What are some books that have impacted you the most?

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russian humor historically is the blackest of black.

From my childhood (pre 12) three books really stayed with me:

Woof by Alan Ahlberg - about a boy who turns into a dog three times. I loved it then (and now) because it doesn't resolve. It concludes that sometimes strange things happen and you never know why, but you can have fun theorising.

The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall - about a group of kids in WW2 who find a downed german plane and steal the machine gun from it.

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler by Gene Kemp - an astonishing portrayal of the friendship between a tough but troubled kid and another kid with learning difficulties/special needs. Also an interesting early kids book about gender roles. Read it again recently, it's still amazing and I'm surprised it isn't better known.

I'm pretty sure you could trace a lot of my life philosophy and tastes in books, tv and films, back to these three books.

Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh

---

During my Working Years So Consumed By Work,
i Rarely Had the Minutes, Focus, and Attention
Span to Read Any Books Or Really Do Anything
Creative And or Purely Recreative Outside of Work;

i Barely Had Energy

Left Over to Talk to my Wife;

That Of Course Changed Drastically After
An EPiC Work-Related Autism Burnout With 19 Medical
Disorders, Including the Worst Pain Known to Humankind
Type Two Trigeminal Neuralgia That No Drug Would Touch;

Yes, the Suicide Disease, Mostly Shut-in my Bedroom For 66 Months;

Half Way Through, Eventually Coming to the 'Wrong Planet,' Turning the Screen
all The Way Down in Light And Persevering Every Word to Write As A Mountain of Pain;

Yet Never the Less, Doing my Best to Escape the Suicide Disease And continue to Live

Another
Second
Without
A Memory
if i Ever Felt A Smile;

Overcoming That Finally
in July of 2013, After Reading
And Writing Here Through The Pain
From Wake To Sleep Every Single Day
Since Thanks Giving Day of 2010; i Embarked

On A Public Dance Still Accumulating 18,077 Miles
Now in 9 Years and 7 Months, Including Most Every Sunday

Afternoon Public Dancing in Barnes And Noble, Listening to Meditative

Music While Entertaining the Star Bucks College Study Crowd Dancing For Free Hehe;

And Yes Reading An Entire Book Most Sundays in About an Hour As Practice Will Increase

Speed of Reading Measured by Some Tests online at 20 Times Faster than the Average Human
Now When Totally Focused in Flow of the Activity of Reading; Anyway That's Well Over 400 Books

i've Consumed For Free From Barnes And Noble since Then as i've Worked my Way through the Psychology,

Philosophy, and Religion Sections By Proximity to A 'Dance Floor' That Works Well Enough for me as They've

Rearranged the Books Several Instances too; i Don't Have Any Favorites, Mostly They Affirm What i've Learned

in Decades of Real Life Experience With Literally Hundreds of Thousands of Folks Now Both Off-line and Online too;

However, Back in my Earlier

Years in the Early 90's, i Picked

Up The Book 'Jonathan Livingston

Seagull' By Richard Bach and Read

It in
the Laundromat
While my Wife took
Care of All Our Clothes;
And Yes i Found The Idea

of Increasing Potentials in

Life to News Heights Very Inspiring

in my 'Vanilla' Existence of Life Then;

Yet It's True, i didn't Actually Put it into Action

Until i Escaped HeLL ON EartH For Real for 66 Months

Standing on a Beach Becoming one With Emerald Gulf
Green Waves, Sea Oats Swaying in the Salt Air Breeze,

And Gull Wings Spiraling Around

The Sun Soon to Become

A Free Dance and Song

(All 11.5 MiLLioN Words
of A Free Verse Long Form
Poem "SonG oF mY SoUL"
Too Now in 115 Months)

Beyond All Distance, Space,
Time, and a 'Matter With Things;'

Every Move and Word Now A Real Nirvana of Flow
New Still Continuing Perfecting Only A Practice as i go...

As Far as i Will See A Wonderful Moral oF A STory is to
Not Be Selfish and Leave At Least A Few Free Feathers
Behind for Others to Fly Higher too in Whatever Art Comes or Even Science..

---

That book was assigned to us kids in Year 9 to read. I read it overnight, great book. I wish I still had my copy of it.

Maybe that's why I like it so much.

When I was a kid in school we used to get a catalogue every now and then full of Puffin books (which was the junior version of Penguin books). I think they may have been subsidised or something to encourage kids to read. That's where I found the Machine Gunners. It has something of a reputation for bad language so you were lucky if your parents would let you order it. I gave a copy to my nephew a few years back.

Rene Guenon - Reign of Quantity.