UKC

Following on from the Brave New World thread, which book has had the most profound or most enduring impact on you?

For me this has been Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I’ve read it a number of times since my early 20s and due for another read. It’s resonated in different ways at each stage of my life.

'Potholing Beneath the Northern Pennines' by David Heap. It's an absolute classic, worth reading even by non cavers. None of the 'heroics' that is often evident in climbing literature, just a great love of the caves and the experience of being there. It was written in 1964, I got it out of the local library and joined a caving club as soon as I was old enough.

https://speleobookshop.co.uk/potholing-beneath-the-northern-pennines-sh1339

Probably Wainwright's books had a big influence as well. I think I had his Walks in Limestone Country first and Walks on the Howgill Fells soon after.

I read "All quiet on the western front" at a very young age.  It was still at the point in my life where the concept of "goodies and baddies" were a very clear cut / black and white thing and there was never any idea of moral ambiguities.  

I thought it was a story about brave young British lads going to Europe to give Fritz a good seeing to, then slowly realised it was told from the viewpoint of the Germans.  

I honestly remember the feeling of my head going "click" and suddenly seeing the world a different way.  Up until that point, German soldiers had always been evil, nasty, child killing, nun-raping psychopaths (every single one of them).  But here was a story showing them as human, terrified, confused, bullied kids.  Absolutely no different from any other human apart from living on a different bit of land as us and speaking a little differently.

When we bought our first house, about 1980, it was virtually derelict, and I bought a very fat, very detailed  book on every aspect of home maintenance. Gave me skills and confidence in doing all the plumbing, carpentry, central heating, bricklaying, rewiring, everything. I could have built a house from scratch with it, and this led to me being much more self-confident and pro-active in most other aspects of life. Wish I could remember the title, I'd buy it for the nostalgia.

For climbing - 'Climbing Ice' by Yvon Chouinard. Completely overturned my newbie approach to Alpinism, introducing 'fast and light' as a primary component in safety. This was quite revolutionary in the seventies.
Favourite quote: "Remember, if you take bivouac equipment along, you will bivouac."

Probably Eric Byne's "High Peak"

Spent years looking for a copy and when this thread started i checked again and Amazon has one for £35.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was a big eye opener for me. I read it, loose guess, in my early twenties. Prior to that I'd only really read Science fiction and Fantasy, and it really showed me there was a whole world of books that I could engage with which didn't need to be a big fight between good and evil, or some galaxy wide story.

I haven’t read that but Solzhenitsyn‘s First Circle made a big impression on me, and over due for a re-read

Cannery Row 

Complicated reasons

Difficult to narrow it down to one but possibly  Tansley's 'Britain's Green Mantle' (revised 2nd edition) - I had dropped out of university as I had found chemistry extremely boring but was thinking of going back to study botany or biology (my original choice but due to timetable clashes I ended up with double maths, physics & chemistry A levels). A friend who was studying botany at Bristol recomended this book & it convinced me to go back although due to a late application through clearing I ended up on a course in Environmental science & biology. Though I did get to botany for my PhD.

But the Wainwright guides to fellwalking in the Lakes which I found in the school library could be a very close second. 

One day in 989, Wintertree, Sr came home from work with a used Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen and a red spiral bound manual

https://retroshowcase.gr/manuals/AmstradCPC_464_manual.pdf

I worked through the manual from front to end and have never looked back.

Other that packing firewood and working in a warehouse, making computers do things both with data gathering hardware and for analysing data is a key part of what I’ve done for my entire working life.

That's a contender for me as well, it cleverly filled an explanatory gap I had always felt, but struggled to describe, around common respect for, and overlaps of, science and art (as opposed to two cultures divisiveness). Other certain contenders would be 1984 (cemented my politics and how to spot warning signs of any drift to totalitarianism.... sending alarm bells off everywhere these days), Catch 22 (perfect satire on the madness of war), Slaughterhouse 5 (ditto).... I need to think a bit beyond that... many were great(er) books but didn't impact me as much and some were lesser but did.

Great idea for a thread. Plus some fabulous leftfield suggestions so far.

Collins Complete DIY book by Day and (edit) Jackson would fit the bill. Read and used mine cover to cover. First edition 1986 so might not not be your inspiration.

Good book but fast and light was drummed into me by mentors from the climbing club I joined in 1969. One story about someone drilling as many holes as he dared into his camping gas stove. Conclusion was it probably only saved a few grams but at least he had done all he could.

Also Terray and Lachenal agonizing over tactics and gear for an early ascent of the Walker just after ww2.  Whymper and his quick pitch bivi tent. So earlier than late 1970s, more like 1870s or earlier

1984 is absolutely one of my favorite books, but despite starting it several times I've never managed to read Catch 22.  Something about the writing style that I just can't get on with, 

James Wharram's Two girls one Catamaran.

A great insight into a maverick boat designer/builder and the post war years go for it attitude. Not to mention, unconventional relationships.

For climbing literature I would say The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer, it's a captivating story of the first ascent of the Nordwand (North Face) of the Eiger.

My favourite novel has to be Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. Set in 1970's India, it recounts the lives of four individuals brought together during Ghandi's Emergency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fine_Balance

I took this photo and shared it far and wide with my friends. For me, the writing is just exquisite and this opening paragraph set me up for a wonderful read.

Maybe it's the stamina to compete with constant trauma.You could put Dostoevski or Kafka as 'fighting reads' as well despite being authors of some of the most important fiction ever.

I love Heller... Good as Gold and Something Happened in particular beautifully satirised the horrors of peace and don't get anything like the praise they deserve.

Just decided two more novels: Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (the evil in some men's hearts and the horror of colonialism); Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "100 Years of Solitude" (my first exposure to the utter joy of Latin American magical realism). 

Plus two non fiction: "Freakanomics" (the first 'airport book' that truly delighted me and opened my eyes to the breadth of what economic analysis could achieve); Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table".... (an object lesson in how scientists can produce really moving art).

Siddartha, by Herman Hesse. I read it as a teenager, when I was discovering literature outside the typical canon of English literature, largely thanks to an alternative bookshop in Edinburgh called Better Books, long since gone. Looking back, it is notable that many of my lasting tastes in reading and wider culture were informed by that bookshop. The book struck a chord with me at the time about ways to live one's life - I don't know if it shaped my thoughts, or if it simply fitted what I already felt, but something about it gave me permission to act in my own best interests and not necessarily follow the crowd. It also gave me a profound sense of peace.

I reread it for the first time in 50 years or so a few months ago. With the passage of time, it obviously did not have the same impact as it did when I first read it, but I could understand why it had the impact it had on the teenage me. 

The Alchemist. 

Read a number of times and always enjoy it. 

No, I'm pretty good with traumatic reads.  Quite enjoy them really, stuff like American Psycho I really enjoyed.

From what I remember, the last time I tried to read it I just didn't really understand what the heck was going on.  Felt like reading a book in a language I don't speak very well.  

Being dyslexic, I'm not a fan of books. However back in the day when I was preparing for my first ever trip to the Alps, sans guide, I read this book from cover to cover many, many times.

I learned so much from that book, including how to absail with an Italian Hitch.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Manual-Modern-Rope-Techniques-Guides/dp/0094691703...

"Into Thin Air", was another book that had me spellbound from the very first page.

Avoid his other books then

Books overall: MOBY DICK

Climbing books: (1) THE BLACK CLIFF, (2) ANNAPURNA

W.H.Murray, "Mountaineering in Scotland".  Book and author shaped my life on several different dimensions.

Collected Poems of WS Graham.

A poet who was about a thousand times more ambitious and interesting than much better-known contemporaries (like Larkin). It has been my consistent 'desert island book' for the 30+ years since I first encountered his poems and although I don't look back into it that often these days, I can get lost for hours when I do. 'The Nightfishing', 'Malcolm Mooney's Land', 'The Dark Dialogues' ...

I particularly recommend taking a copy on a trip to Cornwall. Lie on Zennor Hill and read 'Enter A Cloud', or 'Dear Bryan Wynter', for example. And he did do one poem about rock-climbing, 'The Don Brown Route'.

Yeah I think his style just isn't for me. 

If I'm honest with you it's been years since I've read any book.  Working full time and having two young kids means I have very little time at the minute, and when I do have some down time I'm normally too tired to read!

Annapurna is great.  If only it were true

A lot of well deserving mentions on this thread, but I'm going to nominate Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Esher, Bach: An eternal golden braid. It took me a couple of months of lugging its couple of kg on the the train every day to get through it, but it was well worth it for the moment when I actually saw and grasped the importance of Gödel's theorum. It was like stepping out of a wood to see an unimaginable vista spread out before me. I'd never grasped mathematical beauty before.

Great thread.

Chouinard’s Climbing Ice inspired me like little else when I found it in the college library in my early 20s, as did a book called Bikepacking which was in the school library (late 70s) if I have to pick one book it’s The Human Situation by Aldous Huxley.

I’d read Brave New World (and likely didn’t really get it) and Doors of Perception and Moksha because of an interest in psychedelics but The Human Situation sparked something life changing in me. I was doing the usual working class thing of a boring but well paid job but unlike most of my peers I was very dissatisfied with my lot as I was sure that there were wider horizons in life, I just didn’t know what. The Human Situation switched on a thirst for education, knowledge and understanding and a desperate urge to escape the world of nihilism, ignorance and bewilderment I realised I was living in. Within a year I’d quit my job and gone to college which led to many other things I previously had zero concept of.
 

Oddly I only read it once though I bought a copy online a few years ago. Part of me thinks I should reread it, another part of me wants to leave the magic as a memory.

Some cracking suggestions above, my all time fave is absent though and so for the record..

Slaughterhouse-Five

I think this is what planted the seed for me.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury would be a close contender in a fight with 1984.  I've read both many times and in our current world maybe shall read again and fret. 

Ohhh I'd forgotten about that.... excellent read. 

For some reason The Stranger by Camus and The old man and the sea are the 1st things that come to mind. Both can be read in an afternoon and I find completely engaging. I had the stranger on my desk for over 10 years at a particular job which I think was part own silent rebellion. 

In terms of exploring I lived Micheal Critchton's book Travels, made me want to get involved in all sorts of things. 

The Hobbit, came bundled with the c64 game.

After devouring it went straight to the library for Lord of the Rings

I've been in love with books for ever. I was a voracious reader as a child. After studying Eng Lit at uni, I went on to teach it for thirty years. Unsurprisingly, I've got quite a list of favourite novels and poems, but I guess foremost among them would be the 20th century masterpieces of Joyce's Ulysses, Eliot's Four Quartets and Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. However, much as I love them - to the extent of heading off to Dublin for Bloomsday this June - I don't think they're the books that have had the most profound or enduring impact on my life. I'd pick two, both much less well known.

First, from a professional point of view I thank God I came across Teaching As A Subversive Acitivity early in my career. Its radical vision of  learner-centred, collaborative education was a revelation to me and throughout all the inevitable compromises that come with twelve years of secondary headship I tried to remain true to progressive ideals. Admittedly, I was sometimes only just about clinging onto them by my fingernails - but that book inspired me and set the direction for the whole of my educational career.

Second, from a personal creative point of view,  a very slim volume of haiku by John Esam, Anselm Hollo and Tom Raworth (one of my literary heroes) cemented a lifelong love of and obsession with the form, which anyone who's ever come across any of my poetry will have been subjected to. I'm looking at my copy now. It was published in 1968 in an edition of 1,000. Each poet was represented by, appropriately enough, seventeen haiku. Raworth's 289 syllables bewitched me for life.

1984.

Everyone should read 1984. 

It is almost a user manual for the administration in the USA now.

Dave

Moby Dick is good, though I found it a bit heavy going at times, but it has one of the best opening sentences of any book.

difficult to pick one but for books I've read I would say the Dhammapada sayings of the Buddha (which I came to via Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and is in itself based on the Asgtavakra Gita)

For books I've written it would have to be The Dark Heart which I published in Lockdown

Better than The Crow Road?

Crow Road opening sentence is hard to beat!

I read Catch 22 for Higher English and it opened my eyes and re-started my love affair with books.  I had been a voracious reader as a child but it had stalled as a teen.  

However, the book that probably had the most impact on my life was “The First Fifty” by Muriel Gray.  It inspired me to realise that a non-athletic, non-talented, not particularly brave wee Scottish wifie like me, could go up hills, and love the experience.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Heart of Darkness & 100 years of solitude would have been my choices too 

Ryan

Quo Vadis ? - Henryck Sienkiewicz really blew me away. English translator is important though as have bought multiple copies and W.S Kuniczac is the one to read IMO. A love story set around the birth of Christianity in ancient Rome (i'm not religious - but it's a beautiful read) Highlights the best and worst of humanity.

It has to be Volume 1 of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the red hardback Associated Board edition with very entertaining and useful notes by Donald Tovey. It was given to me when I was about 10 and has been a constantly inspiring companion for 56 years, 45 of those as a professional musician.

Climbing: no competition, it has to be „The Games Climbers Play“. Reading that at 19 had an enormous influence on the whole of the rest of my life, and I still regularly dip into my now battered and stained copy.

Oddly, despite adoring the games we play in the wider sense, and enjoying devouring hundreds of books on the topics, including that one, no climbing or mountain book ever transformed me. The closest would be my childhood read of Garner's 'Weirdstone of Brisingermen' that gave me a significant urge, to explore underground and to visit the peak area moorland, that lasted to my late teens.

Psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist: "The Master and His Emissary - The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World". Lengthy and sometimes hard going, but utterly fascinating and highly convincing. This book has quite literally changed the way I think about things generally. 

The battle scene on top of Shutlingslow with the wolf's head cloud  has stayed in my memory for over sixty years and I still check out the cloud formations when I'm looking at  that wonderful peak through my binoculars.

This is difficult!

My non-fiction choice would be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This was one of the first books that I read that really made me think about broader ethical issues around biological/medical research (the area I work in) beyond the very obvious questions.

My fiction choice would be A Thousand Splendid Suns, which follows the lives of two women in Afghanistan from the fall of the monarcy in the '70s through to the end of the first Taliban era in 2001. The lives of the two protagonists resonate with me differently in different phases of my own life, but it's also helped me to humanise Afghanistan for by giving me some windows into the culture and the people who live there. It's also desperately sad, but for me it's one of the few books that retains it's punch and makes me sob every time I read it rather than just the first time.

I remember lying on the living room floor staring at the ceiling, bored out of my head as a teenager one day.  Would have been around '97 I reckon.  I had never read any "literature" other than required books for school, but for some I picked up The Sun Also Rises from my parents' bookshelf.  

That book showed me the possibility of other places, other lives, and a love of traveling that's been with me ever since.  I've read more entertaining, more interesting, and better written books, but that one kicked the gears into motion that got me out of my small hometown and into the world.

The Plague, Albert Camus, almost a bible of decency and a wonderful template for facing any kind of adversity.

Another excellent climbing book IMO is THE LAST BLUE MOUNTAIN by Ralph Barker. The true story of the 1957 Haramosh disaster

Haynes manual. Suzuki AP50.

In a world of F1SE's it kept me sane and able to escape from village life. Just wish it had said "don't grab the HT lead with a wet gloved hand when leaving the flood". Painful life lesson.

Self confessed bibliophile here so narrowing it down to 1 is impossible.

Fiction: 1984 is way up there. Lots of other Orwell too. Girl. Woman. Other by Bernadine Evaristto is amazing.

Non-fiction: Some Chomsky maybe? Communist Manifesto would be up there for me too.

Climbing: I read Into Thin Air as a young teen and it sparked a fascination with mountaineering in me.

I read into the wild as a teenager and it inspired me to get out of the midlands, travel and climb.

I thought the subject of the book was amazing as a young man. Have since re read it numous times and have gained a new perspective everytime as I've matured. It's a real tragedy of a read but one that has stayed with me over the years. I read it now and think of my youthful self and smile.

Lr

The Book for Boys or something like that. Given to me when I was 5 in the era of gender determination it was simply a 1000 pages of facts, mainly science. By 7 I had largely memorised every page. It set me up for a life goal of “Know everything about something and something about everything”.

I haven’t read fiction for 30 years. Real life is much more interesting. Why have a mirror when you can have a lens?

Ach, impossible to have just one.

The Eagle of the Ninth 

Mr Midshipman Easy 

one day in the life of Ivan denisovich

The worst journey in the world 

I don't want to derail the thread but I can't not reply to this. Do you not do any fiction at all? No film, TV, theatre? It's all worthless to you? I read about 50/50 fiction and non-fiction, but I learned more about life from reading Ivan Denisovich, 1984, La Peste, If not now when, Farenheit 451... than from the vast majority of the non-fiction.

No, nothing fictional at all bar the odd Disney film with the children. I probably read 5 novels a week from c8 until early 20s then I just stopped. And I would disagree you learn anything from a novel. All you get is the limitations of the experience and imagination of the author. Plenty of real life accounts of totalitarianism that are far more insightful than 1984, for example.

Edited for spelling

In 1970 when I was 15 I read 2 books that I have gone back to many times over the years: Catch 22  Joseph Heller and The First Circle Alexander Solzenitsen.

But if I had to name 1 book it would be A month in the country by JL Carr. A short novel about healing and recovery which I read at a troubled time in my life in the early 80s.

Name one that compares in scope and influence. The non fiction in this area reveals the horror, mechanics and individual suffering but Orwell in 1984 clarified the intent and semantics and got the message out to hundreds of millions. Dont forget, back then many people were still defending Stalin and Mao. His non fiction is also incredibly important.

Orwell wrote a story. He based it on what he had read about the Soviet mechanics of government. He then speculated as to what the continuation may lead to. He didn’t reveal anything new. Audience, intent etc may be interesting to you but not to me. I prefer facts. 
 

Let me be clear I am not trying to denigrate reading of fiction, storytelling or entertainment. 1984 is an interesting book (I studied it for Higher English). It’s just that it’s fiction. If it was a true story I’d be interested. But it is made up. And I’m not.

Ironically, clamping down on expression and creativity is a hallmark of emerging (and indeed established) dictatorships. Whereas I understand where you're coming from with a preference for fact based books, diminishing the value of fiction - suggesting it is inferior (I know you didn't say that) is something of a misnomer. This is 1984 we're talking about!

I’m really not trying to diminish the value of fiction!! 

Agreed, an amazing story of a developing disaster. Harrowing but compelling

"Scrambles Amongst the Alps" Edward Whymper's great classic

I disagree, it wasnt really speculation about the future, it was imagined but its basis was current and historic. He exposed the bones and sinews of what was already going on (or had gone on) in totalitarian regimes of whatever political shade. Then he got that message out to more influential people than any other book I can think of.

I ask again: name any non-fiction book on the subject that had more influence in warning about the dangers of totalitarianism. Our personal reading preferences have no bearing on that at all.

Fahrenheit 451 and The Fixer, the only reasons I passed higher English as Wuthering Heights was really not my cup of tea but one of the standard texts. MacBeth I could just about cope with but Heathcliffe and Cathy, frankly I couldn't give a monkeys. I never yet read the whole book and never will.  

Snap.

I saw the title of this thread and had a think before opening it and thought, it's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  But I also thought that saying that would make me sound like a bit of a poseur but what the hell, it was true so I'd say it anyway.  Then blow me down if you haven't said the same thing. (Edit: and others too.  I'm equally pleased and surprised.)

Tremendously influential book for me, it's had an influence in many different ways and I always take something new from it on a re-reading.  And like you, I'm overdue for another read.

Many years ago I was away for the weekend with a group, one of whom thought he was more familiar with literature of all sorts than anyone else (his mother was an English teacher, which may have had a lot to do with it).  He'd find a way to bring the talk around to Joyce or Kafka and assume that no-one else knew as much about it as he did, or read things as obscure or difficult as he did.  I was re-reading Zen and, etc at the time and brought my copy with me and sat reading it in the evening.  It left him rather floored and comments went from, 'Yes, of course I've read it' through to comments which showed he clearly hadn't such as, 'Remind me what kind of motorcycle it is'.

It did put an end to his games of literary one-upmanship for a while though.  And made me grin hugely both at the time and subsequently.

T.

I'm more like you in your reading preferences. When I was younger (into my mid and late twenties, perhaps?) I read lots and lots of fiction, classics and science fiction. Somewhere along the line, something changed. I too began to think that reality was more interesting to me than fiction - it had, after all, actually happened. Unfortunately, work reared its ugly head more and more and reading (of any kind) tailed off somewhat. I've always been fascinated by the past, particularly how other civilizations fared or did things. Long covid took its toll, one of the symptoms for me being difficulty in concentrating so books can take a LONG time (if I even choose to pick one up!). I'm struggling to recall one I've finished for quite a while now. Podcasts have been a boon for me. I can sit back and listen and let the mind's eye do the hard work (if I don't nod off!).

PS I have read 1984 and thought it was a great book.

I struggled for a good while with reading books; getting older, always been quite short-sighted, MS issues affecting one eye.  Then I got a kindle.

I can't tell you how much easier it has made things.  I'm back to my usual voracious reading habits.  It may, or may not, work for you but if you find it easier to read things on your phone than on a page then it's worth a shout.

T.

What a great thread! Lots of great ideas. Interesting how 1984 gets so many mentions. I've always felt Orwell wrote like a journalist making notes on social science at the time. This isn't a bad thing (I've read lots of Orwell and enjoy reading him) but I don't think he's a great writer of fiction.

The thought of a book being the most profound is brilliant. Very much reflects your experience at the time of reading and what each person takes from ra book is going to be unique. I'm going to go with 3 because I don't want to whittle it down to 1.

Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath: Incredible read and more pertinent today than ever given the amount of displaced people in the world. The ending is something I probably won't forget. Destitution and the desperation of human poverty.

Steinbeck - East of Eden. I read this at a challenging time of life. The expression of the generational impact of your upbringing that Steinbeck portrays is superb. 

Hemingway - A farewell to arms: Just something about the way this drifts from war to idyllic retreat to loss and grief.

If I had to pick one work of fiction it would be Middlemarch  which I read in my mid thirties. A wonderful book in every way that culminates in a powerful life affirming model of how to live a life.

I'll go for Huckleberry Finn. The un- bowdlerised version, including the rafters passage.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. So complicated in so many ways but equally entertaining

You’re missing the point. It’s a work of fiction. That it had influence is interesting to me.  What he wrote doesn’t. Ditto the bible. I love theology, the anthropology of religion, absolutely no interest in the actual text of any religion. 
 

Books, films, poems can be hugely influential. That’s interesting. Why what they say is interesting. What they say isn’t. 

Sorry, I misread something. I never had any concern with your preferences and some non fiction books may indeed be more insightful (I haven't read one yet but you may have).

This almost Taliban like attitude towards fiction is bizarre. Despite your denials, several of your posts clearly suggest that you do view fiction to be of (much) less value than non-fiction. I don't understand the need for this binary. I'm an historian: I read and write (several books, dozens of journal articles) huge amounts of non-fiction. At the same time, I view fiction as absolutely vital. It is creatively and emotionally nourishing. It is also really important to my intellectual life as an historian. It makes me a better writer of history.  Further, in many cases, the line between fiction and non-fiction is much blurrier than we imagine, the distinction much less hard edged. 

Anyway, to the OP, I'm going to out-pompous everyone by saying Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. No other book has led me to reflect more on the human condition. 

Well your influence must be overstated if you are being so succinct.

https://nathanbrixius.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-five-longest-proust-sent...

It's a shame that you seem determined to miss out on one of the most remarkable works in the English language.

I suppose it's only the same as me with "Lord of the Rings", though.

How about music and art? They can both tell stories that are based on fact or be entirely fictional. Do you only like arts based on reality?