Six Non-Fiction books which influenced you

[vandermolen]

Here are mine:

Rollo May: Man's Search for Himself

Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning

Alan Watts: The Wisdom of Insecurity

Erich Fromm: Man for Himself

Lao Tse: Tao te Ching

Frank Gardner: Blood and Sand

[Brian]

Very broad topic!

On the subject of religion alone-
Age of Reason, Thomas Paine
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman
Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennett
A History of God, Karen Armstrong
The End of Faith, Sam Harris

[vandermolen]

Very broad topic!

On the subject of religion alone-
Age of Reason, Thomas Paine
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman
Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennett
A History of God, Karen Armstrong
The End of Faith, Sam Harris

Yes, it is a very big topic but thanks for replying. I'm ashamed to say that I have not read any of your choices. The Sam Harris book sounds interesting.

[Brian]

Here's a brief run-down of what each book is and what it meant to me.

Age of Reason, Thomas Paine. Advocated a "deism" of nature and love for the Creation, but at the same time railed against revealed religions and scriptures in a way which has influenced my thinking ever since.
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula. This is the one which has influenced me the least; it's only here for some of its very wise teachings, especially the story of Buddha on his deathbed, confronting the crying followers.
Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman. About how the Bible has changed over time, the parables and passages which have been added, and the impossibility of knowing what it originally said.
Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennett. Dennett uses science to try to understand why religion exists on earth, how it came about, and what good it does or does not do for us as a species.
A History of God, Karen Armstrong. How the idea of a supreme being evolved over time from polytheism, in the Abrahamic tradition.
The End of Faith, Sam Harris. Argues that religion is bad for humanity, that it is now a great threat since extremists have access to weapons of mass destruction, and that we ought to find a substitute. My favorite part of this was actually a four-page passage which is maybe the most intellectually daring thing I've ever seen - an argument that pacifism is immoral.

[Haffner]

Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Anti-Christ, Beyond Good and Evil (the Hollingdale translations)

I've been reading Nietzsche since I was 13. From around that time, until a few years ago, he was like an idol to me. I understand now that at the time I really needed to read something that had a major shot of blut-und-krieg Romanticism within it. It helped me retain my courage through a great part of my alienated-teenager years, my subsequent homeless and streetfighting drunkard jailbird years, etc. I felt as though he failed me toward the end, however, as I ended up being a violently misanthropic, bitter person. After having read a few biographies on Nietzsche, I realized that he himself was a misanthropic, bitter person. These days I am deeply grateful to him for having both helped me through many hard times, as well as becoming my overall benefactor in much the same way Richard Wagner was to him.

G.W.F Hegel: Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences- I tend to read  a bit more Hegel over Nietzsche these days. Hegel deliberately couched his assertions in a very broad manner (much in the way that Wagner tended to use fantasy figures as signifiers of more hard-to-individualise subjects). After getting a gppd grasp of what Hegel was asserting, one sees the parallels in ones day to life. And one keeps seeing them in both new and Addirming ways, on a continual basis.

Soren Kierkegaard: Either/Or: Many feel that Nietzsche was the most important philosopher of the "modern/post-modern" age. Yet, Kierkegaard is from the same period, never read Nietzsche and yet seems just as influential towards the next generations of Existentialists as the German. Kierkegaard can often be a bit easier to get a grip on overall. Plus he can be a bit easier for many of the Christian ilk to "get" (not sure whether that's overall good or bad, as the more "offensive" parts in Nietzsche are often just as if not more important to absorb).

Robert Donington: Wagner's Ring and Its Symbols- If one can read this with an understanding that Jungian psychology is but one out of thousands (millions) of intellectual models, one can gain alot of insight from it. Not meant to be used as any kind of real reference point, but significantly inspiring when read with the above in mind.

There are plenty more.

[vandermolen]

Brian,

Many thanks for taking the trouble to explain your choices. I had already read the Amazon reviews of the Sam Harris. I will look out for the book. I get a sense of where your interest lies!

thanks again

Jeffrey

[Bogey]

The was very difficult, but here are a few:

The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Vol. Set) Shelby Foote (Still the best written account of the entire American Civil War that I have read....dude could flat out write.) 

Abraham Lincoln: The Prarie Years and The War Years (6 Vol. Set) Carl Sandburg (Maybe not the most accurate account of Lincoln, but still very thourough and entertaining.)

The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top: Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 Oliver Willcox Norton (Numerous accounts of the battle by different soldiers that fought this battle.)

Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II Herbert A. Werner (You felt as though you were actually in the sub during most parts of this book.)

Baseball America Donald Honig (An overall history of baseball that will make an instant pseudo-historian of the game)

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts Andrew Chaikin (I actually teared up during his account of the moon landing.)

And as a side, any editorials penned by George F. Will.  Love his style and many of his takes on issues of past and present.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ever Since Darwin - Stephen Jay Gould

Wonderful Life - Stephen Jay Gould

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

Beethoven - Maynard Solomon

Mozart: A Cultural Biography - Robert Gutman

The Classical Style - Charles Rosen

These books, separately and together, were the biggest influences on my favorite topics, natural science (and all that implies) and music history. I would happily take them to my desert island along with however many CD's you are allowing these days, and spend considerable time savoring their revelations.




----------------
Listening to:
Hummel, Dussek and Onslow - Piano Quintets - Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet - Hummel - Quintet in eb Op 87 - I Allegro e risoluto assai

[DavidRoss]

Here's one set of six:

Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Colin Fletcher, The Man Who Walked through Time
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man
Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert
William Greider, Who Will Tell the People:  The Betrayal of American Democracy

[MN Dave]

Teach Yourself Zen by Christmas Humphreys

Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

Jazz: America's Classical Music by Grover Sales

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

Who's Afraid of Classical Music? by Michael Walsh

[karlhenning]

Mozart: A Cultural Biography - Robert Gutman

Most tasty, yes!

[Gurn Blanston]

Most tasty, yes!

Yes indeed! Very influential on the way I think about music history. Between the 3 of those, I became a confirmed classicist...

[Danny]

Meditations~~Marcus Aurelius

Confessions~~St. Augustine

Meditations on First Philosophy~~Rene Descartes

The Everlasting Man~~G.K. Chesterton

The Way~~St. Josemaria Escriva

Any book by Benedict XVI

[Danny]

Meditations~~Marcus Aurelius

Confessions~~St. Augustine

Meditations on First Philosophy~~Rene Descartes

The Everlasting Man~~G.K. Chesterton

The Way~~St. Josemaria Escriva

Any book by Benedict XVI

Development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Cardinal Newman could also be added to that list. I'll make it #7 for now.

[lukeottevanger]

The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen. No other book changed me as much as this one did.

The Classical Style and The Romantic Generation - Charles Rosen (counts as one choice, as they say!)

Various writings of Malcolm MacDonald (Brahms, Schoenberg, Brian) - not because I am a Brianite, but because MacDonald writes so well, is so sane and yet passionate, and has a way with a metaphor. In all three cases, not just Brian, he helped me understand better.

Various writings of Wilfred Mellers (Vaughan Williams, 'Mask of Orpheus' etc.) - because Mellers' view of the fundamental symbolism of certain musical shapes and processes struck a deep chord with me and made an enormous amount of sense. Deryck Cooke's The Language of Music would fit under the same category, but to be honest, Mellers' work seems more penetrating to me, and is one of the few examples of music analysis leading from the specific to the general (and back again) in a genuinely illuminating way.

Janacek - Leaves from his Life  (comp. Taussky) - hardly the most comprehensive selection of Janacek's writings (for that, in English, look for Tyrell, Zemanova etc), nor at all analytical, but the first one I ever saw. The format preserves the feuilleton-like character of the writings and was part of the process which cemented my love for this composer.

Five already! - I'm going to leave no 6 blank, and it can rotate between any number of other books - Danube (Claudio Magris); Magic Prague (Angelo Ripellino); Introduction a la musique de douze sons (Leibowitz - a signed and inscribed copy, Paris, January 1950, which somehow feels talismanic of a very significant time and place); Buddhism and the Art of Psychotherapy (Kawai); the Journals of Gilbert Wright...etc., etc., etc.

[ChamberNut]

A Night to Remember - Walter Lord

The Amityville Horror - Jay Anson (perhaps semi non-fiction  )

Beethoven - The Music and the Life - Lewis Lockwood

Classical Music - The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1,000 Greatest Works - Phil Goulding 

Kubrick - A life in Pictures - Christiane Kubrick

Mozart - Maynard Solomon

[MN Dave]

The Amityville Horror - Jay Anson (perhaps semi non-fiction  )

May I ask how this influenced you?

[ChamberNut]

May I ask how this influenced you?

OK, it didn't.  0:)  I was simply listing my favorites, I forgot about the which influenced you part.

[MN Dave]

OK, it didn't.  0:)  I was simply listing my favorites, I forgot about the which influenced you part.

Phew! Now I won't have to report you to the police.

[Sergeant Rock]

Charles Rosen - The Classical Style  This book literally opened up the Classical music world to me: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven

Harold Bloom - Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human Hey, the dude was even more important than I'd thought 

Joseph Campbell - The Masks of God (four volumes) When I became a lapsed Lutheran, this partially filled the spiritual vacuum

Malcolm MacDonald - The Symphonies of Havergal Brian (three volumes)  See Luke's comment

John Haffenden - The Life of John Berryman  Berryman, my favorite poet, the author I feel closest to. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in deciphering his difficult, eccentric poetry

Shelby Stanton - The Rise and Fall of an American Army  An analysis of the ground war in Vietnam with no political ax to grind

Keith Nolan - Into Laos: The Story of Dewey Canyon II  Reading this thirty-six years after I'd participated in the last major American campaign/battle of the Vietnam War (code name: Dewey Canyon II) was a personal revelation and gave me some closure


Sarge