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Old 01-15-2013, 01:32 PM   #1
Ninjalawyer
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What Book Has Helped Shape Who You Are Today?

The question in the thread title was posed by Lifehacker (here) earlier today, and I thought it might be interesting to read what books the people here considered to have shaped their lives.

For me, I think it was probably The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I read it (and the sequels) in junior high and the style of humour really stuck with me. What stuck with me more than that though was the suggestion in the narrative that everything that was happening was entirely random and entirely pointless. I think it was probably that seed that got me interested in critical thinking, reasoning and the philosophy of free will.

Other than that, I think the Arthur C. Clarke books I read around the same time probably had, collectively, a similar impact.
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Old 01-15-2013, 01:36 PM   #2
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No books. For me it was people and places.
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Old 01-15-2013, 02:06 PM   #3
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I don't know if it helped shape me, but it two things come to my mind.

As a child, before I could read, my mother read Agatha Christie to me - I guess she didn't want to spend time reading books she didn't enjoy. I still enjoy Poirot - and by extension Sherlock Holmes. I get a kick out of how much Christie pokes fun at Holmes.

I always enjoyed reading, but never liked the books we were 'forced' to read in high school. The notable exception is "Pride and Prejudice." I love that book to this day, and am actually reading it right now. I don't know that it shaped me, but it brings me great comfort. The characters take their problems so seriously, and by today's standards they are such minor problems - it helps me keep a little perspective. I read it at least once a year, and always manage to appreciate new subtleties.
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Old 01-15-2013, 03:17 PM   #4
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A book that made an everlasting impression on me was Carl Sagan's Cosmos, though I wouldn't go as far as saying it changed my life.
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Old 01-15-2013, 03:32 PM   #5
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I have to second "Hitchhiker's Guide" - I read at least the first volume every year - it helps to reassure me that the idiots that surround me at work are really idiots - and there's not much I can do to actually change things - but laugh at them and move on. It's reassuring in a snarky, really dark way about how things really are ... and might be destined to always be ....?

Second would be the "Winnie the Pooh" story collections - I think Pooh is one of the greatest philosophers of all time disguised as a child's toy - go back and really look at what he says in response to the others' dialogue - what he advocates for daily living and dealing with others.
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Old 01-15-2013, 03:39 PM   #6
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OMG, so funny. I saw the title of your thread and thought "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Previous to reading that book, I could not write. I remember we would have these assignments in 7th grade called Monday paragraphs. All you had to do was write one paragraph, on any topic. It had to have a thesis, supporting points and a conclusion. I *hated* it. Struggled. It was torturous.

Then I read HHGTTG and it was mind-opening. Writing is like talking! Duh! All I have to do is marshal my thoughts into some semblance of organization, and then write it out the way I would explain it if I had a lot of time to rehearse and polish my key points. I am now always more than happy to sit down and put my thoughts on paper. It really was life-changing.
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Old 01-15-2013, 03:52 PM   #7
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Ever since reading John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley in my teens, I'm either planning a road trip or actually on a road trip. I've been to churches from Philadelphia to New Orleans to Santa Cruz because Steinbeck considered Sunday church services to be an essential travel activity. I doubt Steinbeck attended church any more often than I when not on a road trip.

But wait...before Steinbeck inflamed my passion for road trips, there was Robert Service with 'The Wanderlust', 'The Spell of the Yukon', and 'Rhymes of a Rolling Stone'. Because of Service, I've been chewed by an inexhaustible supply of mosquitoes in the Yukon, been assisted in changing a tire on a remote desert road by a nude stranger (he was leaving a clothing-optional hot springs but was not yet ready to adjust to civilization), and have had my travel trailer torn apart by Federales in Mexico in search of mysterious cargo.
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Old 01-15-2013, 03:53 PM   #8
astrangerhere
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Seeing the film To Kill a Mockingbird when I was a younger kid led me to the book as a teenager, and that led me into the law as an adult. In every law office I have practiced in, and now in my university office, I have the Atticus Finch quote from my signature hanging on my wall.
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Old 01-15-2013, 04:44 PM   #9
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The book that comes to my mind as an answer to the question above is The King James version of the Bible. It may sound corny but it did have a long lasting effect on me. I attended a church run school for several years when I was young and a copy of it was part of the required school equipment. I still have the child sized edition that my parents bought me back then.
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Old 01-15-2013, 04:46 PM   #10
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For me, it was "Vimy" by Pierre Berton, "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong, and "A Whale For The Killing" by Farley Mowat.
Each of these books left scars on my psyche that while healed, have never been forgotten. I read these when I was very young, and have never forgotten the impact that each one left on my impressionable mind.
I suppose the common theme through each of these is just how ugly humanity can be, towards himself and the world he lives in. I always hoped that I wouldn't contribute to the ugliness that I had experienced through these books.
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Old 01-15-2013, 05:17 PM   #11
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Two books which I've read (both when I was a child, so I suppose when I was particularly impressionable) have helped to shape who I've become today, in terms of political and religious affiliation, as well as my reflexive response to hardship: Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, and later, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I read Steinbeck when I was around eight, and Huxley when I was eleven, and they've both stuck with me as frequent re-reads ever since. They taught me "life's unfair, suck it up or change it" more profoundly than anything else.
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Old 01-15-2013, 05:27 PM   #12
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The Daybooks of Edward Weston, by Edward Weston

The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri

These two books have formed me into the photographer that I am today.
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Old 01-15-2013, 05:35 PM   #13
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I wouldn't blame any book for what I am but there are a handful of books that I clearly remember led me down the road to where I am:

- The earliest is a comic Book; Superboy #98. It got me into comics and reading as a hobby. Before first grade.
- James Blish's VOR. I'd been reading classic adventure and SF but this one had a double impact. First it led me to modern SF *as* SF. Looking for more, I picked up Starship Troopers. Both led me to the SFBC and a full education. Second, VOR's core conceit drove home the idea that what is a boon to some is a curse to others. Nothing is absolute. And people are prone to self-delusion. (Tell that to a teenager and see what you get.)

- Heinlein's BEYOND THIS HORIZON. Introduced me to the idea that cross-disciplinary thinkers are more important than narrow-focus experts. That it is better to be well acquainted with several disciplines than to know "more and more about less and less, until you know everything about nothing" as the saying puts it. It led me to engineering instead of pure science which, in retrospect, I wouldn't have the patience for.

- Heinlein's TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE. Not the story so much--Heinlein did better--but all the aphorisms scattered all over. All reinforcing the idea that humans are not rational, merely rationalizing. We spend most of our time looking to justify what we want to do anyway. Led my to question everything all the time. Heinlein included.

The problem with attributing myself to any book(s) is that there are other sources that have inspired me, including a handful of people. A couple of them were even teachers!
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Old 01-15-2013, 06:16 PM   #14
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1984 by George Orwell
At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft

Orwell politically, Lovecraft in terms of imagination and the universe.
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Old 01-15-2013, 06:22 PM   #15
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Every book I have read or intend to read leaves it mark on me. Whether the book is good or bad it still imparts something into my life. Good books have helped to make my sense of right and wrong stronger. The evil portrayed in books has helped to keep me out of trouble. Somethings learned in books can save your life. My books are old friends who have guided me through this life of mine.
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