Ever been inspired by a book?

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Predominately relates to travel books, but I know someone who read On the Road and two weeks later, ditched his degree and was off on a Kerouac trip. Never saw him again.

NB if any US posters see a red haired Irish guy called Eddie hitching rides around the States and talking drug-induced nonsence, remind him he owes me twenty quid.

Ever been that inspired by a book?

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 22 December 2003 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

its a cliche now - but kerouac inspired me to hitchhike and develop a chino fetish!!

― griffin doome, Monday, 22 December 2003 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I followed Bruce Chatwin's steps around Patagonia. Book in hand. I think I out-cliche you.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 22 December 2003 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Kerouac was responsible for basically turning me onto literature in general. This was when I was a junior in high school. I had never really enjoyed it as much before that point. It carried on into college and ultimately became my major. Thoreau also had a huge effect on me at around the same time; Walden was responsible for a six-year camping/hiking kick. It's been awhile since I've had such visceral reactions to the things I read; but I believe it is more due to my age now (28) than the books I'm exposed to.

― Berkeley Sackett (calstars), Monday, 22 December 2003 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Books in general are to blame for the nonexistence of me as a person.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I was a communist when I was really young because of some book I read, I thought it was Steinbeck but I can't see how it could have been because he doesn't specifically elucidate the doctrine of communism in his books, does he? I mean I was drawing the hammer and sickle, etc. I know I hadn't read Marx or anything like that, but I definitely became a communist by reading about it.

― darling, Tuesday, 23 December 2003 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Odd you lot should mention Kerouac; me too, but "Dharma Bums".

Also "Steppenwolf" by Herman Hesse.

And "The Age of Reason" by Sartre.

And that's about it. All when I was nineteen.

― Roderick the Visigoth. (Jake Proudlock), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

The first time I read and Andrew Vachss novel, I wanted to kill, like, everybody, which was pretty cool for a spell.

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm actually embarking on a long series of stories right now thanks to reading Labyrinths (the Borges collection) almost five years ago, because I think the CanLit scene could do with some deliberate engagement with that kind of a writer.

A.S. Byatt's The Biographer's Tale also kick started my own proto-novel (70 pages and growing!), although God knows if I'll ever be able to sell it.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and On the Road conspired to completely change my attitude about liquor and cheap sex (from against to in favour of).

But pretty much my entire demeanor and laid-backness as far as my personality goes is a result of reading Robertson Davies.

― August (August), Thursday, 22 January 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

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