What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you?
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
the Discworld series, of which Small Gods is the first one to have made my brain go "oh!"
Simon Winchester's Krakatoa and Outposts which made me realize that non-fiction could be an entertaining read.
Isabel Wilkerson's Caste because it gave me a different way of looking at how people interact with each other.
And Ursula Markham's How to Deal with Difficult People; it is a weird choice for a 13yo and deals with office life... but it helped me deal with my family a lot. -
@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon spell of the Sensuous by David Abrams. Most of the book is about the origination of language and how our environments shape our sounds. It helped me open to the possibilities found in relating to my environment, to keep me open to hearing new forms of language, to keep me listening for song lines from the Earth.
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@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon @alicemcalicepants Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter convinced me to start an Open University degree in my 40s which led to me switching jobs and being a lot happier!
@satsuma @ShaulaEvans @bookstodon @alicemcalicepants
Gödel, Escher, Bach "switched my mind on" when i was 15 years old; i did not understand all in the book, but my mind was altered, and in a positive way. since then i check and double-check everything i read or see (or think). -
What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@bookstodon @ShaulaEvans The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - I read the book the first time maybe 8 years ago. Since then, I return to read it again every other year.
It came at a rather bleak time in my life and started me on a path to reevaluate my values and act more towards how I want to be. I treasure this book because it finally made me realize that how I was and how I am are not how I will be or must be. -
@bookstodon @ShaulaEvans The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - I read the book the first time maybe 8 years ago. Since then, I return to read it again every other year.
It came at a rather bleak time in my life and started me on a path to reevaluate my values and act more towards how I want to be. I treasure this book because it finally made me realize that how I was and how I am are not how I will be or must be.@bookstodon @ShaulaEvans Another great book for me was "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" (read maybe 5 years ago the first time) - I felt like it put into words what I was feeling missing in my environment at that time. It gave me a way to say / describe what I am looking for.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Read that in my early twenties and it helped consolidate what a load of old bullshit the right wing of politics are pumping out. Such a blatantly awful book. I couldn't even finish it.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, back in grammar school. It motivated me to study physics, and even though that's not the career I ended in, it nevertheless set me on my path.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon It is a hard one to find a single book. So I will have to go with my favourite book, which is Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Why? Because it introduced me to imagination, to fantasy, to the idea that there was something else other than this world.
It told me that there could still be wonder in the world.
Also, it is a whole lot of fun.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon There’s just too many! Reading a book of Sylvia Plath’s poetry when I was about 11 or 12 affected me deeply. Nevil Shute’s book On the Beach also made a huge impact re nuclear holocaust,read at a similar age.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
'Germinal' by Emile Zola, paperback, read when I was 17; helped reinforce my nascent anti-capitalist outlook that I still have today, 50 years later.
Extraordinary book. -
What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon 'The systems view of life'. About systems and their unpredictable behaviours. Sounds dull but very much not. Human body, society, politics, economics - all complex systems - yet simplistic proclamations made with scant regard to that complexity.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans I was about 14 years old (of course I read a lot of books before that and they probably influenced me as well, but this is the first example that came to my mind) when I read The Last Unicorn again and again and again, for the tiny school library (that was also the theater performance room) had a copy. I read it so many times and it influenced me deeply on mortality, surrealism and storytelling. When I was smaller The Neverending Story and Momo did the same
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans@zirk.us @bookstodon@fedigroups.social Almost anything from the #discworld by #terrypratchett, but if I have to pick "mine" I'd say it was probably "Guard! Guards!" that cemented a lot of what I think of people and what I want to strive to be able to think of myself. -
@ShaulaEvans@zirk.us @bookstodon@fedigroups.social Almost anything from the #discworld by #terrypratchett, but if I have to pick "mine" I'd say it was probably "Guard! Guards!" that cemented a lot of what I think of people and what I want to strive to be able to think of myself.
@bovaz @ShaulaEvans @bookstodon also for me, that and #terryPrachett night watch should be required reading for everyone in schools (or the US: Did you get a receipt for that prisoner?)
“ You took an oath to uphold the law and defend the citizens without fear or favor," said Vimes. "And to protect the innocent. That's all they put in. Maybe they thought those were the important things. Nothing in there about orders, even from me. You're an officer of the law, not a soldier of the government.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
Not a book... but a poem:
My grandpa ran away from home when he was 16yrs old, to another village in the Scottish borders where he wasn't known, so that he could join the army to fight in World War I.
~60yrs later, when I was also ~16, I studied *Strange Meeting* for my English Literature, school 'Higher' exam. I knew it well. Nothing has changed.#War #Fascism #Putin #Trump #Poetry #StrangeMeeting #WilfredOwen
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@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon Watership Down, which I tried to read for the first time in around 4th grade (on my own, not assigned for school or anything). about halfway through I made the conscious decision that I was missing a lot, that I would probably understand it more fully when I was older, and put it aside. read it again all the way through... not sure exactly when but definitely before or in high school, because that was when I started compiling a Lapine (rabbit language) dictionary. over the years I read multiple copies often enough that the paperback would fall apart, and I'd get another copy and do it again. I have no idea how many times I've re-read it, but I have large chunks of it basically memorized.
it was possibly the first book that showed me what a written masterpiece was, and the fact that it was about rabbits, *from the perspective of rabbits*, made it deeply precious to me. (cont)
@troodon @ShaulaEvans @bookstodon I first read this book when I was 9, and stopped counting rereads after 52. I still read it once every few years. The thing that really resonated with me was the non-human perspective. Since then I have always sought out these kinds of books (Martha Wells is great at this, especially her Raksura books)
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There is a lovely new edition of Anne of Green Gables out, with hand drawn ephemera which while it doesn't change the text one bit, it is a delightfully self indulgent gift to self if you enjoy the book.
@Printdevil @kgjengedal @ShaulaEvans @bookstodon where do I get this? I have to have it 🤣🥰
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@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon Anne of Green Gables. It showed me that it's ok to be ambitious in school, and that wanting to write stories is, if not perfectly normal, at least not unheard of either. I read it at about 7-8 (for the first time, but I've of course read it countless times since).
@kgjengedal @ShaulaEvans @bookstodon another one of my favorite reads. That and the Emily books (I identified strongly with her description of “the flash” which I also experience but have never seen described anywhere else).
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
Richard Bach's "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" got me to think "wider". I'd always thought deeply internally, but not about how each of us affects one another. I was 12. I hadn't heard of "Plato's Cave" yet, which would have been a similar experience.
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What is one book that positively shaped who you are as a person and how did it influence you? At what point in your life did you read it?
Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, audiobook: however you define "book" for yourself is fine with me.
@ShaulaEvans @bookstodon Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein was assigned to me in a first year college seminar. It broke my brain in the best way. My lifelong struggle is with meaning, expectations, "shoulds." This book length prose poem is "abstract writing" or dada or deeply symbolic. Or all or none of that. I can understand that some may hate (be disappointed in) abstract art. To me it's life affirming. Time spent playing with thoughts is valuable. Art for art's sake.
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