This year is the 50th anniversary of 'To kill a mockingbird'. Today reading the paper there was an article about 'The ragged trousered philanthropists'. Being reminded of both these books so close together got me thinking, I read both these books in my younger days, and repeatedly since, and I think that more than any others, these books made me the person I am today.
What books influenced and inspired your thinking in this way?

Mein Kampf anyone ?

being molded by a book is not a concept i'm familiar with

though i rate the four hour work week for confirming my views of work

the joy of sex. Not me, my folks

{EDIT} oh, I see 😉

The Bible.

The Money Machine

Advanced Statistics

I read horror stories like crazy when I was a kid. I would come back fromthe library every weekdn with another handful. They gave me a dark and brooding outlook on life and people in general.

Once I'd run out of horror stories to read, my attention turned to my dad's impressive book case. Mostly filled with travel and climbing books which didn't really interest me that much, I picked out the fiction books that did and became an avid reader of spy and action novels. I'd read pretty much all Wilbur Smith's novels by the time I was 13 which taught me that all men are strong and dependable and any man who can't run down a bull elephant across the African plains for 8 hours is a poor excuse for a human being.

This is why I'm the person I am.

Slaughter House 5
Catch 22
If This is Man/ The Truce

sweepy, yep, those two books really influenced me as a kid, more than I can possibly say.

Can I add 'Three men in a a boat' 'A Clockworck Orange' and the 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes' as life changers?

Er probably Das Kapital, Catch 22, Brave New World, Fear and Loathing, The Road to Wigan pier,Dispatches by Mike Herr,On The Origin of Species.

My folks always had piles of books everywhere and I read voraciously, still do really, even walking around town I'll take a book to read whilst I'm walking.

I'd say that the ones I've mentioned were probably the ones, for right or wrong that helped form my opinions and biases the most anyway.

That advance statistics book looks a bit of a dry old read.
iDave, do you not think its possible to learn anything from a book?

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins.

sweepy – learning yes.

being 'made who you are'?

i'd say a lot more than a couple of books have done that

Hemingway also made me what I am.

"The sun also rises" is almost perfect. 😀

The God delusion was a good book, but rather than teach me anything new, it expressed clearly the views I already had, if that makes sense

The God delusion was a good book, but rather than teach me anything new, it expressed clearly the views I already had, if that makes sense

Same here. I think they call it "preaching to the converted".

iDave- definitely, but they really affected me. Its not even like Philanthropists was hugely well written, but I believe that the way you react to reading it for the first time says much about you as a person.

Mr Grumpy

Of the Mr Men series

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, and Chickenhawk,
PJ.

1984 – reminded of it everytime I see a CCTV camera or a sports article in the red tops that's 4 times longer than the lead news story…

I remember reading 1984 and thinking it was a fiction, and could never happen. Got that wrong then.
Ive never read Hemingway, and never finished Zen. maybe I should give them a try.

Trainspotting, Homage to Catalonia, Electric Brae by Andy Greig are all favourtes of mine but if you really want a book that "made you what you are" maybe I should be thinking of what I read when I was a kid so that would be loads of James Bond novels, Last of the Mohicans and Scorcher

I suppose I'd better add 'The Cruel Sea' by Nicholas Monserrat, 'The Young Lions' by Irwin Shaw and 'The White Spider' by Heinrich Harrer .

All of which, when read as a child, had a massive influence on my life.

I am a golem made of paper mache

Seriously – the usual Orwell, lord of the rings, white fang and call of the wild. All quiet on the western front. Jupiters travels. Catcher in the rye

peajay – Member

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

oooh! I was going to say that!

"The Monkey Wrench Gang", Edward Abbey.

Ah, TJ, can I recommend 'These are the days that would happen to you' by Dan Walsh?

After reading your posts on here, I think you'd really, really enjoy it.

The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavey made me think that drinking to excess is a good idea. Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban woke me up to the very real possibility that I might not last long enough to do so.

The Mouse and his Son, also by the 'fore-mentioned Hoban gave me an insight into infinity as a child – there's a passage in which the mouse is looking at a dog food tin; the label on the tin depicts a dog looking at a tin of dog food. The label on that tin shows a dog looking at a tin of dog food ad nauseam, literally in my case. I threw up, faced with the concept of the universe as a never ending, infinitely repeating entity.

Animal Farm – Not sure it influenced me but I read it at about 10, 15 and 21 and each time I realised it wasn't what I thought it was about the last time*.

*except the first time when I hadn't read it previously but even then it wasn't what I thought it would be about

As TJ, also As I walked out one Summer morning. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee made me cry. The Songlines, On the Black Hill, Bruce Chatwin

As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning – what a grand text. Read it in the back of 'O' grade English whilst my classmates murdered Macbeth at the rate of one page per hour (PPH).

As I walked out one Summer morning

Wonderful. Makes me cry whenever I pick the damn thing up.

'The Great Railway Bazaar' by Paul Theroux is a bit of a choker for me too.

Makes me cry whenever I pick the damn thing up.

Do you reckon you'll ever get to read it ?

Ian Serrailler's 'The Silver Sword' an 'There's No Escape' also passed a hell of a lot of time before I discovered women.

'To kill a mockingbird
zen , and lila
hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
the gospels
the chrisalids

I think I relate to outsider hero literature

Bury my heart at wounded knee a really great book made me angry 😈

ernie, care to contribute, or would you prefer to just assume the superior position, as usual?

Oh! And Damien by Herman Hesse has more than once caused me to chiggidy-check myself before I riggidy-wreck myself.

Who doesn't want to be on the path to enlightenment and self-awareness?

EDIT; come on Rusty, that was a wee bit amusing – I think he's suggesting that you were never able to read it through the veil of tears 🙂