Hello, dear Bananafish wanderers!
We keep growing at a fast pace through the selfless delegations from our members!
Nonetheless, the good news keeps flowing in the potassium rivers of the Realms. @bananafish now reached a considerable amount of 4.521 SP, being able to sustain every writer and poet till a max vote value of $ 0.13. From the point of view of what this amazing community can offer, let me announce briefly but joyously that starting April @calluna will move her renowned "Tell a Story to Me" contest within the Bananafish family!
Let's cut to the chase. I will probably write another post with all the amazing novelties that the core members are plotting with me, @f3nix, like a bunch of drunk Guy Fawkes! The reason for this post is a little literary survey. Here's the question for you all:
Tell us about a book that changed or influenced your life.
Prizes!
I'm so eager to learn about your favorite books. I hope that everyone will find inspiration and good reading ideas.
Also, for those of you that still didn't enter in the Bananafish Realms Discord Community, here's a special key to open the interdimensional portal! See you all there and enjoy this little bonus contest!
Hi White List Author!
Thanks for being part of our contest community.
Here is a 100% upvote from @contestkings
Official Discord Server: https://discordapp.com/invite/SMSNk7w
Gulliver’s Travels.
It was in high school and I was writing for the newspaper and short plays; What I was writing got me trouble and sent to the principles office a few times as I was critiquing the teachers and local government. So after a few times my brother, who’s a teacher now but wasn’t then, bought me Gullivers Travels and explained that the writer Johnathon Swift wrote it at a time when pointing out royalty and government were stupid would get him arrested. So he wrote Gullivers Travels as a satire... a way to make fun of the government without them knowing. Turned into a best seller.
I view that now as a way to write because I still point out folly in what I write.
Thank you for your contribution! Indeed a fine allegory that of Jonathan Swift. I wish politics and society, in general, could still enjoy such irony and criticism. I see that you're a screenwriter! Here's a flash Finish the Story factoid: we had a screenwriter in the contest, Rich Wilkes. By the way, we would love to see you in our little community of writers. Cheers!
Gulliver's Travels is awesome! I also loved this book. Even more when I learned what it was about and why he wrote it.
I appreciate good satire. To me it takes talent and intelligence to pull off well. Never stop doing it!
P.S. Your stuff looks interesting. Will take a closer look at it when I get a chance.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
I read this book in a college class. It was odd and stood out cause the class was on science fiction books. That was my normal go to for a book. This book really brought me into the world of fantasy books. That lead to me reading the LOTR, Wheel of Time, GOT, and a few other series. All these books have driven a large part of my leisure time and are a reason I thought it might be fun to start to write. A lot of these writers are pretty normal guys who just had a story to tell.
Damn @stever82 - I always knew Tales From Earthsea was inspired by books, and the author hadn't felt well represented in the film, as beautiful as it was, a great pick! Very much need to get myself a copy of this. @f3nix was right, this is just going to leave us with a reading list we can't wait to rip through!
Thank you for signaling this book, Steven! Did you also read the saga of Shannara by Terry Brooks? My experience is similar to yours. Having a good story to tell is definitely something to not be underestimated.
Oh I have not and I could use a new one I will look into it.
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Yes. The first trilogy of the shannara series is great. I got bored with the later ones, but still good.
Sometimes they were really dead in some storylines. I remember that I used to jump the chapters to follow the plot I liked the most.
If I had to pick, I'd say it was Tales of Known Space by Larry Niven. I actually forget which of his books I read first, but that one introduced me to the idea of writing a UNIVERSE, not just a story. I mean I knew about the star wars and star trek universes but they didn't seem as rich and varied as his did.
That was the beginning of my desire to not create a world, but a universe where many worlds live. That's still the heart of my desire but now I want to make it a universe where other people want to go too.
Stay tuned. 😁
A universe that attracts the reader like a black hole, a portal to another dimension. Fascinating concept, @ntowl, which resounds with my imaginary. Thanks for your contribution/Bananafish Paladin!
I love that ambition: a universe where other people want to go...
I have to say that I didn't expect it!
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Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
I read this novel during my adolescence, immediately I identified with Raskolnikov, an intelligent boy with a lot of potential that is not exploited, and ends up becoming a lazy man who will commit a stupid crime that will torment him until the end of the book.
At that time I was a rather misguided boy, I did not get into college and leisure consumed me, crime and punishment warned me that everything could end badly on the road I took and I began to get ahead by other means, leave behind my friends, I found a job and then things would take a different course little by little until today.
This is not my favorite book, but one that made me see things from another perspective at the right time.
Thank you for this witnessing. I believe that you perfectly interpretated the spirit of this contest initiative.
This is proving to be quite hard. There are so many titles, and different times and situations, to choose from.
So I will cheat a little, as I sometimes do, and nominate Test of the Twins, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. For the happy few who don't know, this is a Dragonlance book. This is the book that infected me with chuunibyou, like, several years before the term was first coined.
I'm sure you understand. As a young boy I was young, and also, a boy, and therefore somewhat impressionable. I had never heard of the term 'mary-sue' nor had any idea of the dangers I was exposing myself to.
For an indeterminate amount of time, I malfunctioned. I inhaled all YA fantasy series I could lay my hands on, I roleplayed silent-yet-charismatic magical gentlemen bastards, I scribbled hourglass eyes on the margins of my textbooks, and most importantly I tried to awaken the dark powers of raging destruction that so obviously lay dormant in my ancient soul (they'll start working any time now).
Social ruination had come, and come to stay!
It didn't though. Other and better reads pulled me out of that particular abyss, but that's a story for another occasion.
And this, my friends, is how you steal a SBI share. 😎
Bwahaha what a legendary ending! SBI stealing granted!
However, master Gwil, you're not and you weren't a chūnibyō. We all are aware of the hidden powers dormant within your cursed soul! (Ale giochi a lol con me? Ci vediamo a Modena?)
I always lose bad in PVP games, and I never tried league of legends. Should I start training? 😵 I'm guessing you're talking about Play, those will be three hectic days but of course we should find time for a meeting!
I don't know if you should for that bit of mental health that remains in you. I've to say that's fun and more fun would be to play in a team with a bananafishious friend!
Yes I meant the Play. Let's meet and eat together some tigelle! 😋
Here you go my potassium friends. :)
https://steemit.com/bananafish/@svemirac/a-book-that-changed-your-life-bananafish-contest-entry
A wild Svem in the house, yeah! Oh, what cool picks I see in that post 😍
Many books have shaped the way I live and think. Books on money, fantasy stories sci-fi, religion and many more. It all started with children's stories but I think The Book that made me read is: "THE BLACK ARROW BY Robert Louis Stevenson."
A medieval adventure which showed me how many of the days current writers of books and films had borrowed from this not so well known classic. The King- Richard Crookback, his cronies and well meaning supporters. Our hero - Dick Shelton - being drawn into the war for the throne of England. How he is made "alive" in the pages. Slowly we track his growth, rather feel his emotions and absorb his understanding. The heroin meets our Dick the first time riding in the guise of a man. The twists of this relationship and how they bond is another undercurrent to the story. The battle scenes are fantastic and I still read them when I need to create my own. Another item which RLS uses to a great effect is 'mystery' How Dick's father died? or Who is the Black Arrow? or Who is the spy?
For many this book may lack the 'seriousness' or 'philosophy' but what it did was introduce to me the joy of good writing- so there.
I don't care of pompousness in the contest's entries. Your choice is valid and interesting. I enjoyed seeing in your words genuine passion and that healthy attitude of someone being down on earth. Probably because you're a writer and you don't need haughty stuff for getting inspired.
Thanks for your support. Good to feel that I'm not the "odd one out"
Oh, you can imagine. The whole Bananafish is the odd one out and proud of being that 😉
That is one of my favorites as well.
Thanks for your support. Good to feel that I'm not the "odd one out"
Enter the Stranger
https://steemit.com/reading/@manoldonchev/a-book-that-changed-your-life-a-bananafish-contest-entry
Here comes our QITR gunslinger!
Bananaslinger
photo by Nona Todorova
Is there something more iconic than that? 😂
Your balance is below $0.3. Your account is running low and should be replenished. You have roughly 10 more @dustsweeper votes. Check out the Dustsweeper FAQ here: https://steemit.com/dustsweeper/@dustsweeper/dustsweeper-faq
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was the best book I read so far, it was after a relationship and I needed that book, it made me realize that I need to push through the hard times and barriers and try new and better things. Like he wrote in the book "A shepherd can always go back to being a shepherd but he doesn't know if he can be a jeweler". I should read it again, I loved that book!
bumps The Alchemist up the waiting-to-be-read pile
I actually read it and liked it, just the ending caught me a bit for a surprise as tenth grader. Not that it was what it was but because of how it was worded. Still a good book, just be prepared for some look-back to how fictional tales of challenge and overcoming to come at your face and always play on yah. (And of course some new Age Xtian theology but at the same time not that as well... Wouldn't call it a neo-Metaphysical outlook though.) c:
I read it but I remember it vaguely. Probably for me Santiago's research wasn't that significant, but this is subjective and means nothing. The beauty of books is that they're different based on the eyes that read them.
I vaguely remember it as well and find the final transformation the most significant part. And as I always say: works of art are reflective of both them and the society they reside in at any time.
I won't make a post, because @theironfelix touched very closely on what I wanted to say. Redundancy is a waste of time and effort. But here I will briefly describe my favorite book. It is a favorite mostly because of the circumstances in which I experienced it. That book was Bre'er Rabbit, which I did not read. It was read to me. This was the charm.
The story of Br'er Rabbit was originally contained in a book of tales compiled by Joel Chandler Harris. The compilation was called Uncle Remus Stories and was published in 1881.
I don't know where my mother got the book--there weren't many in the house. And I don't know which edition she read from. But she would take time out from a very stressful day and create a magic circle. Here we would sit, five of us, enthralled and transported by the rascally escapades of Br'er Rabbit. I can hear her now, mimicking the accent of that wily rabbit as he pleads with Br'er Fox.
This book, and all of Uncle Remus's stories, have come under severe criticism for inherent racism, but these issues were not my concern when I was four. My mother's voice and the magic circle created an indelible impression.
So my book, although I don't know the edition, would be Br'er Rabbit. The magic circle in which it came to life began a lifetime love for books. Thanks, Mom. One more gift from you to me.
A beautiful reply that transcends the book in itself and transports us for a moment in your rich inner world. Thanks for this precious contribution, @agmoore.
Always put in a word for Mom :)
The book that influenced my life the most is "In Patagonia" by Bruce Chatwin.
It's the story of Bruce having "treasures" from the tip of South America from an ancestor that went there long ago. So he, as a young boy in England, made the plan to go there too. It caught his sense of curiosity and he could not let it go.
After many other travels, he finally got there and this book is the story of that trip. He basically wanders his way down there without any plan except to get there, which he eventually does. Of course, nothing is as he thought it would be.
I read this book the first time (of many) when I was about 17 and never had stayed anywhere long. You can see in my profile on steem or anywhere that I consider myself a nomad, and now at 60, I do not think that will change.
But when I first read this book, I thought I would need to find "a place" and settle down - to be normal. The book was the first to let me believe I could have a home on planet earth, without having to have a home on one small spot of it.
You too reached the core of this contest by sharing your vision of the world with us. My sense of adventure and curiosity has been tingled!
I'm glad to hear that :) The only regrets I have in travel are the places I did not get to!
Well said and inspiring!
Well, just give me until tomorrow and I shall whip up a fine entry alright.
No doubts for that. Actually I'm very curious.
c:
Sounds like a good contest. I'll have to put some thought into this one.
Talking about the books you love is one of the best converations in real life for me (plus I need some good advice 😉)
Well, I don't know if I can call it a life changer, but since it opened to door to the fantasy realms out there, and it's probably my favourite writing genre, my pick goes to J. R.R. Tolkien, and the book "The Hobbit". I picked it up casually, having never heard about Lord Of the Rings. That was 20 years ago. It was hard to stop reading The Hobbit, as it was with the LOTR trilogy. And now... I'm even inspired to write my mini fantasy stories, participating in the @steemmonsters fantasy stories contests!
Something tells me that you would be a good team member in the RPG campaigns I play with @marcoriccardi. Did you also read the Silmarillion?
Not yet, but do want to read it. That one and The fall of Gondolin, edited last year. What rpg's do you play?
That's a posthumously finished and published book. I'm actually playing Shintiara, an indie production.
True, partly thanks to his son. Didn't knew that game, will look into it!
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I have already seen one comment and I’m sure there will be more of the same, but I too have to say The Hobbit. This book got me hooked on fantasy in general and led to many many many hours of fantasy reading pleasure. To this day it remains in the top two. Tossup with LOTR.
It completely changed my reading genre habits at the age of somewhere between 10-12
Mine were changed by the Neverending Story by Ende. The hobbit followed after 🙂
There's the Bible of course. However, the combination of On the Road, with Jim Morrison's poetry book Wilderness, created a West Coast literary canon for me that led me to write my first novella Lost Angel.
I appreciate your Bible nomination! Yes I think I can see that canon in your writing.
I've been hosting a Bible study. It's helping to generate story ideas. LOL
Indeed a good source of inspiration!
Zajedno Sami (Together, but alone) is a novel by Marko Šelić, a Serbian author, novelist and rapper.
It starts with an ordinary man who never thought about any meaning of life. One day he went to work and while he was in a bus it got broken (how typical for Serbia). The thing he didn't know is that he was dead and that the bus was stopped between two worlds.
From that moment the true nature of people comes into foreground and everyone in the bus tells his/her story in multiple waya.
Everyone has some regrets (be it the worker, priest, politician, prostitude and many more) but once story starts unfolding it becomes way more interesting ( I won't tell you because I don't want to spoil a book).
How it influenced me? Hmm...
Although I had a great laugh reading it, that book made me rethink every action of my life and made me realize that every small action in counts in the sum of life. When you add and subtract everything, a man at the end of life is what he did to others, so do good - it was my conclusion.
Very very interesting concept. I once read a short story by S.King, settled in a outpost where a group of people didn't know they were dead and realized it progressively. I love when the borders between life and death are confused but, from your words, there's also something more. You definitely made me curious about this book and inspired in writing a Finish the Story entry with this theme.
There is definitely more to it than I can explain in one comment or post, if translation to English ever happens I'll let you know because it is absolutely worth reading!
I count on that! Join our discord so we'll keep in touch 😉
I've read thousands over the years but in all that time it was the Harry Potter series that really brought me to a different world.
My mother is a librarian and brought me back the third book one day to read saying it was getting popular. This was before it went massive. It was finished that day and she was sent straight back for the first two books the next one.
I think it had such a huge and believable world that it drew people in. You could believe the characters and everybody became a part of the Harry Potter world. I still read them once in a while when the feeling strikes and probably always will. They are a part of my childhood.
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Rowling's success is a push for every writer to never surrend. Yes I agree with you, it's a coherent and immersive universe. When, for instance, I compare it with R.R.Martin's Chronicles of Fire and Ice, I can't help thinking how miserably readers have been treated by him.
Hi
Many books, I loved to read, and all good books, in some way (more or less) changes a litte of our lives … in the way of thinking, in the way of be in society, …
The first good book I remembered(the 1º, not the 2º,3º,...10º … :) ) was:
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Talks about thyroid cancer
Thanks for your book advice @marfonso! Every good book leaves a footprint inside us.
My favorite book is "Steve Jobs Biography" :D
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Interesting, tell us more (see contest eligibility above)!
Great contest but I can't tell you just one title.
Three books changed my life to tell the truth.
The first was "TREASURE ISLAND" written by Robert Lowis Stevenson. I read it when i was eleven years old.
At seventeen years old i discovered "WAIT UNTIL SPRING, BANDINI" by John Fante.
The third: "WAR AND PEACE" by Lev Tolstoj. In my hand at thirty-five years old.
The first turned me on literature.
The second made me realize the power of literature.
The third is definitely the Book.
p.s.= on my blog you can find some book reviews, take a look ;)
https://steemit.com/@pekisch
Eccellenti scelte! Anche se ahimè confesso di non aver mai letto Guerra e Pace. Specialmente mi piace la progressione nella tua spiegazione e le motivazioni che hai portato a suffragio delle tue scelte. Che sorpresa sei Veneto, anch'io (e anche @marcoriccardi)! Bellissimo borgo antico Asolo, non lontano da dove vivo.
Sono felice ti piacciano le mie scelte, spero di vincere il contest :)
In ogni caso ti consiglio vivamente di entrare nella nostra comunità di discord. Per uno come te potrebbe essere interessante partecipare ai nostri contest settimanali di poesia e prosa. Sono sicuro che sarebbe un ottimo modo per fare crescere il tuo account e le tue conoscenze su steemit (scriviamo in inglese per non ghettizzarci come, purtroppo, gran parte della comunità italiana. Qui faccio un'eccezione). Ciao! 🙂
mi farebbe molto piacere, puoi mandarmi l'invito su discord?
Click here 😉
Thanks for this nice contest and opportunity to write something from my good old memories. Here is my post. Quite different genre from others who have shared their best books.
https://steemit.com/@bala41288/youcanwin-abookthatchangedmylife-9rxzlo219r
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Thank you, Bala! Actually, this contest is selfish in a way: it's the best idea I could find for scouting my next book to read 😉 Talking about books is always an awesome window on our inner universe. You can't go wrong with such a topic. I see that you're a writer. You may consider joining our little fiction writers community, we'll be happy to welcome you.
Yes you are right @f3nix. You can't go wrong with such a topic. I'll be happy to join the community. Please share me the link.
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Click here 😉
personally for me it is Eragon by Christopher Paolini. it got me back into books when I was starting to lose interest.
Thanks for your entry!
Models: Attract Women Through Honesty by Mark Manson! I read it for the obvious reasons initially. But the book taught me back then more about people in general and inter-human interactions than I could ever imagine. It teaches you to keep your intentions real, teaches you about honesty and discredits fakeness and manipulation attempts. I strongly recommend it, it can change your world-view!
Interesting take! Honesty is indeed a great resource.
My most influential book: 1984
https://steemit.com/contest/@pokerm/1984-my-most-influential-book
Thanks for running the contest!
Great pick!
Hey bananafish,
the most influencing book was "Metro 2033" and its Universe.
Written by Dmitry Gluchowski.
It tells the story about people living in the metro of moskau, 20 years after a nuclear bomb. Living in the dark, with monster and secrets.
But how got I influenced?
Well.. i loved the universe, the secrets, the ways beyond the subway.
So i decided to change my job, go the the public transport service in berlin and now I work in the metro of berlin, work in the tunnels of berlin, see the secrets of my hometown.
Ohh. My neurons are a feast of intermittent lights, imagining how many bittersweet, dark and mysterious stories could be born from such a promising setting. Thanks for your original take, that's indeed a book to be added to my list. If you like to write fiction, I'd be glad to see you joining our discord community of writers 🙂
I would like to recommend How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
It's a practical guide for anyone who really loves reading. The authors described the 4 reading levels: Elementary --> Inspectional --> Analytical --> Syntopic, which is useful for anyone who really wants to master the mindset and skillset of reading books to be a better person. If you're staying at the level of reading books without connecting the dots from different books, you need to level up yourself to apply a more systematic approach.
The book also shared a list of classical books in Appendix, which is also meaningful for a lot of users.
I'm not sure whether it's the most important one for me or not. But it really provides quite some good inspiration for me in my life of reading books, and I definitely recommend any readers to learn from that book and grow into a better reader.
image from Wikipedia -- How to Read a Book
Wow. This is a meta-book. I personally live a book more than reading it. Thanks for this interesting take.
cool. What does live a book mean?
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We could write a post for that. The concept trascends that medium represented by books and could been widened. For now let's leave this to the world of intuition.
一本叫：莎士比亚言集，在25年前看过，作者：是莎士比亚。这本书教会了我很多。让我懂得尊重别人。和怎样跟别人处理好关兴
Dear friend, I understand that you talk about Shakespeare but Google translate come only that far. Can you write it in English please, since I'm curious about your entry? 🙂
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
I ready this book in elementary school wrote a book report on it in 4th grade. My memory isn't too good but It was about an orphan boy with odd mannerisms growing up in the poor half of his racially divided city. The book touches on themes of homelessness and racism. Throughout the book he uses his abilities and skills to solve many of the problems of others around him. I wrote about 5 rought drafts of the book report before finally having a finished copy that I turned in. It was a huge task for 4th grader me. The main character is a mysterious but good Hearted person who I really looked up to at the time. The whole process impacted my life in some way for sure, a very good read.
Indeed a current topic and surely a book that caught my attention. Thanks for your reading idea and life experience!
The Time Keeper
I am always moved by Mitch Albom's words. His writing is powerful and full of inspiration, leading you to have a deeper thoughts on life. And this book - The Time Keeper, throughout my reading time, it made me cried for several times 😂
Always cherish your time with your beloved ones. You can chase for your goals, achievements and success, yet don't ignore those who really care about you. Yes, I mean those who really love you and care about you. I know some of our F&F are quite nagging, we might be easily impatient with them after work. However, if we can be very patient with our business "customers", why not spare some quality times with them?
There is always a way, or perhaps, many ways to solve customers' problems, there must be a way too, to have a proper and nice discussion with your family, regarding the quality time.
We have no time keeper to stop us from doing something stupid and hurting our beloved ones.
So to have no regret, we should cherish our time.
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You nailed It.
This is enlightening. Thanks for your meaningful contribution.
Dear @bananafish friends, it's a beautiful (and for me a fundamental question), so I made a post with my answer. A hug!
https://steemit.com/books/@adncabrera/abookthatchangedmylifemypostforthebananafishquestion-5n0r9r3hgm
Yes, it's one of those questions that Hide a whole universe.. that's why I was so thrilled for this contest 😁
Hello¡ My response to your question: https://steemit.com/contest/@oscarina/un-libro-que-cambio-mi-vida-a-book-that-changed-my-life
Hey @oscarina! Can you write it also in English as @adncabrera did? We like that everyone can interact and understand your contribution. Thanks.
Hecho, gracias por la observación...
Done, thank you for the observation.
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
I got this book while I was living in NY. At the time I was playing a lot of video games and watching movies. Except for being in front of people the entire day as I did street performing, I spent much of my time alone in my room. I needed to read something.
A vision I had at the time gave me two options: (1) start doing yoga everyday or (2) end up in a wheelchair. I began going to yoga. I teach spoke about this book in one of her classes. I had the strong urge to read it so I picked it up and began. The book amazed me.
If you want to read a more in-depth journey of what it was like for me during that time, please, read these, of which I made when I first joined the steemit community: 1 Yoga and the Stuggle to Heal and 2 NYC Last Months
Is that Edward Scissorhands you? Impressing. Thanks for sharing this part of your life with us. I've always been convinced that the brain can change not more nor less than our whole body. Very interesting topic.
Yes. I was a street performer for about seven years.