Which books have changed your thinking?

[ComradeMan]

It is difficult to list all the books we have read!

When I was about 8 I read the How & Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs- that changed my view on things and led me to learn about evolution (say- ee-vul-USH-un) :)

More recently I read this book which I would recommend to anyone and everyone here:-
Unspeak: Words are Weapons by Steven Poole (2007) Abacus.
ISBN-10: 0349119244 / ISBN-13: 978-0349119243

This book written by a seemingly astute other does send a cruise missile through a lot of what you hear and read and forces you to analyse political and ideological language from a fresh point of view.
There's a link to the book on Amazon with some reviews here.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unspeak-Words-Weapons-Steven-Poole/dp/0349119244

Another book I have been reading recently:-
Il quaderno verde del Che: Poesie di Pablo Neruda, León Felipe, Nicolás Guillén e César Vallejo
Edited Paco Ignacio Taibo II (Italian edition)
Tropea: ISBN 9788855800617

Guevara's own anthology of poetry that was found with him when he was assassinated. I don't suppose it's so well known as his political writings but it, in my opinion, does give insight into the human being, the soul if you like, behind the man. I don't know if this is available in English or not.

Other books I would add to my list are

1. The Origin of the Species, Darwin
2. The Social Contract, Rousseau
3. Anarchy, Malatesta
4. Homage to Catalonia, Orwell
5. 1984, Orwell
6. Animal Farm, Orwell
(yes, I am an Orwell fan)
7. Human Documents of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, E Royston Pike(1966)
8. The Gnostic Gospels along with The Dead Sea Scrolls.
9. The Emperor, Ryszard Kapuscinski
10. Anything by Che Guevara but especially Guerilla Warfare.

Of course there a lots of other books, anthologies etc which I have read that I have enjoyed and/or have informed me a lot, poltical, spiritual, "pure" literature, and so on- but those listed above have made me think about things far more than others perhaps.

What about you?

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Catcher in the Rye for me.

[Agnapostate]

Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus (http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Jesus-Story-Behind-Changed/dp/0060859512):

http://sitb-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35leq+2FrjmMrPX9Ond5FuuWLkmqUClO7NSGFLON1bfL IHMTUHxZSuo43wESwySFBAc0s=

It absolutely shattered my faith in Biblical infallibility, as was the purpose. I especially identified with the author's evangelical Christianity in youth. So I progressed to a kind of Deism to theism to agnostic theism to agnosticism to agnostic atheism. Agnosticism and atheism are overlapping, contrary to popular belief.

[mykittyhasaboner]

The works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. Oh and "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse - the only good thing I got from the public 'education' system.

[Pogue]

Anarcho Syndicalism Theory and Practice by Rufol Rocker

Fight Club

[mykittyhasaboner]

Fight Club
I could say this as well.

[rebelmouse]

anarchist books:
anarchism, from theory to action - daniel guerin,
history of anarchism - max nettlau,
anarchism and morality - kropotkin,
etc....

[Искра]

Anarchoprimitivism against civilisation by Zerzan

I realised how hippies are stupid.

[The Idler]

How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson undermines the idea that "work is good".

[Andrei Kuznetsov]

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The greatest novel of all time, and really the book/musical that cemented my wish to become a revolutionary.

[Drace]

Animal Farm?
As a leftist how did that influence you :confused:

[Il Medico]

Well obviously The Communist Manifesto.

Besides that I found book like To Kill a Mocking Bird, Les Miserables, Candide, The Prince, The Art of War, and The Divine Comedy all had influence on me in terms of allowing me to see new ideas and perspectives on various subjects.


Also, as a note:
Les Miserables= one of the best novels ever.

[Agnapostate]

Animal Farm?
As a leftist how did that influence you :confused:

Through its author's socialism, hopefully.

[Invincible Summer]

Communist Manifesto

What is to be Done

ABC of Anarchism

Conquest of Bread

V for Vendetta

Fight Club

The Corporation

No Logo

Manufacturing Consent

[RED DAVE]

The Diary of Mary Berg (eyewitness account of the Warsaw Ghetto)

1984

Communist Manifesto

Interpretation of Dreams

History of Surrealism - Nadeau

Primitive Mythology - Campbell

RED DAVE

[MarxSchmarx]

Language, truth and logic by A J Ayers

[ComradeMan]

Animal Farm?
As a leftist how did that influence you :confused:

I saw it is a metaphor for the dangers of totalitarianism and abuse of power in revolutions that start "with good intentions...."

[ZeroNowhere]

Well, yes, it was an allegory, but how did that influence you? Did you support totalitarianism before that?

[Pogue]

Well, yes, it was an allegory, but how did that influence you? Did you support totalitarianism before that?

Arguably its a good explanation of the degeneration of the USSR and how it can be avoided.

[Random Precision]

"Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse - the only good thing I got from the public 'education' system.

Siddhartha is fucking ace. Also Demian (my favorite), Beneath the Wheel, Magister Ludi, Narcissus and Goldmund and Gertrude. All of Hesse except Steppenwolf really.

Although, to paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Futurama, his politics are so bad they gave me cancer.

[Kassad]

I heard Random Precision really loves the book Catcher in the Rye.

[ComradeMan]

Siddhartha is fucking ace. Also Demian (my favorite), Beneath the Wheel, Magister Ludi, Narcissus and Goldmund and Gertrude. All of Hesse except Steppenwolf really.

Although, to paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Futurama, his politics are so bad they gave me cancer.

That's funny, because I liked Steppenwolf. Why didn't you?

[Random Precision]

That's funny, because I liked Steppenwolf. Why didn't you?

I can't put my finger on exactly why not. The only thing I can think of to say is that I did not understand or sympathize at all with the protagonist. I think he is annoying, self-righteous and conceited. Hesse's other protagonists like Emil Sinclair, Kuhn in Gertrude, Joseph Knecht etc all had faults which made them seriously unbearable at times, but in those books he made you understand the kind of journey they were on, and how they got over their faults or if not, why not. I didn't see this with Harry Haller at all, he didn't seem like he was headed anywhere in particular or that he was any more interesting than the people living the "bourgeois life" that he rejects. I just don't get what Hesse meant us to see in him.

[ComradeMan]

I can't put my finger on exactly why not. The only thing I can think of to say is that I did not understand or sympathize at all with the protagonist. I think he is annoying, self-righteous and conceited. Hesse's other protagonists like Emil Sinclair, Kuhn in Gertrude, Joseph Knecht etc all had faults which made them seriously unbearable at times, but in those books he made you understand the kind of journey they were on, and how they got over their faults or if not, why not. I didn't see this with Harry Haller at all, he didn't seem like he was headed anywhere in particular or that he was any more interesting than the people living the "bourgeois life" that he rejects. I just don't get what Hesse meant us to see in him.

I thought that the point was exactly that, Harry is annoying, pompous and sanctimonious etc and is brought out of this by his experiences. I wouldn't describe the lifestyle so much as bourgeois as I would bohemian.
Oh well, de gustibus non est disputandum, I like Hesse's work in general however.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism pushed me a little bit towards Platformism, even if some parts of the book were bullshit ("DeLeonists are part of the anarchist tradition, too! Even if they themselves deny it!")

[ComradeMan]

Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism pushed me a little bit towards Platformism, even if some parts of the book were bullshit ("DeLeonists are part of the anarchist tradition, too! Even if they themselves deny it!")

I am not sure about the De Leonist movement, the problem is with the idea of the revolutionary party.

The idea of De Leonism seems, simplistically, to be a halfway point between anarchism and other ideologies. Whether they are anarchists or not is tricky. It reminds me of all the division and debate about the so-called anarcho-capitalists.

[Leo]

I can say that two books changed my thinking in radically changing my perspective. Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 by Marx and The National Question by Luxemburg. Basically these two books were what triggered me into becoming an internationalist communist who had an actually marxist understanding of the world while I was tying to find a way out of left-Kurdish nationalism.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Animal Farm?
As a leftist how did that influence you :confused:

It's an important book.

It's a good read for any anti-stalinist.

[x359594]

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Island by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley. American Power and the New Mandarins by Noam Chomsky. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. The Surrealist Manifestos by Andre Breton. Sisterhood is Powerful edited by Robin Morgan. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Bakunin on Anarchy edited by Sam Dolgoff. Rebel Voices edited by Joyce Kornbluh. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon by Karl Marx. Earth Household by Gary Snyder. Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin. Hitchcock's Films by Robin Wood. The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris.

[Jimmie Higgins]

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was the first political thing I read and really was a great antidote to all the right-wing bullshit about crime and poverty that was common at that time (It was the height of the "tough on crime" BS in the US - but of course, it's not like that rhetoric has really left us yet).

[Cymru]

Anarcho Syndicalism Theory and Practice by Rufol Rocker

Fight Club

I have to review Fight Club for Uni :)

[black magick hustla]

revolution of everyday life - vaneigem

probably this is the book that made the most impact on me. i read it as an impressionable and deeply alienated 16 year old. i was so excited about it that i printed a bunch of copies and gave them out for free to my friends. i think it made me break with a lot of ideas that probably held me back.

the songs of maldoror - lautremont

god and the state - bakunin

nationalism and culture - rocker

this latter one probably cemented my visceral anti-nationalism

the democratic principle - bordiga

this former probably made me break with liberalism once and for all. it came very fresh to me. i have never read a critique of democratism from a marxist perspective

tractatus logico-philosophicus - wittgenstein

a lot of poetry, particularly the "maudits" like baudelaire, rimbaud, etc

i dont think any marx particularly "changed" me. i was already "changed" by anarchist literature when i found marx.

[ZeroNowhere]

Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism pushed me a little bit towards Platformism, even if some parts of the book were bullshit ("DeLeonists are part of the anarchist tradition, too! Even if they themselves deny it!")
I don't, and we are. So hello there, I guess.

[ComradeMan]

god and the state - bakunin



Tractatus logico-philosophicus - Wittgenstein



i dont think any marx particularly "changed" me. i was already "changed" by anarchist literature when i found marx.

God and the State - Bakunin
Yes, I found it an excellent argument.


Tractatus logico-philosophicus - Wittgenstein
It took me a couple of reads to digest fully the ideas- also down to my lack of (ignorance :D) of a philosophical background other than in the classics. However, when reading the tractatus I did have doubts about some of Wittgenstein's positions and was a little disappointed and/or relieved :confused: when he later when back on some of his positions. Have you ever read Wittgenstein's Beetle by Cohen, M.?

[hugsandmarxism]

The Communist Manifesto and The State and Revolution were big in shaping my politics more recently, as well as an anthology on genocide "Genocide War Crimes and the West: History and Complicity" by Adam Jones (I reccomend this highly; pm me for a glimpse at a very moving chapter on structural violence as genocide), and various other texts given by my favorite sociology professor about the horrors of capitalism.



4. Homage to Catalonia, Orwell
5. 1984, Orwell
6. Animal Farm, Orwell
(yes, I am an Orwell fan)

I also read Animal Farm in highschool (in an English class taught by a staunch Republican who randomly showed us a documentary on the evils of stalinism, appropriately enough :lol:) but that lead me to some reactionary, anti-communist conclusions at the time, which seemed to be the only purpose of the text... but that's another discussion for another time ;)


Catcher in the Rye for me.

This. I loved that book.

I could probably think of a few more books, but most of what changed my thinking was a series of relationships I had with teachers in highschool and professors in college who challenged my way of thinking.

[which doctor]

I can say that two books changed my thinking in radically changing my perspective. Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 by Marx
I've noticed this to be a common trend. Out of all of Marx's work, it seems that the Paris Manuscripts have the most influence on those who are already convinced of marxism.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I don't, and we are. So hello there, I guess.

Oh really? I was under the impression that most DeLeonists would deny that they were part of the "broad anarchist tradition", but maybe I'm wrong.

The book also said that James Connolly and William "Big Bill" Haywood were also part of it, and they themselves would have certainly denied that.

[bailey_187]

It's a good read for any anti-stalinist.

In my opinion it is not, it reinforces a false version of history. It is very unuesful. If you are going to repeat the nonsense of Stalin hijacking the revolution, atleast use an actual history book rather than a novel by somoene who knew little of Soviet history.

[BOZG]

How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson undermines the idea that "work is good".

Eh, without labour, you'd be a primitive animal.

[ZeroNowhere]

Oh really? I was under the impression that most DeLeonists would deny that they were part of the "broad anarchist tradition", but maybe I'm wrong.
They would have, but mainly because they take after De Leon in associating anarchism with individual action as opposed to collective, or are chased off by the anarchists that they have seen (often understandably).


Eh, without labour, you'd be a primitive animal.Well, to be fair, work isn't good by merit of being work. So, for example, claims that 'hard work' is a virtue aren't necessarily true, as it's often not at all necessary in modern times. On the other hand, it could be the whole 'abolition of work' silliness peddled by the same people that like to talk about negating use-values and such.

[Random Precision]

I thought that the point was exactly that, Harry is annoying, pompous and sanctimonious etc and is brought out of this by his experiences. I wouldn't describe the lifestyle so much as bourgeois as I would bohemian.
Oh well, de gustibus non est disputandum, I like Hesse's work in general however.

Um I meant that the life he rejected was "bourgeois", I think Hesse uses that word for it several times in the book. I am saying that I don't see him as being any more interesting than someone living a bourgeois life, fitting in with the mass as it were.

Yeah I suppose that was the point, but I tend to resent Hesse for not being clearer that there was a process of healing going on, and that being a "steppenwolf" was not a positive thing. So many people who read that book seem to see Harry Haller as a positive model of some kind, as in if you want to be a person living for yourself you have to be like him. The sixties counterculture for example adopted him fully without even noticing his negative features, and Hesse himself had to write a new foreword explaining that he didn't mean for the main character to be admired. As the book stands though he's very digestible within this prototype of pseudo-intellectual hipsterism, cleverness, aloofness and arrogance that I really can't stand anywhere I see it.

[ComradeMan]

Random Precision.

Fair enough.

I must admit, I do not really sympathise or empathises with Harry but recognised who he was if you know what I mean?

[Ravachol]

Anarcho Syndicalism Theory and Practice by Rufol Rocker

Fight Club

Fight Club used to be a really influential work in my life until I actually started deconstructing the major themes, which aren't at all supportive of Class Struggle.
If anything, the major themes revolve around struggle, 'natural aristocracy', masculinity and primitivism. It's Nietzsche on steroids.
Still, I find it a highly entertaining work and I actually like Nietzsche-influenced works, even though I disagree with their message 90% of the time.

As for me, a lot of works influence me on a daily basis, but I guess the biggest influences on my thinking are (not in any particular order):

1. Discipline and Punish - by Michel Foucault
2. Marx Beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse - by Antonio Negri
3. The conquest of Bread - by Peter Kropotkin
4. Qu'est ce que la propriété? - by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
5. God and the State - by Mikhail Bakunin
6. Insurgencies: Constituent Power and the Modern State - by Antonio Negri
7. Il Principe - by Niccolò Machiavelli
8. Abrégé de métapolitique - Alain Badiou
9. Théorie du sujet - Alain badiou
10. The Imaginary Institution of Society - Cornelius Castoriadis

Although a lot of those works contain highly divergent points of view, I actually like that. I ready Hobbes' Leviathan as well for that matter although it didn't influence me that much. I guess i'm just rather heterodox in my theoretical approach.

[Ultra-Violence]

The Teachings Of Don Juan-Carlos Casteneda

i suggert all of you read em i read all of them 1-9 great shit made me see the world in a whole new way and how to live my life.

[hugsandmarxism]

The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho) by Miyamoto Musashi. It's like Sun Tzu's the Art of War, but on a more personal level, and taught me the value of strategy in one's struggles.