Most influential Books you've read

Astrocat · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2008 9:10 am

Astrocat · **Posted:** Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:02 am

This comes as a short story, or in extended format as a book.

HEre's aynopsis of the short story, taken from Wikipedia -

Quote:

In the short story, Charlie Gordon is a 37-year-old man with an IQ of 68 who works as a janitor at Donnegan's Plastic Box Factory. He has surgery to increase his intelligence, following a similar successful experiment on Algernon, a laboratory mouse. The surgery is successful and Charlie's IQ triples.

Charlie falls in love with his former teacher, Miss Kinnian, but as his intelligence increases he passes her level and they are unable to relate to one another. As Charlie's intelligence peaks, Algernon unexpectedly loses his increased intelligence and dies. Charlie discovers that his intelligence increase is also only temporary. Unable to do anything to prevent the change, Charlie reverts to his original mental state in a swift reversal of his original growth. He tries to return to his original life and job at the plastic box factory but cannot stand everyone feeling sorry for him so he decides to move away.

I found this to be a very insightful, philosophical, and psychologically profound story, which I would recommend to anyone who feels interested in thought.

I've recently got myself the book, so I look forward to reading it soon.

Astrocat · **Posted:** Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:11 am

Brave New World (Wikipedia)

I found this book to be incredible, especially for the time it was written... it remains highly socially relevant across the decades, and stands out as a truly classic example of early SciFi writing which has much to tell even now.

I feel that it speaks volumes about social control, deference, conformity, social expectation, exploitation, happiness, friendship , purpose in life , idealism , sustainability and reality in general.

michaelhobson · **Posted:** Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:32 am

Dolt! It's been almost 20 years since I read Flowers for Algernon and Brave New World, both great books. Brave New World definitely influenced my entire world view. Have you read Brave New World Revisited? It's a sequel of sorts, not as good as the original if I remember correctly, it has been a long time ago that I read it.

This reminds me that I have been meaning to read The Doors of Perception, one of Huxley's later works inspired by Huxley's LSD experiments.

michaelhobson · **Posted:** Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:43 am

By far, the most influential books I have ever read were by Helen and Scott Nearing. Helen was a talented musician and Scott a university professor and famed socialist writer. Together they set out to build a rural homestead nearly a century ago. They built multiple houses of stone, grew most of their own food in organic and later veganic gardens, built solar greenhouses and composting toilets. They lived a high-raw vegan and organic lifestyle in rural Vermont, decades before it was popularized by the hippie movement. Their life and work continue to summarize my life's goals and aspirations.

You can get the summary version of their lives here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_and_Scott_Nearing

Or begin some serious reading with this book:

beforewisdom · **Joined:** Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:44 pm **Posts:** 3508

Astrocat wrote:

Flowers for Algernon (Wikipedia)

I haven't read the book or seen this movie since I was a kid, but I remember this movie as being particularly good:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062794/

inteja · **Posted:** Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:23 pm

Influential vegan books
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell
Healthy at 100 by John Robbins
The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer

Other influential books
Collapse by Jared Diamond
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell

Fun stuff
Anything by Douglas Adams, Raymond Feist, Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson or Stephen Donaldson

Tarz · **Joined:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:02 am **Posts:** 1193

inteja wrote:

Guy Gavriel Kay

Tigana? What an ending....

SyrLinus · **Posted:** Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:21 pm

Awaken the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das has been amazing for me lately. So much so I've taken to doing buddhist practice and reading more of his books.

Lena01 · **Joined:** Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:35 pm **Posts:** 523

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everyone by Will Cuppy
Tantra by Daniel Odier
Most of Osho books have been quite influential as well

jmoney · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:26 am

Hate to say it but Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. It made me realize I need to take my healthcare into my own hands. Also, working in the pharmaceutical industry, I could understand completely how screwed up healthcare is. I don't agree with everything Kevin Trudeau says since he doesn't promote vegetarianism nor veganism, but without it I wouldn't be vegan lol

The book, World Peace Diet, actually made me go vegan....

and...

OH! and the book Supernatual by Graham Hancock is AMAZING. It talks about altered states of consciousness and how it relates to the origin of religion and....ooh, too much to say!
you can read about it here http://www.grahamhancock.com/supernatural/

joelk · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:26 pm

Slaughterhouse- Gail Eisnitz
Terrorists or freedom fighters- Steven Best PhD

They both inspire me to fight for the cause of those who can't fight for themselves

beforewisdom · **Joined:** Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:44 pm **Posts:** 3508

jmoney wrote:

Hate to say it but Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. It made me realize I need to take my healthcare into my own hands. Also, working in the pharmaceutical industry, I could understand completely how screwed up healthcare is. I don't agree with everything Kevin Trudeau says since he doesn't promote vegetarianism nor veganism, but without it I wouldn't be vegan lol/

I agree about him missing the boat if he doesn't mention veganism. I went vegetarian at 14 and vegan in my late 20s. I'm the only one in my family without a cardiovascular disease & without glasses. I have some minor health issues -- they only come up during checkups -- but I don't use a single prescription. I rarely meet anybody who can say that.

I've seen that book in my co-op and I thought it was another food cultist - conspiracy theory - snake oil book. Being an employee of the pharmaceutical industry makes me motivated to check the book out.

I discovered the wonders of powdered ginger years ago as an antiinflammatory so I wouldn't be suprised if other cheap, effective things existed.

Schopenhauer · **Joined:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:28 pm **Posts:** 11

Anything by Peter Singer. Changed my life.

xOTUSx · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:12 pm **Posts:** 9

Diet For A New America most definitely

anyone know if there's any books about vegetarian and vegan bodybuilders?
or about diets?

Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Most influential Books you've read

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