i'm not talking about mere favourites here. i mean i could list zillions of books i consider "favourites". i'm talking about books that have like, devastated you with their amazingness, made you cry, and maybe even changed your life.

i only have three. they are The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.

now you tell me yours.

the proud highway - hunter s thompson

that's the only one i can think of that had a really profound effect on me

a clockwork orange by anthony burgess - it was the whole concept of free will that really stuck with me.

the bell jar by syvlia plath & prozac nation by elizabeth wurtzel - both were extremely validating at a time when i felt constantly invalidated.

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My mind is like a plastic bag.

Will I be able to read A Clockwork Orange in a day or less and take it in?

i really need to finish this book. i feel like i'm on the precipice of it getting good but i haven't had time to read it for one reason or another.

the bell jar, and unfortuantly dead babies only because it sent my boozing into a spiraling tail spin. im impressionable.

the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

the Philosopy of Andy Warhol- From A to B and Back Again by Andy Warhol

the fountainhead by ayn rand


recently: things the grandchildren should know by mark oliver everett
i dunno if it was just a coincidence though. good timing.

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you'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking

i know it's long, but stick it out, it's amazing.
i loved it so much that i read it in pretty much one or two sittings. this was back when i was 16 or 17 and because i read it so fast i can't remember a hell of a lot of it but i know i LOVED it. i need to read it again soon, when i've finished all these uni books.

Will There Really Be A Morning- Frances Farmer

dead babies - martin amis
the unbearable lightness of being - milan kundera
the blind assassin - margaret atwood

y'know, i think i need to read cat's eye again. i read it at a time when i was already fucked off and sad and a bit lost, and part of me could tell that it was really good, and really well-written, but at the time it mostly just had the effect of making me sadder. should i try reading it again?

yeah it makes me really sad as well. every time i read the ending i cry. but it sums up my life in so many ways...i was exactly like Elaine as a kid.

definitely give it another go.

The Glorious Ones by Francine Prose

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Erm...

Really profound? Like, moved me?

American Psycho? Mostly from making me want to write, and to read more interesting books, but it did kick me off on a period of voracious reading. That's a profound effect.

The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing really "spoke to me", but I just don't know if that's the same. I don't think it changed me, aside from making me want to read more Doris Lessing books.

Currently, Julian Cope's "Head On" is speaking to me. And I think it may wind up having a profound effect on me. If there's a country in the world where acid is legal, I want to go there and try it. Because I'm such a hypocrite.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

'more, now, again' by elizabeth wurtzel
'lost souls' by poppy z brite
'thin skin' by emma forrest

thanks petals

bad idea. i read 'the grass is singing'... it was so dry, i could feel the dust on the pages. but i mean. i was in 5th form.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was the first one because I read it when I was 11, and it was the first book where I totally fell in love the way it was written, and the characters so I still feel like I could describe them in detail, even the minor ones. It also inspired me to write, as the author was 16 when she wrote it.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I read this one in my "summer of reading lots of books about metal hospitals" when I was 13 - call it an eerie foreshadowing of my teenage years, or something. This one stuck with me.

The Plague by Albert Camus. My Dad gave me this when I was 15 or so, and damn I'm glad he did. I won't bore people with raving about existentialist philosophy, but it helped me a lot and still does.

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I love The Grass Is Singing. It's not my favourite, but I do love it. I wouldn't recommend it to 5th formers, mind. I'd like to one day inflict it on a class of eager 7th forms, preferably at an all-girls school.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

YES.

books that are so great that they make you cry just because they're over. books that you simply can't be without.

i sound REALLY lame but i'm reading the god of small things again and i can't believe i almost forgot how much i love it and how much it means to me. and i realised that nothing except those three books have ever had such an effect on me and i just HAD to talk about it.