… What have you read that inspired or changed your life/POV?

(See the new drop-box for features and trades below and to the left. Yes! They do exist.)

I picked this up over at ’s journal and decided that story tellers should have some sort of list like this. It just seems as though it ought to be part of the trade. To that end, here are the fifteen books that I remember as providing pivotal moments in my life and philosophical bent.

15 - 1491 New revelations of the Americas before Columbus - Charles C. Mann

As far as things go, I could have chosen any of the books I’ve recently read in the historical vein for the last position. I took this one simply for how it made me look at the things I thought I already knew.

14 - Mornings on Horseback - David McCullough

Include “John Adams” in this title. David is a wonderful historian who makes his chosen subjects come alive in a way I’ve never encountered before. Because of the last twelve years of politics, I’ve been increasingly disillusioned with the process and where our country is going. “Mornings on Horseback” has helped me to realize we haven’t really gone anywhere at all. Between this look at pre-presidential Teddy Roosevelt and the life of John Adams, I’ve run across some of my favorite political quotes.

13 - 1421 - The Year That China Discovered America - Gavin Menzies

In the world of historical what ifs, some stand out more than others. If religion is a matter of faith, I find science a similar matter, and what I choose to believe is what makes the most sense to me. 1421 is another eye opener, a fantastic journey into other civilizations and what they might have accomplished.

12 - Chobits - Clamp

Why this graphic novel/Anime? Why not? This beautiful story by a Japanese team of four women story writer artists got me back into the medium of Anime, a heavy influence on my current work.

11 - ElfQuest - Wendy and Richard Pini

As Chobits bumped my current stage of writing deeper into the visual mode, ElfQuest did the same to me many years ago. What Wendy was doing showed me many things about creating one’s own works - and about how others will respond to sharing your dreams. ElfQuest was the comic that first showed me that comic books are not necessarily for kids, and that was a powerful revelation.


10,9 - Watership Down, Traveller - Richard Adams

Both of these anthromorphic stories are some of my first recognized ones - rather, they were some of the first books I read at an age where I wasn’t just looking at the funny animal people. Along with Plague Dogs, Adams gave me serious stories - both totally fictional, and historical, where it was the animals that were the heroes, and the story tellers, and that was an influence I cannot deny. Adams and CJ Cherryh are writers that I want to write like.

8 - Shadowrun - FASA

An earlier influence on my writing is the Shadowrun series - a setting of high fantasy and high technology, mixed together seamlessly with a background taken from events that were current in the late Eighties. Written by different writers, it was a then to me unique approach to the tired formulas of science fiction and fantasy. It was fresh, new, and made a complete world that I could relate to - and it gave me the basic framework that I apply all my writing to. It isn’t about only what is possible, but also what is plausible, and I think I’m a better writer for it.

7 - Dragons of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

In an early world where the dragon was the enemy, the beast, McCaffrey’s works were an affirmation of one of my two spirit totems. They were one of the first three works of high fantasy that I had ever read, and gave to dragons a positive light that I have never forgotten. Again here was a world with people and things that I could see in the mind’s eye without trouble. Again, here is an influence that I want to mimic. I want to write books loved like McCaffrey’s.

6 - Dragon's Dawn - Anne McCaffrey

While Pern occupies a space on my list by itself, the Dragon's Dawn book takes a space higher because it moved me more than any other in the series. Not only did Dragon's Dawn get me to collect books that I had read and wanted to keep, it also taught me to look closer at the stories I wanted to tell. I now know that no matter where in a story I start, there is a dynamic to the world I’m writing in; that the past, present, and future all have an impact on what I’m writing about now. (Not to mention there’s a story in someone’s ancestors that deserves to be told.)

5 Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

My first high fantasy book - and ever after I was a reader, diving into fantasy over anything else one could buy. (Actually, the hobbit as a prequel holds that honor, but LotR made me want to learn more big words, to understand more adult plots and those big things in life I had yet to experience for myself.)

4 Bhagavata Purana

If the family I once worked for knew how much influence they had on my life to this day they’d probably be surprised. But while I was searching through faith and philosophy in my youth I met these people who were Krishnan - yes, they of the shaven heads and flowers in the airport. Except they weren’t like that - they were in all respects a healthy American family - vegetarian, but happy and really living together.

They shared their religion and philosophy with me because I was honestly interested and asked questions they could answer. One thing they allowed me to do was to pick up their bible - the Bhagavata Purana. It gave me a glimpse into someone else’s culture, and how every look at the idea of God leads to a same basic set of ideas that form the framework of positive religion. That chant that they are so put down for, means many things, but one thing above all has stood with me since that time. And that is “God is God”. To me, it was a truth I could understand.

3 The Wiccan Mysteries - Raven Grimassi

While I have decided I am Pagan, thanks to soul searching, historical musing and those in my learning circle over time, I cannot point to any one pagan school of worship and say, “that’s what I am.” To that end, Grimassi’s book brought me to the decision that I am not Wiccan. I wear the pentagram, I believe in the tenants, but I don’t care for the idea of magic and spells. It was the Mysteries where I first began to realize; the view out my window is more than enough a miracle for me.

2 Holy Blood Holy Grail - M Baigent +

In the same vein as that above, this inspiration for the Da Vinci Code fascinated me for many reasons, the first of them because it seemed as if the trio of authors were speaking directly to me. I have always wondered about different Christian ideas - where they originated, how they are influenced and influence in return. Beyond any other “what if” this book gave me directions and ideas that collaborate with everything else I’ve ever thought about the great religions. The questions I’ve been asking, were not necessarily answered with Holy Blood, but it has helped me immensely to know that others have asked and studied these same questions with a serious mindset, and found plausible answers that are not simply “that’s the way it is”. And none of these answers have made the importance of Christ and God any less important to me.

1 Black Sun Rising - CS Friedman

After the eclectic mish mash above, it might not surprise one that the book I feel has changed my life the most is another work of science fiction/fantasy. But since my introduction to CS Friedman when I was but a young teen, I have been repeatedly introduced to the idea that “sacrifice” is not the terrible notion that fiction oft makes it out to be. The idea of “sacrifice” is not a bloodthirsty rite to gain power over souls, but an actual philosophy with real meaning and sense. It is not only blood that can be sacrificed, but money, time, goods and items, and the importance of these sacrifices that you make in your life is not what others get out of your sacrifice, but of what you get in return.

The power you receive, is related to the importance of what you give up. Is it ten minutes of your time a day? Is it ten dollars a week? These things do not give as much return as real commitments, such as the vices we give up to become healthier, or the changes in thought we make to learn to be better people, be it in tolerance of others, understanding, or simply happier individuals. While negative sacrifices offer results as much as positive sacrifices, the returns are negative as well. Learning this lesson has been time well spent for me. (And honestly, the lesson is still being learnt.)

When I listen to my Fiancé talk about “the Secret”, and others speak about the sacrifice of Christ for my sins, I smile to believe I already know about the truth of these things. Positive thought leads to positive reaction - Negative thought leads to negative reaction. We have the power to make things better, to walk and work in the moulds of our heroes and saints. Every text on religion that I’ve ever studied suggests such a thing - that the golden rule and the power of karma are truths in our human universe. And having heard and read of it all my life, I honestly believe.

It was “Black Sun Rising” that made me look deep into it, my own philosophy and beliefs. Without the prelude, I might never have explored the key plank in my own spirituality that I remember and cherish to this day. When the anti-hero has murdered his children on the altar, when he is about to sacrifice his wife upon the same table, he tells her, “This sacrifice I make is not of your body. It is of my humanity.”

Those words struck a powerful chord in me. I spent a long time exploring why.

With all of that said, I add the point that I am still reading. My current selection of books are about the effects of Islam upon the founding of Europe, The Prydain Chronicles which I have been reading aloud to Wolfshine, and a few others I pick up with less frequency. There are books today and there will be books tomorrow. My list will likely change.

What about your list? I ask you, to give it a little thought, and maybe share with DA. A good book is a good blessing. A room without books is like a body without a soul.

k

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Webcam Picture taken from internet.

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So - I’ll continue to continue - to pretend
My life - will never end
And flowers - never bend
With the rainfall

~ Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall - Simon and Garfunkle ~

"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." Tom Clancy

"So you want to know the best way to address a dragon do you? Well, keep this at hand. Pencil and paper. You thought I was going to say "wit and wisdom" or such no? But you're wrong. For when dealing with dragons, if you're face to face with one, then you've already left wit and wisdom far behind you." ~ Taleron Kindrake

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