What's the book you consider your bible/author you adore?

[CitizenErased]

have you read much else of Bierce's work? a lot of his short stories were the predecessors of weird fiction, the genre that also gives you Lovecraft, and my favorite, Algernon Blackwood (who was doomed to write weird fiction the moment his parents named him... Lovecraft thought that Blackwood's The Willows may have been one of the greatest stories of the genre and I'm inclined to agree)

I had an edition with drawings... a coworker at a past job walked off with it so now I am stuck with my kindle version, which at least means I have a copy as long as I have the internet or my phone!

Yeees! My first story was The Boarded Window and I was so fascinated that I checked more stories and then bought The Collected Works and I stumbled upon The Devil's Dictionary. When I like an author I tend to devour the whole bibliography (which I did, as with Cortázar, Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Ray Bradbury, Conan Doyle and a bunch of poets).

I haven't read The Willows, so as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now (The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo), I will(ow)! Lovecraft works are awfully difficult to find here, but I managed to find a used book last year: The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Stories.. finished it in a day and loved it. To be honest, I adore the mystery/horror genre,. It all began with Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Uh, I got sidetracked. I prefer paperback versions because I get tired of reading from screens and I love turning pages over, and buy old books and smell them, haha

 

[miss fortune]

Yeees! My first story was The Boarded Window and I was so fascinated that I checked more stories and then bought The Collected Works and I stumbled upon The Devil's Dictionary. When I like an author I tend to devour the whole bibliography (which I did, as with Cortázar, Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Ray Bradbury, Conan Doyle and a bunch of poets).

I haven't read The Willows, so as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now (The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo), I will(ow)! Lovecraft works are awfully difficult to find here, but I managed to find a used book last year: The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Stories.. finished it in a day and loved it. To be honest, I adore the mystery/horror genre,. It all began with Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Uh, I got sidetracked. I prefer paperback versions because I get tired of reading from screens and I love turning pages over, and buy old books and smell them, haha

if you like Cortazar you would probably like Borges as well... his writing is lovely and the plots contain the same elements you love in Cortazar, only different. (and bradbury... I want to marry his brain I stayed up all night reading something wicked this way comes!)

you can usually get a collection of Lovecraft that contains most of his works online for pretty cheap, even the paperback version... and I LOVED the boarded window! The Willows though combines Bradbury's talent for creating an atmosphere with Lovecraft level of creepy and Bierce level of mystery to it... Lovecraft was right about it

 

[Frosty]

Too many really. Jk Rowling and Harry Potter will always be at the top I think for me though. Not the best books Ive ever read probably, but... Have a spot.

 

[Hawthorne]

My attachment to Camus and, to a lesser extent, Sartre is pretty damn disgusting.

 

[CitizenErased]

if you like Cortazar you would probably like Borges as well... his writing is lovely and the plots contain the same elements you love in Cortazar, only different. (and bradbury... I want to marry his brain I stayed up all night reading something wicked this way comes!)

you can usually get a collection of Lovecraft that contains most of his works online for pretty cheap, even the paperback version... and I LOVED the boarded window! The Willows though combines Bradbury's talent for creating an atmosphere with Lovecraft level of creepy and Bierce level of mystery to it... Lovecraft was right about it

I know! I'm Argentine, so I have the country's authors well covered. From Borges I prefer his poems, though my favourite book is Fictions, which contains "Circular Ruins" <3 but his style is somewhat "minimalist" (people majoring in something related to literature might call it ultraism, which advocates for the elimination of "useless" words, and the use of oxymorons, among other qualities). In my mind, Borges is pretty graphic in all his complexity, whereas Cortázar rambles so much that you are forced to create an image of your own in your head.

Right?! Bradbury's creativity has no boundaries. My first book was The Illustrated Man, and I must admit that when I read it I was perplex, if not a bit scared. I had always seen the space as something magnificent, mysterious. But with him I just started feeling respect for outer space, as something intriguing but cruel at the same time (Kaleidoscope). One of the stories I liked most is The Long Rain, because... it's like I read it with my five senses.

Alright, alright! I'll take a break from my book and read The Willows. I'm seeing that it only has 20 pages, so I'll keep you posted!

 

[miss fortune]

I know! I'm Argentine, so I have the country's authors well covered. From Borges I prefer his poems, though my favourite book is Fictions, which contains "Circular Ruins" <3 but his style is somewhat "minimalist" (people majoring in something related to literature might call it ultraism, which advocates for the elimination of "useless" words, and the use of oxymorons, among other qualities). In my mind, Borges is pretty graphic in all his complexity, whereas Cortázar rambles so much that you are forced to create an image of your own in your head.

Right?! Bradbury's creativity has no boundaries. My first book was The Illustrated Man, and I must admit that when I read it I was perplex, if not a bit scared. I had always seen the space as something magnificent, mysterious. But with him I just started feeling respect for outer space, as something intriguing but cruel at the same time (Kaleidoscope). One of the stories I liked most is The Long Rain, because... it's like I read it with my five senses.

Alright, alright! I'll take a break from my book and read The Willows. I'm seeing that it only has 20 pages, so I'll keep you posted!

I got into reading Cortazar and Borges when I took Spanish lit with an Argentine professor... Borges style is kind of like Hemingway's in that way... keep things as simple as possible verbally and let the ideas be the more complex bits while Cortazar is more like Steinbeck and tells you EVERYTHING I really loved A Continuity of Parks though... and I loved the imagery at the beginning of Monologue of Isabel Watching the Rain in Macondo by Marquez as well, probably for the same reason you love The Long Rain... you can FEEL it

And Then Will Come Soft Rains probably is one of my favorite of Bradbury's short stories just because it leaves you feeling like staring at a wall for a bit and thinking "what the fuck, humanity?" I have The Illustrated Man and October Country and another collection of his short stories as well because I told my sister to get me some of his collections and forgot that she had a part time job at a bookstore

 

[CitizenErased]

[MENTION=23915]Sinclair[/MENTION]

Interesting! I haven't read much about them. From Camus I read "The Stranger" and I used part of "The Rebel" for an essay I needed for a philosophy class. From Sartre I started reading Being and Nothingness, but at that time I was too *insert synonym of stupid* to read something so convoluted, so I abandoned it to get more knowledge and face it later... Haven't gotten there yet, but I will! Not related 100% to your post, but I also read The Second Sex, from Simone de Beauvoir, and has some interesting musings for the neofeminist public, though I'm not an avid defensor of the revolutionary rehash of the 20s, so I didn't assimilate many of her ideas into my life speech.

What do you like of them, besides the existentialist approach?

 

[violet_crown]

Where the Wild Things Are

 

[á´…eparted]

Where the Wild Things Are

It's interesting to me that a decent number of kids in my youth were really attached to this story. I mean, I didn't dislike it, but it was quite "meh" and unrelatable to me. Now that I am older I can see why it was so popular and so many people attached themselves to it.

 

[Hawthorne]

What do you like of them, besides the existentialist approach?

I think a big part of my attachment is the result of "right place at the right time". People who had already traveled the path of my own thoughts but kept going. Camus specifically had the eloquence I didn't (and still don't) and a spin that wasn't so fluffy that I dismissed it outright as a bullshit cop-out but still managed to be encouraging given the topic (of Myth of Sisyphus since that was the first one I read).

And I wasn't even exaggerating about the disgust. There's really no reason for me to love it as much as I do. Sometimes I feel like a covert fanatic which is why I try not to talk about it much.

 

[violet_crown]

It's interesting to me that a decent number of kids in my youth were really attached to this story. I mean, I didn't dislike it, but it was quite "meh" and unrelatable to me. Now that I am older I can see why it was so popular and so many people attached themselves to it.

Felt it was more relatable than The Prince.

 

[á´…eparted]

Felt it was more relatable than The Prince.

Not familar with that one. Fwiw though I've found that most childhood stories only connect with a small group of children. Ultimately each kid will find a story or two that clicks with them. Though there are a select few that do connect with a larger group of kids. Honestly now that I think about it, I can't recall a childhood story that I really connected/resonated with when I was little. The few I did were also really bad/wrong self-interpretations that much I do know.

 

[violet_crown]

Not familar with that one. Fwiw though I've found that most childhood stories only connect with a small group of children. Ultimately each kid will find a story or two that clicks with them. Though there are a select few that do connect with a larger group of kids. Honestly now that I think about it, I can't recall a childhood story that I really connected/resonated with when I was little. The few I did were also really bad/wrong self-interpretations that much I do know.

I've made a habit of reading The Prince roughly every year since I was about 15. I don't know if most would consider it a children's book, though. It's available online if you want to check it out.

Generally speaking, I think that children's books are as much to do with how we experienced the books as what the books are actually about. My mom always used to make the monsters sing songs and dance, and we'd talk about what Max was feeling. Those were good memories for me.

Were there any characters from anywhere that resonated with you as a kid?

 

[Qlip]

I don't know if I'd call it a bible, but Dune has been strangely important to me. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was raised religious in the desert and that my mind is the type that likes to latch on to mythic motifs and Hebert's tendency to have his characters and his world's writings to produce impressive sounding truisms.

 

[á´…eparted]

I've made a habit of reading The Prince roughly every year since I was about 15. I don't know if most would consider it a children's book, though. It's available online if you want to check it out.

Generally speaking, I think that children's books are as much to do with how we experienced the books as what the books are actually about. My mom always used to make the monsters sing songs and dance, and we'd talk about what Max was feeling. Those were good memories for me.

Were there any characters from anywhere that resonated with you as a kid?

Oh ok that is the book that showed up when I googled it, but it seemed odd for a kid story so I thought it must be something else. Still never heard of it, thanks for the link though! You're also definitely right that what our experiences are of stories and characters as kids tends to matter much more than what it is itself.

A lot of them are embarassing because I had low self esteem but was still entitled/narcissistic . I honestly never really found much of a kinship with characters though. None ever lept out at me like "omg that is SO me" that can happen now adays. Anyway:

Edd (ed edd and eddy) <<< the only one I legit still identify with
Chucky Finster (Rugrats)
Phoebe Heyerdahl (Hey Arnold)
TK Takaishi (digimon)
Bubbles (powerpuff girls)
Sam (rocket power)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Even then it wasn't that strong. The idea of role models was (and still sort of is) an alien concept to me, so I seldom attached or identified. Now adays I identify (largely cause I have a better sense of self and can extract character info much more easily), but don't really attach.

 

[CitizenErased]

[MENTION=23915]Sinclair[/MENTION]
Well, passion is not meant to be rational. Or at least, for me it's too difficult to state clearly the reason I like certain things. I think it's really interesting your mixed feelings: have a feeling of a feeling: disgust of liking something so much. The Myth of Sisyphus.. rings a bell, but I'm not sure if I heard about Camus' essay or it's just because of Greek mythology. I sense it has something to do with feeling useless.

[MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION]
Dune is in my to-read list!! I'll tell you when I read it

[MENTION=7254]Wind Up Rex[/MENTION]
The Prince? By Machiavelli? A children's book? I have the version that is commented by Napoleon Bonaparte... I don't think I would have undertood it as a child. I thought you meant The Little Prince!

[MENTION=20829]Hard[/MENTION]
It is true! Every chld has some book that clicks with them. I think it has to do with relating to the character, or finding something familiar to the own reality. For example, in my pre-teen years I was in love with Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye), because I was (am) as annoying as him regarding authenticity... and the ducks of the frozen lake, haha

 

[violet_crown]

[MENTION=7254]Wind Up Rex[/MENTION]
The Prince? By Machiavelli? A children's book? I have the version that is commented by Napoleon Bonaparte... I don't think I would have undertood it as a child. I thought you meant The Little Prince!

I was making a joke that Where the Wild Things Are is a more relatable book to love than The Prince. Not that The Prince was a children's book.

 

[Flâneuse]

The Sacred Depths of Nature (Ursula Goodenough)
Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
Atonement (Ian McEwan)

The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough helped me reconcile naturalism and spirituality.

I read Mrs. Dalloway when I was a self-involved teenager and it reminded me that other people have worlds inside them too. It encouraged me to be more empathetic and hastened the process of growing out of my adolescent narcissism.

Atonement by Ian McEwan shares several themes with Mrs. Dalloway (like inner life vs. surface and how easily people misunderstand and devalue each other) and it helped me become more aware of the dark side of imagination (how it can distort truth), and how people's undetected biases, self-importance, and overconfidence in their own hasty judgments are behind a lot of the suffering people inflict on each other. (That book has a ton of other themes, but these are the ones that stuck with me the most.) It encouraged me to try to understand more than I judge, and to always try to tell the difference between what is actual knowledge and what is just my imagination trying to sketch in the blank areas to create what I wanted or expected to see.

 

[Galena]

I don't know if I'd call it a bible, but Dune has been strangely important to me. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was raised religious in the desert and that my mind is the type that likes to latch on to mythic motifs and Hebert's tendency to have his characters and his world's writings to produce impressive sounding truisms.

This. It's my favorite book, at least, and I'm not even much of a reader. I didn't live in the desert as a kid, but visited half of my family there regularly, and one of my two objectives of my work on the west coast is to get back there. My attraction to these kinds of stories is largely...sensory. All the internal character detail (that some see as excessive) is familiar to me as a writer, too.

The first time I picked it up, I was maybe 10. I read half a chapter and abandoned it after being creeped out. Then, I found it again in college...things that scared me as a kid always = my favorite things as an adult.

 

[CitizenErased]

[MENTION=20761]lumi[/MENTION]
I hadn't heard about those books before, except for Mrs. Dalloway, which is in my to-read list but never got to it (too many interesting books to read in a lifetime!) From what you say, they sound like one can extract many thoughts/conclusions from them. I'll include them in my list