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Another Steinbeck to consider - The Grapes of Wrath - a stunning book that left me 100% fulfilled at the end.
Cross of Iron book Willi Heinrich (semi-autobiographical).
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig
I re-read this book every few years and it helps keep my life in balance.
Marley and Me....
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...made me cry.
The films out soon as well.
Empty Cradles - Margaret Humphreys
not sure it changed my life but it did move me
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
"Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates' Tom Robbins
Switters is not a character you'll forget in a hurry. He turns down some cocaine with the phrase "why take a drug that makes me feel better looking and more entertaining than I know I already am?" A phrase I've used myself whenever some coked up boor gets on my tits.
Or 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd. An epic.
Fingerprints of the Gods - Graham Hancock.
Didnt quite "change my life" but "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"
A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes)
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Clockwork Orange
Bonfire of the Vanities
[b]An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan[/b] by Jason Elliot
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpected-Light-Afghanistan-Bestselling-Backlist/dp/0312288468
Also nearly finished [b]Shantaram[/b] which has been a gripping read
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shantaram-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0349117543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233912980&sr=1-1
Affluenza by Oliver James.
Or....
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Brave new World is a great book. I thought of another: "The Long Walk", by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the story of a Polish army officer who was captured and sent to a work camp in Siberia. He, along with a group of other prisoners, escaped and walked (!) to India.
It's allegedly autobiographical, though there are some records that suggest it can't have been entirely true. Either way, i can't recommend it enough. Incidentally my grandfather was a Pole and was also captured and sent to Siberia, and - like the author - eventally moved to Nottingham after the war.
Not really changed my life, but a book that I simply cannot stop thinking about, more than 2 years after reading (and also the book my book group keeps returning to discussing) is We Need to Talk About Kevin bu Lionel Shriver.
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Kite Runner
The World We Are In - Will Hutton - a rather eye-opening account of world economics and Britain's relationships with the US and Europe
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry. Simply wonderful.
(and, in the same series, Dead Man's Walk, Comanche Moon and Streets of Laredo. Don't be put off by the cowboy theme, they're truely excellent)
Just started re-reading Grapes of Wrath. Enjoying it more this time. Once Ther Was a War is another excellent Steinbeck read.
"The Long Walk", by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the story of a Polish army officer who was captured and sent to a work camp in Siberia. He, along with a group of other prisoners, escaped and walked (!) to India.
I read that also Finbar, a great book.
Everyones probably read them but the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series of books are brilliant, read them quite a few times now, in fact stuff by Douglas Adams always puts me in a good mood, he was a good and funny writer...
Big fan of John Steinbeck too, Cannery row being my favorite, recently found a book of the diaries that he wrote on a trip to the Sea of Cortez with Ed Ricketts to study marine life that I found quite inspiring...
Just finished "The reader" which I found extremely moving.
My favourite authors are John Irving (The World According to Garp) and Douglas Coupland (Generation X, JPod, etc). From their works I'd recommend A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving) and Girlfriend in a Coma (Coupland).
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque has to be the book that left me feeling more than any other I have read, though it certainly isnt a happy feel good book.
If I want some easy entertainement then I find Christopher Brookmyre quite good. Some of Tom Sharps books have made me laugh more than any others.
The Great Bicycle Adventure
by Nicholas Crane
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The best book I ever read.
/thread.
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[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-Clouds-Tale-Fell-Running-Obsession/dp/1854109898 ]Feet in the Clouds[/url] - a book all about how a relatively normal person became a fell running nutter. Although there is a danger you will find yourself getting sick desires to put on funny shoes and super-short shorts and go jogging up mountains.
Joe
the magician by raymond e feist
the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera
the feather men by ranulph fiennes
lord of the rings by you know who
annapurna by maurice herzog
in no particular order 😉
as i kid i read 'flowers in the attic' read it few years back, still a very powerful book.
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I learnt to read with books like this. Probbly the most influential books of my life!
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Hitchikers books
Thirded To kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee
The wasp factory - Iain Banks
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The Sound and the Furry - William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck, just for the very last page alone.
A brave new world takes some beating, but heart of darkness is up there as well.
For shock try Last Exit to Brooklyn, heavy subject matter but a classic
Not life changing but highly recomended:
The Road to Nab End, and Beyond Nab End by William Woodruff.
Makes you realise how easy we have it now. Crikey, it were grim up North in the early 1900s.
Also, Two Wheels North, story of two lads just out of high school riding bikes from Santa Rosa to Seattle in 1909 - now that was adventure
surfer I was just about to type The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists then read your post. So how about Keep the Aspidistra Flying or Homage to Catalonia or anything by Orwell really.
Handmaid's Tale
The Magus
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Never Let Me Go
We Need To Talk About Kevin
1984
The Time Traveler's Wife
"Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman
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Shackelton and his crew knew how to deal with a bit of snow and ice. Truly amazing story.
Another vote for Marley and Me (I cried many times) and also for the Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes
[i]Which is the Vonnegut book with the artist doing a massive mural in it, is that Slaughterhouse 5? Got that here, guess I could re-read it and find out [/i]
That's Bluebeard that is.
All Vonnegut is ace.
Recently have enjoyed Haruki Murakami. Any of them are good, but Norwegian Wood is probably the most accessible.
I'll go with me's suggestion. I've read books which are far more thought provoking or emotionally intense, but that was the one that really opened my mind to all the silly places you could take a bike, and I guess changed my life because of it.
Another vote for 'Time travelers wife', (maybe not life changing but the last book i read that made me weep.)
other good reads,
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson
Another for 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
1984
The bridge,The business both by Ian Banks,
Electric cool aid acid test,The right stuff both by Tom Wolfe
Mr Nice ,Howard Marks
enjoy...........
only a little book, Jonathan livingstone seagull i cant remember who the author is ,an exellent read i read it years ago and it still makes sense
cheers
"[b]Blood Meridian[/b] or, The Evening Redness in The West" by Cormac McCarthy.
Not sure it changed my life, but I don't think I'd currently be working as a bounty-hunter on the West Texas/Mexico borderlands if I hadn't read this book.
Internet access is a bit patchy, mind...
Seriously though, a stunning book if you can deal with the graphic violence and McCarthy's sparse punctuation.
Second Crow Road and The Wasp Factory both by Iain banks.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.
And when I was young, The Dove. Basically about a teenage American kid that bumed a yaucht and to travel the world from kid to man.
I can't spell yaught FFS.
As mentioned above, Grapes Of Wrath and Cannery Row are brilliant books, though in different ways.
Steinbecks great.Ive always found Norman Mailer a good intelligent writer.Stay away from Cormac McCarthy if u suffer from depression especially 'The Road'