Various books have influenced me throughout my life. Below are the titles of my most influential books:
Middle School: Although I was reading at least one book a week, I can't remember anything in particular that influenced me. I just remember loving to read. My mom would go window-shopping in the mall and leave me in a bookstore. After four hours, I would usually finish one or two books.
I do remember enjoying everything by Roald Dahl, especially Matilda; Sweet Valley Twins (*not* Sweet Valley High), and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series.
The earliest book I remember loving is Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes' series, which I found, of all places, in an Iranian used bookstore. It was the only book they had in English. Start with A Study in Scarlet (1887): "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."
High school: Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. After reading this WWI book, I became anti-war. I've been that way ever since.
George Breitman's Malcolm X Speaks (1990).
Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution--what was it based on? The landless against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost, was no compromise, was no negotiation. I'm telling you--you don't know what a revolution is. Because when you find out what it is, you'll get back in the alley, you'll get out of the way.
The Russian Revolution--what was it based on? Land; the landless against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed...
As long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people, but when it comes to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls murdered, you haven't got any blood. You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it's true. How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea?
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country." -- Malcolm X
John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me (1961) displayed America's racist past from a poignant, unique perspective. Griffin, a white man who darkened his skin so he could pass for a black man, showed the daily slights of Jim Crow's South from a deeply personal voice.
Blind or sighted, Griffin worked on like a metronome. He was always trying to save somebody, himself last... If there is something wrong with Griffin it is that he is a goddamn saint, an insufferable Christian, a soft-spoken, gentle guy who never seems to think ill of anyone; he even prayed for those friends and neighbors who burnt him in effigy on the main street of his home of Mansfield, Texas, when the word reached the local pool hall that he had gone and turned himself into a n*gg*r. -- San Francisco muckraker Warren Hinckle on Griffin, from If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade (1973, 1974, hardcover), pp. 85, 86
Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler (1994).
Honorable Mentions: Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) and Roots (1976).
College: Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I didn't necessarily agree with Professor Malkiel's conclusions, but I appreciated his rationale.
Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man (1981). Few writers can rival Professor Gould's vast scientific knowledge. His writing is unique in that it is both dispassionate and engaging. Thus far, no modern equivalent exists to Professor Gould. Only Michio Kaku comes close.
I didn't finish Hunter Thompson's The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (1997), but I enjoyed it immensely. I forgot to include the book earlier, in part because I assumed people would recognize this blog's title--Quiet Highway: Saga of a Gentleman--was based on it.
I don't remember the name of the author, but my Introduction to Symbolic Logic textbook had a tremendous impact on my understanding of abstract concepts. Every college student should take a symbolic logic course. I didn't do well in my UC Davis class, but this introductory philosophy course provided the most useful long-term knowledge. It may have even re-wired my brain.
Law school: N/A. I played too much basketball to read anything fun during law school.
Late 20's: Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. See here for more.
[Update on August 6, 2012: after reading Friedman's book, try David Cay Johnston's 2007 book, Free Lunch. Johnston's writing is generally biased, but this specific book provides excellent food for thought.]
Early 30's: Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's sickening to see everything Mr. Postman predicted coming true, and yet, no one seems to care.
Update: Samuel Cohen's 50 Essays (2006) is fantastic reading. So is Vaclav Havel's Disturbing the Peace (1991). I also recommend Viet Thanh Nguyen's collection of essays by refugees, The Displaced (2018) and David Remnick's King of the World (1998).
Update on April 2018: I'm starting a new list, one including my most influential or favorite speeches/lectures/articles. In no particular order, I present the following:
1. ee cummings six nonlectures: "I value freedom; and have never expected freedom to be anything less than indecent."
2. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (April 4, 1967) [MLK was murdered exactly one year later on April 4, 1968.]
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story (2009): "I did not know that people like me could exist in literature."
4. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Introduction, The Displaced (2018): "Keeping people in a refugee camp is punishing people who have committed no crime except trying to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. The refugee camp belongs to the same inhuman family as the internment camp, the concentration camp, the death camp."
5. James Baldwin, "The Creative Process," from Creative America (1962), Ridge Press.
6. Tommy Koh's "De Tocqueville Revisited" speech given at JFK School of Government, Harvard University, September 5, 1986. It is the best summary of USA's political structure I have ever seen. Sample sentence: "The US system of government, characterized by the separation of powers among the three branches of government and by many checks and balances, is designed to protect the liberty of the individual."
7. Stephanie Ericsson's “The Ways We Lie.” (1992)
Update on June 2020: I should have included other authors who have influenced me: the United Kingdom's C.S. Lewis, especially The Problem of Pain (1940); USA's Michael Lewis; USA's William O. Douglas, especially The Right of the People (1958); South Africa's J.M. Coetzee; Kwame Anthony Appiah; William Shakespeare, especially Othello; Michelle de Kretser; and England's Zadie Smith.
Middle School: Although I was reading at least one book a week, I can't remember anything in particular that influenced me. I just remember loving to read. My mom would go window-shopping in the mall and leave me in a bookstore. After four hours, I would usually finish one or two books.
I do remember enjoying everything by Roald Dahl, especially Matilda; Sweet Valley Twins (*not* Sweet Valley High), and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series.
The earliest book I remember loving is Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes' series, which I found, of all places, in an Iranian used bookstore. It was the only book they had in English. Start with A Study in Scarlet (1887): "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."
High school: Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. After reading this WWI book, I became anti-war. I've been that way ever since.
George Breitman's Malcolm X Speaks (1990).
Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution--what was it based on? The landless against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost, was no compromise, was no negotiation. I'm telling you--you don't know what a revolution is. Because when you find out what it is, you'll get back in the alley, you'll get out of the way.
The Russian Revolution--what was it based on? Land; the landless against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed...
As long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people, but when it comes to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls murdered, you haven't got any blood. You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it's true. How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea?
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country." -- Malcolm X
John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me (1961) displayed America's racist past from a poignant, unique perspective. Griffin, a white man who darkened his skin so he could pass for a black man, showed the daily slights of Jim Crow's South from a deeply personal voice.
Blind or sighted, Griffin worked on like a metronome. He was always trying to save somebody, himself last... If there is something wrong with Griffin it is that he is a goddamn saint, an insufferable Christian, a soft-spoken, gentle guy who never seems to think ill of anyone; he even prayed for those friends and neighbors who burnt him in effigy on the main street of his home of Mansfield, Texas, when the word reached the local pool hall that he had gone and turned himself into a n*gg*r. -- San Francisco muckraker Warren Hinckle on Griffin, from If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade (1973, 1974, hardcover), pp. 85, 86
Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler (1994).
Honorable Mentions: Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) and Roots (1976).
College: Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I didn't necessarily agree with Professor Malkiel's conclusions, but I appreciated his rationale.
Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man (1981). Few writers can rival Professor Gould's vast scientific knowledge. His writing is unique in that it is both dispassionate and engaging. Thus far, no modern equivalent exists to Professor Gould. Only Michio Kaku comes close.
I didn't finish Hunter Thompson's The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (1997), but I enjoyed it immensely. I forgot to include the book earlier, in part because I assumed people would recognize this blog's title--Quiet Highway: Saga of a Gentleman--was based on it.
I don't remember the name of the author, but my Introduction to Symbolic Logic textbook had a tremendous impact on my understanding of abstract concepts. Every college student should take a symbolic logic course. I didn't do well in my UC Davis class, but this introductory philosophy course provided the most useful long-term knowledge. It may have even re-wired my brain.
Law school: N/A. I played too much basketball to read anything fun during law school.
Late 20's: Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. See here for more.
[Update on August 6, 2012: after reading Friedman's book, try David Cay Johnston's 2007 book, Free Lunch. Johnston's writing is generally biased, but this specific book provides excellent food for thought.]
Early 30's: Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's sickening to see everything Mr. Postman predicted coming true, and yet, no one seems to care.
See also George Soros' Lecture #4, titled "Capitalism vs. Open Society." The lecture is available here.
I will give honorable mentions to Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money, C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain, and Stephen Pollan's Die Broke.
Late 30's: Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital (2000).
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1999) -- many of my own ideas are encompassed in this book. I did not add this title before because it didn't influence me so much as display my own thinking, but with citations. [Update: I stopped reading My Life, Our Times (2017) by PM Gordon Brown when almost every single page included ideas I had envisioned before reading the book. Brown, a Scot, was and is my favorite UK politician.]
Eisenhower, Soldier and President (1983) by Stephen Ambrose.
If This Isn't Nice, What Is? Advice to the Young--The Graduation Speeches (2014) by Kurt Vonnegut. (I thoroughly enjoy reading both George Carlin and Kurt Vonnegut, despite them being complete opposites. At the end of the day, I'd like to leave this earth with my hand closer to Vonnegut's side of the shelf.)
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder (2012), by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. [I'm re-considering this selection, realizing its perceived quality was due largely to the dearth of excellent non-fiction generally post-2012. Additionally, Duncan J. Watts has similar findings and has a better writing style. See, for example, Everything is Obvious (2011)]
Future Crimes (2015), by Marc Goodman. Bonus: Adam Segal's The Hacked World Order (2016).
Early 40's: Warren Hinckle's If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade (1990).
Becoming Kareem (2017). I'd recommend first reading Giant Steps (1960) by Jabbar/Knobler.
Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas (1989). Moyer is the best interviewer in the English-speaking world.
Paul Theroux's Deep South (2015). It took Mr. Thorax, er Theroux, 75 years to publish a book I didn't find tedious, but the result is quite possibly the first Great American Novel.
Colegio de Mexico's A New Compact History of Mexico. It's almost impossible to understand Mexico's history without first understanding American and European (primarily French) history, so your personal background will impact this book's reach.
G. Willow Wilson's The Butterfly Mosque (2010). Wilson is a master of the written word, and her status as an insider-outsider delivers numerous insights not found anywhere else.
Alan Beattie's False Economy (2009). A remarkable book and a must-read by anyone interested in economics.
"Painting is literature in colors. Literature is painting in language." -- Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind (translated in 1980)
What books influenced you the most? Please feel free to share book suggestions by leaving a comment.
© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2009, then updated in subsequent years)
Update on 10/6/11+: I enjoyed Junot Diaz's book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao immensely (2007). It is my favorite fiction book. In second place so far is Christina McKenna's The Misremembered Man (2011).
Update on 10/2/12: I enjoyed Raul H. Castro's autobiography, Adversity is My Angel: the Life and Career of Raul H. Castro (TCU Press, paperback, 2009).
In Bemidji, Minnesota, I witnessed ethnic intolerance, though it was a completely alien form to me. Swedes and Norwegians, I discovered, discriminated against Finns. As I walked the streets I saw signs that read, "We don't rent to Finns" and "No Finns wanted." It was hard to believe because the Finns were blonde and blue-eyed--why would anyone be prejudiced towards them? All of the prejudice that I knew related to the darkness of one's skin. Raul Castro, don't feel so sorry for yourself, I thought to myself, they are picking on someone else here in Minnesota. In Bemidji, they viewed me through a stereotypical prism; I was a Latin from Manhattan [Mr. Castro is from Arizona], and somehow I must have been a great lover who played the guitar. The experience there reinforced my view that racial prejudice makes no sense. (pp. 27-28)
Adversity has been my angel, as I have always seen it as something to overcome, not as a roadblock to my success. I was never satisfied with the status quo and always wanted to move ahead, to progress to the next level. If that is "ambition," then it gave me a good life, and I wish it for everyone. (pp. 106)
Update on November 10, 2015: my favorite comedian is Chris Rock. Never Scared (2004) is his most searing standup routine. One indicator of whether I would enjoy someone's company is our mutual like or dislike of comedians.
I will give honorable mentions to Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money, C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain, and Stephen Pollan's Die Broke.
Late 30's: Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital (2000).
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1999) -- many of my own ideas are encompassed in this book. I did not add this title before because it didn't influence me so much as display my own thinking, but with citations. [Update: I stopped reading My Life, Our Times (2017) by PM Gordon Brown when almost every single page included ideas I had envisioned before reading the book. Brown, a Scot, was and is my favorite UK politician.]
Eisenhower, Soldier and President (1983) by Stephen Ambrose.
If This Isn't Nice, What Is? Advice to the Young--The Graduation Speeches (2014) by Kurt Vonnegut. (I thoroughly enjoy reading both George Carlin and Kurt Vonnegut, despite them being complete opposites. At the end of the day, I'd like to leave this earth with my hand closer to Vonnegut's side of the shelf.)
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder (2012), by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. [I'm re-considering this selection, realizing its perceived quality was due largely to the dearth of excellent non-fiction generally post-2012. Additionally, Duncan J. Watts has similar findings and has a better writing style. See, for example, Everything is Obvious (2011)]
Future Crimes (2015), by Marc Goodman. Bonus: Adam Segal's The Hacked World Order (2016).
Early 40's: Warren Hinckle's If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade (1990).
Becoming Kareem (2017). I'd recommend first reading Giant Steps (1960) by Jabbar/Knobler.
Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas (1989). Moyer is the best interviewer in the English-speaking world.
Paul Theroux's Deep South (2015). It took Mr. Thorax, er Theroux, 75 years to publish a book I didn't find tedious, but the result is quite possibly the first Great American Novel.
Colegio de Mexico's A New Compact History of Mexico. It's almost impossible to understand Mexico's history without first understanding American and European (primarily French) history, so your personal background will impact this book's reach.
Alan Beattie's False Economy (2009). A remarkable book and a must-read by anyone interested in economics.
"Painting is literature in colors. Literature is painting in language." -- Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind (translated in 1980)
What books influenced you the most? Please feel free to share book suggestions by leaving a comment.
© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2009, then updated in subsequent years)
Update on 10/6/11+: I enjoyed Junot Diaz's book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao immensely (2007). It is my favorite fiction book. In second place so far is Christina McKenna's The Misremembered Man (2011).
Update on 10/2/12: I enjoyed Raul H. Castro's autobiography, Adversity is My Angel: the Life and Career of Raul H. Castro (TCU Press, paperback, 2009).
In Bemidji, Minnesota, I witnessed ethnic intolerance, though it was a completely alien form to me. Swedes and Norwegians, I discovered, discriminated against Finns. As I walked the streets I saw signs that read, "We don't rent to Finns" and "No Finns wanted." It was hard to believe because the Finns were blonde and blue-eyed--why would anyone be prejudiced towards them? All of the prejudice that I knew related to the darkness of one's skin. Raul Castro, don't feel so sorry for yourself, I thought to myself, they are picking on someone else here in Minnesota. In Bemidji, they viewed me through a stereotypical prism; I was a Latin from Manhattan [Mr. Castro is from Arizona], and somehow I must have been a great lover who played the guitar. The experience there reinforced my view that racial prejudice makes no sense. (pp. 27-28)
Adversity has been my angel, as I have always seen it as something to overcome, not as a roadblock to my success. I was never satisfied with the status quo and always wanted to move ahead, to progress to the next level. If that is "ambition," then it gave me a good life, and I wish it for everyone. (pp. 106)
Update on November 10, 2015: my favorite comedian is Chris Rock. Never Scared (2004) is his most searing standup routine. One indicator of whether I would enjoy someone's company is our mutual like or dislike of comedians.
Funniest books I've read so far:
1. Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), by David Sedaris;
2. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (2012), by Bill Watterson;
3. Smile When You're Lying (2007), by Chuck Thompson;
1. Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), by David Sedaris;
2. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (2012), by Bill Watterson;
3. Smile When You're Lying (2007), by Chuck Thompson;
4. Changing Places (1975), by David Lodge;
5. Bloodsucking Fiends (1995), by Christopher Moore. (You may skip the subsequent two titles in the series--they were not very good.)
I like Nick Hornby's fiction books as well, but I can't think of a particular one I would recommend. I suggest reading the first 30 pages of one of his books to see if it strikes your fancy. If you enjoy Hornby's writing, try David Nicholls, especially One Day (2009).
Update: Samuel Cohen's 50 Essays (2006) is fantastic reading. So is Vaclav Havel's Disturbing the Peace (1991). I also recommend Viet Thanh Nguyen's collection of essays by refugees, The Displaced (2018) and David Remnick's King of the World (1998).
Update on April 2018: I'm starting a new list, one including my most influential or favorite speeches/lectures/articles. In no particular order, I present the following:
1. ee cummings six nonlectures: "I value freedom; and have never expected freedom to be anything less than indecent."
2. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (April 4, 1967) [MLK was murdered exactly one year later on April 4, 1968.]
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story (2009): "I did not know that people like me could exist in literature."
4. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Introduction, The Displaced (2018): "Keeping people in a refugee camp is punishing people who have committed no crime except trying to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. The refugee camp belongs to the same inhuman family as the internment camp, the concentration camp, the death camp."
5. James Baldwin, "The Creative Process," from Creative America (1962), Ridge Press.
6. Tommy Koh's "De Tocqueville Revisited" speech given at JFK School of Government, Harvard University, September 5, 1986. It is the best summary of USA's political structure I have ever seen. Sample sentence: "The US system of government, characterized by the separation of powers among the three branches of government and by many checks and balances, is designed to protect the liberty of the individual."
7. Stephanie Ericsson's “The Ways We Lie.” (1992)
8. Tennessee Williams' "On A Streetcar Named Success" (1947): "Our technology is a God-given chance for adventure and for progress which we are afraid to attempt."
9. William Deresiewicz’s Solitude and Leadership (Spring 2010): “It’s perfectly natural to have doubts, or questions, or even just difficulties. The question is, what do you do with them? Do you suppress them, do you distract yourself from them, do you pretend they don’t exist?”
Update on June 2020: I should have included other authors who have influenced me: the United Kingdom's C.S. Lewis, especially The Problem of Pain (1940); USA's Michael Lewis; USA's William O. Douglas, especially The Right of the People (1958); South Africa's J.M. Coetzee; Kwame Anthony Appiah; William Shakespeare, especially Othello; Michelle de Kretser; and England's Zadie Smith.
Update on July 2020: let's make a list of my favorite poets, in no particular order.
1. Róisín Kelly (Ireland)
1. Róisín Kelly (Ireland)
2. Theodore Roethke (USA)
3. ee cummings (USA)
3. ee cummings (USA)
4. W.H. Auden (United Kingdom)
5. Dannie Abse (Wales)
Update on May 2021: for magazines, short form, and other periodicals, National Geographic stands out. A National Geographic from 20 years ago will, even today, contain the best writing you'll see in short form. If you prefer shorter rather than longer pieces, start with National Geographic; then read all the Nobel Prize Literature speeches; then read interviews in the Paris Review.
Update on May 2021: for magazines, short form, and other periodicals, National Geographic stands out. A National Geographic from 20 years ago will, even today, contain the best writing you'll see in short form. If you prefer shorter rather than longer pieces, start with National Geographic; then read all the Nobel Prize Literature speeches; then read interviews in the Paris Review.
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