For men and women, the answers appear to be quite different, according to British researchers, who recently asked that very question to 500 men (many Read the full post.
Apr 11
2006
04:04 PM ET
Which novel most changed your life?
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32 yr old female. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” because it captured my imagination as a child and led to a love of reading. “Dune” showed me that science fiction could be one of the best ways to reflect on our modern society. “Valley of Horses” because everyone can use a few smutty sex scenes.
Thank God no one I know lists Catcher in the Rye as an influence on their lives. What an incessantly whiny piece of blah.
I’m a 30 year female who’s had a number of novels change my life…most notably Contact, as you’ve mentioned. I struggled all through adolecense trying to articulate where religion fails science and vice versa, and Carl Sagan did it in a chapter. Best religion vs. science argument I’ve ever come across, and have quoted it many many times.
I also have to list…
Kindred, by Octavia Butler for showing me that chicks can write some socially-conscious yet totally entertaining science fiction.
The Shining, by Stephen King, just for scaring the crap out of me time and time again.
And lastly, The Time Traveler’s Wife, for showing me just how capable I am of loving someone.
31 year old female…. read Lord of the Rings at 14 and still can remember the excitement that i experienced back then reading the trek through the Mines of Moria by flashlight.
damn i feel like such a geek.
The one book that still haunts me to this day, and is possibly the one book that I can honestly say changed my life and outlook, is “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s an exquisite account of family life throughout generations, in a village that must change its nature in an attempt to modernize. Adding to that is the magic that saturates every page, every life, and every moment. I’ve read it twice, and both times were powerful experiences. btw, I’m a male.
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Michael Ende’s Neverending Story (the book is better than the movie, trust me) were very influencial to me.
Ditto to “one hundred years of solitude”
Also “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath. Sort of a chick’s “catcher in the rye”
Catch 22-never has satire been so funny, nor so poignant
Without a doubt, Hubert Selby Jr.’s “Last Exit to Brooklyn”. It made me become an English teacher.
Stephen King’s “The Stand”.
Judith Guest’s ORDINARY PEOPLE had a tremendous impact on my life, and it’s still a favorite.
For me as a kid it was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott or Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The books just opened up a whole new world for me and led me to find more books by these authors and read them endlessy over and over. The worlds in these books and sequels to these books were my favorite escape as a kid and also led me to explore the worlds and time periods in which the characters resided further through research and other books that took place during these times.
I’m a 33-year-old female, and I’ll mention a few books that influenced me, for better and worse: Where the Red Fern Grows (I can’t remember the author); Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary; um, Lucky, by Jackie Collins; The Mummy Case, by Elizabeth Peters; If Tomorrow Comes, by Sidney Sheldon; Tale of the Body Thief, by Anne Rice; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling.
Most of these are simply the first books that I read that were written by some of my (now-) favorite authors, and one (Where the Red Fern Grows) is the first time a novel made me cry (in 3rd grade). You’ll notice that I didn’t list too many classics, but that’s really just because I dig my pop-culture writers so much more. Because of all of these novels and authors, I’ve developed a life-long love of books and reading, and I thank them!!
I’m a female, and I’d have to say Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night.
Three?? Yikes. In chronological order of my discovery…
(I’m Female, 37)
“Little House on the Prarie” (Mom read this to me)
“Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer”
Madeline L’Engle series “A Wrinkle in Time”
“Lord of the Flies”
“Jane Eyre”
“Gone with the Wind”
Steven Kings “The Stand”
Eli Wiesel’s “Night”
“On The Road” Jack Keruoac
All of Alice Walker’s books
“I know Why a Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou
Harry Potter (First one–I read it to my son)
“The Hobbit”
“Lord of the Rings”
I think Im ready for my next one…