Check out this post on io9.com - The Twenty Science Fiction Novels That Will Change Your Life. That's a bold statement, to be sure, but it's a good starting point for further exploration and discussion. In fact, the post itself is not as fruitful as the comments.
Of course, it got me thinking. To call a book "lifechanging" is, to me, no light statement. There are hundreds of books I can say had powerful impacts on me for any number of reasons, but actually changed my life? That's something else altogether. Also, when I read a book is pretty significant. What changed my life at 14 years old surely wouldn't have had the same kind of impact even five years later. Now, at nearly 40, I'm not sure I can say I've read any book in the past decade that had so great an effect on me that I'd call it lifechanging. Well, maybe some Vonnegut, for altering my worldview.
Anyway, here's a short list of SF works that I believe I can assert did Change My LifeTM:
Time Enough for Love (Robert Heinlein) - My first Heinlein. It's not his best, but it introduced me to a wondrous new world of SF, and a whole new take on the bizarre quagmire that is human relations.
"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (Harlan Ellison) - More than any other writing, fiction or non-fiction, this story helped me understand the importance of civil disobedience*.
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) - Growing up in a household where books were revered, this one was practically required reading and really solidified my belief in books as necessities.
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - My first exposure to why Utopia sucks.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy (Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson) - I'm at a loss for what to say about this one. Hell yeah, it changed my life, enormously. If you haven't read it, put it at the top of your list.
*Knowing I was a political science major in college might help clarify the weight of this statement.
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2 comments:
I might as well have sent a card to PostSecret.com, the only blog I read with more regularity than yours, and scribbled on "I've never read the Illuminatus Trilogy" bit I blew it by responding here.
Okay, I read the first few chapters and got tremendously lost and confused. I put it down and never picked it up again. Maybe now I will.
Well, I won't say it's not confusing, that's for sure! But, I think it's worth wading through. You might come out the other side still confused (if not moreso), but oh! what a ride!
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