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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I’m a 28 year-old woman. The novel I recall being moved by the most as an adolescent is Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I read it probably five times growing up. I am an academic who studies race, class, and gender issues now, so maybe it had a lasting influnece on me? Other memorable novels include Litte Women, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
36 year-old female, here. To Kill a Mockingbird is probably one of my all-time favorite books — but I love the film even more, what with Gregory Peck playing the hell out of Atticus. My dad was absolutely amazing, but how can you not swoon for Atticus?
As a young kid, Where the Red Fern Grows just made me ache. I was already an animal lover, and that book — which was as vivid to me as a technicolor movie — put me over the moon.
I also remember loving the book A Separate Peace in high school. And lately, The Secret History and Never Let Me Go have creeped me out in a most excellent way.
But if we’re talking “life changing,” I think I need to go with a collection of poems by Billy Collins — “Picnic, Lightning” — and the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. It may be a play, but I’ve never seen it performed — I’ve only read it. And some of it I still can’t read — even though I’ve read it a dozen times — without weeping at the eloquence and simplicty of its truth.
TD
i first read Pearl S Buck’s the Good Earth when i was 13 for my freshman english class. i was a voracious reader as a child, but this was the first time a book had truly moved me. i read it again when i was 18, then again when i was 22. i’m 24 now, and it’s still my favorite book of all time– it’s so epic, yet simple, sincere, & grounded in very basic human desires & motivations. to this day, i still recommend it to everyone i meet.
I’m completely with Tyler. Catch-22 for me, hands down. But The Phantom Tollbooth is pretty close…
Like many, different books have come into my life and shaped how I view the world around, To Kill a Mockingbird as an example. When I read Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, I realized that there are truely 2 sides to every story. Mists is about the King Arthur times as told by the women. So when Da Vince Code came along with the Magdelein theory, I viewed it the same way.
and I am a female.
“Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King Jr. His intelligence and pain was expressed so well in this short novel. The book was written during his stent in a Birmingham prison and during the bus boycott.
I’m a 43 year old male, and I’ve noticed that movies tend to dig deeper into my psyche now. But the book that made the deepest impression is probably Let It Come Down by Paul Bowles. The last 20 or so pages still knocks me out.
Oh, how could I forget The Phantom Toolbooth?! I played Officer Short Shrift in our 4th-grade production of that book! I can still remember one of my lines, a pun involved when Officer Short Shrift has to decide on a criminal penalty for Milo: “‘I am.’ That’s the shortest sentence I know.” Hee! One of my all time faves…
F-31, Syvlia Plath’s “Bell Jar”
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. The protagonist is an intellectual, yet sexual woman. I’m making my boyfriend read it now.
I’m a 30-something male. I can’t narrow my list of novels to one but here’s a handful of my life-changing books:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck because it’s a slim, heartbreaking read that made me think about the limits of compassion and where misunderstandings can lead.
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler because it was the first sci-fi book that made me experience a dystopia from a fresh and different perspective.
Imajica by Clive Barker because that book left me floating for days afterward, buoyed by the power of that guy’s imagination.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston because it was the first love story I read that didn’t have a happy ending but somehow the growth of the protagonist made the ending fit, which then showed me that good love doesn’t always have to end in “happily-ever-after”.
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy because it’s a tough, two-fisted read full of racist, flawed heroes, vile criminals and heavily compromised redemptions that seem to skew close to real-life.
And if I may betray my geek foundations by suggesting two comic books:
The entire Sandman series by Neil Gaiman because to me, this comic comes the closest to modern-day mythology that somehow illuminates human nature and reveals real truths.
Also, the “Love and Death” issues of “Swamp Thing” by Alan Moore (writer of V for Vendetta) because it touched on issues of love, heaven and hell, and paradise. This was a real surprise.
I’m a 21 yr old male and nothing has ever completely changed my concepts about the power of writing like Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” did when I was 16. If we’re allowing short stories, then I have to include Raymond Carver’s “Where I’m Calling From,” which made me truly believe there’s mystery and profundity in every single life.
I have always loved Classic books, and would say Wuthering Heights is my favorite book of all time, but the book that changed my reading habits forever were two from John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” and “In Dubious Battle”. I was just crushed by the end of both of them, and gobbled up every classic I could find afterward…
I don’t know if anyone’s said but a) I’m male and b) “Brave New World” by Huxley really spoke to me and less so “The Metamorphosis” by Kafka, although I completely agree with “The Catcher in the Rye.” In fact, I think I shall read that again. Also, “The Talented Mr. Ripley” was good but read “Ripley’s Game” to be changed…
28 yr old female
As a kid, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby series made a huge impact on me-as a 7 year old, I hated reading until a friend of mine convinced me to read Ramona Forever-I not only read that book, but all other Ramona Quimby books and have been a bookworm ever since!
E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View probably propelled me from high school into a college English major.