Some books that have changed my life

Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving

I read this while in Korea and while dating my wife who I was later to get a divorce from. What stood out is that not all relationships are meant to work and if things don’t work out it’s ok to move on a try with someone else.

Jack Kerouac : On the Road

I know some people think Kerouac was a misogynist and alcoholic. I read this book when I was 19 and then inspired to hitchhike like Kerouac did across America to hitchhike with my art school buddy from Sydney to Byron Bay. I also liked The Dharma Bums but it didn’t have the flow of consciousness appeal of On the Road.

Haruki Murakami : Norwegian Wood

This is one of many good books by Murakami defiantly my favourite living author. I was thinking about which of his books I would include and many including the Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the shore. His books are a poignant mix of pop culture, Japanese culture and sad lonely Japanese youths.

Ted Morgan: Literary Outlaw

This is a biography of William S Burroughs who wrote most famously The Naked Lunch in a drug induced stupor in Tangiers. He also shot his wife in a William Tell impersonation and latter became a writer, homosexual and in later life a visual artist. I really like biographies and reading about Burroughs life is more interesting than his difficult novels. I read this when I was nineteen and when Burroughs was still alive. The biography came out around the same time as David Cronenburg made a movie of The Naked Lunch. The Sydney Morning Herald had a competition to win the soundtrack, book and movie tickets and I sent away and won.

J.D Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye

This book is the one that I have re-read most often. Maybe four times. It outlines the struggles of Holden Caulfield. When I was in Korea I read a book about The Catcher in the Rye. I was the only to borrow the book in thirty years. Interestingly the guy who shot John Lennon was obsessed with this book. I think his name was David Chapman.

Source: http://thehipbreakingflaneur.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-books-that-have-changed-my-life.html