What book affected your life, or was successful in getting you to care about it?

[pinetreeneedle56]

This is a part discussion, part recommendation thread! I frequently come across threads and comments all over the internet discussing this very topic for a variety of mediums, but people have a habit of either straight up spoiling the 'story' (of said game/media/book/etc) for the poor guys who stumble upon the comment, or being too vague as to not get other people interested in trying said story. I'll be honest, I have read a lot of stinkers of books lately, and I'm looking for a pallette cleanser (and hopefully, other people can find this thread useful, too )

1. Has there been one or more books you have read that has affected during or after you have finished reading it? For example, did it leave you feeling empty for a period of time, or did it leave such a positive impact that it changed the way you lived your life? (I.E: Was the author successful in getting you very invested in their story?)
2. Are you able to get into detail about how/why it left such an impact without spoiling it? You don't have to get into details if you don't want to, being vague is good enough!
3. Is it a book you would be able or willing to recommend to a stranger, a friend, and someone close to you?
4. This is more of an extension of #3, but is the book accessible to everyone, or does it have a trait/characteristic that makes it more of an acquired taste or only accessible to college level readers? Is there a characteristic that makes enjoyment or important details in said book untranslatable?
5. Has the author published any other works you liked and enjoyed, even if it wasn't as good as the one you specified?
6. This is a miscellaneous prompt! Add anything you would like to!

 

[bjork]

Ready Player One left me empty in the sense of "someone paid this person to write this."

I think authors can successfully get you invested in their story without it changing your life, though? The book I tell people to check out is "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" by Mark Oliver Everett. I'd listened to the album Electro-Shock Blues by eels, and read a little bit about how that album is about this guy's real life, and so it made me want to read his book that's an autobiography. I could say the album has stuck with me more than the book, but I still enjoyed it with the previous knowledge I had going in. Can't speak to someone picking it up cold, however.

 

[Kamako]

I found the short story "Above the Law" from Franz Kafka's "The Trial" to be quite affecting. I wouldn't say it changed my life, but I think it's a brilliant parable.

 

[thumbsdown]

Not sure if I'll be able to fully elaborate rn, but most books I pick I try to read with intent and some readings had left a huge impression on me: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), Island Beneath the Sea (Isabel Allende), The Wardrobe (short story by Thomas Mann), Betwixt and Between (Albert Camus), Shepherds of the Night (Jorge Amado) and Fictions (Jorge Luis Borges). All readings I've done when I was still in college, none relate to my degree but the context led me to those recommendations.

 

[NotReallyHere]

I had a profound feeling of emptiness after reading the From Hell graphic novel. This was probably twenty-ish years ago, but I remember being so floored by the graphic (heh...) nature of the whole thing, and the feeling of the chase throughout. And I appreciated the epilogue, where the authors admitted to not really knowing any more about Jack The Ripper than the next person, and that their work was little more than research-inspired speculation and conjecture. That sort of self-reflection is sorely missing from a lot of history-based works.

Watchmen (by the same author) left me with a similar feeling. In fact, it made me feel sick while I was reading it, to the point where I wasn't even sure if I wanted to finish! A very unsettling work - though I'm sure that was the plan, all along

As far as actual novels, two spring to mind: A Confederancy Of Dunces, and The Catcher In The Rye. Catch-22 can go on there, too, though I find its tone to be a little all over the place.

Rye is a book that makes it hard to sympathize with the main character - which is pretty much the point. But one part that always stuck with me was the fact that he considered himself a "good liar," and was very proud of that. Helped to give me a lot of perspective on how I view both myself and the people around me. If you know you can lie to someone and get away with it, do you? And how do you know you aren't being lied to by someone, who is so comfortable with lying that they can do it repeatedly, with confidence, and a straight face?

Dunces was such a nonsense read, but I found the main character endearing - for all the wrong reasons. They repeatedly "failed up," and when things would get tough, they would cower and blame the person causing them stress for aggravating their [possibly non-existent] health ailments. Reminds me of so many co-workers I've had over the years...

Catch-22, I mostly remember for the "catch," itself. Whenever you feel you are finally getting close to the end of something, someone moves the finish line. Saved up $60 for a new video game? Sorry - it's now $70! Been waiting years to play GTA6? Sorry - it got delayed again! Etc, etc. But it was kind of jarring to have such a simple life lesson portrayed in such a life-or-death way in the novel

 

[pinetreeneedle56]

Ready Player One left me empty in the sense of "someone paid this person to write this."

I think authors can successfully get you invested in their story without it changing your life, though? The book I tell people to check out is "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" by Mark Oliver Everett. I'd listened to the album Electro-Shock Blues by eels, and read a little bit about how that album is about this guy's real life, and so it made me want to read his book that's an autobiography. I could say the album has stuck with me more than the book, but I still enjoyed it with the previous knowledge I had going in. Can't speak to someone picking it up cold, however.

Maybe I should have been more clear, my apologies. I meant to get "authors getting you invested in their story and/or in such a way that changed your perspective on things"

---

Nevermind, doesn't seem like you can edit posts after they are made.

 

[Guinea]

The Holy Bible.

 

[Octopus]

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut fits the bill for me. It didn't make me feel empty after reading it, but it absolutely got me invested when I was reading it and definitely had an impact when I put it down; I now judge any absurdist, irony filled post-modern style of writing I read to it. It's the perfect combination of absurdist black comedy, just a little bit of scathing commentary on human nature and the insanity of war, and also has some autobiographical elements of Vonnegut himself in there with the whole thing being inspired by his actual experience in WWII during the firebombing of Dresden, Germany.

Very basic set-up of this very famous book for anyone who hasn't read it yet; the main character, Billy Pilgrim, has become unstuck in time. He's simultaneously serving as a chaplain in WWII where he gets captured as a POW and held in Dresden, while also being a middle aged married optometrist once he gets home, while also being part of a human zoo exhibit on the alien planet of Tralfamadore which is populated by toilet plungers with eyes where he's forced to sleep with fictional adult film actress Montana Wildhack. The story jumps between these different times in Billy's life as the chapters go on, with Billy himself being aware of these jumps. At all times, he's sleeping with Montana Wildhack.

The comedy elements make the real shit in it hit that much harder, it's all about the balance and contrast with black comedy like this. If you didn't have sentient toilet plungers talking to Billy about cyclical time and a really blasé 'so it goes' to explain everything, then the actual real stuff about the horrors of WWII and the profoundly disdainful anti-war sentiments wouldn't be as impactful; you need that goofy stuff to break it up. The goofy stuff also serves it's own purpose of course, being the way the story delivers ironic juxtaposition about PTSD, the banalities of mundane life and a lot of absurdity. Something to note is that the story never gets grotesque with the previously mentioned real shit. It doesn't get intense with it's descriptions of WWII violence or anything and it simply presents them as factually as possible. Here it is, so it goes.

It's not a hard read in terms of difficulty at all, Vonnegut's really curt and prose-less simple writing makes everything purposefully dry. Subject matter wise, this could maybe be a harder read. Like I said earlier it's not that he really gets into describing violence or gore or anything, just the bleakness of it can maybe wear someone down, but that's also the point of it to be fair to it.

He also has plenty of other work of course, some of which I've read but not all of it. Cat's Cradle is likely his second most famous book behind Slaughterhouse-Five and the most similar to it. I enjoyed Cat's Cradle, but the rest of his stuff I've read has gone too far into either the sci-fi angle or too little of the sci-fi angle for me to fully enjoy.

 

[Guinea]

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut fits the bill for me. It didn't make me feel empty after reading it, but it absolutely got me invested when I was reading it and definitely had an impact when I put it down; I now judge any absurdist, irony filled post-modern style of writing I read to it. It's the perfect combination of absurdist black comedy, just a little bit of scathing commentary on human nature and the insanity of war, and also has some autobiographical elements of Vonnegut himself in there with the whole thing being inspired by his actual experience in WWII during the firebombing of Dresden, Germany.

Very basic set-up of this very famous book for anyone who hasn't read it yet; the main character, Billy Pilgrim, has become unstuck in time. He's simultaneously serving as a chaplain in WWII where he gets captured as a POW and held in Dresden, while also being a middle aged married optometrist once he gets home, while also being part of a human zoo exhibit on the alien planet of Tralfamadore which is populated by toilet plungers with eyes where he's forced to sleep with fictional adult film actress Montana Wildhack. The story jumps between these different times in Billy's life as the chapters go on, with Billy himself being aware of these jumps. At all times, he's sleeping with Montana Wildhack.

The comedy elements make the real shit in it hit that much harder, it's all about the balance and contrast with black comedy like this. If you didn't have sentient toilet plungers talking to Billy about cyclical time and a really blasé 'so it goes' to explain everything, then the actual real stuff about the horrors of WWII and the profoundly disdainful anti-war sentiments wouldn't be as impactful; you need that goofy stuff to break it up. The goofy stuff also serves it's own purpose of course, being the way the story delivers ironic juxtaposition about PTSD, the banalities of mundane life and a lot of absurdity. Something to note is that the story never gets grotesque with the previously mentioned real shit. It doesn't get intense with it's descriptions of WWII violence or anything and it simply presents them as factually as possible. Here it is, so it goes.

It's not a hard read in terms of difficulty at all, Vonnegut's really curt and prose-less simple writing makes everything purposefully dry. Subject matter wise, this could maybe be a harder read. Like I said earlier it's not that he really gets into describing violence or gore or anything, just the bleakness of it can maybe wear someone down, but that's also the point of it to be fair to it.

He also has plenty of other work of course, some of which I've read but not all of it. Cat's Cradle is likely his second most famous book behind Slaughterhouse-Five and the most similar to it. I enjoyed Cat's Cradle, but the rest of his stuff I've read has gone too far into either the sci-fi angle or too little of the sci-fi angle for me to fully enjoy.

Wow, a Vonnegut fan out in the wild. He's in my top 5 favorite authors. Have you read Galapagos? It's my favorite book by him. (Slaughterhouse 5 was the first book I read from him back when I was a teenager)

 

[NotReallyHere]

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut fits the bill for me.

You know, I almost added this one into my own list! Almost. But it's been ages since I've read it, so my memories are a little hazy. That, and I wanted to try to keep my list to only three books

I don't remember too many details, only blips. His buddy with the Scandinavian accent. Him living in an unheated house (or just forgetting to turn the heat on?) resulting in his feet turning blue. Possessing a "tremendous wang," with the follow-up of, "you never know who'll get one."

And, of course, "So it goes." Spending many years living in the Hippie haven that is Eugene, OR, I can say in good faith that the quote might as well be the city's official slogan

 

[Octopus]

Wow, a Vonnegut fan out in the wild. He's in my top 5 favorite authors. Have you read Galapagos? It's my favorite book by him. (Slaughterhouse 5 was the first book I read from him back when I was a teenager)

I haven't; I've only read Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions and The Sirens of Titan (and Slaughterhouse of course). I'll look into it.

You know, I almost added this one into my own list! Almost. But it's been ages since I've read it, so my memories are a little hazy. That, and I wanted to try to keep my list to only three books

I don't remember too many details, only blips. His buddy with the Scandinavian accent. Him living in an unheated house (or just forgetting to turn the heat on?) resulting in his feet turning blue. Possessing a "tremendous wang," with the follow-up of, "you never know who'll get one."

And, of course, "So it goes." Spending many years living in the Hippie haven that is Eugene, OR, I can say in good faith that the quote might as well be the city's official slogan

There's a lot of memorable scenes and/or quotes, my favourite without giving spoilers on anything is 'poo-tee-weet?'. Vonnegut really liked blue-and-ivory feet in this, there's a bunch of references to blue feet throughout; I remember the one you're talking about though, it's near the end when he's writing his letter about flying saucers.

 

[skramz]

fear and loathing in las vegas taught me to stop being so stressed all the time and to buy the ticket, take the ride.

actually, HST's works have left a profound impact on me, which is why he's my hero :p

 

[Bandini]

Create art from a hard life experience:
Journey to the end of the night - L. F Celine
Factotum - Charles Bukowski
Wait until spring, Bandini* - John Fante
Humilliated and insulted - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
Grave of the fireflies - Akiyuki Nosaka
The old man and the sea - E. Hemingway
The heart is a lonely hunter - C. McCullers
*... now you know where it came from.

 

[RustySK]

I'm sure there are better examples and I just can't think of them right now, but "Journey by Moonlight" by Antal Szerb comes to mind.

From what I remember it's a story about questioning your own priorities and wishes, essentially.
In the beginning the story follows a couple on their honeymoon in Italy as they begin to realize that their relationship is seemingly based entirely on superficial attraction and that they barely know one another.
As they start to talk about their childhood the husband leaves the train to go for a walk and comes back just as the train leaves the station.
From that point onwards the story splits into two as they both try to understand why they were even getting married in the first place and why they lived their lives on autopilot.

I generally enjoy stories revolving around believably flawed people and this story was earnest enough to question the basic expectations society at large and people in general ten to have for themselves - do careers matter? Does being respected matter? Does having a family matter? Does being desired matter?
That kind of thing.

There's a warmth to the way these characters are written that I found very likable.
Back then it was very encouraging for younger me to see that it's alright to plain disagree with popular notions of what life should be about.

 

[DanCalibur]

I wish I could say it was some Dostoyevsky or some deep philosophy work but what really did some real change in my way of be was a completely random pick up artist pdf book that I have no idea how ended in my phone, who wrote it or even the title. Ninety nine percent of it was total and utter crap and that's me being generous but it had one line that got my attention. It said "Social Interaction is a skill and can be improved with practice". I guess I must have been really bored at work that day cuz I went out to test that hypothesis. More than a decade later I can say it went all right

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

As strange as it sounds, "Wild Bird" by Wendelin van Draanen really did help me find myself again after a long period of extreme apathy.

I'm not even the target audience for that book, but it held such an ugly mirror to my face that it sort of forced me to face my inner demons while protecting me from them at the same time by letting me observe the very things that had hurt me as a teenager happen to someone else.

It was an extremely tough read, though... Most of it was an almost 1-on-1 replica of my own experiences as a horrible, out-of-control teenager (things I had said & done were shown in there with all the frequency and danger of a minefield).

I have reread it dozens of times since, but I doubt I'll ever be able to go through it as a whole ever again... There are parts I simply cannot go back to and I end up skipping them over every single time.

I never thought a book could be this powerful.