Influential Books
Sun, 2015-02-08 10:25
#1
Influential Books
The idea for this forum sprung from Philip Sydney's story 'Copper, Silver, Gold' on 7th Feb 15.
Steinbeck was an author read as a teen whose influence runs deep for Philip. Mine was FScott-Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby from when I was 13 or 14 and my English teacher, Mr Gowers, leant me a copy of it about the same time the movie starring Robert Redford was released.
What is the book from your teenage years whose influence remains with you today?
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell.
Down all the days Christy Brown. The style and scope of the book and also the author's TV interview.
Nobody influenced me at school. Not one single author we read was speaking to me. They spoke to their own peers - and I wasn't one of them. I found Catcher in the Rye by accident. I didn't find Bukowski until I was in my forties.
Nowadays I don't read the old poets. I only read those who are writing today. They are speaking to me. And there is great pleasure in listening to them. Whenever I read a poem written in this century with reversals and archaic syntax, I cringe. There is no point in writning like a nineteenth century poet when you are writing in a twenty-first century world.
That's my philosophy. It's what I choose to live by.
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Yes, enjoyed that one as it introduced me to Virginia Woolf.
Alan
Ringwood
Great Britain
Zombie Bumfuck 4 The Narrowing
the best novelisation of the Zombie Bumfuck franchise to date!
PMSL
Wasn't fond of the ending of Zombies. Too predictable
The Beano...
Room on the Roof -Ruskin Bond
For me every word of D.H Lawrence's 'The Rainbow' is a pleasure.
Joan lingard
The kevin and sadie series.
I loved these books when I was a teenager and still at school. Dramatic fiction with real meaning.