What books influenced you as a kid?

[Earl Marischal]

Another Biggles an Swallows And Amazons reader here!

Books that began to really make an impression on me were Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 and, for social commentary, The Road To Wigan Pier. However, the book that really imprinted my 'world view' was Robert Tressall's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, with its incisive explanation of the workings of capitalism.

Later, I also took in Herman Hesse, Satre and even some Nietzsche. The latter leading me into an interest in philosophy.

steve

[DonW]

18 hours ago, Earl Marischal said:

Another Biggles an Swallows And Amazons reader here!

Books that began to really make an impression on me were Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 and, for social commentary, The Road To Wigan Pier. However, the book that really imprinted my 'world view' was Robert Tressall's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, with its incisive explanation of the workings of capitalism.

Later, I also took in Herman Hesse, Satre and even some Nietzsche. The latter leading me into an interest in philosophy.

steve

I forgot the Orwell books. Really powerful stuff, last one I re-read was Down and Out in Paris and London. Also Steppenwolf, by Hesse of course.

But Algy was an early hero, and Nancy Blackett a true heroine!

Cheers,

-Don. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by DonW

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, DonW said:

Also Steppenwolf, by Hesse of course.

I chewed my way through that, but don't remember a thing about it. 

The music was MUCH better than the book! 

[afx]

Read Nineteen Eight-Four for school. Scary to how it reflects the current state of our society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by afx

[DonW]

15 hours ago, Snake45 said:

I chewed my way through that, but don't remember a thing about it. 

The music was MUCH better than the book! 

Especially as part of the score to Easy Rider!

[Pete J.]

Totally forgot about Jules Verne's novels!  These were great reads at the time a lot of the tech he described was actually coming into being.  20,000 leagues under the sea starts with an electric car and goes on to describe a nuclear submarine and scuba gear.  Not bad for a book written in 1870!  His follow on book, The mysterious island was equally spellbinding.  All still great reads.  

[Snake45]

8 hours ago, DonW said:

Especially as part of the score to Easy Rider!

Just looked it up. Only "Born to be Wild" and "The Pusher," which I didn't know or had forgotten was written by Hoyt Axton. 

They had quite a few WAY better songs than those two, IMHO. 

[DonW]

2 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Just looked it up. Only "Born to be Wild" and "The Pusher," which I didn't know or had forgotten was written by Hoyt Axton. 

They had quite a few WAY better songs than those two, IMHO. 

For me the movie imagery and the music work so powerfully together. But we seem to be getting just a tad off topic. ?

 

[Dave Ambrose]

I got off to an odd start. My first science fiction book was The Moon Era. I was in the third grade when I read it. (I know, I was precocious, and my sister loved feeding me things I shouldn't be able to read.) After that, I read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'd already seen the Disney version of the movie and loved it. Both those books had a profound influence on the direction of my reading. After that it was a steady stream of Isaac Asimov science and science fiction books, until one of my friends turned me on to Heinlein. Concurrent to this was a large stack of science books and Scientific American magazines. Somewhere in there, I read Siddhartha, and that book sent me down another path with lifelong influences. 

[Can-Con]

Loved Asimov. I think I read almost all his novels. Also read some Heinlein. Have come to the conclusion that both were "dirty old men", Heinlein more so than Asimov. ?

I've always liked reading short stories better than long novels. Pulp magazines and anthologies where I could read a story in one sitting were great. Although I have read Kings "Gunslinger" saga. Took better part of 10 years to finish it and then he comes out with another book that goes in the middle after I'd finished.  ,, I have no intention of reading it. 

Sifi comedys were always a favorite. Harry Harrison's "Bill, the galactic hero" series is still a hoot !! 

As a teen I had subscriptions to "Twilight Zone Magazine", Asimov's and Omni.  Some ground breaking stories in them back then. I remember reading Bruce Sterling's "Mozart in Mirrorshades"  when it was originally published in Omni and led me down the rabbit hole that is cyberpunk.

[Matt Bacon]

20 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Sift comedys were always a favorite. Harry Harrison's "Bill, the galactic hero" series is still a hoot,

The Stainless Steel Rat and its sequels (though a bit by “diminishing returns”) were some of my favourite books as a teen. Though “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was as significant to my generation of young Brit as Monty Python or The Goons were to previous, I pretty soon realised that Harry Harrison and Bob Sheckley had done it first...

best,

M.

[SfanGoch]

Nobody wants to admit that they actually read Mad Magazine, which probably had a greater influence than they would care to acknowledge.  

[Snake45]

Just now, SfanGoch said:

Nobody wants to admit that they actually read Mad Magazine, which probably had a greater influence than they would care to acknowledge.  

That's because the thread is about books, not magazines. 

How could I have forgotten the C. B. Colby books? There were dozens of these in the school and public libraries and I think I read them all, mainly the ones about military vehicles, equipment, and history. Every now and then I run across one of these at a flea market or something and I buy it. I probably have a half-dozen or so. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._B._Colby

[SfanGoch]

So what? Playboy was mentioned. I don't recall you saying anything about that. Nor did you point that out about Twilight Zone Magazine or Omni.

[Snake45]

I must not have seen those posts. 

[Mark]

1 hour ago, SfanGoch said:

Nobody wants to admit that they actually read Mad Magazine, which probably had a greater influence than they would care to acknowledge.  

My mom would buy them for me...she thumbed through them too every so often, she said they were well-written.  She even bought the one with the "finger" cover, which some places didn't put out for sale because of the cover.

[ChrisBcritter]

I can split hairs and say that MAD's paperback book collections influenced me - they got me into song parodies long before Weird Al showed up.

[Tom Geiger]

10 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

I can split hairs and say that MAD's paperback book collections influenced me - they got me into song parodies long before Weird Al showed up.

Yes! When I was 9 or 10 my parents were friends with a family that had three kids, two girls my sister’s age and a boy I believe was in high school. He was never there and the girls would go do  girl things.  I was sent to be in the boy’s room by myself. This was just fine with me, as he had a grand collection of MAD Magazine and associated books!  I could read uninterrupted for hours!

[JollySipper]

Anyone here willing to admit that they read "The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" as a kid? I did a few times, enjoyed it so much that I was on the hunt for an original printing of it for a while....... 1950 was it's first print in the US.......

[Monty]

35 minutes ago, JollySipper said:

Anyone here willing to admit that they read "The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" as a kid? I did a few times, enjoyed it so much that I was on the hunt for an original printing of it for a while....... 1950 was it's first print in the US.......

I didn't, but in grade school I was friends with a red-haired girl (like Pippi) who loved it.  She surprised me one morning by showing up at the bus stop with braids and a dress made by her mom to look just like Pippi's.   

[von Zipper]

I read The Catcher In the Rye in High School, and have read it a few times since and it gets funnier each time I read it .

 

[Snake45]

30 minutes ago, von Zipper said:

I read The Catcher In the Rye in High School, and have read it a few times since and it gets funnier each time I read it .

 

I used to read Catch-22 about every five years, just because everyone you'll ever meet is in there, but I haven't done it now for a couple decades. Wonder where I put my copy? 

[Monty]

I grew up with a love for reading which, unfortunately, I don't get to indulge as much anymore, but I recall my own list of early influential books. 

As a teen, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to read Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm and Golding's Lord Of the Flies in school.

On my own time, I read and reread S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders as well as Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Asimov's I, Robot.  

I wasn't aware of Douglas Adams until I got to college, where I found four of his books sold as a "trilogy" in the bookstore.  Guess who blew off some of his required reading because he couldn't get enough British humor.  

Edited September 27, 2020 by Monty

[JollySipper]

8 minutes ago, Monty said:

 Golding's Lord Of the Flies

I tried to read this book as a kid, because I saw the movie and loved it! It was a bit too advanced of a read at the time for me, and I had forgotten all about it....... Maybe I'll hunt down a copy and try it again.

[Rodent]

40 minutes ago, von Zipper said:

I read The Catcher In the Rye in High School, and have read it a few times since and it gets funnier each time I read it .

 

Probably my favorite book, ever. Too bad that Salinger's head was too big to ever allow it to be made into a movie. It's too late now, nobody would understand it anymore. It should have been made into a movie around the time of The Graduate. I am just not sure who should have been cast as Holden.