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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 11:27 am
(June 12, 2015 at 11:04 am)robvalue Wrote: Strangely enough, I can't think of any books that have had a profound impact on me. There may well have been some, but if so I can't remember them. So I'd have to say everything by Douglas Adams instead. It all got me through a lot of years.
Ooh...I forgot about Hitchhiker's. I'd have to say it definitely influenced my beliefs about the absurdity of life and the human race.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 11:31 am
(June 12, 2015 at 10:45 am)Nope Wrote: It is interesting how novels can make you see real life and human nature more clearly. I don't think anyone has ever done that as well as Dostoevsky. I am reminded of Nietzsche's lament, speaking about Christ, "that no Dostoevsky lived in the neighborhood of this most interesting decadent."
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 11:57 am
(This post was last modified: June 12, 2015 at 11:58 am by Nope.)
(June 12, 2015 at 11:04 am)robvalue Wrote: Strangely enough, I can't think of any books that have had a profound impact on me. There may well have been some, but if so I can't remember them. So I'd have to say everything by Douglas Adams instead. It all got me through a lot of years.
I read this book in high school without knowing anything about it. It blew me away but, for some weird reason, until I hit adulthood, I couldn't find anyone else that had read it.
Catch-22 is also a very good, funny book that says a lot about life. Sadly, my copy of both Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Catch-22 seem to have gotten lost in one of our many moves. Maybe I need to buy myself a present.
Quote:..[A]nything worth dying for ... is certainly worth living for.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Quote:“Men," he began his address to the officers, measuring his pauses carefully. "You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
[url=http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/814330][/url]
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 12:46 pm
It is hard to say, but I would probably go with:
The works of Epicurus. I have no idea what edition I read first, and probably only read important parts, like his Letter to Menoeceus and Principle Doctrines. You can read him free online:
http://www.epicurus.net
In book form, I recommend The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers, edited by W.J. Oates, which was published by more than one company over the years:
http://smile.amazon.com/Stoic-Epicurean-...B001JZEQPU
http://smile.amazon.com/Stoic-Epicurean-...B0006D6GO0
http://smile.amazon.com/Stoic-Epicurean-...B000GSRZTK
A less good alternative would be The Epicurean Philosophers, edited by John Gaskin. And if you must have a new book, The Essential Epicurus, edited by Eugene O'Conner would be my choice, though one should read the reviews on Amazon, as a reviewer points out some errata in it.
For my second book:
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume.
Third:
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume.
These last two can be read online for free at:
http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hume-e...-of-morals
In book form, you can get both together:
http://smile.amazon.com/Enquiries-Concer...019824536X
That has been the standard edition for many years.
Oxford has also issued new editions of both, that I think they wish to become the new standard editions, but as I have not looked at them, I have no further comment on them.
If we were discussing the books I enjoyed reading the most, they would probably be:
Candide by Voltaire.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Miss Manners Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior by Judith Martin.
Of course, all such lists are likely to be a product not only of what was influential and liked, but also that one happens to remember at the time of compiling the list.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 12:53 pm
There are a few groups of books that influenced me.
The Sharpe books for getting me into the history of the peninsular wars.
the Dune books for being my favourite reads when growing up.
The Disc World books for being so informative and entertaining.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 12:57 pm
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 1:43 pm
(June 12, 2015 at 12:57 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: Unless I missed it, no one has mentioned this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything...%28book%29
I have not read that, but I saw the movie.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 1:52 pm
TBH, I don't think I've ever been more geeky about the story, characters, and canon of ASOIAF. Also, it was the first and only time I read a fantasy series and enjoyed it. So it was really influential for me.
But it doesn't make my top 3.
Gotta give some honorable mention to my man Chucky D. A Tale of Two Cities was incredible. Also, Les Miserables is up there, too. Hugo knew how to tell a story.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 4:01 pm
(This post was last modified: June 12, 2015 at 4:02 pm by Whateverist.)
Memorable quote from still another one for honorable mention.
Quote:“When the mystery of the connection goes, love goes. It's that simple. This suggests that it isn't love that is so important to us but the mystery itself. The love connection may be merely a device to put us in contact with the mystery, and we long for love to last so that the ecstacy of being near the mystery will last. It is contrary to the nature of mystery to stand still. Yet it's always there, somewhere, a world on the other side of the mirror (or the Camel pack), a promise in the next pair of eyes that smile at us. We glimpse it when we stand still.
The romance of new love, the romance of solitude, the romance of objecthood, the romance of ancient pyramids and distant stars are means of making contact with the mystery. When it comes to perpetuating it, however, I got no advice. But I can and will remind you of two of the most important facts I know:
1. Everything is part of it.
2. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.”
― Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
![[Image: 5187lXimBbL._AA160_.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=ecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F5187lXimBbL._AA160_.jpg)
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 4:06 pm
Just to recap that brings my honorable mentions up to 3:
Still Life With Woodpecker
Cat's Cradle
Re-Visioning Psychology
But my top 3 remain:
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Wisdom of Insecurity
Six Non-lectures
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