piggybacking to ask, what fiction book has influenced your worldview the most? I would like to read it. - ThreadSky

pilnok.dad • 3 days ago

piggybacking to ask, what fiction book has influenced your worldview the most?
I would like to read it.

What non fiction book has influenced your worldview the most?

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A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was the first time I was introduced to the concepts of sarcasm (never occurred to me!)and joking about depressing things. I credit that book for much of my sense of humor and some of my general taste in stores

pilnok.dad•2 days ago

my bf has a tattoo from this series!

toastielounger.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, influenced me the most in terms of my thoughts on authority and religion (in a way that I think did a lot of damage to me, although there is quite a lot of good in that book) from when I was a teenager until sometime into my early adulthood aka last month.

toastielounger.bsky.social•3 days ago

Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh, and The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, were instrumental in helping me to realise how toxic my Screwtape-induced attitude was to me and helped me to work through the issues I had with that.
I'm definitely seconding that other person's Nevada rec.

seamoosi.bsky.social•2 days ago

East of Eden - individual responsibility and determination. that choice is everything. however we choose to use it, we have the capacity to chart a course for ourselves. thou mayest, thou mayest not.

willsee.bsky.social•3 days ago

Would it be cheap to just say Terry Pratchett?

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

not at all!! any particular book/series that set your mind off?

willsee.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's difficult to say as it's the entire Discworld series but recommending a 40+ book series is kinda crazy

For some specific books in the series I'll say Small Gods, Going Postal, Snuff, Hogfather, Feet of Clay, Monsterous Regiment, and Unseen Academicals

There's gold in all of his work, though

ashildrbay.bsky.social•3 days ago

Nevada by Imogen Binnie made me feel less alone in the world and really helped me think in a present tense of things. It made me more confident on a personal level and that’s allowed me to grapple better with the rest of the world.

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

perfect thank you!

korl.is•3 days ago

I read Norwegian Wood when I was like 16-18ish and it was massively influential until I re-read it around 30-something and decided it was my least favourite Murakami

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

what is your MOST favorite murakami?

korl.is•3 days ago

Oh yeah I totally got sidetracked and meant to say essentially "I will have to think of what my most influential is now"

For Murakami, I think I typically prefer his short stories to his novels, but I'm a big fan of his very early work Pinball, 1973

playitforward.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is going to sound dumb but The Da Vinci Code. As a kid that always just believed what I was told, the idea that people could lie about Big Stuff shook my whole foundation.

gleasonryan.videogames.fyi•3 days ago

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

lmao fair point

blowdart.me•3 days ago

Oh lord, it's rather trite, but Stranger in a Strange Land.

And no, it didn't make be a libertarian.

badfuckinpodcasts.com•2 days ago

The entire golden compass series! Who could say why a book series where your parents want you following their goals or dead resonated with me so much as a second grader

supersomeone.bsky.social•3 days ago

i'm torn between a few

psalm for the wild built - for imagining a gentle future

the hunger games books - for teaching teens & adults alike to know the signs of everyday fascism

or

babel - for showing how we become complicit in our oppression and the difficult steps we must take to free ourselves

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

five words and i'm sold on pslam, ty
(i've read the others!)

supersomeone.bsky.social•3 days ago

enjoy! genuinely it's such a comfortable and lovely book, made my cry in the best way

claybee.bsky.social•3 days ago

its a relatively recent read but Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, one of the first books I read after like a 15 year gap of not really reading and it just rocked my world.

bad-bit.ch•3 days ago

It *is* hard to nail down a single one, but I'd probably say Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle." It's my favorite book of all time and I think about it a lot when I consider my relationships with people, the meshing and clashing of people's motivations, letting things be, and the general absurdity of life.

pilnok.dad•3 days ago

this is like exactly the kind of shit i wanted to see in the replies- thank you so much!
I've read plenty of other vonnegut, but not yet cat's cradle; grabbing from the library today!

bad-bit.ch•3 days ago

Hope you find something in it! Vonnegut's funny for having my favorite book in Cat's Cradle and then also one of the few books I actually hated in Breakfast of Champions. Might be one of those things where I need to revisit it at different points in life though

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