Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
Growing up? Stranger in a Strange Land
MIchael’s way of viewing the world felt so natural to me, and yet so different from almost anyone else around.
2001: A Space Odyssey touched me in that special place between science, religion, and spirituality.
It was always hungry, and now it was starving. When the first faint glow of dawn crept into the cave, Moon-Watcher saw that his father had died in the night. He did not know that the Old One was his father, for such a relationship was utterly beyond his understanding, but as he looked at the emaciated body he felt dim disquiet that was the ancestor of sadness
In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms, and watched the workings of evolution on a thousand worlds. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night. And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
it was the first book I ever read, and I decided to do it on my own. I was 16 and it was the greatest thing I had done for myself up to that point. It was such a big thing for me. I had never read a book front to back before, let alone deciding to do it on my own.
And so I checked that book out at the library. Went home and started to read the first couple chapters. Got some tomato soup and a grilled cheese and then next thing I know its 2AM and I read that whole book in almost one sitting!!!
The freedom it gave my mind was a gift I can never reply. Douglass Adams is and always will be one of my favorite humans for what he gave me in that story.
I agree. I’ve introduced it to a number of people and I find it’s a bit of a litmus test for me. If they come back with “that’s just stupid” I know they’re missing a sense of play that comes with messing with the rules of life.
We lost DA far too early, but he left us a wonderful gift.
This was a short story, but I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream left me in a depressive state for a few days. Based purely on the feelings I got involved I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s not necessarily bad though. It’s just… Intense I guess.
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I loved 1984, but when I was younger, I always found Orwell’s treatise on language that takes up a big chunk in the middle to be dull and far-fetched.
Boy was I wrong…
When I was young and exposed to these stories, they had a different meaning
but as I have gotten older, wow those books sure do hit a bullseye but not always for what meaning popular culture puts on them
1984 to me is not about the government as much as it is about political ideas and opinions. Big Brother only punished the Winston because he broke the rules while being an insider. If he ran away to the proles, he would have been free but nope, he was theirs and they were going to punish him for his deviancy. They prepared for it even.
An in my opinion, those MAGA dupes are Winston of our age.
Animal Farm is similar but even more on point of our nature allowing these pigs to rule us with “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”
Its good we call cops PIGS, because they are.
Add Brave New World by Aldous Huxley to the list. I think he actually managed to get closer to where we were heading before Trump. Things took a right turn though.
Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow. Based on a few true stories and set five minutes in the future, telling the story of the poorest in society, the arbitrary restrictions put on them and, the namesake, the way their lives are controlled by corporate surveillance and physical DRM enabled by disinterested legislators. It’s a short story from one of his collections.
‘Blindsight’ and ‘echopraxia’ have had some of the longest reach in me, as far as books i read in adulthood.
Horror, but philosophical horror. It’s so good.
Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they’re funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry’s view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
My opinion of Discworld is that it was always social/historical satire first, fantasy second - and I even more so as the series progressed. And, to be clear, I don’t mean that as a criticism, but as a compliment. Discworld could have been written as any one of a hundred different genres and still have been superb, but by making it fantasy Pratchett made it all the more timeless.
GNU pTerry
Going to add Dark Money to my reading list. Thanks!
A lot but here are the most recent ones (all non fiction)
Immense World : How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Essential for understanding how other creatures live in our world and insight on how ours evolved to what it is right now.How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Chur
Really great intro to practical ethics that is incredibly accessible as far as ethics books go. Everyone should at least skim this.A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine
Best introduction to in my opinion the most important philosophy branch of western culture - Stoicism!Not one book but an entire series: Goodnight Punpun.
Hatchet.
It taight me that you never have to give up. Even when all looks completely lost, keeping your head on a swivel and keeping yourself goal oriented, you can get yourself through almost anything.
I read that book when I was younger and couldn’t remember the name until a few years ago. It resonated with me in a profound way. Having to be resourceful and not just make do, but survive, with what you have around you is something I’ve ingrained into my life. And not just in emergency situations but all the time. Seeing other uses for things, coming up with novel solutions, and yes, not giving up. My boss really appreciates my outlook at work for this reason.
I really liked the movie cast away for the same reasons.
Is that the one where the boy just up and decides to go live in a tree up in the Caskills and ends up with a pet falcon, or is that the one where the kid is stranded in the woods in a plane crash? I read those two books around the same time in later middle school and I think they ran together in my brain.
Plane crash
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Grew up seeing it on the bookshelf and thought it was a horror book. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in book form.
I’d say it contains some existential horror…
I won’t disagree but I was under the impression the guy wrote at least 4 other Slaughterhouse books. With a title like Slaughterhouse I believed the book series was packed to the gills with blood and guts.
Krabat
Enders game a it was the only novel I had finished in my life. Took me 3 years but disabilities like ADHD is horrible for me. I can read pretty well but any books like novels just can’t do it. Also with aphantasia it gets even worse.
This was my answer as well. It’s an amazing book amd I always recommend it.
Oh it was not a good book. Made by someone who’s donated actively to organization that want to make me dead for existing. It was a shit book but the only novel.i ever read.
The Selfish Gene.
As soon as the concept clicked halfway through the book my days as an evangelical were over.
It was interesting to me to hear years later that Wall Street types found it influential, because the thing I found most compelling was the explanation of why altruism and social generosity were rational traits.
