What books influenced you as a kid?

[DonW]

9 hours 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 .

 

Oh yes, I'd forgotten this one. Read it as a teenager, very powerful.

[DonW]

8 hours ago, Snake45 said:

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? 

It's funny because I read this a few times and loved it but after re-reading through my factual WW2 flying books such as Dambusters and Reach for the Sky, I started to read it again but couldn't engage with it, I actually found it disrespectful to the memory of the real aircrew and ground staff who gave everything they had for their cause. Very clever and funny but not for me right now. If you weren't so far way you could have mine to enjoy with pleasure!

[Earl Marischal]

Emil & The Detectives by Erich Kastner. Had me gripped aged 9 and probably set me up for taking up murder mysteries and the like in later years.

steve

[HomerS]

The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London.  It was one of the few books on the reading list that I had an interest in.    I was not a big reader as a kid, hated it actually...probably because I have the attention span of a goldfish.

Ironically I grew up and now read sixty page commercial leases all day, everyday.

[misterNNL]

Define "books". My influences were the "little pages" size car magazines I hid inside my text books during my high school days in the '50's.

[tim boyd]

In elementary school, there was a series of biographies of many famous Americans of the 16th, 17th, and 18th century, focusing mostly on their childhoods.  There musta been at least 20 or 30 of 'em in the Abbot Elementary Library, and I eventually cycled through all of them.  I recall them being very interesting and engaging. 

Junior High, found the Henry Gregor Felson books in the library, and again, cycled through them all. 

I also liked Science Fiction, so I grabbed the Isaac Asimov Foundation Trilogy from my Dad's library, but just couldn't get going on it.  But when I retired, the entire Foundation Trilogy was read front to back within three months.  (The Speed Reading Course Ford made us take way back when sure helped me go through those expeditiously). 

Many years later, I found virtually all the Ian Fleming Bond paperbacks in an antique store for like a $ a copy; I bought them all and read through them about every five years.  He was quite the writer.... 

TIM

PS - what Tom said, but with magazines for me it was 1960's Car Craft. Car Model, and Model Car Science, then all the other usual suspects....TB  

[OldNYJim]

On 10/4/2020 at 6:27 PM, tim boyd said:

(The Speed Reading Course Ford made us take way back when sure helped me go through those expeditiously). 

I would love to hear the story of why Ford had people take a speed reading course.

No doubt it was intended to boost productivity - but did it actually work?  Do they still have people take such a course?  

[tim boyd]

8 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I would love to hear the story of why Ford had people take a speed reading course.

No doubt it was intended to boost productivity - but did it actually work?  Do they still have people take such a course?  

Jim....this was around 35 years ago for me that I took the course....and it was optional - we weren't required to take it.  I have no idea whether it is offered to employees today. 

Personally I found it to be a real asset not only in my work life, but my personal life as well.....Particularly since I retired and now have the time to read books and novels instead of business documents and the like! 

TIM 

[OldNYJim]

That’s really interesting- thanks for sharing Tim!

[Tom Geiger]

I found this image on Facebook, but it’s a stack of classics we were supposed to read in school. Back then I was upset that they actually assigned us reading over the summer! 
My father never tossed anything thing, so when I cleared out his house I found a shelf in the garage with all those books! I took them home as an adult and finally read them. Man, the classics were wasted on the young.

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by Tom Geiger

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

I found this image on Facebook, but it’s a stack of classics we were supposed to read in school. Back then I was upset that they actually assigned us reading over the summer! 
My father never tossed anything thing, so when I cleared out his house I found a shelf in the garage with all those books! I took them home as an adult and finally read them. Man, the classics were wasted on the young.

 

Yeah, I've read most of those too, some as part of Jr. High or High School English/literature classes.