Books
that changed my life ... or at least had a reasonably large influence
- Horns, Strings, and Harmony by Arthur H. Benade
- L'Etranger by Albert Camus. I read this book several times (not
in the last 20 years) in French and in translation. Existentialism sometimes
seems dark or hopeless but though I think generally that hope is a useless
emotion, existentialism can be taken as a premise for a proactive way
of life. I wrote this in 2006 for an Ann Arbor Public Library "Books
Change Lives" survey/contest:
This
book helped me solidify the atheistic view of life I had already
been on the road to acquiring. It
put the final close to whatever lingering notions I had had about
external powers controlling life. I came to believe, as I still
do, that everyone is responsible for making their own and others’ lives
better. The
book, despite or because of its darkness, brought me to a proactive,
if not positive, take on existence. Not bad for a short novel.
- Grammatical Analysis by Kenneth Pike
- American Tongue And Cheek by Jim Quinn
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
interesting
-
Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose
Bierce