Following on from my series of 10 Books I’ve Loved and Books I’ve Hated or Cannot Read I now bring you the third instalment: 10 Books I Found Influential or Formative.

They are all books I’ve read, at different times, and which have had a profound influence on life, mind or belief. I have excluded anything from the previous two lists. Nor have I included anything directly related to either academic studies or work; not because I think they should be off-limits but because I can’t single out anything particular.

Again, rather than spread this across ten days, I’m posting the list in two posts, each of five books, a few days apart. There is a short commentary on why I found each book so influential. This is part the first.

In each part I’m nominating three people to produce their own list. The first three are: Katy Wheatley, Noreen Marshall, Julia Say. Of course anyone else is welcome to sing along!

Peter Russell; The Brain Book

This book was the basis for a hugely formative course I went on when first teaching at work. Amongst other things it includes an introduction to Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping techniques as well as much about how learning is thought to work. The course was also the one which energised me to learn Transcendental Meditation (which I’m trying to rejuvenate).

Havelock Ellis; The Psychology of Sex

When I was growing up, every book in the house was accessible, and this was on the shelves in the living room. So, of course, I read large chunks of this when I was doing A-levels. Needless to say I learnt a lot and it kept me one step ahead of my then girlfriend!

Lewis Carroll; Alice in Wonderland

Although Carroll originally conceived this as a children’s story, it has been incredibly influential for many people. It’s not just amusing, but filled with logical inconsistencies and alternative ways of looking at things. I didn’t know it at the time but I suspect this was one of those books which nurtured my inner scientist.

Anthony Powell; A Question of Upbringing

Anthony Powell was recommended to me by our friend Jilly. And it is true to say that this book changed my life! Powell became one of my heroes. A website developed and evolved, in 2000, into the Anthony Powell Society of which I was Hon. Secretary for 18 years until last October. The Anthony Powell Society has taken me places, and introduced me to people, I would never have dreamed possible.

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

I was introduced to this by my father and our local librarian, Jack Edwards, as the fount of much useful, interesting and often esoteric knowledge. A delight in “knowledge trifles” has remained with me ever since.

Part two in a few days time.

Following on from my series of 10 Books I’ve Loved I now bring you 10 Books I Hated or Can’t Read

Some of these I’ve read and didn’t like, some were destroyed for me by school, and some I’ve tried and just couldn’t get to grips with despite wanting to.

Rather than spread this across 10 days, one book per day, I’m posting this in two posts, each of five books, a few days apart. Also (because I want to) I’m going to provide a short commentary on why I found each book so difficult. This is part two.

In each part I’m nominating three people to produce their own list, in any way they like – just leave a comment here with a link to yours. The second three are: Sophie Clissold-Lesser, Nick Birns, Gabriella Walfridson. Of course anyone else is welcome to sing along!

Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace

I tried reading this, from choice, in my teens. I failed. I could not get into it and couldn’t identify with it as nothing seemed to happen in slow motion. Oh and there was too much of it.

Thomas Hardy; The Mayor of Casterbridge

This is another that was destroyed for me by being flogged through it at school. I detested it so much that I remember almost nothing about it.

Haruki Murakami; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I’ve tried to read this two or three times, but I’ve had to give up each time as for some reason I find it depressing, with the prospect that it gets worse as you go on. I’m told it isn’t like that, but that’s what it does to me. I’ve also found this with the other bits of Murakami I’ve tried, so it’s likely something about the way either his subject matter or his style work on me. It’s a shame as there’s something I still find intriguing here.

Charles Dickens; A Christmas Carol

Yet one more destroyed by school, and on every encounter since. I find it (as I find almost all Dickens) dark, disturbing, depressing … and tedious. The only Dickens I’ve ever tried and enjoyed is Pickwick Papers.

James Joyce; Ulysses

My parents had an early copy of Ulysses – it may even have been the original contraband Paris edition – so I read it in my mid-teens. To this day I don’t know why I bothered. WTF is it on about? Whatever it is made no sense at all. Even the Hardy and Dickens I so hate at least make some sense. I have a suspicion that Joyce is just taking the gullible for a ride.

Later in the year I hope to follow on with at least one further, similar, theme: I already have Books I Found Influential / Formative lined up. (Yes, that’s different to Books I’ve Loved.) There may be others.

Following on from my series of 10 Books I’ve Loved I now bring you 10 Books I Hated or Can’t Read

Some of these I’ve read and didn’t like, some were destroyed for me by school, and some I’ve tried and just couldn’t get to grips with despite wanting to.

Rather than spread this across 10 days, one book per day, I’m posting this in two parts, each of five books, a few days apart. Also (because I want to) I’m going to provide a short commentary on why I found each book so difficult. This is part the first.

In each part I’m nominating three people to produce their own list, in any way they like – just leave a comment here with a link to yours. The first three are: June Laurenson, Graham Page, Sue Lubkowska. Of course anyone else is welcome to sing along!

JRR Tolkien; Lord of the Rings

I would like to read this, if only to know what all the fuss is about. But over the years I’ve tried several times and never managed to get past page 50. I just don’t find it captivating.

Mervyn Peake; Titus Alone

Having read the first two books of the trilogy, I embarked on the third but had to give up about a quarter of the way through as I found it just too depressing.

Grace Metalious; Peyton Place

I read this in my early teens because everyone at school was talking about it, and it was supposed to be salacious. Frankly it was an extemely tedious soap opera.

Salman Rushdie; Satanic Verses

I will not be told by anyone what I may/may not read, so when some Ayatollah put an interdict on this I made sure I acquired a copy. In two or three attempts I’ve never got past page five; it’s worse than Finnegan’s Wake and that’s going some.

John Buchan; The Thirty-Nine Steps

Like all the (so-called) classics, this was destroyed for me by having to flog through it at school, at an age when I found engaging with books difficult. It doesn’t help that I read slowly, so I was always way behind with any reading assignment.

Part two in a few days time.