No matter how many times I try, I just cannot get through the Lord of the Rings books. They're just so... dense and rather dull in some areas compared to the fantasy I'm used to. Like the Hobbit though, that's a fun book.
I found that when I tried to read them a few times, but then I sat down with The Fellowship and decided to try again and somehow it just clicked. I didn't find any of it dull any more, it was all so epic and beautiful. Never got around to starting Two Towers though...
The books that have influenced me the most are mostly works of philosophy, and I also enjoy the novels of Haruki Murakami a lot.
Yeah - a really good book has to have that "change your life" experience, and I find increasingly these days I only get that feeling from fantastic works of philosophy. Although I recently finished A Picture of Dorian Gray and felt similarly about that, so I dunno...
I dawns on me that I have confined myself solely to fantasy. Doing so neglects another book with marked significance for me, "The Memoirs of Berlioz" as translated by David Cairns. We have to go way back to the early seventies, possibly the late sixties, for this one. I had been converted from 'pop' to so-called 'classical' music several years prior. Hector Berioz' "Symphonie Fantastique" was one of the pieces that spurred this transformation. I was mesmerized by it. Couldn't get enough. I became curious about its composer, and found a copy of "Memoirs" in the school library. I ate that up too. Berlioz led a most interesting, at times even bazaar, life and was a great writer to boot. So the book was thoroughly enjoyable in its own right, back in the days when I wasn't much of a reader. As if not more importantly, Berlioz' talk about his contemporaries and near-contemporaries peaked my interest in them too. It was thanks to Berlioz' championship of Beethoven that I began to listen more seriously to Beethoven's music, which up to that time I had neither fully understood nor appreciated. But if Berlioz liked his music I knew there must be something to it. Once I finally 'got it', Beethoven quickly became my musical god. If push comes to shove, I supposed I'd say he retains that position to this day.
That sounds really interesting. I was introduced to Symphonie Fantastique when I was still in school, and I still think it's incredible. I rarely listen to classical music, and I don't think anything could "convert" me away from rock and punk and metal, but I still love hearing the amazing things he convinced the orchestra to do. I had to study a bit about him back then too, and his life sounds exciting, so I might look up that book...
I guess at a push I'd have to say my favourite book series is Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Which is fine, I guess, because I absolutely love them. They were a huge part of my life, and growing up, and have probably shaped my outlook on life in general to this day. And I still read every one that comes out... But I dunno, I guess I'd just have a hard time ranking any one of the books in the series amongst my favourites ever. Although I guess some of the witches ones come close...
I'd also like to add a mention for Robert Rankin's Brentford trilogy. I only got to (I think) the fifth book, and I really should read the rest some day. There's something about Rankin's insane, psychedelically cynical vision of the world that strikes a chord with me. I'd encourage any Pratchett fans here to check him out.
Also, at the moment I'm reading Iron Council, the third of China Miéville's Bas-Lag books. And while they're not really a series (and I haven't read the second) I think they need to be mentioned in this thread. One of the best authors around.
» Wed May 02, 2012 3:08 pm 
