Have you ever read a book in the past as a child, young adult or older that made an unforgettable impression on you?

Two books that I remember reading....and enjoying....

The Old Man and the Sea......Earnest Hemingway
Grapes of Wrath.....John Steinbeck
 

Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I read it in the early 80's when I was about 24 and it inspired me to take about a month-long road trip around the country. The book itself doesn't mean that much to me any more, but the trip changed my life.
 
One of the first books my parents bought me, (or my mum bought me really of course), was "War of the worlds", by Arthur C Clarke.

I never did manage to read it, even when trying when I was older, so as an example of a book to grab a boys imagination it was lost on me I'm afraid, but was it in any way influential?

Well I've discovered since so many others did like the book l'd found so turgid, and the author was admired, and the book was made into an early sci-fi film. If we are informed therefore by encountering books we can't seem to enjoy, knowing others do, then it influenced me by teaching me how different we are, and I learnt "mother wasn't always right"!
 

Last edited:
Irwin said:
Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I read it in the early 80's when I was about 24 and it inspired me to take about a month-long road trip around the country. The book itself doesn't mean that much to me any more, but the trip changed my life.
Click to expand...

Never read the book, but I think everyone should travel the country at least once. It will change your perception for sure.
Our travels in the converted bus. :)

some-of-our-travels.gif
 
Murrmurr said:
JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye changed my perspective and, for me, Charles Michael Palahniuk's Fight Club was life-affirming.
Click to expand...
Just curious I read 8 chapters of that book over the freeze out and granted it was popular among the young when released and thought it was gibberish that went nowhere. Why was it so popular when it was released in your opinion? Were you young when you read it?
 
Several years ago I got into reading Ken Follet novels.

I had always been a Frederick Forsyth fan (The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, Day of the Jackal) but a guy I worked with told me about Follet and this one particular book he was reading at the time, called Pillars of the Earth.

Wow.

What a great novel. Set in the early medieval/middle ages era around 1170-1270 ad, it centers around the building of a cathedral church in southern England.

Of course, that is not what the book is about, but it is the activity that the rest of the story revolves around.

It's somewhere around 1200 pages long but I read it in about a week or less because I couldn't put it down.

The thing I like about Ken Follet above Frederick Forsyth is that Forsyth sticks to one genre and one genre only... war and related espionage. Follet also writes quite a bit in that genre as well and he does it as well as Forsyth does, but Follet can also step outside it and write amazing historical period novels.

Another great one he wrote that I highly recommend is called A Place Called Freedom, which is set in colonial America after starting out in Ireland around the late 1700's.
 
fmdog44 said:
Just curious I read 8 chapters of that book over the freeze out and granted it was popular among the young when released and thought it was gibberish that went nowhere. Why was it so popular when it was released in your opinion? Were you young when you read it?
Click to expand...
The Catcher in the Rye? Yes. I was 15 or 16 when I read it. First of all, it was the first novel I ever read where the characters talked the way you'd imagine they would; it wasn't all prose and literary like other novels; and the reader stayed in the protagonist's head throughout the story, a new approach at the time (as far as I knew). The characters were relatable and the message was chilling - a 16yr-old kid searches for truth in a world full of phonies, becomes confused, then disillusioned, then unhinged. But I agree with you that it hasn't held up to time.
 
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I read this as a senior in high school. It is a very dark book and I was in a precarious emotional place at the time. Not a good combination, and I had trouble separating my state of mind from the novel's plot.
 
Two books that I have read recently are the autobiographies of William Woollard, "The road to Nab End" and "Beyond Nab End". I thoroughly recommend them, with the caveat that they are quintessentially English and it helps to understand the times in which they are set.
They tell the fascinating story of a boy who grew up in relative poverty in the Cotton towns of N.England. Through his own efforts and sheer hard work, he gained a place at university, served in the army in WW2 and went on to become a distinguished professor and author. It's a good lesson in the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
 
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. First read it as a young teen. Still own a copy. Has become a favorite. It is about the life of a young girl growing up poor in Brooklyn. It was a shock to my sheltered middle class life realizing that not all people lived like me and my friends.
 
The Golden Impala, read to us by a teacher in elementary school that I admired. It has stuck with me all these years which makes it special to me. He had an uncanny ability to get the kids, including me, excited about his book reading sessions and his talent doing the reading that made it exciting and fun.
 
My parents gave me a copy of "Talking of Animals" when I was a small child. The book inspired my lifelong love of animals. I treasured it then and treasure it now ... one of only two books I've ever kept since childhood. My copy pictured on left.

SFsGYUM.jpg


Australian scientist, Dr David Fleay, was a man of many talents, he specialised in Zoology and was deservedly known as ‘Australia’s Father of Conservation’. David settled at West Burleigh on the Gold Coast Queensland in 1952 after achieving much in the building of the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria. His Fleays Fauna Reserve, now known as ‘The David Fleay Wildlife Park’, became a mecca for both scientists and the general public with an ever-growing thirst for knowledge of their native fauna.
 


Back
Top