Core texts.

[eurydicebound]

If you tend toward books (and if you don't at least somewhat, the odds of you being an LJ devotee to whatever degree are pretty slim), then it's a good bet that you've got a number of books that really resonated with you, often to the extent of informing your development as a person and your view of the world. These are not always classics of literature. Often they are, viewed objectively, really deeply awful books. That's not the point. The point is that they were the right (or wrong, nothing says they had to have a positive influence) thing for you to read at the right time, and they stayed with you in a meaningful way.

The number of these varies, but most people if queried can come up with three of them. One or more of them were likely encountered between the ages of 11 and 13, and may have been the first "grown up" book you read. Beyond that, I can't think of any set pattern, and even those may just be a coincidental cluster of data points. Nonetheless, I'm newly fascinated by this question and I wish to ask it here.

Help me out then, my friends. Name your top three core texts. If you wish to include age when encountered, positive or negative influence, general summary of the text, or type of influence it exerted on you, that would be likewise awesome. I wanna know about YOU! And books! Humor me. :)

Comments

[herrw.livejournal.com]

Wow... ok, here goes:

1st, Johnathan Livingston Seagull, at the age of 5 or 6. I can't remember which. I read it and re-read it at least a thousand times through to my 16th year or so. Several times since, as well. I believe it was written by Richard Bachman. Might have the name wrong. Regardless, it convinced me that I wanted to fly, although I didn't quite know how. I still think that roof-top jump would have worked if the cape hadn't fallen off.

2nd: The collected works of Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Barsoom stage. They opened my mind to the magic of possibility, even though the concepts were dated and largely unrealistic.

3rd: the 'Riddle of Stars' trillogy by Patricia A. McKillip, made up of "Riddle Master of Hed", "Heir of Sea and Fire", and "Harpist in the Wind". They set my mind on fire, and convinced me to begin writing at age 12. That year, I took first place in the young author's conference, and the rest was history.

4th: the series that solidified my outlook on life and convinced me that I was not a wierdo: Midshipman's Hope. There were others, most notably the works of Aeschillus (which I translated at college and happily so) but they didn't have the same effect on me. I don't remember the author, nor the year it was published. I was in my mid 20's, I think, and trying desperately to convince myself that I was not the self-absorbed waste of human flesh that I had become. The 'Hope' series gave me a protagonist who resembled who I was striving to become. It sounds silly, but there were few positive role models to follow at that time.

I should add that authors who also seriously shaped my thinking and my life were (in no particular order):

Robert H. Heinlein
J.R.R. Tolkein
Aldulous Huxley
Neitche (oppositely... I utterly rejected his thoughts)
Machiaveli (neutrally. I used him to understand power and its machinations)
Kung Fu Tse (I read the Analects at age 8, because there was nothing else around at the time. They are candy for a young mind.)

That's my list. Note the lack of smut or porn. It isn't because I thought them wrong or disinteresting, but rather that the printed word seemed sacred somehow, and to allow it to devolve from a communication of deep thought and shadowed beauty to an arena of base, carnal pleasure seemed sacrilege somehow. I've never quite gotten over that. Don't much want to, these days, though I do not think less of those who explore that avenue of desire. It's just empty somehow, which makes it undesireable for me.

Hope this meets your wishes.