What novel most influenced me in high school?

[bugscufle]

I'm listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir tonight. *Their rendition of the "Battle Hymn of The Republic" was awesome.

My day started off digestively unruly. *From time to time my digestive tract complains of being forced to constantly accept the consequences of oral and visual excitement. *After sincere repentence and a promise of intake reform, the situation slowly subsided.

It does seem somewhat surprising to me how many people in various locations are reporting intestinal bugs this weekend. *While I may be dismissed as a conspiracist, I do believe that all unexplained evil can be blamed on the government or pharmacuetical companies and the mark rarely be missed.

Traveled to Beaumont last weekend to attend the funeral of my cousin, Mike Carder. *Lung cancer took Mike at age 52, although he never smoked. *I guess maybe Mike was the Boy Scout type. *In the most important ordinary and enduring ways that world often overlooks, Mike was faithful to family, faithful to church, and faithful to country. *Mike spent six years as a marine. *The world is always the lesser when we lose men like Mike. *Semper Fi!

Today was the Valley Ranch annual pot luck dinner. *The VRapld is Chuck and Nell's ministry. *Lots of preparation, lots of cooking, and lots of cleaning up. *The purpose seems to be affirming a belief that when we share a most specific part of the universe, we should know the specific people with us.

The event starts with a prayer. *That is comforting for me. *When I was young, so many things in my life started with prayer. *Now prayer is much rarer. *Prayer taught me to perceive good food as a blessing. *And while young people may enjoy good food as much as I, I am not sure they perceive it as a blessing. *Prayer taught me that we should express gratitude for our food. *Do today's young people express gratitude for food?

Of course, we had food prepared and cooked by someone who loved us. *Today's food is made in plants. *It comes to us from a frozen food bin via a microwave or a fast food assembly line.

The VRapld is held in a century old, two room school house in Valley Spring. *The old school reminds me of my own elementary school days. *We didn't have air conditioning either. *But we had women who prepared and cooked each meal. *They cared both about us and the food they cooked. *I happily cleaned my plate each day. *There were no sodas or fruit flavored sugar drinks. *Chocolate milk was an occasional extravagance. *And on the days when we had oatmeal and raisin Flying Saucers, I couldn't believe life could be any better. *For a nickel, I got a second Flying Saucer. *I have yet to come across another buy as good as that. * *

Kids today no longer have home made cooking. *They have prepared food. *There are no longer any cooks. *Today, there are cafeteria workers. *I don't know why, but everytime I hear the job title "cafeteria worker", I think of "sanitation worker."

Homemade knick-knacks are furnished by some of the locals and everybody gets a door prize. *This gives the event a slight Christmas flavor. *Most leave fat and happy.

Later that afternoon I called Marianne. *Marianne was one of the unmet people from my cyber life. * She is a friend of Hank's. *I realize that many who read this have never met Hank and have no idea who Hank is. *Well, if it is any consolation, I have never met Hank either. * *But there appears to be a cult which I call, Friends of Hank, somewhat similar to Friends of Bill. *This is in no way meant to disparage Hank or Friends of Hank. *Not all cults are bad. *After all, if it wasn't for cults, we wouldn't have culture. *And culture can be a good thing. *Especially the one used to make cheese.

But I digress. *Marianne was attending a weekend chemotherapy education course in Austin. *Austin is almost two hours drive, one way. *I pull that stunt all week long. *Normally I wouldn't drive back to Austin on a weekend to pick up the winning lotto check. *But Marianne is a nurse who lives in San Francisco. *She is studying to get a chemotherapy certification. *When I was seven, I was in the hospital for a while. *A nurse who had been in a MASH unit in Korea pinned her lieutenants bars on my pajamas. *Ever since I have had more and more markers floating around the nursing profession. *When my dad died of cancer, the pile probably doubled.

So....., "Would you like to go out for supper?" *"That would be nice. *Are sure it's not too much trouble?" *"No problem. *I'll pick you up between 5:30 and *6:00 pm." *I arrived at 6:15 pm. *I am usually late. *I think it is passive aggression.

Marianne was staying at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel. *I am familiar with that area. *I took a couple of back streets because it is quicker. *I passed a couple of apartment complexes surrounded with rolled razor barbed wire. *My mother used to live in one of those complexes. *The complexes reminded me of the state prison over in Eden. *When I was a kid people left their homes unlocked. *You've come a long way baby.

The initial contact on a blind date is always special. *People can't help but make visual projections of what people they have contact, but have never seen, look like. *When women meet me, the facial expression always conveys, "how could I have been so wrong." *I do think, however, that nurses recover quicker. *Kind of a, "they've seen it all" thing.

Marianne, on the other hand, ... how shall I put this? *Let's just say she was better than any of the door prizes at the Valley Ranch annual pot luck dinner.

Marianne had gone to the University of Texas in the 70's and was familiar with parts of Austin. *We went down to the Drag, which is the street on the west side of the University. *Marianne decided that she would like to eat at a 75 year old greasy spoon called Dirty Martin's. *We ate as unhealthily as we could. *Marianne eating more than I. *I just hate it when women try to intimidate me. *

Well, we finished eating and since Dirty Martin's is not known for it's ambience, we left. *The sun was still up. *I am quite aware that blind date protocol does not allow you to take a girl back until the sun sets. *So, what to do? *Austin certainly has a lot going any Saturday evening. *I knew that the well-tattooed Patrice Pike would be performing with Adrian and The Sickness that evening, but that was a little too involving. *I drove around central Austin describing what used to be where. *I showed her Pease Elementary where I started school and old austin High across the street where I graduated. *Marianne went for a walk around Town Lake. *Some think of a walk around Town Lake as entertaining or romantic, I think of it as cheap.

Even though Marianne was in heels, and I was sweating a lot, it was a nice walk. *The problem is that as I get older, rest rooms become farther and farther apart. *I think it part of that expanding universe thing. *I tried to talk Marianne into checking out Hooters (she has never been to one) but she saw Threadgills a half a block further and suggested we go there.

Have you ever been out with a nurse when both of you go to the restroom? *With other women I can take care of business and go over to Threadgills' bar and have a beer before my date emerges. *I walked out of the restroom and Marianne was just standing there, waiting for me. *That was awesome.

It was getting dark when we left. *It was a little cooler and but calmer. *When we got to the foot bridge that crosses Town Lake near Lamar Blvd. Marianne suggested that we detour and watch the moon set from the middle of the Lake. *Now I have been around the block and I knew what she was up to, but there is a nice, cool breeze in the middle of the Lake so I agreed.

We turned towards the footbridge. *"Excuse me." *There were several people going in several directions. *Unless they are females with nice bodies I don't pay much attention. *"Excuse me." *We turned to the voice. *The voice continued, "We're lost."

The "we" were a couple of University of Texas sophomore transfers, Christy from the University of Oklahoma and Suzanne from the University of Richmond. *For an hour and a half they had been trying to get to their car. *They asked several people for directions but kept getting lost. *It was now dark, they didn't know where they were or how to get back to the car. *They were a good two miles from their car. *The trail runs under trees in that area and gets seriously dark.

Maybe Marianne came across as a mother with three daughters in their teens and twenties. *(She is). *Whatever, they accepted a ride with a lady that maybe reminded them of their mom and a guy that looks slightly like Santa Claus. *Guess they felt there wasn't a lot of choice. *

Marianne talked about soroieties while we traveled to lessen their anxiety. Nothing seems to calm a young college female quite like talking shopping or soroieties. When we pulled up behind their car it was all by itself. *I later told Marianne those girls have really good guardian angels. *I wonder if some of the wise decisions that we think we make in life are really our guardian angels taking over controls.

Marianne and I celebrated our good deed at the Magnolia Cafe with their homemade brownie and Bluebell ice cream.




Catcher in the Rye *

[Txanne]

The Tale of Two Cities.

The uprising of the down-trodden has stayed with me all my life.


And I am jealous!! ;D
Taking another woman out---drat it all!!


annie :D

[wax]

Star Wars of course... but only because it got me reading!

It is a "wicked little question" though I am sure no harm was intended.

The problem of course is "influenced".

Hmmm...

Stephen King wrote a book called "The Long Walk" while pretending his name was Richard Bachman. I picked it up because of the cover but I couldn't put it down after the first page.
When I later learned that it was King who wrote it I read "The Running man" also written as Bachman.

I came to realize why he didn't write them under his name!

What would you do if your government would prefer you simply died? What if there were mechanisms in place to help you on your way?

Both stories are very old (mid seventies for Pete's Sake!) and yet they still wake me up at night.
Do I exist for the whim of those in power or does that power exist because I allow it to?
Is there an example that must be made?

For those that haven't read them they are very basic in ideal and construction.
Both are about trading questionable glory for realization.

In one, "The Long Walk", the population has exploded.
No need to worry though because desperate young men will be more than willing to do desperate young things (a lesson the Germans learned well).
So every year a lottery is held.
The "lucky" ones can walk with a chance to earn glory and riches.
They are lucky in that they have the chance.
But those who fall behind will be executed and thus poor populations are limited.

Like I said... a simple story.

It has happened many times in the history of man.
But this time, this one time, there is a potential noble in the march.
He doesn't want glory and riches but acceptance.
How long could you walk if you knew stopping meant death?

The "Running Man" is perhaps the best King story ever written! Yes it was a movie... but no... it was never filmed!
One needs to read it in order to understand.
All you need to know right now is that in 1982 Stephen King forsaw a man who willingly flew a plane into a skyscraper!
9-11 was many things but to claim it was a "shock" or somehow unexpected was... a lie at best!

[wax]

But then we come back to "influenced".

I had decided to kill myself.
I had the weapon and I possessed the specific bullet which would complete the goal.
I loaded it many times, and contemplated things that a young man my age should never be forced to.

The "Count of Monty Cristo" stopped that downward trend.
Time became bearable and suffering only a phase.

Influence can be a strange thing.

[bookwormom]

I have to say it was the biography Pearl S. Buck wrote about her parents. They were missionaries in China and she knew America from her mother telling her about it and later from visits. She was from West Virginia and the way she talked about America could just warm your heart. I had no qualms about marrying an American and following him to that wonderful country. Of course that was life on the farm in America in the 1880s. To this day I love seeing the kind of farmhouses they built back then. In 1969 I was fortunate to get to see a real one from the inside (, not something a Dr. or lawyer bought, although how it is now I don't know). A neighbor took me along to visit her grandparents. The old lady dabbed vanilla behind her ears when she went to town and had her hair in a gray topknot. They still had their original car, it was old, but I don't know anything about cars. It was a two story brick house, with the floor plan in the shape of a T. The top bar facing the road consisted of the Parlor and a dining room, maybe a bedroom, it has been a long time ago.. Out back was the kitchen with a sideporch. In the corner of the T there was the well and Sheila let down the bucket and pulled us up a drink. there was a dipper hanging on the well house and a vine growing there. The kitchen looked like they had homemade biscuits and gravy, fried apples and eggs every day of the week. There was a hand pump at the sink and an icebox, a woodstove, cabinets that had been painted several times. We went out to the barn, looked at the garden and sat under the grape arbor. We take things for granted when we are young and don't realize that things pass and are gone forever.

[Smilin_Bob]

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Smilin Bob ;D

[exodus]

there were several:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It got me into all of his books.

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire...it stirred my love of history.

Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau..it stirred in me things the teachers were not prepared to handle.

Chanson de Roland, the French epic poem...we had quite a French teacher.

I went to a very demanding high school but it taught me discipline in preparation of University.

[CarolAnn]

Novel? No novel influenced me all that much. But the little 12-step booklet I got in Alateen made a HUGE impact on my life.

I loved reading (still do!) - but novels were for fun and for escape. The 12-step Alateen booklet, small as it was, helped me make real changes in my attitude and outlook on real life.

[AlchemyAcres]

Most of these aren't novels...but books that influenced me most during that time.....

"Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ann Rand

"Poughman's Folly" and "A Second Look" by Edward H. Faulkner

"The One Straw Revolution" Masanobu Fukuoka.

Books by Gene Logsdon

All the books by Louis Bromfield....especially those deealing with Malabar Farm.....

"Malabar Farm by Louis Bromfield"
* * *a poem by E.B. White

Malabar Farm is the farm for me,
It's got what it takes to a large degree:
Beauty, alfalfa, constant movement,
And a terrible rash of soil improvement.
Far from orthodox in its tillage,
Populous as many a village,
Stuff being planted and stuff being written,
Fields growing lush that were once unfitten,
Bromfield land, whether low or high land,
Has more going on than Coney Island.

When Bromfield went to Pleasant Valley,
The soil was hard as a bowling alley;
He sprinkled lime and he seeded clover,
And when it came up he turned it over.
From far and wide folks came to view
The things that a writing man will do.
The more he fertilized the fields
The more impressive were his yields,
And every time a field grew fitter
Bromfield would add another critter,
The critter would add more manure, despite 'im,
And so it went-ad infinitum.
It proves that a novelist on his toes
Can make a valley bloom like a rose.

Malabar farm is the farm for me,
Aplaceof unbridled activity.
A farm is always is some kind of tizzy,
But Bromfield's place is really busy:
Strangers arriving be every train,
Bromfield terracing against the rain.
Catamounts crying, mowers mowing,
Guest rooms full to over flowing.
Boxers in every room of the house,
Cows being milked to Brahms and Strauss,
Kids ariving byvan or pung,
Bbromfield up to his eyes in dung,
Sailors, trumeters, mystics, actors,
All of them wanting to drive the tractors,
All of them eager to husk the corn,
Some of them sipping their drinks till morn;
Bulls in the bull pen,bulls on the loose,
Everyone bottling vegetable juice,
Play producers jousting with bards,
Boxers fighting with St. Bernards,
Boxers fooling with aauto brakes,
Runaway cars at the bottom of lakes,
Bromfield driving to save the boxers,
Moving vans full of bobby-soxers,
People coming and people going,
Everything fertile, everything growing,
Fish in the ponds other fish seducing,
Thrashing around and reproducing.

Whole place teeming with men and pets,
Field mice nesting in radio sets,
Cats in the mangeeer, rats in the nooks,
Publishers scanning the sky for books,
Harvested royalties, harvested grain.
Bromfield scanning the sky for grain,
Bromfield's system proveing reliable,
Soil getting rich and deep and friable,
Bromfield phoning, Bromfield haying,
Bromfield watching soil decaying,
Womenfolk busy shelling peas,
Guinea fowl up in catalpa trees.
Oh, Bromfield's valley is plenty pleasant-
Quail and rabbit, boxers. pheasant.
Almost every Malabar day
Sees birth and growth, sees death, decay;
Summer ending leaves a-falling,
Lecture dates, long distance calling.

That's only part of it...it's a tremendously long poem...LOL



~Martin ;)

[Txanne]

Carol---I love the Big Book of AA--but I never considered it a novel--But it did change my life.


Ala-teen and Al-Anon have been life savers many thousands----

Tale of Two Cities---showed me how humans can be under the rule of the chosen ---dictators---grim lives.

I find that is so true today---

annie

[bookwormom]

there was one I loved and read a couple of times. I don't know if it was translated into English. 1947, a destroyed country, and this family of refugees lives the homesteaders life in an old railroad car. They call it Noah's Ark.

[JAK]

Too Kill A Mockingbird

The Chrysalids (U.S. title: Re-Birth)

[Katrina-Sisu]

The Great Gatsby in high school. It taught me even if you have millions, you could still be unhappy in life.

I have read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder at least 50 times..probably more. That book gives me strength and guidance (she was a Christian and the book reflects that) when we're doing badly.

Katrina