97 réponses à ce sujet

[IllusiveManJr]

Blooddrunk1004 wrote...
*SNIP the Dark Tower cover*
Say what you want to say about the ending but i liked it.

All my yes. I've been listening to the audiobooks since it's much easier for me. I love the Dark Tower series. I've even been reading the novels when I can. I'm on book two. I also read the prequel comics and they're wonderful. 


I grew up speaking two Native American languages, so unfortunately no translations. I knew quite a bit of French. But not enough to read or anything like that. 

[VanguardCharge]

LOL at Harry Potter books being powerful. They are simply adventure novels in a very well done world, there are no powerful messages.

I would have to go with Heart of Darkness or Catch 22.

[bEVEsthda]

This was more a thing for me when I was younger. If we're talking about emotional impact, story element and stories that stay in your mind for a very long time..
But becoming adult, I've twice had to fight hard for my life, watched two close friends die, and suffered a three month traumatic amnesia. And I've lost two family members to cancer. Somewhere along the years, I came to be non-interested in reading books which I knew and understood were written to be 'powerful'. "Tragedy is overrated", I like to say. (And yes, I know that's not the only way a book can be powerful. And it will not be the only way in the books I'll be discussing either.)
That's one reason. Another is maybe that I don't let books get to me quite that way anymore.

But yes, when I was younger I read a number of books which had quite an impact on me, then. One thing is that I was probably too young for reading a number of them. Anyway, its hard to remember or work out exactly which book was most powerful. Early on I read 'HMS Ulysses' and 'South by Java head' by Alistair Maclean (these novels draws on Macleans own war experiences and should not be lumped together with his later thrillers), Maybe 'The Magus' by John Fowles. It really got in under my skin. I also read several novels by William Golding (the Lord of Flies -author) which I found quite disturbing, 'Pincher Martin' , 'The Pyramid' and 'the Inheritors'.
I read some war novels by Brian Callison. The one that had the hardest impact on me was 'Flock of Ships'. It's been said about this novel that it makes 'All Quiet on the Western Front' seem like a lesser work by Enid Blyton. That's totally unfair, of course, but it's been said. I also got into Fantasy writer Stephen Donaldson, "'nuff said".

But I have to say that the price goes to 'The Cement Garden' by 'Ian McEwan'. 
This is overall the author you want if you want 'powerful' novels that will leave marks in your soul, I think. He's also the author of the most powerful short story ever: 'Last Day of  Summer'. This is in the collection 'First Love, last Rites'. I'll also say that his later 'Atonement' is one hell of a novel. Together with 'The Cement Garden' his best I think.

If we also consider something not so emotional but that has meant a lot for putting thoughts and perceptions in a perspective, I have to hold out 'Metamagical Themas' by Douglas Hofstadter. And also that previous book about Goedels theorem, 'Godel, Escher, Bach.'

But I will also say another thing. I've recently, in modern times, read a novel that was truly strong stuff. I mean really!
'Child 44' by Tom Rob Smith. If you want that peculiar reading experience, of being full of dread and reading something so hellish that you don't want to read it, but at the same time can't put it down, then I highly recommend it.

Modifié par bEVEsthda, 29 mars 2013 - 09:42 .

[eroeru]

Poor books (+academic articles) make me think. A "powerful" book usually doesn't. I feel to and more in reading powerful books. Dostojevski's Crime and Punishment was one. Nothing really clever nor anything, but a really really tension-rich, immersive experience that could have added an extra dimension to my life.

Modifié par eroeru, 29 mars 2013 - 09:32 .

[Naughty Bear]

VanguardCharge wrote...

LOL at Harry Potter books being powerful. They are simply adventure novels in a very well done world, there are no powerful messages.

I would have to go with Heart of Darkness or Catch 22.

As a child, it was too me. No book like that has lured me in so much. Read the series 6 times at least.

[Hainkpe]

eroeru wrote...

Poor books (+academic articles) make me think. A "powerful" book usually doesn't. I feel to and more in reading powerful books. Dostojevski's Crime and Punishment was one. Nothing really clever nor anything, but a really really tension-rich, immersive experience that could have added an extra dimension to my life.

I agree. I would add that a powerful book also changed my thoughts to such a degree that it impacted my way of life and way of behaving. Very few books ever did that. One other was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I read that book when I was 9 years old. In the character of Scout, I saw myself. I identified with her and how she believed in the goodness of people despite the bad things that they were capable of doing. That character molded me into the adult I've become. She was what I wanted to be and who I wanted to know.

Learning about Islam opened my eyes to my own culture and to my past. I learned to forgive, to forget and now to fully let go. It took me where I needed to go in a time I didn't know what to think. Now I have a greater sense of peace. I also have less need for the frivolous. No god but God changed the way I looked at my world. It changed how I looked at people. It changed my belief in God. It changed so many things that I am still so amazed at what I have found and still unsure of where it is taking me.

[Dune01]

I have to say The Road by Cormack McCarthy. I cried my heart out at the end of it and life just wasn't the same after it. I probably will never read it ever again in my life because of its extreme heaviness, but I will certainly remember every single detail about it.

[Luxorek]

 I've read so many books in my life, but I know I just scratched the surface. I have few though, that I can honestly tell moved or changed me in some way.

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman by Tadeusz Borowski - it's about Holocaust, written by Auschwitz survivor. It's a set of stories some set within the camp and later after the death march. Depressing, non judgmental and so real in the proccess. It's just shows you how people get used to things like that.

The Plague by Albert Camus - I am sucker for existentialist novels and this is one the best. No need to say more.

Oscar and the Lady in Pink by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt - a little dying boy writes letters to God, that chronicle his last 12 days of life. It's not really about religion, but more about us if that makes any sense. All I can say is that it moved to tears and made appreciate what I have.

[mousestalker]

To answer the question seriously...

The Bible. I have read it through completely four times and read the New Testament through at least ten.

A Grief Observed by C S Lewis. Mouring is something we do not talk about in our modern world and yet it is an important part of life.

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. In some ways this is the very first pop-psy/self help book. It still has excellent advice on how to get on with life.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. This is a major comfort book. The contrast between the sisters has always rung true for me.

The Black Book of Communism. I never want to read it again. I will never get rid of it from my shelves.

Modifié par mousestalker, 29 mars 2013 - 11:40 .

[-TC1989-]

Game Of Thrones: Storm Of Swords

Cannot wait for the 31st.

Modifié par -TC1989-, 29 mars 2013 - 11:10 .

[bmwcrazy]

[Leonardo the Magnificent]

By the four genres:
Nonfiction: Honestly, I've had trouble finding a powerful piece of nonfiction, though Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World was certainly an enjoyable read. Oh, yes, The Prince was an intriguing work.

Fiction: Brave New World, The Great Gatsby, Schlacthof Funf (simply because I'm feeling pedantic), 1984, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, At the Mountains of Madness, etc.

Drama: Enemy of the People, Scooter Thomas Makes it to the Top of the World, The Sunset Limited, The Beggar's Opera, Oedipus Rex, Julius Caesar, etc.

Poetry: An Essay on Man, An Essay on Criticism, The Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock (What can I say? I love Pope.), Paradise Lost, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock, etc.

I know I'm forgetting a few, but I'm away from my bookshelf.

[saMoorai]

[The Hierophant]

[NeonFlux117]

1984 by Orwell or A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. Both are not only emotionally gripping but are incredibly dark and have so much social commentary about various socioeconomic elements. It's hard not to be taken in emotionally by either of them. Amazing, well written, ahead of their time masterpiece's. Most modern popular fiction doesn't even come close to novels like these, truly must reads. A farewell to Arms is the only book to ever make me cry. Ever.

Honorable mentions goes to Night by Elie Wiesel. And Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. Amazing also. 

All of these novels seem to revolve around war, chaos and extermination. As this is when the human spirit is trully tested. 

Modifié par NeonFlux117, 30 mars 2013 - 03:02 .

[BellPeppers&Beef023]

Not sure if I'll call it powerful, but Not Wanted on the Voyage, by Canadian novelist Timothy Findley. Quite disgusted by it, really.

Edit: No scratch that, upon reading again the plot summary on wikipedia, this is in fact a very powerful, and very chilling rendition of a classic tale. Not for the young or faint-hearted, i would say. Very, very profound.

Modifié par ithurtz, 30 mars 2013 - 03:13 .

[NeonFlux117]

Also, one of the best novels I've ever read and a recent Pulitzer prize winning novel. The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

[Fortlowe]

So many....

The most recently published is 'The Road'. Showed me I'm made to be a father, even if I'm not yet. Before that, 'RL's Dream'. Taught that redemption isn't solely for the wicked. Before that, 'The Old Man and the Sea'. Showed me how victory and defeat differ only in the heart..

[JonathonPR]

The more recent Disc World series is very good at deconstructing the nature of an individual and their morals.The Sword and the Mind is good along with the Book of Five Rings has helped me solidify personal convictions. The christian Bible is great to read after the other works and before as well.

[NeonFlux117]

Foshizzlin wrote...

NeonFlux117 wrote...

Also, one of the best novels I've ever read and a recent Pulitzer prize winning novel. The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I really liked the atmosphere in it and I enjoyed the book, but I'll be honest; McCarthy can talk all he wants about the dialogue being an "artistic style", but I thought the way he did it was just horrendous.

"let's go find food"

"ok"

"are you ok"

"yes"

"ok"

"ok"

yeah, art is subjective so what's artistic to him may not be to you or I, but the novel is nothing short of incredible. 

[Jarl Johnnie Walker]

The book as a whole made me realize how effed up the world can be.
I knew well enough before reading it, but majority of the pages in this 1,072 page book just blew my mind.

The ending left me completely and utterly speechless.
Self realization will hit you like a freight train from the depths of hell.
It makes you comprehend how small and insignificant we actually are as a whole.
We are nothing but someone else's play toy for torture because they hold more power than we do.

Modifié par Johnnie Walker, 30 mars 2013 - 05:54 .

[Homebound]

Story - robert mckee