Can anyone recommend a truly inspiring novel?

[Iohanna]

Hi, Johnny!

I'd like to reccomend a book written by Rohald Dahl. It is not a novel,but a collection of his short stories (he is absolutely brilliant at writing them) called "KISS,KISS" .

Enjoy :)
Iohanna

[mykwyner]

Try To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Atticus Finch is a role model for every human on this planet. If you want something older, read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by LostJohnny

The Celestine Prophecy which looked interesting. It arrived yesterday and I started reading it last night. It's far too early to say what I think of it, only being a few pages in, but I'll report back when I have an opinion to give.

I read it; didn't think much of it at the time - I was into my 2nd year writing my thesis and had more important things on my mind. It wasn't until I got to the last few chapters of the book that I started to flip back to the beginning to re-read what I had missed. True, the book doesn't seem to be all that inspiring (at first) but that's its underlying nature and its theme. This is woven well: Things aren't what they seem.


Here's a reader who didn't grasp that. This is from a blog called "Why I Hate the Celestine Prophecy":

The Celestine Prophecy touches real, widely experienced problems: weariness of rationalism, ideological disorientation, existential angst, hunger for mystery, mourning for God, the desire for hope and purpose and human goodness. Redfield indeed addresses important questions, questions with which I sympathize deeply, but his answers are thin and ridiculous. And because he addresses these problems in such simple, easy-to-digest terms, he has captured the imagination of thousands who had never, before The Celestine Prophecy, had their concerns brought into focus and utterability for them. Though I'm glad to know that more and more people are thinking about these spiritual and existential questions, I worry that for every person who is inspired to follow the concerns Redfield addresses to sounder spiritual pastures there will be ten who either will buy into the unsustaining nonsense of his answers or will just be put off the questions altogether.

I'm not bothered by The Celestine Prophecy simply because it presents an easy-to-use approach to complex issues. Any religion or philosophical system should have a shallow end in which people may splash about and get their feet wet before being eased, coaxed or thrown into the deeper, more difficult waters in which enlightenment, growth and strength are truly found. I find The Celestine Prophecy bothersome because it lacks any depth at all; it is a philosophical wading pool, full of children's laughter and sparkling sunshine and bright pictures of pretty fish and piss-warmed water.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by mykwyner

Try To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Atticus Finch is a role model for every human on this planet. If you want something older, read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Two of my absolute favorites! I'll add Old Man in the Sea (E. Hemingway), Midnight's Children (S. Rushdi), and Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (Lu Xun).

[Humble]

Martin Eden by Jack London is really inspiring. My favourite is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

[a_fancy_girl1]

Hey.. well I do not know anything about your age and all that.. But I believe that Real Love is the greatest source of inspiration and the most effective motivation for working on having a better life. It purifies the mind and the heart. But real Love is hard to get.So if we do not have it then we have to acquire the energy of love from works of art that involves genuine forms of love and true stirring human emotions.For me, I would recommend " Withering Heights" , a novel by Emile Bronte or " The Mill on the Floss", a very touching novel by George Eliot;the male pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans.

[mow]

Try reading The Secret Garden. I don't remember the name of the author right now and I've lended my copy of the book, but it's quite known and it had a movie with the same name. The movie itself is not that good, but as for the book, it's amazing. It may seem a book for children if you give attention for the movie or even for the beginning of the story, but it's not--especially if you let yourself be touched by the characters stories and changes from the beginning to the end...then I'm sure it'll inspire you in some way.

[mark in perth]

Hmmmm . . . we might discuss the semiotics that underlie the word 'inspiring,' but I am happy to name a number of novels that are not only favourites of mine -- I am an unabashed literature junkie grammar tutor linguistics student with a background in literary theory -- but might not cause a student to jump headfirst into the well in frustration:

ANYTHING by Steinbeck.

George Johnston's 'My Brother Jack'

Joseph Conrad's 'Youth'

[mark in perth]

When I was a kid, I read Jack London'e stories of riding the freight trains during the depression; and for years I harboured a desire to do the same thing here in Australia. Finally, I managed it on a wood-chip train near Manjimpu in W.A. I tried a second time about a year later, but the train stopped about ten kilometres later, and my girlfriend and I were ARRESTED. There was a lot of politics happening about wood chips at the time, and the arresting officer thought he'd caught a couple of eco-terrorists. We were bunged into a paddy wagon, and the small-town officer, a nice enough guy at heart, we worked out later, began asking us a series of questions supposed to lure us into blurting out our commitment to stopping the evil blah blah blah. I asked him if he had ever read Jack London, and explained that, far from being bent on blowing up the train, we wanted to ride about on it.

You should have seen the look on his face.

(We eventually gat a twenty-five dollar fine for . . . riding without a ticket!

[trans]

Originally Posted by mark in perth

Joseph Conrad's 'Youth'