times over. Of course I wanted to be Laura.
I also read a seies of books for young people that were all biographies and the illustrations were all in black and white sillouette. I read so many of those about famous women in colonial history: Dolly Madison, Betsy Ross, lots others.
To Kill a Mockingbird will always be a favorite.
A Nun's Story made me very much want to be a nun for a while.
Even more so, In This House of Brede.
Shogun got me all excited about Japan and Samauri. I wanted to visit Japan so bad for a long time.
Likewise, The Thorn Birds made me want to visit Australia.
I was so addicted to Ian Fleming's James Bond books...each one read a number of times.
The Shining by Stephen King started me on the King novels. I've read that several times in fact.
Recently, JK Rowling's Harry Potter has been tremendous fun.
Most recently, the books by Anne Lamott have impressed me to seek out everything she has written.
It's interesting that many of the books I have read have become movies but almost without fail the book is so SO much better. And thank goodness, I read the books first.

There are so many books on my list, I'm sure I will forget some and have to come back and re-visit my post.

I've probably read thousands of books by now, but these are the titles that stick out in my mind as havng changed my life. I'll limit the number to ten.

1. The Bible - Introduced me to the wonderful Savior. The guide for my life everyday.

2. To Kill A Mockingbird - My mother told me she read this to me while I was in her womb. I first read this while in grade school and it opened up a world to me I could only imagine.

3. The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton's autobiography of his turning away from the world to his "four walls of new freedom" as a Trappist monk in Kentucky still inspires me. (This coming from an Evangelical, not a Catholic!)

4. The Rabbit Novels - John Updike's take on the last half of the 20th century is breathtaking as told through the eyes of the fallen sports hero, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.

5. The Civil War (3 volumes) - Shelby Foote took over 20 years to write these magesterial works on the Civil War. These books started a love affair with history that still burns in me today.

6. Walden - Henry David Thoreau's book taught me to look beyond the everyday, mundane existence many of us lead and to find beauty in the small things of life.

7. Short Stories - Flannery O'Conner's stories made me realize that grace, beauty, love, faith, and hope are stronger than violence, hate, and anger.

8. A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kenndey Tooles's story of New Orleans and Ignatius J. Reilly made me laugh as no other novel. A joyous, rambunctious book full of life.

9. The Message - Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible has made me see the old, ancient words in a new light. It has refreshed my soul and renewed my relationship with Jesus.

10. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry's epic story of the old west has been wrongly labeled a "western" novel. At it's heart, this book is about the strong bonds of friendship, loyalty, and love. An exhilarating read. One of the few novels that made me physically ache with pain; cry tears of anguish and joy; laugh out loud; and finally understand the difference between novels and literature.

I, too, wanted to be Laura. I think I thought I was for a while ... just a few years later!

: )

I haven't read The Thorn Birds, but watching the mini-series made me want to be Richard Chamberlain. Or Rachel Ward. They're both beautiful!!

: )

I have read and watched The Shining, both versions ... can't help but love Jack Nicholson's version, but the TV mini-series did a better job getting into the main character's head. Something the book, of course, does a much better job of.

thanks... i'm trying to feel a little better. it doesn't help that i also read a lot of sweet valley high books, too. i was really eeked out to hear an interview with the author of those books on this american life the other night. when asked about some specific plotline, her answer made it so obvious that she hadn't even read all the books, let alone written them all.


since i started out all cranky, i'll list some books that changed my life for the better:
weetzie bat (made me think that being unique was actually a good thing)
the brothers karamazov (made me constructively angry at christianity)
traveling mercies (made me reconcile with christianity)
davita's harp (made me think that being smart and religious was cool)
proverbs of ashes (made me understand why atonement theology doesn't work for me)
the collected poems of sylvia plath (made me want to be a poet)

Katherine: I read at least 100 Baby Sitters Club books in my elementary school days. And BabySitter's Little Sister as well. Sad but true. I was obsessed. I wanted to be IN the babysitters club. I wrote my own fiction, ALWAYS in the first person.
I made up for it by reading quality literature at an alarming rate in middle and high school. And being an english major in college.

wow, bethany! it's nice to know that someone i respect so much was also a babysitter's club wannabe. the little sister books came out just as i was finally getting out of the cult, so i thankfully missed that aspect of the addiction. i, too, wrote first-person novels; the only one i actually finished (at a whopping hand-written 40 pages) was a mystery called "no way out."

i converted to good literature in high school- by the time my mom tried to get me to read a danielle steele novel, i knew to say, "GET THEE BACK, TRASHY FICTION!"

Oh, Kathrerine, I respect you too. Fabulousness all around. I think the Babysitter's addiction did do me some good, it got me in the habit of reading every spare moment!

I agree with Bethany; the Baby-sitter's Club books kept me a confirmed reader through late elementary school and middle school. There is no shame in devouring them. I was a big Nancy Drew reader as well -- I think I read every volume our school library had.

I'm not gonna mention the ones writing in swedish or finish, so my list might be pretty short...

First the obvious ones: Dostojevskij - after reading that almost everything I had read up to that point seam rather trivial. I could manage on a desert island pretty long with nothing but the chapter on Starjets Zosima in Karamazov.

LoTR - My dad read them to me when I was about five, and I have read them through every few years, so I should think they had an impact. The last time I read them I was a bit put off by the view of women in the books, but he was a child of his times of course (and he was behind his times even then...)

Stephen Donaldsons books about Thomas Covenant. If you A) hate fantasy or love fantasy you should read these, they are modern classics. If I ever get around to it I'll write a study on the relationship of guilt and power in these books, they are hugely profound and original.

Thomas Merton opend up my eyes to the good sides of catholicism. There are less than 4000 catholics in Finland, so you're not likely to grow up with a balanced idea about it. I would especially recomend his diaries, they are truly eye-opening. Here we have contemplative monk that supposedly is a hermit, yet hi listens to Bob Dylan and goes for drives in the countryside with Joan Baez. Weird and uplifitng.

Andrew Louths book The roots of Christian Mysticism are one of a few books I've read for exams and than read them again after the exam since it was so good. Provides a completely different viewpoint of christinity.

St Augustine's confessions. A good reminder that humans are, have always been and will always be humans.

Paul Tillich's Systematic theology. I wrote my thesis for my Masters degree on this. The experience of reading through the system for the first time was breathtaking, it's like having the universe explained for you! Or rather, Tillich puts in to words everything you sort of feel with your intution... As a bonus one gets a complete rundown of the western philosphical and theolgical tradition. If you are interested in religion with a modern perspective, it's really worth it to get to work in Tillich.

Ok, I have to meniton one of my coutrymen. Georg Henrik von Wright is Finlands greatest philosopher of all time, he was Wittgensteins student and took over his chair after him. He wrote his scietific work in english (mostly on logic), but his books written in swedish (there must be translations out there) are the really interesting ones. von Wright is a cultural pessimist, that is, he critisizes the idea that society progresses. INsted he points out the problems of western civilization. Honestly, it's not as depressing as it sounds. Actually it gave me lot of hope. Titles: "The myth of progress" (or something similar) "The Interpretation of contemporary times"...

OK enough for now, I could go on for ages.

Also, the Gospel of Saint John. But one has to read it slowly, preferably in greek

Patrik

what a great thread, d!

lewis' a grief observed is wonderful--but i read it at the wrong time. i read it during the weekend when we scattered my younger and only sister's ashes at the beach after her death. i thought, "oh, this'll be good--lewis--i love his take on things--some perspective and comfort." but our reactions were so _totally_ different with regard to god and questioning that i hated it at the time.

till we have faces!

all the dystopic books mentioned--opening my eyes to systems etc. started a young age and is still going on. the most remarkable was handmaid's tale since it was so fleshly--most of those novels have a metalic and inorganic approach somehow. atwood's is anything but.

other scandalous others: kafka, hesse, rand, twain.

i love the eyes opening. blossom culp and the sleep of death gripped me as a young, young kid because of the elements of the supernatural.

Lord of the Rings

The Space Trilogy

Franny and Zooey

probably the most important "one": Flannery O'Connor's stories

wow, i've made a fairly big list of "whoa"--makes me feel so grateful for these life changing books we can stumble upon almost daily.

-j. marie

p.s. d, i'm reading "cosmicomics" per your recommendation. wonderful stuff!

Hey don't feel bad Keith. I read the same book 26 times (or more) over the course of a year and a half when I was five because it was the only book in the house besides some Reader's Digest books. I think that may have been the birth of my love of repitition and my reluctance to expand my taste in whatever (music, lit, art, cooking, etc.).

Books that changed my life:

Bridge to Terabithia: In the fourth grade, I finally gained access to books on a regular basis via the school library. What a revelation. I loved to read, consumed every book I could find in the house, but we just didn't have much around except stuff like The Equirer, which my Mother picked up religiously every week at the grocery. I knew more about Carol Burnett & the cast of Dallas than a seven year old should've known. Anyway, I first got hooked on Judy Bloom novels but when I found BtT, it was over for the entire fifth grade year. I read that book over and over (see what I mean?). I was naturally hooked on melancholia, even at that tender age, and I read the death and resultant grief passages over and over esp, crying every time.

Ariel, by Sylvia Plath. I'd been writing poetry for a couple of years when I first read this at the age of 15. This book probably sealed my fate forever as a poet. Close to the same time, I read Vonnegut's first novel, Sirens of Titan, which got me hooked on Vonnegut as well as science fiction. It had such a delightful twist and was so funny. I got both those books from a box of books a kind couple gave me, and it included Damien, by Hesse, and I'm a Hesse fan to this day.

Hamlet & Leaves of Grass: These two books belong together because they got so under my skin one Spring that I quit school to "live poetry" instead of reading it. Yeah, I was mental, but it sure was lovely.

The Shipping News, Postcards and Accordian Crimes, by E. Annie Proulx, because they were so odd, yet emotionally charged in a wierd detached way. Great tension in those books.

Woman on the Verge of Time, by Marge Piercy: I LOVE Marge Piercy, but this book blew me away because it was such a complex tale and was so philosophical. I like a little something to chew on while I'm being entertained. Piercy is a master of that.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou: Damn, I said, as I read that book. DAAAAAMMN! Talk about something to chew on... This set me off to reading every word that I could find by Angelou. Two special experiences associated with this lady: 1) I was breathless watching Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Clinton's inauguration. Stunning. Second, I saw Maya Angleou at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. This was the evening of the day I saw my good friend Jackie give birth, and I was completely high on the experience. I don't care what some say, childbirth is an amazingly beautiful thing to see. Angelous spent a great deal of time talking about children at the show, so it was particulalry poignant.

This book also set me off on a couple of years reading black female and feminist authors such as Alice Walker (The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy, particularly) and Toni Morrison (Beloved--to die for)

I've already raved about Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn several times on this board. Let me recommend it again. An amazingly original story with, admittedly, a weak ending, but who the hell cares when there's so many honest, creatively contemplative musings on human nature.

Every single thing by Flannery O'Connor. This gave me my love of all things perverted and morbid, and to this day influences me as a writer.

I'll have to expand this some other time, because this is hardly all of them, but it's late and I'm tired.

I also read the Baby-sitter's Club and Nancy Drew, as well as the Sweet Valley books. No, they're not great literature, but once you get into the habit of reading, it's not a far leap to Little Woman, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables and the rest of the fabulous children's lit. out there.

bumpin cause I like it a lots

In mild shock, Anna asked,

I decided to respond to this over here so as not to hijack our book club thread (although it might be loosely related to some of the themes in A Doll House) and because it's the perfect place for it.

I completely understand your reaction. I recommended Jane Eyre to a friend of mine, and when she finally read it she was extremely underwhelmed. She saw Jane as a doormat and could not understand why I loved this book so much. Well...

I first read it when I was 13 (and in love with Jack London), and it had a huge impact on me. I identified with her from page one, and the subsequent issues of personal identity, choice, believing in yourself, resisting others who would change you, and the views on marriage were all revelatory for me. Here was a girl who was not beautiful and not particularly talented, yet she had the strength of character to do what she thought was right in the face of myriad pressures (internal and external). She knew that going off to India to sacrifice herself for religious reasons was just as wrong as becoming a shadow of herself as Rochester's plaything (he was already going overboard and dressing her up like a doll just before things fell apart).

It's also important to remember that when the book first came out, Jane was percieved as a monstrous violation of the ideals of "womanhood" in Victorian England. (The exact *opposite* impression she tends to create these days--more of a harpy than a doormat!) You might want to check out The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller--a fantastic analysis of how the sisters and their work has been percieved (and mythologized) over the years (e.g., Gaskell did more harm than good in trying to "rehabilitate" Charlotte).

Anyway, that's the short version.


And my admission to Brook: It's my favorite novel.

Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" really spoke to me - so much that I refuse to see the movie, because I don't want the book to be ruined for me.

The book was definitely better than the movie, but the movie was pretty good. and the book didn't have Jack Black in it, and that was worth the price of admission alone.