3 books that changed you

>le existential nihilism reaction meme

>>7614264
johnny got his gun, death and the kings horseman, critical theory today

and if no non fiction allowed, don quixote

adding some heidegger and we have a patrician collection

>>7614264

Man, I remember being 15 too

1. Oliver Twist
Second big boy book I ever read, first one I enjoyed. Made me realize the value in reading works that weren't Animorphs, Hardy Boys, etc.

2. A Clockwork Orange
First big boy book I ever read that wasn't in line with the traditional classic literature found on public school reading lists. Made me realize how much more there was than Moby-Dick, etc.

3. Grapes of Wrath
One of the first books I read that showed me how beautiful and powerful language can be.

You mean, books that you believed changed you.

Big difference.

Space Wolf got me to read at all. Taught me that it could be fun.

Ringworld made me realize that ideas were more exciting than actions.

Book of the New Sun made me realize artistry was better than ideas. Got me into the real shit like Borges, Nabakov and Faulkner

Bridge of Birds made me want to write. I wanted to make something so heartfelt.

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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - first childhood love of reading

Complete Stories of Poe - accompanied my developing loner edgy personality as a preteen

Ulysses - rejuvenated my love of reading and learning as a late teen

>>7614806
>>7614265
Mmmm I wonder why your jimmies were wrestled

>Ulysses
coz its bangin' obv

>The Ego and its Own
coz yeah its all the good stuff in a book

>Dr Zhivago
coz i like the story

1. Bible, specially Genesis, Revelation and the Gospels
My first contact with literature.

2. Demian
cuz it's trippy. Made me want to become a writer

3. Book of Disquiet
Best portuguese author since Camões. Better read in its own language though

>>7614264
1.1984
2.mein kampf
3.best served cold by joe abercrombie
its less that they changed me but more that they helped me gather my thoughts and gave me comfort by letting me know others have considered them

Epictetus

Plotinus

Ride the Tiger

>>7614874
Is Grapes actually enjoyable? I remember trying to read it as a teenager and finding it a pain in the ass. I don't know what I'd think of it nowadays

Being and Nothingness
The Plague
The Enchiridion

>>7616228
How did Best Served Cold change you? I haven't read it but I have a friend who has talked to me about it a few times.

>>7616275
like I said it did not change me it just helped me center my thought.I would say the most interesting part was the down side of cynicism even in a world were there are no other options. generally in stories cynics come off as people who have it all figured out but here there was focus on the down side as well as more honest look on revenge plots and information. I don't know, its hard to put into words. get an audio book

>The Stranger

Read at age 18, had an enormous impact on me at the time and I immadiately read The Myth of Sisyphus after and had sort of an existentialist/absurdist phase.

>Crime and Punishment

Read at age 21, completely wiped out Camus' influence on me and showed me what an edgy fool I'd been.

>Ulysses

Read at age 23. Showed me exactly how far literature and language could go while still being beautiful. Still my favourite book.

childhood's end made me want to fight till the bitter end.

the prince by machiavelli showed me that in 6+ centuries despite the technological advancement basic thinking has not really changed. + it was dry as hell

ITT: pseudo-intellectual sperglords pretending to understand things they never read. You literally cannot understand even a fraction of Ulysses whithout extensive literally studies. You people are worse than reddit.

>>7616317
>Pseudo-intellectual spergelords
I've heard that before, probably on reddit.
Fuck off you wanker. You literally know nothing about the comprehensive capacities of posters in this thread or the extent of their formal education in literature (not that I cede credence to your statement).

>>7616317
No one here claimed to "understand" Ulysses 100%. That doesn't mean people can't enjoy it for what it is.

I think the pseud here is you.

>>7616341
>>7616358
>taking the obvious bait
am I not in the company of well read gentry

>>7616366
>it was bait, really!

>>7616317
>muh deep Irish fart man

Fuck off you tosser

>>7616399
Im not even the guy who posted it.

>>7616440
>I'm not the guy, really!

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>>7616341
>>7616358
>>7616366
>>7616399
>>7616407
Look at me I'm smarter than everyone else because I post about "intellectual" books that I haven't read on a image board that sells anime sex toys!

Anna Karenina at 16 was the first real classic I genuinely enjoyed.
Book of the New Sun and Brothers Karamazov launched me into the world of books and shaped my religious views.

>>7614264
Being and Time.

That's it really. But nothing drastic.

1. Crime and Punishment
First 'real' classical novel that I read apart from the stuff one has to read in school. First book that showed me that there is literature that is conveying deeper thoughts and themes (was mainly reading fantasy and sci-fi before)

2. History of the Peloponnesian War
Sparked my interest in history and especially in reading ancient texts.

3. The 48 Laws of Power
Probably a really weird choice. It is not so much the book itself but the references that introduced a lot of interesting names, books, and topics to me.

>>7616317
>f Ulysses whithout extensive literally studies
mayeb if you're not very smart
sucks to be YOU

>>7616467
>being this mad that people read books
>projecting this hard

Pathetic.

> 3) Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe

One of the first books I've ever read. I still read it every now and then and it will be a book I read to my children. It's incredibly comfy and shows a lot of power in simplicity. Especially for the targeted ahe.

> 2) Anthem

I read this in my edgy Marxist high school phase. Lead to me trying to read Atlas Shrugged and picking up 1984, the Prince. It made me an edgy Anarchist for a bit but it really balanced my life out a bit. It also made me a stronger person and led me to stop bending over backwards for people

> 1) The Brothers Karamazov

It's just gorgeous. That's all there is to say.

>Ocean Sea
Alessandro Baricco, really beautiful prose, not really sure that it's a masterpiece but it's a personal favorite

>Infinite Jest
It may be a meme but I love this book. The examinations on life were satisfying enough for me (call me a simpleton), the plot was enjoyable and interesting, the voice was very relatable.

>In Search of Lost Time
This is probably the greatest work of all time. Never have I become so attached to a book. The prose was godlike, it was aesthetically appealing, not sure what else there is to say

>Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Pretty meme tier for a list like this, granted, but it was the first philosophy I read independently, plus let's not lie, it's fucking incredible.

>Hegel, by Frederick Beiser
I had read the VSI to Hegel, but this was my first real look into his philosophy. I only read this a few months ago, but already I can tell how much it has affected me, particularly in that it's gotten me over existentialism (for the most part).

>The Waste Land
Partly because I borrowed this off my best friend, who I'm also in love with but w/e. Mostly because reading it, and then rereading it after reading some analysis on it, was an incredible experience, and was the final push I needed to start working my way through the Western canon properly.

I'd recommend all three without hesitation.

nothing really

there are a couple books that might have had a noticeable effect if i read them from 14-16 but probably not for the better

>>7614264
>The world

Mah nigg.
Step it up.
The Universe is your will.

>>7616467
Wew lad...

>The Odyssey
Absolutely my favorite book. One of the first serious literature I read and I had the privilege of reading it in a masterful translation from ancient greece to an distinct classical icelandic prose style.

>Mumonkan
A very short book or booklet on Zen koans, although probably not literature, I would still consider this one of the most influenctial texts in my life.

>The Count of Monte Cristo
This book is amazing and really rekindled my interest for reading, it was the first really long book I read in many years of break since I was a kid and it held my interest the whole time.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Genealogy of Morals Frederich Nietzsche
The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism Max Weber

>The Catcher in the Rye
>Shoplifting from American Apparel
>Ready Player One

>>7616237
Yes. It's a 10/10.

Tcol49
My first pinecone. Everything was so visually vivid and it was extremely clever. I loved every second of it. My only regret is I will never read it for the first time again. A great mix of fantastic story telling and dialog and splendid prose and word craft

The fountainhead.
Read it at 16 and I related to parts of it quite a bit at the time. Mainly the individual doing exactly what he wants regardless of what unimaginative folks have to say about it (at least that's what I was feeling 9years ago)

Redwall
When I was 8 some kid brought it in to show and tell (I stole it because I thought it looked cool) I got really into reading with that and the next few in the series.

>>7614264
The Tunnel and The Recognitions permanently changed my outlook on life.

>>7617273
>Ready Player One

Bad b8 m8. It's like you're not even trying anymore.

In Cold Blood
Read it when I was 15, and became obsessed with it. It was what really got me into reading. Sort of like a gateway drug.

The Myth of Sisyphus
Don't know if it counts because it's technically an essay, but it was extremely thought provoking a changed my outlook on life.

The Sound and the Fury
Because it's my all-time favorite

The Age of Innocence
Anthem
My Ántonia

"The Smith of Wootton Major" is an alternate; it's what got me into reading, but I wouldn't say it changed ME, exactly.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde
Looking Awry, Zizek
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky

>>7614264

three is too little, I had many small ephiphanies

1. Leaves of Grass (I was 12ish)
Did the adoring shallow read that most who first find Whitman do. Thought he was the shit.

2. 1984 (13ish)
"you're allowed to write about wanting to kill and rape sexy public officials?"
the rest of the book was okay I guess

3. Dante's Commedia (14ish)
still my favorite writer of all time

4. Ulysses (16ish)
only understood the first 2 chapters with work but then I was writing shitty modernist fiction for weeks after

5. The Wasteland (18ish)
got me strongly into poetry. funny enough this was the one poem I read around this time that I don't like as much now.

6. White Buildings by Hart Crane (19)
Convinced me to start writing poetry seriously and nonstop

>>7614264
That fuckin guy on top of a cliff is about as ubiquitous as the amen-break, it annoys me

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
gave me a playful, modular approach to things

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig
gave me insight into what is now my favorite period of history in the most entertaining way possible

Rediscovering Life by Anthony de Mello
nearly rewrote my entire value structure, very grateful to this man

1. Mein Kampf
2. Prometheus Rising
3. Generation Identity

Lord of The Rings
Introduced me to literature

The Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Just amazing, you can't deny it.

The Sorrows of Young Werther
Cut me to the core, gave me a real appreciation

>Candide
My first love was writing but when I was 16 or 17 I was beginning to come around on books, tore this one apart on a school night, and succeeded in getting some friends to read it afterwards. Good experience

>All the President's Men
I went to the college some of my family went to for one semester in 2011, studying journalism right at the very moment when new media had eaten print and nobody had any idea what they were doing. I was really isolated that semester and spent a lot of time reading in my dorm room and this book really affirmed the purpose of journalism and nonfiction writing to me, and how talented writing will always survive a change of medium

>The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
>On the Road: The Original Scroll by Kerouac
These two were crucial in figuring out how I could write about what I wanted to write about. I had read Kerouac and OTR before but came back to the original scroll right around when I was reading Stein and those two together really helped me get under the hood, so to speak, with the craft of writing

>>7614893
>Borges
>artistry over ideas
the fuck you talking about

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A confederacy of dunces

>>7618828
Probably about how sf was too based on ideas and not art and how Borges is art while say Asimov is there for ideas.

>>7617188
>Genealogy of Morals
Does this mean you have not read his other works or weren't further swayed by them? Because this one felt like his least potent single-minded scientific book meant to provide contrast for people who "don't fully get the grander ideas, yet". BGaE is the best.

Beyond Good and Evil
Book of Disquiet
A History of Western Philosophy (Russell)

>>7618852
If by that you mean that Borges focused on ideas for their interestingness or aesthetics rather than their real world application or relevance then I can see where he's coming from.

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

What I talk about when I talk about running.

I lost 35kgs because I started running.

The Torah
The Bible
The Qur'an

>>7618903
Are you serious?
How did the book influence to you to do that?

>>7618908
>The Qur'an
Hello Ahmed

>>7618917
Indeed, those who disbelieve will be addressed, "The hatred of Allah for you was even greater than your hatred of yourselves when you were invited to faith, but you refused."

>>7618933
>I believe my inbred paedophile prophet spoke to an angel for two decades even though his central premise - that Christianity is a polytheistic religion - is clearly false and a sign of his immense stupidity

I can't wait for Trump to kick your kind out of the west and eventually off the face of the earth.

>>7618939
Delete this post, please, it's extremely offensive.

>>7618942
Not gonna happen, muz.

>>7616467

Extrapolating /lit/ to compare it to the wider 4chan community is absurd. You might as well say: "Look at me I'm talking about "intellectual" books on a global communications network that sells anime sex toys"

I like this thread. Bump

-twilight, make me go emo and fuck a lot.
-50 shades of grey, make me become a dom and fuck a lot more
-the game, make me fuck a lot more.

>>7616231
A true patrician

>>7616317
>Pseudo-intellectual
>extensive literally studies
> literally

>>7616244
I am reading the plague right now. Why did this book change you?

Schopenhauer Essays
Augustine Confessions
Ellul Propaganda

>>7621392

It taught me that some goals are worth pursuing regardless of whether they're even possible or not.

>>7618840
Rebbit once again proves itself to be a place not worth mentioning.

http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Human-Existence-Edward-Wilson/dp/0871401002

http://www.amazon.com/Nicomachean-Ethics-Aristotle/dp/0872204642

Candide by Voltaire

>>7614264
The Brothers Karamazov
The Ego and His Own
Spinoza's Ethics

>>7614264
Can you explain how they changed you please?

>>7614264
The Meditations
Principia Discordia
some shit I don't even remember from my Democratic Theory class. I think it was Mouffe or Arendt.

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>>7618840
>>7622539
B-but A Confederacy of Dunces is still one of the funniest works I've ever experienced, no matter the type of media or age.

Katherine Mansfield's Collected Stories
Winesburg, Ohio
Heart of Darkness

>>7614264
>The Brothers Karamazov

made me curios about orthodoxy/ religion in generel and shifted back my attention to Jesus by being more aware of the process of moraly corruption.

>The Lord of The Rings

read it when I was 15 years old and it opened me to feelings i have been searching for since than, although I can't really remember them.

>Grapes of Wrath

lead me back into reading after 3 years of nihilistic lifestyle after being out of home for college where I entered a frat