catapult magazine

definitely. jack kerouac, at least through his early stuff—On the Road, Dharma Bums—, always challenges my energy and excitement for life. also, several political books have had a profound impact on my faith and my politics (i’m a politics kind of guy), such as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by dee brown and Against Empire by michael parenti. i’m sure there are more, but i can’t think of them off the top of my head.

I know that this thread is really old, but I just had to resurrect it because there have been no John Updike books mentioned, and I think that that’s a shame. So, without further ado, my list:

1. The Centaur by John Updike
2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
4. Godric by Frederick Buechner and
5. the short stories of Flannery O’Connor

Hey, I’m in the middle of the Power and the Glory right now! Moving through s…l…o…w…l…y but surely—I don’t have a ton of time to read at the moment. I’m enjoying it, though.

I know it won’t be popular to list three books you could probably find in a “Christian” bookstore, but:

1. Knowing God, J.I. Packer
2. No Compromise – Biography of Keith Green
3. How Now Shall We Live?, Chuck Colson

the Power & the Glory is good…

Also Flannerey O’Connor, whose stories have that “bite” to them. (Haven’t read them all…but love what I have read.)

D. L. Sayers a 20th Century Renaissance woman… a Dante scholar, a theologian, a great essayist, and one of the top mystery writers of the 20th Century… any of her stuff. An interesting read “Creed or Chaos”! Am amazed when I check out a DLS website how many who are not of the Christian faith nonetheless love her books (notably her mysteries). She strove to write the best books she could…and much of her stuff is still in print.

Some of Tolstoy’s stuff…like the short story “The Desth of Ivan Ilyich”. Change a few names & dates & you could be reading a story about a early 21st Chicago Lincoln Prk upwardly mobile yuppie and his almost lifelong quest for the trite and fleeting…
Despite the dismal title, this story ends great…

Many of the others I like—-already mentioned above!!!

I also like the old novel “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier (also made into a great Hitchcock film). Not great literature maybe, but a good read. Interesting takes on evil and how one suffers for one’s actions.

Also… a good read, tho maybe not great, the book form of the 1940’s movie LAURA. by Vera Caspary. The movie is a great old b/w film; but the book goes deeper into the main characters’ developments:
The most intersting person is the cop Mark McPherson. In a way, his actions towards Laura (and his obligation to find the truth, no matter what) means he conforms to the poetic idea “…I could have not loved thee dear, had I not loved honor more…”

this is a really hard question; i’ve read tons of books that i loved and some how shaped my life as a xn for good or ill, hmmm…

i am going to have to go with

too kill a mockingbird -harper lee huge impact on my impressions of the treatment of others, particularly those weaker, and of course my ideas on race.

villette charlotte bronte, well i might as well include everything written by c. bronte; also jane eyre, shirley, and the professor. sharp critique of 19th c. views and treatment of women, particularly the overlooking of intellegent women. not bitter nor does bronte despair, sort of a ‘hope without guarantees’ approach, but definitely dark, shaded lit, heavy use of nature to reflect moods and truths she is advocating.

-anything by willa cather, my favorite short story by her is ‘the sculptors funeral’ and book ‘my antonia’; interesting reflections on the differences between living in a city v. small town, and the country. also a heavy accent in her writing on the tendency of small towns to sufficate those who are different.

-short list of favorite authors, l.m. montgomery, tolstoy, nietzsche, tolkien, and henry james.

-right now i am reading middlemarch -george eliot, has anyone else read it? i am find it a very slow go and i am interested in others impressions of the book.

Nietzsche. Excellent! Thus Spake Zarathustra? Have you read Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams? If you like Nietzsche, you’ll love Freud.

yep, i’ve read zarathustra and i started twilight recently. like his critique of metaphysics, ideas on restraint, letting go, and ontology. if you like nietzsche and don’t mind going medieval, you might like ockham and roscelin- they are the source, i confess, of my interest in nietzsche and that his writing is highly entertaining. i haven’t read much of freud, only snatches for class, what i read was interesting but i don’t know that i loved what i read.

Haven’t read Ockham yet, but I should. I’ve read Zarathustra a few times and it doesn’t get any easier to comprehend. There’s alot going on there. I recently have been thinking about it in terms of apocalyptic literature like The Book of Revelation, which started me thinking again about why Stanley Kubrick chose Strauss’ “Zarathustra” piece for the soundtrack to “2001”. The movie has a kind of end times feeling to it too.

I should add to my list of recently influential books:

Moby Dick
Hegel’s “The Spirit of Christianity”
N.T. Wright’s “The New Testament and the People of God” and “Jesus and the Victory of God”.
“War and Peace”
“The History of Europe”, J.M. Roberts

Grant- why if you like Nietzsche>love Freud? I don’t think I would concede to this statement, but was wondering why you made the connection in the first place. Indeed, I enjoy Nietzsche, and don’t particularly find anything striking about Interpretation of Dreams, nor the other bits and pieces I’ve read (mind you, I certainly don’t claim to know Freud’s work well).

Anyhow, your mentioning Kubrick made me think of one of my absolute favorite books: Anthony Burgess “A Clockwork Orange”. The russian slang, ‘redeemed’ existentialism, and social commentary are so thrilling. – Have to say I could not get all the way through the movie, and disagree completely with the license taken with it to eliminate the last chapters of the book – Kubrick made an interesting film, but shouldn’t have called it by the same title if he was going to completely nihilate the purpose of the original. (okay, now I’ve gone and opened up a can of worms…)

Other fave books/lit.:
Waiting for Godot (I know, its a play, but its also good literature) – Samuel Beckett
Letters to a Young Poet – Ranier Marie Rilke
What Looks Like Crazy On and Ordinary Day – Patricia Cleage(I think)
Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
and oh-so-many more…

Suzannah