Tag: dailyprompt-1958

Three books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Youngest influence? Old Yeller. I was at Junior school and read about a boy whose dog catches rabies. It was frightening and sad and tender. I don’t remember everything about it but I learnt about American society. I think Disney might have made a film of it.

The next was the Plague Dogs, written by Richard Adams who also wrote Waterside Down. Two dogs escape from a laboratory in the Lake District, called Snitter and Rawf, it’s about their desperate journey across wild moorland to try and escape to a better life. It’s full on dark adventure. Emotional and sad.

The Third one was when I was at college. It was the handmaid’s tale by Margaret Attwood. Yes it was on bookshelves in the 1980’s. It’s story was frightening then. Now it’s almost prescient.

Yes they influenced and informed me and it’s about time I read them again.

3 books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

My list are:

The first: Old Yeller (can’t remember the author)

I read this when I was about 10 or 11. I had only ever read gentle children’s adventures and Old Yeller is the story of an old dog that has caught rabies. I remember being shocked by the story, by the descriptions of what happened. It was the first book that felt realistic and not safe. I’m glad I read it as it opened my mind to the world.

The second : The Plague Dogs, by Richard Adams.

Set in a laboratory where dogs and other animals are experimented on, two dogs join forces and escape. Lost on the Cumbria fells they eventually meet “the Tod” a fox, a wily character. All three animals are being hunted by the lab and the police who have dubbed them “the plague dogs” because of scaremongering by the press. Will they escape ?

(Richard Adams also wrote Watership Down.)

The book influenced my style of writing, there is a section in one chapter on how to write a newspaper article. The book also gave me an idea of how animals can suffer at the behest of mankind.

The third book is: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood.

I read it in the 1980s before it was very famous. I’ve seen the TV series which is far more in depth than the original book. As a young woman I was shocked by the mysogeny of the world the women in it lived in. I saw it as a warning and never believed that anything like it could happen in the real world? And yet so many things have happened that seem to want to drag women back to the home and dispel the rights they have fought long and hard for.

I would recommend all of these books if you want to open your eyes to different ideas.

Three books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman

Chaos by James Gleick

I’m surprised the books I have chosen are all about various science subjects, are all by male writers and all white American writers.

I don’t have a preference for science books or something written by men, but these stuck in my mind because they pushed the boundaries of science fact books.

Cosmos was written in the 1970’s I think, and is a glorious look at the universe and how it is made up. It might not be the most up to date book about astronomy, and obviously we have learnt a lot since it was written, but it got me hooked when I was young and I have two copies of it in the house.

The Richard Feynman book is an autobiography/humourous book. Feynman was a physicist, but the book is much more than a historical retelling of his scientific work. It ranges from his penchant for safe cracking to his interest in art, teaching, and questioning authority. Along the way he talks about nuclear physics. I have another of his books, which is about QED. Quantum Electro Dynamics… No I can’t explain it!

Finally I have chosen Chaos by James Gleick. Chaos is about Chaos theory, it introduced me to fractals and the Mandelbrot set, an infinite pattern of twirling and dizzying shapes that can be created by using a small set of coordinates that make the pattern repeat. I tried drawing patterns using some of the ideas in the book

All three books are 30 or 40 years old but I think they would still hold the interest of someone coming at them from a new interest in science. They helped me navigate some concepts I would never have come across without them. If you feel like expanding your knowledge have a look.