/lit/ - Literature

the wire.

fight club

I guess in order of defining a period of my life.

The Giver (probably around 7 or 8)
Ender's Game series (basically all of middle school)
The Dark Tower series (high school)
Eyeless In Gaza (pretty recently)

>>2123038
> ender's game series (basically all through middle school)
> all through middle school
> middle school
Mah nigga

Starship Troopers.

Read it when I was about 13, and it made me do a lot of thinking about the military. I ended up joining the Royal Australian Air Force and I'm an officer now.

I was always a military-minded young dude, but so were many of my peers and now workmates.

Most importantly, it made me actually think about my ideological reasons for joining, instead of just YEAH PATRIOTISM or "I like the paycheque".

I'm not arguing that it's a legitimate philosophical treatise with no holes or errors in thought, but it encouraged my own thought and that makes it invaluable.

Honourable mention: Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Homage to Catalonia ("What the fuck is life about?"), Catch 22 ("Military life is absurd", and it really is. This one tempered my Troopers-based idealism), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ("Maybe authority can just be a dick"), and Heart of Darkness (mindfuck)

Spinoza's ethics

"god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" by Christopher Hitchens.

I grew up in a extremely religious family and ran away from home when I was 17. I found this book in the public library. It was the straw that broke the camel's back on my parent's imposed beliefs. I also credit this book (since it was my introduction to Hitchens) as influencing me to become involved in academic debate, and eventually decide to attend law school.

The alchemist and one flew over the cuckoo's nest had my head full of fuck and shaped met into a organized person somehow

the star trek encyclopedia (in a sense which you do not mean)

>>2123061
I have this book. I bought it from my Library for a buck.

Fight Club

It introduced me into entry level philosophy and questioning the norms (to the extremes)

Now I wonder if ignorance was really bliss since I see the world for what it really is. Polite sage

Either/Or -- Soren Kierkegaard
Taught me to not take life so seriously...

>The Giver
Elementary school, probably one of the most terrifying books I'd ever read, particularly the loss of individuality. Helped me realize that both good and bad things needed to exist.

>David Copperfield
Helped me a couple of tough periods of my life, particularly in middle school (social reject, I competed with my english teacher to see who read the most), and I still give it a read when I'm feeling like my life won't end up well.

>The Hobbit
Adventure is waiting!

>Count of Monte Cristo
"Wait and Hope"

>Pale Blue Dot
got some new perspective on my life
>The Greatest Show on Earth
rekindled my interest in sciences
>pretty much everything by Kurt Vonnegut
turned me into a sappy, hopeful humanist
>George Orwell's non-fiction
poverty, socialism, coal miners
>Harry Potter, Redwall, Ender's Game
sorely needed escapism for middle school

Haters gonna hate me for this: The sword of truth series

Seriously, it made me think a lot about personal choices, free will and religious oppression. Also, the whole Wizard Rules/other good quotes from the books really make a lot of sense. Especially them rules, damn but they make sense and can be applied if studied and thought about

>Catch-22
Blew my mind. It's the standard to which I compare all literature. Not to mention how I've internalized the satire and politics of the novel.

>Stand on Zanzibar
Rekindled my interest in science-fiction. Gave me a bit of perspective on the world and how multifaceted it is.

>The Catcher in the Rye
Taught me that no matter how right I am, it doesn't pay to act like a dick.

>Slaughterhouse-Five
Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

>>2123063
yeah i came across it in a library when i was about 7 or 6, maybe, and it kindled a huge interest in sci fi

in that sense, it has had more real influence on my life than any other book

Atlas Shrugged taught me to never work or live or do anything for another man who had nothing to offer me in return. True strength. No other book or philosopher compares.

I read the Scientology books.

Feelsbadman.jpg

;_;

>chuck palanuik books
taught me to live fast, die young and kill as many people as possible

Ishmael (must read book, really amazing)
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test (changed my perspective of psychedelic drugs)
On The Road

Chuck Palahniuk books. Made me realize what a horrible author really is.

>>2123144
>No other book or philosopher compares.
Nietzsche?

American phsyco
really pushed me into existantialism
not neccesarily a good change.

>>2123213
You know what else wasn't a good change?
Your decision to be a tripfag.

>>2123216
Tripfags telling other tripfags not to trip, this and other idiocy, tonight at 10.

Probably The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

It has completely and utterly reshaped the way I approach life and its challenges. It teaches strategies applicable to anything you do: how to influence and manipulate people, how to get them to unwillingly benefit you, how to overcome a problem of any kind in the most efficient way etc. It has opened ways of thinking 'outside the box' or
in more unorthodox or extreme methods.

Reading The Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough as an 18 or 19 year old hugely impacted on the way I learned about self-worth.

And The Day of the Jackal and The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth taught me how to forge passports, adopt new identities, and smuggle weapons.

>>2123232
Do you ever read books that don't have "of" in the titles?

Twilight.

It made me realize just how beautiful true love is, and that just because someone is a different kind of person, one's heart may still fall most treacherously in love with said person, even though that person be a vampire who sparkles like a thousand shimmering diamonds herp derp hurrrr

>>2123235
I'v read The Da VInci Code.

>>2123248
My condolences.

>>2123248
Appreciate it. Although it never tries to be more than what it is.
I do hate the way the author writes, though.

>>2123254
I attempted to read the Da Vinci code. I think I managed about 20 pages before I threw it away in disgust.

>>2123255
I really don't see how people find it THAT bad. Although I won't ever read it again.

>>2123255
same

Jan Kjaerstads "The King of Europe" and "I Am The Walker Brothers".

>Folded all my knowledge on existential philosophy and taoism into one coherent package.

Erlend Loes "Doppler" and "Naïve. Super".

>Finally threw me other the edge and made me make up my mind about people, the world and myself.

are you all trolls or have you all lost your minds

chicken soup for the teenage soul when i was like 5

ye

Ann Martin's "The Babysitter's Club" collection

I was growing up a troublesome lad and those books helped me find a meaning to my life and unconditional love for taking care of underage children.

bhagavad-gita at age 21 when first discovering weed and psychedelics. Haven't been the same since.

The Tao Te Ching

Pretty much changed me completely from an angry teenager screaming at the world in high school to becoming one of the most friendly and laid back people you will ever meet.

I seriously hope you people saying Chuck Palahniuk books are trolling.

>>2123261

Hell yeah, Norway-bro.

I'd have to say these three:

- Jens Bjørneboe - The Sharks: This mainly because it was my first satirical/political/critical novel, I was very young. It is still one of my favourites today, though.

- Albert Camus - The Stranger: This just described a lot of my own thoughts over the years, so it hit me with immense force and left me shivering afterwards.

- Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night: This made me even further realize the absurdity of modern life, and made me a tad misanthropic in general.

the death of bunny munro by nick cave

>nick cave sucks hurr

>>2123331
>taking the stranger at face value
tard

>>2123335

Who said I took it at face value?

>>2123328

Book about monism enhanced by drugs which create delusions of monism.

>CHANGED MY LIFE BRAH

Albert Camus - The Plague
I'd tried to get into Philosophy and 'great/classic' literature before and failed miserably. The Plague (and to an extent Absurdism) just clicked for me.

Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse.

Its the first real book I have read. When I read on the first time I was depressed, so I stay a little more..

The Diceman- Luke Rhinehart

>>2123397

>The Aldous Lexicon trilogy, really good series on multiple realities and surprisingly thought provoking for its target audience.

"God? Don't make me laugh."

He laughed anyway.

"You might as well believe in reincarnation, fate, destiny or imagine there's some meaning to life.
Theres no meaning, there's no divine plan, no glorious heavenly paradise full of dead relatives where
we swan about for all eternity doing sweet bugger-all while managing not to be bored out of our skulls
listening to harps. We're born, we live out our pitiful little lives, we're scattered on the roses, end of story.
Care for a Dajeering?"

-----------------------------------------

What would he say? What would either of them say? Or do? Could two identical minds operate in the same room?
Could a person bear to look into his own eyes outside of a mirror? So many imponderables. Too many. Best to stay put. Home ground.

Mitch Album's The Five People you Meet in Heaven encouraged me to think into my relationships with the people around me, even those with whom I share no intimacy, passion or commitment. I read it as an Atheist, though I appreciate it much more than most Christians would.

Also, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle; again for deepening my perspective on relationships, though of those that are passionate, intimate and commited.

Harold Schecter's A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is a book that has changed my literary life. I am now addicted to true crime novels and abnormal psychology. Since reading the book, I have accumilated quite the TC collection. Harold Schecter is a great researcher and writer; I have purchased two of three in (I guess what I would call) his D-series: Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved. These are at the top of my reading list. I usually put my true crime above all other books,

however I am currently reading Vladimir Nobokov's Lolita (the only book recommendation from /lit/ in which I have found interest). If you want to find out how much of a pervert you probably are deep down, I recommend this book.
>It might change your life.

bump

DMT: the spirit molecule, changed my life. few years after watching it i graduated high school and went for a soul searching journey in the amazon, took dmt with shamans and completely uncovered my lifes goals, and achieved eternal happiness. read the book and watch the movie!

>>2124691
Nah.

The Bronze Horseman, P. Simons, (not Pushkin's poem. Read this when I was about 13).
The Tigers Bride, by Angela Carter (when I was 16 or 17).

The A-b-c book.

>>2123329
Deep?