Your most treasured reads?

[Anonymous No.13166591]

What books have most changed your perspective on life? Any aspect of life: people, places, things, history, philosophy, psychology, love, death, etc. These books don't even have to have actually affected change.

I was going to ask for recommendations, but I think it's better to ask (You) to divulge your most meaningful reads.

[Anonymous No.13166598]

Confessions by St. Augustine

[Anonymous No.13166675]

>>13166591
Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, all of Dante's work particularly the Comedy, a few of Balzac novels most notably the Père Goriot and Tw Married Women (not sure about the title, read it as a kid).
Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma, Dostoievsky's Brothers K, the Idiot and the Adolescent. Sandor Marai's The Sister, and the Stranger (same author). Stig Dagerman's Our Need for Consolation Cannot be Fulfillled and Rilke's Book of Poverty and Death, also the preface of the French translation by Adamov.

Valéry's La Jeune Parque, Buzzatti's The K and a few others of his short stories, Elio Vittorini's Conversations in Sicilia, Adolfo Bioy Casares' Invention of Morel, Dream of Heroes, Sleeping in the Sun and A Photographer in La Plata.

Stefan Zweig's Confusion of Sentiments. Mishima's School of Flesh. Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience and Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Saki's short stories (all of them), Leo Perutz's short stories (a few I read as a kid). Conrad's Heart of Darkness and a few short stories as well. Bulgakov's Master and Margarita and Diaboliad. A few of Cortazar and Borges' stories as well. Kawabatta's Tales of the Palm of the Hand and Sleeping Beauties. Melville's moby Dick, quite a few of Stevenson's stories, and the Treasure Island.

That's a lot and there are still many others I could add. Thanks OP for making me remember there are so many books I loved.

[Anonymous No.13166676]

Mine would probably be Borges' Fictions or Stoner. The former really opened my eyes about the possibilities of fiction. The latter has helped me cope with the course life takes; not necessarily my own, but those of my family and friends as well.

[Anonymous No.13166678]

>>13166598
I'm not familiar with it, why was it important for you?

[Anonymous No.13166682]

>>13166675
Forgot to add Life of Hnery Brulard (Stendhal again), and that Sartre's The Words was a surprisingly honest and disillusioned book.

Primo Levi's If This is a man is also a masterpiece of clear-eyed analysis and self-restraint, particularly considering what he had to get through to write it.

[Anonymous No.13166732]

Candide by Voltaire. Made me realise that it's not worth taking everything too seriously.

[Anonymous No.13166817]

>>13166732
I enjoy how entertaining it is despite being a sort of one-note satire.

[Anonymous No.13166827]

>>13166675
I very much like your taste, although I've only read a few of those myself. There's so much good literature out there that it's intimidating to potentially waste your time reading something which won't resonate with you. Seeing someone's tastes arranged helps narrow it down.

[Anonymous No.13166877]

Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms made me see Hollywood and the people involved with it in a completely different way.

[Anonymous No.13167409]

the alchemist, none of that omen bullshit.because of this i started reading books

[Anonymous No.13167785]

>>13166591
Rich Dad Poor Dad/ It fixed all my problems regarding uncertainty and all of my ladder half needs of my Maslows triangle

[Anonymous No.13167881]

Ender’s Game since it what got me into sci-fi when I was a teenager. Didn’t like the other books beyond Xenocide very much but Andrew is still one of my favorite protagonists.

[Anonymous No.13167936]

Too many to list. Only a brainlet can claim only a single work as a treasure.
For me, this was one of the first.

[Anonymous No.13168072]

>>13166591
Shea and Wilson's Illuminatus Trilogy.