Don’t have much to add, unless I can put the Swallows and Amazon series, which predisposes me towards basic living perhaps and made Dad’s sailing obsession more palitable in my youth.

Maybe the Women’s Room by Marilyn French which I read in the depths of my late teens early twenties indignation at injustice and which did nothing to pull me out of it. Haven’t thought about that book in years though. Gosh, was I cross. I think it wasn’t until I read the Humanity book and the Gulag book on my original list that the shift to becoming more interested in why and subsequently what to do to avoid it all really coalesed. Or perhaps I just got old.

Neuromancer The first time sf appeared cool. It wasn’t about dispassionate geniuses in spaceships in the far future, it was about denim and leather-wearing smalltime crooks in the shabby underworld behind the bright lights of the day after tomorrow. Aside from its now anachronistic mentions of Soviets, it’s as startlingly prophetic seeming as ever, 25 years after it was written. If anything, some of its predictions seem conservative, placed as they are, apparently near the end of the 21st century. Others, including the vibrant orbital culture and functioning AI, sadly seem as far away as ever. Without this book, it is nigh-on inconceivable there’d be any such movie as “The Matrix”.

Evolution Part of the Life (as in Time/Life magazine) Nature Library. Used as a picture book before I could read, and as dip in reading as soon as I could identify words, it described the origins of life on this planet so clearly and engagingly I kept coming back to it. More than any other, I can credit this book for allowing me, as a five year old, on hearing a teacher at school tell the story of the book of Genesis, to think “Yeah, but you don’t REALLY BELIEVE that, surely?”.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns The first ‘graphic novel’ I read, which means it was the gateway to Sandman, Watchmen and many other delights. Made me (and many others) think it was OK for a grownup to read a comic book. This book rescued the image of Batman in popular culture from its association of “Biff, Pow, SOCK!!!” and Adam West, and pretty directly paved the way for Tim Burton’s Batman. It’s gratifying that finally, with Chris Nolan’s latest two movies, we are finally getting the Batman we deserve.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy A density of ideas, a complexity of satire and a sheer delight in language untouched by anyone since. I read it so many times that for many years you could read me a single line, and I’d be able to pick up and quote, word for word, the next page or two, or however many you wanted until you got bored and made me shut up. It made me carry a towel wherever I went, and made me overly critical of other books that weren’t as good.

The Culture i.e. the many novels set there by Iain M. Banks. The only fictional universe in which I have yearned to live. Also caused me to write my own sf story in response to a challenge from a friend, who told me to write a story about science vs. religion, but from a neutral standpoint. Not sure if I succeeded.

Snow Crash and The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Sf and speculative psychology, respectively, although the former is based heavily on the latter.

Julian Jaynes had an idea – that human consciousness, our sense of our unique, internal-monologuing “self” did not arise until well AFTER the invention of writing. Prior to that, he believed humans existed in a state not unlike schizophrenia, quite literally hearing voices that directed the tasks of their lives. They interpreted these voices as gods, reincarnated ancestors, etc… and hence, religion got started. Then, when language ceased to be solely verbal/auditory, and became something you could silently write down, there was a radical reorganisation of the way human brains worked, and we became conscious as we are (most of us…) today. We hung on to the outdated concepts of gods for other reasons, and forgot how they came about. A fascinating multidisciplinary tour de force of speculation, which only frustrates because it is so fundamentally unproveable. A great idea, though, and of course of great comfort to a misanthropic atheist such as myself, as it allows me to dismiss anyone religious as merely borderline schizophrenic psychological throwbacks.

“Along the wires the electric message came
He is no better, he is much the same.”