1. Great Expectations
I remember one dull, rainy, winter afternoon, when I was about 8, going into Pater's study/library (which I wasn't allowed to enter usually, but he was away) and picking up a book at random.
The atmospheric opening passage is with me still, of course you identified with Pip, the misty marshes, the sudden appearance of the convict Magwitch asking for "wittles". I didn't sleep that night, for fear. Over the next month I devoured the book, although it seemed very long at the time.
That's the book that made me a reader.
2. War and Peace
Years later decided to tackle this - to see what the fuss was all about. Sooon found out why - it's a fantastic novel: the battles scenes make you feel the fear, the characters are realistic and you care what happens to them, you are transported to the period so you feel you know exactly what it was like to live then.
Something for every one - Can be read at the level of a soap or as a philosophical meditation - since then I've read it a couple more times and got something new each time.
As far as novels go those two have stuck.
Other non-fiction books I remember, that have made an impact:
The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder - IT made glamorous
The Lady tasting Tea - Salzburg - fired my interest in Statistics
The Making of the Atomic bomb - Richard Rhodes (plenty of other books have been written on this, this is the best)
Man on the Moon - by Chaikin (again IMO the best of the space histories)
What is Mathematics - Courant (stimulating and challenging, prepare to beat your head against the problems and not manage all of them).
Calculus - Spivak (infuriating, challenging, mind- stretching)
What are yours?
I remember one dull, rainy, winter afternoon, when I was about 8, going into Pater's study/library (which I wasn't allowed to enter usually, but he was away) and picking up a book at random.
The atmospheric opening passage is with me still, of course you identified with Pip, the misty marshes, the sudden appearance of the convict Magwitch asking for "wittles". I didn't sleep that night, for fear. Over the next month I devoured the book, although it seemed very long at the time.
That's the book that made me a reader.
2. War and Peace
Years later decided to tackle this - to see what the fuss was all about. Sooon found out why - it's a fantastic novel: the battles scenes make you feel the fear, the characters are realistic and you care what happens to them, you are transported to the period so you feel you know exactly what it was like to live then.
Something for every one - Can be read at the level of a soap or as a philosophical meditation - since then I've read it a couple more times and got something new each time.
As far as novels go those two have stuck.
Other non-fiction books I remember, that have made an impact:
The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder - IT made glamorous
The Lady tasting Tea - Salzburg - fired my interest in Statistics
The Making of the Atomic bomb - Richard Rhodes (plenty of other books have been written on this, this is the best)
Man on the Moon - by Chaikin (again IMO the best of the space histories)
What is Mathematics - Courant (stimulating and challenging, prepare to beat your head against the problems and not manage all of them).
Calculus - Spivak (infuriating, challenging, mind- stretching)
What are yours?
Comment