Radio 4's Woman's Hour recently commissioned a piece of research about novels that changed the reader’s view of the world. Books that featured high in the survey included Middlemarch, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby, The Rainbow, Anna Karenina and Catch-22. It got me thinking about the first novel that had a major impact on me.

When I was 15 my sister began going out with a new boyfriend. His best friend worked for Pan Books. In an attempt to get in with my mum, he used to bring in a large collection of brand new paperbacks. While at school I had managed to resist the temptation to read novels. I don’t remember my English teachers trying very hard to convince me otherwise. I found the cover of one of these books very tempting. He showed a cool looking individual casually carrying his jacket over his shoulder. The expression on his face was similar to the one employed by James Dean on film posters.

The book was called “The Intruder” by Charles Beaumont. I am not sure it was very well written. But what Beaumont managed to do was to transport me into another world. The book was about a right-wing white man who was touring the Deep South stirring up trouble against school integration. I am not sure what Beaumont’s politics were but I know what impact the book had on me. I had never thought about the idea of black and white people being educated separately. The book encouraged me to go to the library to get a book out on civil rights in America. It was the beginning of my long interest in the history of oppression.

This morning I did a search for details of Charles Beaumont. Apparently it was the only novel he wrote and died of Alzheimer's at the age of 38.

What novel changed your life?

The two books that did much to shape my political outlook as a student were Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" (which motivated to read more Orwell), and Tressell's "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists".

I can't say they changed my life but they have certainly influenced my thinking to a large extent.

I did not read Orwell and Tressell until I was 19. They of course had an influence but I don’t think they shaped my personality in the same way as Beaumont’s book. I think it all depends on your age at the time. At 15 and 16 you are more likely to be influenced by the books you read. Other books brought round by my sister’s boyfriend, that had an impact included Ernest Raymond’s ‘We the Accused’ (a novel about capital punishment) and Charles Israel’s ‘The Mark’ (about a man trying to adjust to life after prison). For some reason these three books encouraged me to identify with people in trouble. This was some achievement, up until that time, I severely lacked empathy. In a way, these books humanized me. Maybe, that is the main argument for young people reading novels. Can other art forms play this role? Can teenagers develop empathy playing computer games? What impact does movies play in the development of personality?

The novel that changed your life: this is really a very good question. I don't think one novel in particular may have changed my life, although I remember Kerouac's 'On the Road', Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' and most of Orwell's and Lawrence's works with pleasure. I rather think I was influenced by Malcolm X's 'Autobiography' and M. L. King's 'Stride toward freedom', which I read when I was 15 and contributed to some aspects of my personality. I think my 'humanity' started at that time, as I got interested in the problem of civil rights in the US. I managed to read a lot of books on the topic in a few years.

As for John's questions, I believe some movies can influence the development of personality, but not as strongly as books do. I remember my secondary school Italian teacher saying that, when you read, you also have to 'interpret' what you are reading, filling the gaps between the author's words and your own way of understanding them. This depends on your experiences, view of the world, knowledge, personality, etc. I think that when you watch a movie, little is left to your imagination. There are exceptions, of course, like Kubrick's and other great directors' works.

I am an only child and until I married I had no other family except my parents so I was an avaricious reader. I don't know about "changing" my life but the books that had the most affect on me were in order of reading age: Little Women, Anya Seton's "Katherine" which turned me on to history, Lady Chatterly's Lover, Zola's Nana, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Clockwork Orange, 1984, Animal Farm, Wild Swans. Not sure what that makes me - a romantic socialist perhaps?
I clearly remember being shocked to the core by Clockwork Orange and now I look around and see so much of it has become reality.

I'm afraid I now tend to read light escapism of the P D James, Ruth rendell/Barbara Vine, Peter Robinson variety. Maybe I'll get back to the better stuff in retirement!

Up until I was about 16 I hardly read anything that was not prescribed by my teachers. I can't say that these novels changed my life, but they certainly changed my thinking as a teenager and raised my political awareness: Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, Huxley's Brave New World.

I studied A-level French and German. The prescribed texts were dreadfully boring, and I would not attempt to read them for pleasure even now as an adult. One left a profound impression on me, however, Camus' La Peste (The Plague).

Now I read mainly light, humorous stuff. I enjoy reading Bill Bryson and Peter McCarthy.

As for movies, the first movie I saw that left a lasting impression on me was Powell & Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (released as Stairway to Heaven in the USA), starring David Niven, Maris Goring and Roger Livesey. It's the first movie that I can recall that really exploited the medium rather than just transferring a novel to the screen:
http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/46_AMOLAD/
I have it on video and I have viewed it at least a dozen times. Other movies that I can watch over and over again include The Third Man, Mr Hulot's Holiday, Citizen Kane, almost anything by Hitchcock, The Shining.

Regarding the Shining, did you know that virtually everything was filmed at Elstree studios? The opening shots show an aerial view of a landscape in Montana and the exterior of the Timberland Lodge in Oregon, and then the rest was shot on sets at the studios. There was only one real location shot, for the scene where Hallorran talks on the phone - at Stansted Airport. See http://www.unrealaudio.net/theshining2/realoverlook.htm
Now THAT's real movie-making - fooled us all!

What a great idea. I read some monstrosity called "My Mother's House" in yr 10 at school. We had compulsary books and this was from the free choice section. I can't remember it now, but there was something shocking in it. Perhaps there were bodies under the floorboards, but it was the first "wicked" book I ever read. As I was a voracious reader as a child, I suspect that all the books in the Children's Library in Adelaide had been checked for a body count.

I must admit to being absorbed in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little house" series. That was my first introduction to another family and to...... snow.

Then I read To Kill a Mockingbird by myself at 14. We "studied it" the next year and I hated the dissection, but found more meaning. Catch -22 started me thinking and challenging. But the one that really sticks would be 1984 (which I read well before 1984, and again later.) I see his world around me today. Those shifting borders of detente, and distrust still concern me.

Interesting to think that what we read at 15 and 16 has such an impact. I have "converted" a war mongering 16 yo youth over to the pacifist side this year. He was keen to read spy thrillers and I have funnelled Chomsky and anti war propaganda to him. He's now spearheading an Amnesty International chapter at school. The POWER of words.

Graham
My partner is a journalist and an obsessive film buff and his very, very favourite movie is Mr Hulot's Holiday. So far, in our 10 year relationship, I have been "subjected" to it at least five times!! I thought there could be no one else on the planet who would mention it as a favourite!! (Actually, to be serious, it IS very amusing.)
Last year I showed the newer version of 1984 to my top level all-girls Gr 10 English class and they were stunned by it. There was utter silence throughout and heated debate afterwards. I am hopeful it will remain with them all their lives. I also showed them Animal Farm, Polanski's Macbeth, Zeferelli's Romeo and Juliet , Shine and the new version of Little Women, none of which, I am certain, they would have voluntarily selected at home, and they loved all of them. Us teachers CAN make an impact!

I have several Jacques Tati films on cassette and DVD. He was a brilliant comedian and really made the most of the visual medium. There is very little spoken language in his films. His humour hinges a great deal on his awkward physique and mechanical/electrical gadgets going wrong. Often imitated but never surpassed!

1984 was good, but The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is even better. Its vision of the future is more believable, though extreme, and therefore more horrifying. If you need anything to convince you that mixing religion and politics is a bad idea, then this will do it. This sinking feeling in my stomach became more and more pronounced as I progressed through the book and I had this overwhelming urge to rush out and demand that EVERYONE read it immediately before it was too late.

I also loved Catch 22 not only because of its anti-war message but also because even though it touched the depths and made me aware of how fragile humans can be, its conclusion is so wonderfully positive proving that life changing novels need not be depressing.

I'm a huge reader. Living in Africa for 4 years demands that you find alternative forms of entertainment and at one point I was reading a book a day. This of course is a wonderful thing as had I not been forced to I might never have got back into a habit broken by too many science textbooks and becoming sick of the sight of written words.

I strongly believe that non-fiction should be as well written and gripping as fiction or it can suck the reader right out of you.

Rowena

Jack London's - White Fang -- Age 10, first book that got me thinking about anything, other than myself. Of course, I didn't realize that at the time.

What an apt saying. I have never heard this before. but I like the ghoulish undertones

In my case it was not a novel, but a book of poetry. Adrienne Rich's "The Dream of a Common Language". It gave me 'permission' to be what I was but had never come across in the circles in which I had previously moved. My feelings were validated by this text and I went on to read other poems by her; not least her earlier 'Diving into the Wreck'.

Wonderful!

If I had to choose one novel it would be The Iron Heel by Jack London. Up until then I had thought vaguely that society would get better, would progress. I assumed people would be "reasoned" into social justice and there was a peaceful parliamentary road to socialism.

But no ruling class has ever given up its privileges without a fight and that usually meant a fight to the finish with no holds barred.

I much preferred The Iron Heel to 1984 btw because although Jack London talked about centuries of tyranny, his ultimate position was less defeatest than Orwell.

Joan London sent a copy of the book to Leon Trotsky when he was in exile. His review of the book is here

I would be very interested to know at what age people read these books. I have this theory that it is the novels that we read as teenagers that really influence our personality. What takes place afterwards is probably only fine tuning.

The other book I read at 15 that had a tremendous impact on me was Orders To Kill by Donald Downes. It is about an American pilot who is grounded after several bombing missions during the Second World War. He is then trained as a secret agent and is sent to Paris to assassinate a lawyer, a member of the French Resistance, who is suspected of colluding with the Nazis. Although he had no difficulty killing hundreds of people with his bombs, he finds the task of killing an individual very difficult. The problem becomes even worse when he meets the lawyer. He now has serious doubts about whether he is indeed a collaborator. However, he follows orders and kills the man. Afterwards he discovers the man is innocent. I later discovered that the book is autobiographical.

I am pretty convinced that this book, plus reading about the activities of Martin Luther King, turned me into a pacifist. Another novel, about a French soldier who become addicted to killing during the Algerian War (afterwards he becomes a mercenary constantly searching for new opportunities to satisfy his cravings), was another factor in this. In both novels, the hero is dehumanised by war.

When I was 19 I read Animal Farm. This was the book that probably had the most impact on my political consciousness. It is usually claimed that the book is about the Russian Revolution. It obviously is, but it is about far more than that. To me it is about all political systems. It is about how virtually all leaders are corrupted by politics. It is as much about Ramsay MacDonald and Tony Blair as it is about Joseph Stalin.

Novels don’t work on the consciousness in isolation. I read Homage to Catalonia soon after Animal Farm. I also read Victor Serge’s Memoirs of a Revolutionary. Both books reinforced the ideas expressed in Animal Farm. So did Rosa Luxemburg’s The Russian Revolution. By this stage autobiographies, biographies and history books were having more of an impact on me than novels.

However, novels were still important to me during this period (not today of course). Albert Camus’ The Plague and The Fall both had an impact (combined with his greatest book, The Myth of Sisyphus). Finally, there was Scott FitzGerald’s The Great Gatsby (a great book to read at 19). Along with the work of Camus, this book helped me make sense of life. As Camus points out, despite his predicament, Sisyphus’s life has meaning. One day he might well get that large rock to the top of the mountain. The passionate optimist. It is the only way to be.

To quote Camus:

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Often the books that moved you as an adolescent can seem as dated or embarrassing as the clothes you so proudly wore at the same time but, for me, the book I read and then instantly re-read and have since returned to still gives pleasure and insight.
It's Point Counterpoint by Aldous Huxley and it's what I thought University would be like. It was, in part, but the intensity of the search for truth, meaning and pleasure in life of the characters in the text has never been quite equalled in reality. Then I found out the novel was a roman a clef so it opened up for me the works of all the real-life counterparts of the fictional characters. And I never looked back.

Oh crikey, there are so many! I suppose if it's the novel I keep returning to, it's The Color Purple. I read it first as an A level English student, and was moved almost to tears by it. At 17 it comes as a shock that other people might have experiences such as these. I don't really think being 'Spielberged' did it any favours in a literary sense thogh.

One of my all time favourites, which really made me think about the nature of the human race, is Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh.

Oh, dear. I'm about to sound horribly old, reactionary and "unerudite" compared with everyone else who's posted in this thread... Well, here goes...

When I was very young, my dad used to haunt house sales and auctions in search of "bargains" which he would buy for a few shillings (yes, I am that old) and which would then clutter up the house until they were thrown out a couple of years later having proved more or less totally useless...

I remember a box full of bound copies of the Gentleman's Magazine from the 1850s which he decided he simply couldn't resist, and an encyclopedia set published in 1896...

One day, he came home with a box full of novels by GA Henty. Now, for the benefit of you young chaps (and chapesses), Henty was the author of adventure stories in which daring young Englishmen went forth into foreign or colonial parts and triumphed due entirely to their sterling English virtues. In the process, they invariably killed numerous foreigners, traitors, ungrateful natives, jews, mohammedans, hindus, etc, etc. At the age of 8 or 9, I thought these were wonderful! I think I read the whole boxful in a couple of months and then demanded more...

Looking back on it, I can see that the books were terribly propagandistic, racist, imperialistic, etc, etc, but, at the time, they swept me up. The stories were so good that I absorbed all the history without noticing. And, despite their obvious bias, the books were well-researched... I learned, for example, in Through Russian Snows the exact number of soldiers who accompanied Napoleon on his Moscow Campaign (did you know that more than half the army wasn't French at all but contributed by various allied nations?). I learned from With Lee in Virginia what the weather was like during the Battle of Bull Run, and so on...

I think it was reading this sort of stuff which first awakened a deep interest in history which eventually led to my studying it at college, and then teaching it...

I'm sure the novels -- if you could even dignify them with the name -- don't stand comparison with all the literature that appeared earlier in the thread, but there it goes...

Maybe we should also list the novels we hated most when we were at school! I sat A-level English twice. The first time round, at my 1960s boys' grammar school, we had to study Jane Austen's Emma and Henry James' Portrait of a Lady. I loathed both novels, because of what I saw then as the effete, privileged characters they portrayed. Not surprisingly, I earned a "D", which wasn't enough to get me a place at university to study French and German. The second time round, we had D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers to read. What a wonderful, refreshing change! I adored the book, its down to earth characters, its working-class setting, its symbolism, everything. I am sure this contributed to my getting a "B" in English Lit. It certainly restored my faith in the English novel.

As for foreign novels, I think my favourite book then and now is Thomas Mann's "Tonio Kröger". Strictly speaking, it's a "novella", a genre somewhere in between a novel and a short story. The book has many levels and I'm sure that I didn't understand all its nuances when I was a sixth former. It's the story of a man whose father is a pillar of the civic community and whose mother is a fiery exotic artistic type. He grows up to become a great writer, troubled that he is accepted neither by his fellow artists nor by his fellow bourgeois. He ultimately learns how to accept his own uniqueness and indeed to value it as a gift. I think this message that human diversity is a matter for celebration has a lot to teach us in modern times. It certainly inspires my work as a special educational needs teacher, where I observe daily how "learning difficulties" are really just "learning differences".

David Wilson

I was intersted in John's comment "I have this theory that it is the novels that we read as teenagers that really influence our personality." I recall as an early teenager - keep in mind this was yonks ago as I am well into my fifties now - I read with eagerness each and every one of the 58 novels in the Elinor Brent-dyer Chalet School Series. These were set firstly in the Tiensee then Guernsey, later Wales and also back to Switzerland. A very multi-cultured school where English was spoken one day, French the next, German the 3rd, Saturday any one of these of one's choice, the students all coming from different countries to school there. The changes of location followed world events, the move from Austria co-inciding with the outbreak of war.

Another special feature were the half-term holidays to different places in Europe all carefully described in delightful historical detail. I lapped up the difference in this school series, learned all sorts of snippets of geography, history and languages so that when I later travelled to Austria for example I felt I already knew some small parts of it. As a fairly insular teenager these books broadened my world both in terms of knowledge of places, cultures etc but also in terms of people.

Maybe a much lower key contribution here but the series was significant enough to find me now still owner of all 58 books and taking quiet inotice of the current collecters' interest being shown both here in Australia and in the UK in the author and her work. I seem to have not been alone in enjoying these books.
Back to John's comment though - here I am a teacher who takes a real interest in different students and enjoys the interaction with them as people, perhaps I am just delving in a real world now not my past imaginary one.

I agree, this is a great idea.

Mine is not exactly a “what novel changed your life” story, but maybe it is a close enough variation.

At around 11 years of age I discovered James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer in my school’s library. Well, it took me by storm and I grabbed up all the rest of Cooper’s works that I could get my hands on.

Many years later, I was surprised when I discovered a book by Fenimore Cooper that I had missed and had never heard of, entitled The Bravo, which I now consider one of the three most important novels that can help us understand the facts of life in power and politics. The other two are The Ghost-Seer by Friedrich Schiller and Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli.

In Coningsby the author at different points—in this story of 19th century British politics—is warning the reader about something he calls the “Venetian Party.” It wasn’t apparent to me what he was getting at and it might not be apparent to other readers either, but I believe if one makes the attempt to figure it out, some invaluable discoveries will be the result.

The unfinished Ghost-Seer by Friedrich Schiller is the story of how a German prince (much like George I?) is set up and corrupted on a grand visit to Venice.

The Bravo is James Fenimore Cooper’s tale of a Venetian assassin. What was this American frontier author doing writing a novel set in Venice? Well, I believe figuring out the answer to that question too will lead to some more surprising and valuable discoveries.

Ron Williams

Although it might be considered a 'slight' novel, little more than a hundred pages, J. L. Carr's 'A Month in the Country' is probably the novel which has had the most profound effect on me. Part of this, I think, is the resonance with your own personality and character. It seems a faily ordinary if well told tale until the last page, and then it assumes a much greater power and makes you think hard about what you are doing with your life, and whether you take your chances when they come.

WOW!

What a great topic - who would have thought...(John, thank you!) This forced me to go way back in the dim dark recesses of my mind and to remember just where the literary influences upon myself and others, where our ability to question and learn comes from. There are a number of novels which influenced me - and my subsequent literary selections...

One of the most influential pieces of literature in my life was the New Testament - when I was 8, I read the parables - and understood them; these have been an important guiding light in my life; opposition to greed, kindness toward others, the ability to know goodness, and to be able to distinguish it from the seeming evil-ness on the face of this planet.

When I was 11, I read "Johnny Tremaine" by Esther Forbes and it was required reading for my 6th grade (upper elementary) English Class, otherwise, I might never have come across the book. It was highly influential in that the hero, Johnny Tremaine had burned his hand in a silver-smithing accident (molten silver) and I identified with this aspect, since I had burned both of my hands when I was 10 months of age, when learning to walk - holding myself up by grabbing on to various objects for balance - I grabbed onto a pot-bellied stove.

This book was about the American Revolution, (Paul Revere was the silversmith to whom Johnny was apprenticed), the Boston Tea Party, the famous (or IN-famous, depending upon which side of "the pond" you were on!) "Midnight Ride" of Paul Revere, and the battle at Lexington-Concord - it ultimately led to my reading of Irving Stone's book: "Those Who Love" - about John and Abigail Adams and their roles in the American Revolution, John Adams subsequent Presidency, at around the age of 15.

Thus having read one of Irving Stone's novels - and discovering that he exhaustively researches his subjects, I subsequently read "The Agony and The Ecstasy" - his excellent novel about Michelangelo - which I now read about once a year - and would highly recommend for Art Students. It places Michelangelo in perspective, his "place" in the Renaissance occuring in Italy, as the "ward" of, and apprentice to, Lorenzo De Medici's sculpture garden; his battles to be left alone to WORK, to "sculpt," while the political machinations of the various and 'warring' popes, claimed his time, successively, and each one seemed to do their utmost to thwart Michaelangelo's gifts.

When in high school - I took an elective (alternate selection) in my English Class and read D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" - and became fascinated with the "working class" and societal compartmentalization in Great Britain - the differences in the classes and their ways of life. I subsequently read Catherine Cookson's "The Fifteen Streets" and Lady Antonia Frazier's "Mary, Queen of Scots."

Widely differing histories and points of view, to be sure - but then, reconciling the diametric opposites in societies seems to require that someone read from a wide variety of sources...any additional suggestions, folks?

In 1974 - we were in the 10 year countdown (so to speak) toward "1984" (Orwell) and I read that book - back to back with Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World' - talk about apocalyptic and bleak visions! I have since read these two books every 10 years (1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004) - the more I see - with more and more life experience under my belt each time, leads me to the inescapable conclusion that we're there....

(All this...as I sit at my "confuser" with the "telescreen" and stereo on - awaiting the "election" here in the States, listening to the "Ministry of Truth", and its adverts for the elections...fortunately, no one is barking orders to exercise harder: "SMITH! Put some life into it...!" LOL) (I think I need a "soma"...)

For an escape from this and to remind myself that my life isn't nearly as "hard" as I sometimes believe it is, I read Colleen McCollough's "The Thorn Birds" about once a year, usually in the spring. This ultimately lead to my reading of her Roman series about Gaius, Julius Caesar, et al, satisfying a long-standing curiosity about the Roman Empire, and its ongoing influences to date...

So, now having cleared out the cobwebs...I'm going back to my series about Merlin, King Arthur and Mordred - by Mary Stewart..."The Crystal Cave," "The Hollow Hills," "The Last Enchantment" and "The Wicked Day."

Thanks again John, for the great topic suggestion...and to all of you for sharing YOUR "books" - you've given me some new avenues to explore!

Cheers, mates!

There are two books which I have found had a profound effect on me. One of them I read while I was about eleven or twelve, when my mother suggested I opened my horizons and escape from the little world of Star Trek novels. She put a bunch of books down by my bed one night, one of which was John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men'. I didn't think much of it at first, but once I had really gotten into it, I found it to be a fascinating book, with surprising consequences, which really got me thinking. And to be honest, I find myself going over in my head what happened, and what would have happened if things had been different.

The second book that may have changed my life was 'The Alchemist', a novel by Paul Coelho, which my father introduced to me about two months ago. Another short story, it really made me think about my life, and which directions to go in. Whether I should follow my dreams, as outrageous as they might be, instead of just going to university, finding a job, and settling down, as the main character, the shepherd boy, could have easily done. I'm now finding myself wanting to go on adventures, and have amazing experiences in the world. Whether this is likely to happen, I'm not sure of.

I remember Sons and Lovers because it was one of the books we had to read in our second year at university and I loved it because of the setting, the social issues, the psychological study of the characters, etc. Some years ago I happened to visit Lawrence's birthplace and I saw the school he went to and other places which appear in his novels. I also read The White Peacock, Women in Love, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Rainbow, etc. but I think Sons and Lovers is my favourite one. We had to read so many novels at university, including David Copperfield (950 pages in a pocket Penguin edition!), Vanity Fair (really amusing and historically interesting, they have just made a film out of it), Tom Jones, Pride and Prejudice, The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, Crome Yellow, The Dubliners, and so many others. I didn't like all of them, but reading so much in the original language had two effects: first of all it made me understand and appreciate the development of the English novel, which has been so important for the other national literatures. Second, it developed my love for reading in general.
It sounds funny, but I must have read more novels by English, American or Australian writers than by Italian ones: has my job influenced my reading so far or are English-writing novelists simply better?

I suppose the first book that really turned me on to reading was 'The Hobbit'. My 3rd Year Junior School teacher (Y5 now), Mr Quick, used to take us out into the school field and sit us under a tree and read the story to us. It gripped my imagination so that I made my mother take me to the central library in Gloucester so I could join the children's library and take the book out.
By the time the class finished the Hobbit I was half way through 'The Lord of the Rings'! By the age of 15 reading had become a little bit of a chore, reading the Silver Sword for the third time at school. A student teacher, whose name I never remembered, introduced us to 'Hobson's Choice' as an 'O' level set book. That was a wonderful experience.

These days most books take weeks to read as I tend to fall asleep reading them in bed after a long day at school, so the summer holidays are eagerly anticipated as my opportunity to catch up and read all the books I've bought during the year.

What an interesting topic. I was a bit of a misfit in my birth family and as a result spent most of my childhoold being 'sent to my room' (this was before grounding). As a result, I was reading Frank Baum's series on Oz when I was quite young, and then later about a book a day. I loved a series of biographies that they had at the Fairfield Children's Library (Connecticut) and learned about so many great and diverse lives that way. I loved learning about astronomy too, and animals, especially horses. I desperately wanted a horse, but instead was given "Pamela and the Blue Mare", a good book, instead.

The first book that I recall changing my perceptions of life was Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" which I read at about age 13. I learned from that book what I had long suspected -- that very little was as it appeared to be, and that there are great forces at work against those who strive to individual achievement, even though that achievement can only serve to benefit the human family. I then read "Atlas Shrugged" and was alternately distressed at its heaviness of style and enthralled by its concepts. I began to separate myself from my birth family as a result of Ayn Rand's writing, and never went back. I felt that I understood somehow why it was I didn't 'fit'. And I began looking at America as a place where mediocrity might be more acceptable than genius, even though, pre-Amtrak, our trains seemed to run pretty well and the country seemed in many ways full of amazing opportunities.

Pamela

The very first book that I bought when I was seven years old (because the cover art by Roy G. Krenkel Jr. was so cool) is a rather obscure science-fiction novel called Planet of Peril by Otis Adelbert Kline (if you do a google search on that name, you'll find he is indeed obscure, but respected nonetheless by science-fiction enthusiasts). I finally got around to giving it a good, thorough read when I was about 12 years old: a fantastic tale of a scientist named Robert Grandon and his adventures on Venus and time travel. There were several teen books that I was interested enough to check out of the library and read thoroughly, including Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and several of the Jerry West series called The Happy Hollisters.

I wasn't bit that hard by the science fiction bug, but did manage in those early years (12 to 13) to feverishly read and re-read several times both Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain and Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes. The first real piece of adult literature that knocked my socks off was James Dickey's Deliverance, which I read about age 14, although admittedly, the haunting images from the John Boorman movie were also a big part of the obsession. Another earth-shattering movie-book combo at that time, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, occurred after seeing Peter Brook's 1963 black-and-white movie on television. Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was also a hot item.

Believe it or not, I took on the task of reading all of Shakespeare's plays while still in high school, and even acted in a student production of "Midsummer Night's Dream", which is really the only one of the 37 that I ever memorized. I finished them all by college.

I read many books in college but, honestly, the ones that really changed me (in order of influence) were: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; James Joyce Ulysses; Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. After college, I re-read Mario Puzo's The Godfather with interest (and many other Mafia books) and recently discovered Thomas Pynchon, Gabriel García Márquez and Henry Green.

What a wonderful idea for a topic!

As a person who may have been born a little "down in the dumps" I like books that have a touch of wild hilarity about them, for they are the best pick-me-up for me.
My three favorite in this genre are Gogol's Dead Souls, Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Gilbert Keith Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Each has some very zany and charming moments, and I think the wild chase scene in Thursday may be the best of all.

The novel that most affected my life, however, was not a novel, but Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. Completely changed everything for me. But the most human of writers in this field is for me Harry Guntrip.

But for a down in the dumps person like me, when the mood comes on, it's Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

It is interesting that so many people have mentioned how the books they read as teenagers helped them understand the lives of others. I think it was Shelley who said: “morality is imagination”. Can we really start to be moral beings until we have an understanding of what it is like to be someone else? I believe novels have an important role to play in reducing racial and sexual prejudice. They do this by helping the individual to understand what it is like to suffer racial and sexual discrimination. If this is the case, should teachers of English Literature take this into consideration when selecting books for students to read?

I have started a thread on this at:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1808

Interestingly, a report in today’s paper says that 62 novels are currently banned from schools in Texas. This includes Alice Walker’s Colour Purple, Richard Wright’s Black Boy (about race relations in the Deep South), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Johanna Reiss’s The Upstairs Room (about the Nazi holocaust). Apparently, Texas has a system where any book objected to by a parent or teacher is automatically banned. This enables any racist to get books like Colour Purple and Black Boy banned from the school library.

I remember reading 'One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch' and it having a profound impact on me. It taught me more about the Russian Revolution than any amount of history texts. The part where Ivan Denisovitch asks if Comrade Stalin can even control the sun fittingly emphasises totalitarian ideas and aims yet pokes fun at it. A short book with a big impact.

As for books, I'd have to say that almost all of Edward Abby's books have had an affect on me. I grew up in the American southwest and most of Abby's books are set there. Some of his titles are, The Monkey Wrench Gang, Hayduke Lives and A Fools Journey. When I was in grade school my sister to a trip to Europe and came back with a book title The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. I would have to count this as a great series because of the humor and his comments on society.

As for other mediums. I would have to say that movies do have an impact on peoples lives. In many cases a movie my cause someone to become interested in a topic and want to learn more. Whether it is a movie about civil rights, the holocaust, war etc. it can play an important part in someones live. As for me, when I was young boy I used to watch "old" movies with my grandmother. Casablanca, The Maltese Falcone, and many, many more. These tended to shape the way I addressed adults and how I treated women. I thought that it was so cool how these guys always opened the door for women, and addressed people with mame and sir. This actually helped alot when I began dating, because all of the girls mothers loved the fact that I said "Yes mame".

Films like Schindler's List can also have a profound affect on people today, I actually show it in my History classes because it allows the students to become involved with the characters and care about what happens to them.

Three novels that moved my life are

Catch-22. I read this first when I was around 20.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being. spoke to me about the oddly appealing need to weight ourselves down to give life meaning. Read it when I was around 24 came back to it with as much meaning for different reasons when I was 33 or 34

A Prayer for Owen Meaning

encouraged me to go into the teaching profession and to reexplore the possibility of the devine. first read about 25 or 26

As a teenager, I'd have to say "All Quiet on the Western Front" was the biggest influence on my life. Paradoxically, perhaps, it was one of the things that influenced me to join the Marine Corps - in search of the brotherhood portrayed in the novel.

When I got back from the war, we read "Slaughterhouse Five" and it really resonated with me. I still think it's one of the best portrayals of PTSD. Other novels of importance would include To Kill A Mockingbird, Desert Solitaire, 1984.

On becoming a parent, I read (with my daughter) a lot of stuff that I missed when I was young - and those works have had a big influence on me. They include the entire "Oz" series and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. I still remember crying reading the "Little House on the Prairie" depiction of Christmas and how thrilled the girls were to get a shiny penny and an orange.

Lately, my daughter has become a huge Tolkien fan (thanks Peter Jackson!). We saw "The Fellowship of the Ring" when it came out, and it was impressive enough to draw her back to the theater 3 times to see it. She then started reading the Lord of the Rings. That summer, our local community theater group put on the Hobbit, and she and I auditioned. I was cast as Gandalf, she as Frodo's mother and an orc captain. That did it, the whole family was hooked on Tolkien. My daughter saw The Two Towers 8 times, and Return of the King 10.5 times in the theater. Her parents only saw those movies 6 and 8 times respectively (Peter, if you're reading this, a significant percentage of your profits came from one family). We all read the Lord of the Rings a couple of times.

I'd say that certainly books one reads as a teenager are significant, but my experience as a parent leads me to conclude that it certainly doesn't stop there!

Cheers,
Mike

To keep John happy, I'll confess. All I read as a young kid were encyclopaedias and comics. I didn't stay at school long enough for all those "compulsory" books, instead starting work at 14 and was then too busy partying and playing sport to read.

The first novel I read which really got to me was Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. That was in my early 20s. It inspired me to want to write - which in retrospect, was probably just another excuse to drink... (ah, those were the days...). But hey... 25 years later, I still have an unfinished munuscript.

Since then, Catch 22, Tortilla Flat and Under Milkwood stand out in my mind.

Not being an English teacher and not having been a great reader as a child I have tended to stay clear of the'greats' of fiction.

The first book that really had a significant impact on me was 'The Shetland Bus'. The author escapes me, but this wartime story really entralled me as a 16 year old and I youth hostelled up to Shetland the following summer to see where everything happened.

The second book that had a major impact was The Birth of New Eve by Angela Carter. It is the only book I have ever read twice. It shocked me rigid the first time I read it.

As a teenager I read Angela Carter avidly and everything I could lay my hands on by Fred Hoyle, Isaac Azimov and Paul Gallico.

Richard

I remember reading 1984 at school when I was 15 and talking about it to my teacher. I think that was the first book that stayed with me for a while. Since then anything by John Steinbeck is excellent. In Dubious Battle is brilliant although not one of his best known novels. A girlfriend (who I later married) took me to see a play of Of Mice and Men in Eastbourne once. It had such a powerful impact on me I could not stop talking about it for ages and imspired me to read more of Steinbeck.
I agree with John that books we read as teenagers help form out personalities and perhaps our politics later on.
As for my favourite films. I never get tired of watching either of the first two Godfather films with Godfather 2 being the better one. Not particularly imspiring films but excellent non the less.
As for imspiring films you can't beat The Shawshank Redemption or Field of Dreams. I recently watched Mystic River which was superb. Clint Eastwood's direction and Sean Penn's acting were of the highest calibre.

To my mind L F Céline's "Voyage au bout de la nuit" ranks as one of the underestimated greats of the 2othCentury. It certainly made me pause and think!

chris

I was 15/16 when I read "The Unknown Soldier" (In Swedish - "Okänd Soldat") by the Finnish Author Väinö Linna. It did not only encourage my interest of history (which was there much earlier) but it also helped me understand a period of my own peoples history (Finland during the Second World War) and the autrocities of war.

Väinö Linna (in English)

A few years later I came across a book that also stayed in my mind - a book that I have picked up a few times and read again still amused about the intrigue and that's "The Thief" (In Swedish "Tjuven" - and in it's originial language, French "Le voleur") by George Darien.

I have to admit I read a lot of well written but comparatively light stuff nowadays because I just want escapism in the evenings after heavy days at work, but P D James' novel "The Children of Men" which is a complete diversion from her usual wonderful mystery novels is well worth a read - about a world where fertility stops and no more children are being born - very though provoing.

I also am addicted to biographies of people in the 20s and 30s - at the moment reading Cecil Beaton's Diaries which are a hoot and am about to start on a new biography of the Duchess of Windsor, Don't know why this period fascinates me but it does - The Mitford Sisters, The Viceroys' Daughters (Curzon family), love em all!

But I have to agree that the books I read at 14/15/16 had most impact on me, so i think it's very important that we guide adolescents" reading where we can.

The the books that altered my perception of life were - 1. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marques 2. A Man for all Seasons - (Play) Roger Bolt 3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson. If you haven't read and of these books I highly recommend them. All historians must also read American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand by James Elroy.

Its extremely difficult to put my finger on a noverl that changed my life, I have read avidly throughout my life, especially during my teens. I think the two which stand out the most are Wuthering Heights and The Outsider. Both opened my eyes to new ideas. I loved the raw passion of Wuthering Heights, I have re-read it at least once a year since the age of 13 and have always found something new. Studying it at college on the IB course showed me there was even more to it than I realised. The Outsider amazed me, its style, its impact... again I studied this at college in French and English and it really helped open up parts of the story I hadn't thought about.

Thomas Hardy - particularly liked 'Far from the Madding Crowd'.
Also Chaucer's 'Prologue' to the Canterbury tales ... in the old English with a brilliant teacher who helped us appreciate the wonderfully expressive words it is extremely funny!
Also really enjoyed 'The Moon's a Balloon' - autobiography of David Niven which made me laugh out loud on a crowded commuter train!
Also 'The Hobbit' - Gollum scared me rigid as a child.
Also Journey to the centre of the Earth, and War of the Worlds - started me on a lifelong love of scifi books.
The list goes on and on!
I wonder how people manage to go through most of their lives not really enjoying books. I know quite a few of those!

Yes! Although in my case it was my Year 7 teacher who read "The Hobbit" to us. It wasn't only the story itself but the world of the novel in which my imagination would wander.

We were very poor, with my mother raising my brother and I through the great depression as my father left the day I was born. No money for books. A railroad engineer gave my mother an unabridged encyclopedia (about 5 inches thick!) and I truly enjoyed going through that from front to back, attempting to learn as I went and being mind-boggled for a lot of the items (I was 13 years old). I have read one novel in my life - "Black Beauty" - when I was 15 and living in a very dangerous part of Detroit, Michigan. It truly lifted my spirits and I have treasured that book and horses every since, though I never owned one I have gotten to cultivate with and ride a paint to square dances (a beautiful and strong horse) we purchased from my future wife's father by my mom and stepfather (she remarried when I was 15). Robin Moore's "Green Beret" - fiction based on fact is the only other fiction book I have read, perhaps because I was a Green Beret when Robin wrote it. I have enjoyed reading about the impact that novels have had on readers. Thanks!

I studied 'To Kill a Mockingbird' at GCSE - This book is amazing, I think the character of atticus impacts most heavily on the majority people who read this book. We could all aspire to become a little bit more like Atticus!

I have just started reading a fantastic (so far) book by Kate Atkinson, 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum', a friend reccommended it to me and it is a really fun book to read!

I have just read over the summer, and for my coursework-Catch-22. I am so glad I have chosen this book to study, not only is there loads for me to think and write about, it was a very unique book and unlike anything I have ever read.

Reading Shakespeare's Othello was so much fun and I think this play is genius- I love studying Shakespeare - at the moment we are reading King Lear - another great play!

The books I study impact most heavily upon my life, for the time I study them they heavily affect my life, not only because I am constantly writting essays on them , but because we spend so much time looking at different interprettations and getting to grips with characters that you learn to love it.

Many of the novels metioned so far I have not read properly, only skimmed or know the outline of the story. However the opening post from John Simkin instantly brought back John Steinbecks "Travels with Charlie" (autobiography) and the news coverage of the the harassment of the children going to school in Ireland.

How littlepeople change!

I did read all I could get hold of in my school library by Jack London, and remember very vividly a short story from his "Alaskan period" about an over the hill boxer.

When I finished reading The War of The Worlds (H.G. Wells) at the age of 10, I asked my father to get me a few Jules Verne novels and he returned home with a set of six books. I read all of them in 3 weeks because my interest in the science - fiction was growing rapidly, which led me to 1984 (Orwell) through my English teacher.

In later years, I became more interested in the Romantic Literature, especially the Victorian fiction.

You mentioned Anya Seton. Her book, Green Darkness, was the best novel I ever read. It was total escapism. The occult, historical and romantic novel about a girl who falls in love with a monk -- I read its 800 pages 3 times, different years. Seton wrote it in mostly Old English. (I took a course in Old English in college.) I have never read Katherine but will in the future. You should see how backlogged my reading is. My house looks like a library.

I still have the first printing of Green Darkness, but the illustration on the front cover has been ripped off. I loved that drawing, but they later put the book out as a paperback and used an inferior cover. Someday, I'll buy the original with cover on the Internet.

There were other books that amazed me: Marilyn by Norman Mailer (a bad word around here). Currently, everyone is putting the book down. Mailer didn't do enough research on it. The Publisher asked Mailer for 10,000 words on Monroe, but he greatly exceeded that number. I loved the book and the first time I read it, I cried at the end.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was another book I couldn't put down. Nabokov spoke English as a second language. It was so well-written.

I loved Rosemary's Baby. Short and succinct. The movie followed it exactly (except for one scene.) Ira Levin told a simple story about a pregnant woman, living in the Dakota, hounded by witches and no one believes her.

I also loved Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion. Quite a writing style. I read it twice to fully understand it. And went on to read her Book of Common Prayer.

And the poet I loved the best: Sylvia Plath.

The Warren Commission Report.

The rest in chronological order, followed by the approximate age at which I read them:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming (11)

Against the Fall of Night/Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke (15)

The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway (15)

The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (15)

Ulysses, Joyce (17)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John Le Carre (22)

Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison (31)

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, James Lee Burke (45)

At least three more that escape me at this late hour.

I forgot to add The Tell Tale Heart by Poe and Far From The Madding Crowd by Hardy.