this is a bit lame, but the book by adeleine yen ma, i forgot the title. i was absolutely in tears when the duck died.

the fountainhead by ayn rand, siddhartha by herman hesse, and the heart of understanding by tihch nhat hanh

I am David by Anne Holm when I was 12
here's the book; I Am David - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On death and dying by Elizabeth Kubler Ross
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

betty blue by philippe djian. just at the end when you find out she was right to believe in her man.

peace is the way -- depok chopra
everything is illuminated -- johnathan safron foer
abraham on trial -- carol delaney
and 9 stories by salinger

__________________

run with the hunted
. love.

the velveteen rabbit.

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Most books I read affect me or move me but the ones that came to mind when I read the title of this thread for some reason:

Watermark - Sean O'Reilly
A Pagan Place - Edna O'Brien
The Human Stain - Philip Roth
Ariel - Sylvia Plath

I'm not sure if they have changed my life in any profound way but they've moved me.

I could list tons though. At different stages of my life there have been different books that I remember made a big impression and moved me and were really special to me.

i really liked homage to catalonia, somehow i started taking him more seriously when i found out hed been shot in the neck whilst practising what he preached.

i had to read that 'i am david' book as well when i was at school, was pretty good.

they also made me read testament of youth, which was pretty heartbreaking.

The most definite?

"On The Road" by Jack Kerouac

others would probably include

"Visions Of Gerard" (also by Jack Kerouac)
"The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol" (great points!)
"The Catcher In The Rye"

and obv lots of stuff by Brian Froud since I was like 10, I love his sense of humour and creativity.

the catcher in the rye would have wrecked me had i read it in high school. i read it in my early twenties so that took the edge off a bit.

dear mr. henshaw by beverly cleary

also, wuthering heights just for the way i went from finding heathcliff to be a dick to wanting to be ravished by him in the end.

and although it's not a book, "howl" by allen ginsberg pretty much left me breathless.

colors insulting to nature by cintra wilson

"On the Road" by Kerouac even though I didn't really like it.

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Kundera. It made me cry on the subway several times. Both it and "Naked," by Sedaris, affected my thoughts on language as well as other things.

&

oh rocket,

i read that story to seth and he loves it. im glad of that. ferdinand is lovely.

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

i saw two randians

books that really altered me?

the giving tree - shel silverstein
spaceship earth - bucky fuller

blood and guts in high school - kathy acker
candide - voltaire (but only for literary value not its meaning. i was amazed that you could kill a character and then bring him back like nothing really happened. i was enthralled. i think it was a precurser to kathy acker frankly)
buddhism without beliefs - stephen batchelor (this approach helped me to get off heroin)

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

He loves it? That's very good, I think. I don't know that I really appreciated it until I was in high school. When I was little I was pretty disturbed by the idea of a bullfight. But that and Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny are the books I think every kid should hear or see.

ive been reading those two since he was an infant. weeks old and i started reading him those. he adores them as well. still brings them for me to read. esp runaway bunny. and for a while goodnight moon was every night. sometimes multiple times in a night.

i havent read him giving tree, bc i was SO affected by it. i dont know if its healthy. what do you think?

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

That makes me very happy to hear he brings you those books. Very happy.

I have a very unpopular view of the Giving Tree, which is that I've never liked it. I don't hate many books but that one makes me so upset. Were you upset by it?
I know that there is an important moral in there, but there are other ways of learning it. But, it is a very popular book isn't it, and many people don't seem to be so UPSET by it as I am.

very upset. i cried every time i read it and it felt like punishment to read it. which is why i havent brought it to seth to read. i cant bear to put him in pain like that.

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

YES. Punishment. That's what it was like. I didn't understand why those things were happening and wanted it to end, and then when it did it left me feeling just sick. I wasn't even jaded after reading it because I didn't want to believe the average person could be that cruel. There are so many other books out there.