[Madness]

Arose in a conversation between FB and I. I wanted to address it later because I was failing to remember them all when FB asked me.

[Royce]

From the top of my head: The plague by Albert Camus. This one totally crushed the concept of a loving father figure in the sky for me. Read it when I was 15, and I was more or less depressed until I got laid for the first time at 16.

The Process by Franz Kafka. Great story about judgement, it covers everything you think that concept means.

The history of bestiality by Jens Bjoerneboe. This one puts human morality to the test by laying out in detail the horrendous actions of humanity throughout history. At the same time it mirrors the inner turmoil the author struggled with.

1984 by George Orwell. You know the deal with this one. If not, just read it.

Valis by Philip K Dick. What is madness?, and who is really mad? are normal people mad, or mad people normal? PKD makes you wonder for sure. This book will make your head spin for weeks.

I could list loads more(and yes Bakker is in there for sure) but these books mentioned I read when I was quite young(minus Valis) so they made some scars which are still not healed.

[mrganondorf]

From the top of my head: The plague by Albert Camus. This one totally crushed the concept of a loving father figure in the sky for me. Read it when I was 15, and I was more or less depressed until I got laid for the first time at 16.

The Process by Franz Kafka. Great story about judgement, it covers everything you think that concept means.

The history of bestiality by Jens Bjoerneboe. This one puts human morality to the test by laying out in detail the horrendous actions of humanity throughout history. At the same time it mirrors the inner turmoil the author struggled with.

1984 by George Orwell. You know the deal with this one. If not, just read it.

Valis by Philip K Dick. What is madness?, and who is really mad? are normal people mad, or mad people normal? PKD makes you wonder for sure. This book will make your head spin for weeks.

I could list loads more(and yes Bakker is in there for sure) but these books mentioned I read when I was quite young(minus Valis) so they made some scars which are still not healed.

LMAO!!!

I think The Process is translated as the The Trial in US editions - if that's right, i think 'The Process' is an amazing name for that work, has such a different connotation than 'trial' - makes me think of MEAT

[Wilshire]

Now I feel silly, with something as seemingly profound as Royce's post. Upon reflection,
I guess there hasn't been much in the way of literature that has truly impacted me one wya or another.

Certainly 1984 had some deep implication, along with Brave New World, though to a lesser extent.

The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, as it opened up the entire fantasy genre for me.

And, naturally, TSA, for showing me the other side of the fissure between young adult fantasy and fantasy that is sophisticated, dark, and intelligent.

[SilentRoamer]

Well I am forever grateful to David Gemmell. Read Dark Moon standalone when I was 12 and this was the beginning of my love affair with the Fantasy genre - after I read this I started reading everything Gemmell had written up to that point (All the Drenia, Rigante and standalones.) This was the transition for me between reading Goosebumps, Narnia, Dark is Rising etc. to more adult novels.

I pretty much read Fantasy for the next 4 years or so - Gemmell, Goodkind (Please don't get me started on this pile of turd), Feist, Tolkien, Donaldson etc.. When I was 16 I read Enders Game and this was the start of my love for Sci Fi. Enders game was a fantastic book.

More recently, as an adult, TSA (for me TWP was the highlight) and Hyperion have both stood out in terms of quality and showed me how well planned and written a book can be. Hyperion is just so well written and so easy to read - the story seems to tell itself so well, TSA on the other hand can be a difficult read but rewards the reader immensely with some of my favourite prose and style from Bakker.

So nothing that has changed my life - more a change in reading habits.

Edit: In retrospect I think I should add Lord Fouls Bane as well:

(click to show/hide)

Thomas Covenant raping Lena was just an awful scene and I read it when I was fairly young and it was the first time I had read this tone from the protagonists PoV. Changed the way I read characters quite a bit

[kellykellhus]

Gustav Hasford's Shorttimers was my favorite book as a teen and is probably one of the bigger reasons why dark authors like James Ellroy and Bakker are all time favorites for me.

I also devoured Dune and Tolkien when I was young, which no doubt also informs why Bakker appeals to me so much.

1984 was a huge one for me too.

[mrganondorf]

The B-I-B-L-E.  The pre-Bakker, Bakker.  Hard to summarize what all the Good Book 'impacted' in me, but that is the right verb, as in 'the steering wheel's impact on his chest killed him instantly.'  Also, I was raised by Calvinists.

[Francis Buck]

Harry Potter was pretty big for me when I was little. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan got me into science-fiction books, along with some random Halo novels. Sabriel by Garth Nix really felt like my first taste of the possibilities with fantasy in general. No Country For Old Men affected me hugely as a writer, probably more than anything else.

It's funny because I started writing in fifth grade, but it wasn't a book that inspired me to do so. It was a kids TV show called Jackie Chan Adventures. I really liked that show at the time. In general, I would say film (and in the last five years, television) have inspired me as a writer just as much as books have.