Ten Books That Made Me
Dec. 15th, 2013 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipOn Facebook Jasper tagged me a few days ago in the following meme; The rules: In your status line, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and don't think too hard - they don't have to be the 'right' or 'great' works, just the ones that have touched you.. The following isn't quite accurate according to the rules - I did give some thought about these books, in particularly I wanted to include those books influential from when I was young as well as more contemporary works. So here it is - the ten main written works (in order no less) that have affected me.
1. The Theory of Communicative Action, Jurgen Habermas. The painstakingly careful development of contemporary linguistic and pragmatic philosophy as applied to social theory. Still remains relatively unknown outside academia, probably because it's two volumes and written the peculiar German intellectual style. I finished this shortly after completing my first degree, around 1995. It has remained the mainstay of my philosophical approach since then.
2. RuneQuest, Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, Ray Turney et. al.. The first roleplaying game (yes, it is a book too) I participated in at junior high school in 1981, and which I completely read the following year. Have since followed the principles of "playable realism", explored the mythic world of Glorantha, and the stylish portrayal of magic and premodern social systems. With RuneQuest the sense of "being there" was far greater than gamebooks like Dungeons & Dragons which often seemed like transporting twentieth century people and attitudes to an fantasy world.
3. The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato. One of the basic texts to introduce the concept of the philosophical life, although remarkably I didn't read until well after such initial studies, around 1994. In some ways the dialogues induces an attitude of being an annoying, argumentative, pedantic, and abnormal person - none of which is a bad thing in itself. The setting and personalities are brought to the mind's eye quite beautifully.
4. The Mirrorshades Anthology: Bruce Sterling (ed). Encountered in 1988, as the cyberpunk subculture was in full swing, this book of short stories was encapsulated much of the rebellious high-technology spirit. Sterling's opening essay was something of a manifesto of style and politics, the essential ingredients of subculture. In the Accelerated House, a dilapidated duplex with an 1977 Alpha Micro minicomputer network multiple dog-eared copies of this essential reading would be found.
5. The Dolphin Rider and Other Greek Myths, Bernard Evslin. A favourite book from middle primary school, picked up through the Scholastic Book Services in 1976, this work of Evslin sparked my interest in mythology, the Hellenic setting and especially the disastrously tragic themes (I suspect it set the 'worst-case scenario' concerns I have) in an accessible yet intelligent manner. The conclusion of the Pandora's box tale was particularly memorable: For people can bear endless trouble, but they cannot live without hope.
6. On Revolution, Hannah Arendt. As life imitates art, I read this book whilst doing volunteer work in Timor-Leste in its first year of (re)independence in 2002. Arendt carefully - almost like a detective novel - uncovers the hidden spirit of revolutionary fervour, the desire to bring something new into the world, ex nihilo, by free action in public life, and whose continuing survival depends on the grounding of a constitutio libertatis.
7. RE/Search #8/9: J. G. Ballard. An outgrowth of the punk fanzine into an irregular journal, "Search & Destroy", RE/Search gained intellectual credibility with quality interviews and articles. The J.G. Ballard double issue explores with great depth his deeply psychosexual and dystopian approach to modern technology, an issue I delved into during the MARS (Murdoch Alternative Reality Society) years, c1990. Includes Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan.
8. Pascal: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming, Walter Savitch. I have read many computer science books and most of them are fairly dull. This one is no exception, although interspersed with quotes from Alice in Wonderland to provide some illustrative amusement. The importance of this book, first read in 1988, is that it is how I learned structured and procedural logical programming, the importance of syntax, and the advantage of abstraction.
9. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. Although never as popular as The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, in my mid-teens, around 1984, I fell in love with this epic story covering the mythology and golden age of Middle-Earth is a saga that includes beauty, greed, love, and madness - and sometimes at the same time. "The Fall of Fingolfin" remains one of the finest examples of epic English literature I have encountered.
10. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, Sam Savage. Found bycaseopaya at the Salamanca Markets in Hobart in 2008, this book was made for rat-loving existentialists. With a touch of magical realism, a rat learns to read and think and becomes quite the cantankerous thinker, but hopelessly unable to communicate. Tragic, beautiful, and sad, I have made a start on a Wikipedia page for this book.
So that's the list. As a limit of ten, it leaves out many great books and excellent authors. It doesn't even represent ten books that I think are particularly well written (The Dolphin Rider is rather simple, Pascal is pretty dry, Communicative Action is laborious prose), or that I necessarily even agree with (Arendt and Habermas both concentrate too heavily on the social ideas rather than the material conditions). There is also a notable cluster from during my undergraduate days, which is also to be expected - and reflects the intellectually transformative period.
1. The Theory of Communicative Action, Jurgen Habermas. The painstakingly careful development of contemporary linguistic and pragmatic philosophy as applied to social theory. Still remains relatively unknown outside academia, probably because it's two volumes and written the peculiar German intellectual style. I finished this shortly after completing my first degree, around 1995. It has remained the mainstay of my philosophical approach since then.
2. RuneQuest, Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, Ray Turney et. al.. The first roleplaying game (yes, it is a book too) I participated in at junior high school in 1981, and which I completely read the following year. Have since followed the principles of "playable realism", explored the mythic world of Glorantha, and the stylish portrayal of magic and premodern social systems. With RuneQuest the sense of "being there" was far greater than gamebooks like Dungeons & Dragons which often seemed like transporting twentieth century people and attitudes to an fantasy world.
3. The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato. One of the basic texts to introduce the concept of the philosophical life, although remarkably I didn't read until well after such initial studies, around 1994. In some ways the dialogues induces an attitude of being an annoying, argumentative, pedantic, and abnormal person - none of which is a bad thing in itself. The setting and personalities are brought to the mind's eye quite beautifully.
4. The Mirrorshades Anthology: Bruce Sterling (ed). Encountered in 1988, as the cyberpunk subculture was in full swing, this book of short stories was encapsulated much of the rebellious high-technology spirit. Sterling's opening essay was something of a manifesto of style and politics, the essential ingredients of subculture. In the Accelerated House, a dilapidated duplex with an 1977 Alpha Micro minicomputer network multiple dog-eared copies of this essential reading would be found.
5. The Dolphin Rider and Other Greek Myths, Bernard Evslin. A favourite book from middle primary school, picked up through the Scholastic Book Services in 1976, this work of Evslin sparked my interest in mythology, the Hellenic setting and especially the disastrously tragic themes (I suspect it set the 'worst-case scenario' concerns I have) in an accessible yet intelligent manner. The conclusion of the Pandora's box tale was particularly memorable: For people can bear endless trouble, but they cannot live without hope.
6. On Revolution, Hannah Arendt. As life imitates art, I read this book whilst doing volunteer work in Timor-Leste in its first year of (re)independence in 2002. Arendt carefully - almost like a detective novel - uncovers the hidden spirit of revolutionary fervour, the desire to bring something new into the world, ex nihilo, by free action in public life, and whose continuing survival depends on the grounding of a constitutio libertatis.
7. RE/Search #8/9: J. G. Ballard. An outgrowth of the punk fanzine into an irregular journal, "Search & Destroy", RE/Search gained intellectual credibility with quality interviews and articles. The J.G. Ballard double issue explores with great depth his deeply psychosexual and dystopian approach to modern technology, an issue I delved into during the MARS (Murdoch Alternative Reality Society) years, c1990. Includes Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan.
8. Pascal: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming, Walter Savitch. I have read many computer science books and most of them are fairly dull. This one is no exception, although interspersed with quotes from Alice in Wonderland to provide some illustrative amusement. The importance of this book, first read in 1988, is that it is how I learned structured and procedural logical programming, the importance of syntax, and the advantage of abstraction.
9. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. Although never as popular as The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, in my mid-teens, around 1984, I fell in love with this epic story covering the mythology and golden age of Middle-Earth is a saga that includes beauty, greed, love, and madness - and sometimes at the same time. "The Fall of Fingolfin" remains one of the finest examples of epic English literature I have encountered.
10. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, Sam Savage. Found by
caseopaya at the Salamanca Markets in Hobart in 2008, this book was made for rat-loving existentialists. With a touch of magical realism, a rat learns to read and think and becomes quite the cantankerous thinker, but hopelessly unable to communicate. Tragic, beautiful, and sad, I have made a start on a Wikipedia page for this book.So that's the list. As a limit of ten, it leaves out many great books and excellent authors. It doesn't even represent ten books that I think are particularly well written (The Dolphin Rider is rather simple, Pascal is pretty dry, Communicative Action is laborious prose), or that I necessarily even agree with (Arendt and Habermas both concentrate too heavily on the social ideas rather than the material conditions). There is also a notable cluster from during my undergraduate days, which is also to be expected - and reflects the intellectually transformative period.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 10:20 pm (UTC)There is always too many good books!
Of course this situation does lend itself to an advantage of cultural (but not political) conservatism - it means the classics remain so because of the vetting process of time and criticism.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 10:50 pm (UTC)I agree with you. And technically, we should read even bad books, poorly written, or about with a subject don't agree if we want to have a good opposing argument, or even just to create our own opinions of the matter not just "I don't like it because I've heard it's bad".
no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 11:17 pm (UTC)Yes, it comes down to a time issue; I myself don't even have the time to read the books I want to read, which I agree with what's been written, and then I'm such a slow reader, but I do plan to read a lot (more) in the future.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-16 06:20 pm (UTC)Of all the myriad of amazingly complex stories there, Narn i Chîn Húrin seems like the most obvious candidate to be filmed. What say you?
no subject
Date: 2013-12-16 10:31 pm (UTC)The Children of Hurin would be a good choice, certainly quite an epic tragedy - but I think it would be better placed as a part of a series for Quenta Silmarillion as a whole. I can generate a very vivid imagery for the Kinslaying at Alqualonde, and the crossing of Helcaraxe...