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!
Discworld helped me cope with the insanity of adult real life.
Sometimes it seems like Pratchett and Adams are the only people who’ve ever actually understood the insanity of the world.
I often think of “outside the asylum” and Wonko the Sane, who declared the entire world mad and put the poor thing in an asylum.
I feel like UK humor as a whole tends toward an agnostic absurdity… Probably why it’s so popular around the world
Pratchett was an absolute genius! X