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Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

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Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#71
Books that stood out to me as a teenager: - A series of Unfortunate Events (all of them)

because I liked the never ending mystery of it all, and I was both annoyed, and pleased by the fact that you never actually find out what actually happened to the parents. I know it was a fictional series, but it was, and still is, the only fictional books I’ve ever read. I was particularly impressed by the author’s playful use of words and punctuation that could draw me in and keep me interested and curious. He kind of inspired me to be more creative with the way I use words when I write. Not that I’ve done much writing for fun lately, but occasionally I do.

The other book, I’m almost embarrassed to admit was:

- The secret by Rhonda Byrne.

I got particularly obsessed with this book, I think partly because I grew up in quite adverse circumstances, I started to think that if I was just more positive, more positive things would happen for me. I really developed quite a strong positive and optimistic attitude to life, believing that if I just thought about good things often enough, good things would happen. In practicality this often meant that as a teenager sometimes I came across optimistic to the point of seeming delusional. As I’ve got older, I’ve really come to the conclusion that the book “the secret” is a load of crap. However, I do think that I cope better in life with adversity than some of the people I went to school with have because of how I frame life events, often choosing the frame them as the next opportunity and frame them in more positive ways. I think that’s something I gained from reading that book, even if it was mainly a bunch of nonsense.

The rest of the books I read as a teenager were to do with serial killers. Particularly Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy, and other stuff to do with weird, horrible, violent crimes.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#72

Have Space Suit Will Travel (Heinlein) Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (one story in the book "Different Seasons" by Stephen King) Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury) Roadside Picnic (Strugatsky) Frankenstein (Shelley) Brave New World (Huxley) Farenheit 451 (Heinlein) Never Cry Wolf (Mowatt) A Whale for the Killing (Mowatt) The Machine Stops (Fors…

My goodness, did you write those by using your memory?

Those were just the ones I remember reading as a kid/teenager. There are others that I read later in life which I'd also recommend such as the Foundation series by Asimov, Moby Dick, Dune, Life of Pi, works by Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Terry Pratchett, Stanislaw Lem, Pierre Boulle, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#74

As a teenager, I was fortunate that my Dad bought me a copy of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Quote: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. Proactive people recognize that they are “response-able.” They don’t blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they can choose their behavior. While it may be common sense/doh-so-obvious today,…

The key point i remember from this book is the emphasis on P (Production) and PC (Production Capability). I took this to heart and have always focused on my PC (acquiring new knowledge/skills etc. in various domains) while i am delivering on my current P (i.e. doing what the job requires). Too many people get caught up with the immediate needs of the job at hand and never look beyond it. PC requires being proactive and thus needs discipline and persistence.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#75
Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (the stilted, nearly verbatim French->English translations STRONGLY preferred! the "improved" translations fail to convey so much of the fascinating details...) and also The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Hitchhikers Guide, of course. And Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#76

Doestoyevsky's Crime and Punishment I read it 20 years ago once, and I still think about it everyday.

For other heavy reading: Ecclesiastes (Qohelet) As I became a teen my reading became varied thankfully and I came across this book at a time when nothing felt important. When all feels lost and nothing matters, Ecclesiastes is great for giving a view into what’s it’s like to grapple with the questions of happiness, life and humanity in a way that doesn’t end in your own depression and suicide. The author finds his re…

I am not a Christian and hence wanted to know whether there were any books of wisdom (not stories/accounts etc.) in Christianity and came across a good book by Robert Alter titled The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary which you may also find interesting.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#77
When I was 10ish I helped a couple in a bookstore pick out a book for the their nephew. The husband liked me and bought me a copy of his favorite book from when he was my age: The Time Machine. It kicked off a lifelong passion for speculative fiction that I still read now 30ish years later.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#79
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

Never entirely sure why I love it so much. First read it as a child when I hated apparently similar books - stories that seem written to speak to an adult’s idea of a sweet and innocent childhood - but it would always transport me… somewhere… I could never really describe. Still can’t, but still love it decades later

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