For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges.
The Sixth Extinction
“Your Erroneous Zones” by Wayne Dyer. I originally thought it was called “Your Erogenous Zones” when I saw it in the bookstore, but when I got home and realized it wasn’t about sex, it was a self-help book, I was disappointed. But then I started reading it and liking what I read. One part in particular, where he says “There’s no reason that you have to be a doctor. You can just lay on the beach all day long doing nothing at all, and that’s ok”, stuck with me. I had been pressured by my parent to get the highest grades, then get a high-paying job, all to help that one parent. Then I realized my life is my own, I’m not a slave to my parent, I don’t owe them a house just because I was born.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks. I have always been a practical observer, believing that things I experienced were a good basis for truth.
This crazy disturbing book brought me insights of how fragile and miraculous the human body is, and how easily it can break and render “normal” to be a meaningless concept.
“The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” by Ken Kesey. I was about 15, in 1983 or so. I’d been raised by old-school Republicans who thought Ronald Reagan was the second coming; I’d absorbed all that “say no to drugs” rhetoric and was like why would anyone in their right mind DO drugs, because they’re so clearly dangerous.
And then I got hold of TEKAT somehow, and devoured it, and was like oh I get it drugs are FUN and can change your perception of the world. I didn’t run out and do drugs or anything—I was 18 before I drank or smoked weed—but what it clued me into was the sheer prevalence of propaganda, disinformation and just straight-up bullying in conservative rhetoric, all designed to keep people in line and unquestioningly obedient.
Night, by Elie Wiesel. When you’re still a kid you’re living in a little bubble of innocence and even when we had our lessons on the Holocaust, I treated it as just some vague history lesson, same as everything else. Oh, some bad people did some bad things back a hundred years ago or whatever. Sure.
But then I read Night and it completely pulverized that bubble. I read it at the same age Elie was when he went through it and placing myself in his shoes shook me to my core. Holy shit, this was a real thing and it happened to real people. To kids, just like me. That was the first moment that not just the Holocaust, but ALL of history became ‘real’ to me. Not just stories you read in a textbook.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy when I was 10 or 11. Blew my Itty bitty mind.
The Poisonwood Bible. Growing up in a conservative, homogeneous, religious community, this book completely shook up my perspective on how my views fit into the wide world.
‘The Jungle’ Upton Sinclair.
Read in maybe 9th or 10th grade.
The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
It was the first book I read as a kid that didn’t “feel” like a kids book and I genuinely loved.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Was the book in my 20s that reminded me I love reading, after only reading for school for almost a decade and getting my Master’s degree
“Manufacturing Consent” by Noam Chomsky
“Ada” by Vladimir Nabokov
Back in the late 1970’s, I was a young teacher in a school in a lower income area. One boy in my 8th grade English class was a troublemaker who did nothing but give me a hard time. One day without comment I handed him The Outsiders. He devoured it. It was the first time he showed any interest in anything. He even asked to tell the other students about it. I wish Susan Hinton had written a dozen similar books. That would have been a valuable public service.
“The Color of Law.” Required reading for people who say “SLaVerY wAs so LoNg AGO!”
Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9-11 World Noam Chomsky & David Barsamian.
I remember reading it and being so excited that there were people who were able to so thoroughly and convincingly articulate what was implicit in my mind but was unable to articulate given my age and stage of education.
Completely changed my understanding of state power and socio-political economy.