Your top 5 most influential non-Christian fiction books

hmm. Interesting thread, Gold! I've heard about the Dune series, and I may have to give them a read.

Could we add how these books have influenced us? That would be interesting to see.

The book The Frontiersman gave me a romanticized view of 'the individual non-conformist'. I also think it gave me the view that true manliness is associated with non-conformity, taciturnity, and independence.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. One of the scenes, where Cosette discovers her own beauty and it alters her character, makes her graces less appealing and her satisfaction in a simple life with her father go away, impacted me. It made me realize that realization of our beauty can lead us to stop leaning on God and His grace to make our evangelism(or any other form of ministry) bear fruit, and that it also can have damaging effects on the character(as it did with Cosette)

I'm not sure if this was allegorical or not, but I don't think it was. The Good Shepher by Gunnar Gunnarson. This book showed me that simplicity is a great virtue, and that people who are simple, with low ambitions, tend to have more peace than the person who has a constant desire to be 'upwardly mobile'. It also amplified some of the lessons I had been learning from the Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. Such as humility, satisfaction with our station in life, and to see the truth bore out in this story that "Better a humble rustic who fears God than a wise and vain astronmer who studies the stars"(Kempis)

Good thread idea.

 

I like your choice of Dune!

So many books, I'll give it a shot,

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (the priest and the humble hero)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (revenge and its effects)

The Chosen by Chiam Potok (valuing the differences)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (desperation, virtue, corruption)

Dune by Frank Herbert (gom jabber, the sifter of humans)

Rob

 

The Brothers Karamazov

 

Interesting topic. Limiting the books in question to non-Christian Fiction narrows the field considerably.

I would say the most influential fiction writer for me was Louis L’Amour. I think I have every one of his books, but I would say the most influential ones to me would be The Walking Drum, The Lonesome Gods, The Last of the Breed, and all the Sackett books. Themes that are present in all of L’Amour’s work are individual responsibility and the need to educate and advance yourself. The need to search for knowledge and the idea that the things you know are the only possessions that cannot be taken from you. I have a quotation from The Lonesome Gods above my desk. It says:

That is just my way of reminding myself to get up and do something.

I enjoyed fiction writing of Mark Twain, James Fennimore Cooper, and Jules Vern. My favorites as a child would have included Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Caruso and Melville’s Moby Dick. I loved all these and I am sure they affected my thinking somewhat, they had to.

I read Dune and enjoyed it very much, but I don’t know that it influenced my thinking much. 1984 we read in school. Again an interesting book but I don’t know how much influence it had on me. I remember enjoying The Good Earth. Wasn’t there a sequal to that one? I enjoyed Gone With the Wind but I had already seen the movie when I read that.

Of course everything we read affects us to some degree but most fiction I read was for its entertainment value over whatever affect it had on my thinking. Of today’s writers I enjoy John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, and Dean Koontz. All lots of fun and I am sure they have some affect on my personality.

 

The Wizard of Oz .... turned me onto reading to this day. I believe I was in the 3rd grade.
Doctor Zhivago ... very well written and showed the failures of Communism

All Quiet on the Western Front showes the stupidity of war.

Moby Dick do not become obscessed ... obscession destroys.

A Higher Kind of Loyality ... teaches that standing firm is of upmost importance.

It is really hard to pick the five most influencial books. These are the ones that came to mind. There are many others.

 

I cannot pick 5, but I will count all the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. They gave me a better understanding of the English language and command to make me proficient in English in the pulpit.

In particular I enjoyed Pickwick Papers. Only Dickens could write paragraphs a page long and get away with it.

I then slip off to history where I enjoyed One Canada by John Diefenbaker, a Canadian Prime Minister. Also, John A. Macdonald by David Creighton. This gve me a fondational understanding of Canada, my newly chosen country in 1955.

IN 1960 I took part in the Civil Rights Movement and so I enjoyed reading Racially Separate or Together by Thomas Pettigrew. A proper understanding of racial problems teaches one not to point a finger, but to develop humanitarian togetherness.

With an interest in the Civil War and many trips to Gettysburg, I read Picket's Charge by George Stewart and then the classic Civil War book From Manassas to Appomatotox by Gen. James Longstreet. An attempt to understand how two peoples can fight such a vicious war against each other and come through strong and united........if they did.

I then concentrated my efforts on English grammar texts to help me better understand what I was reading.

Cheers,

Jim