I'd like to invite a sharing of what books and/or movies have made a difference in your life (and why, if you'd like). Let's assume the Bible is on your list, so no need to include this unless you'd like to say something about it. Also, no need to post an exhaustive listing; you can share one or two now, then add more later.

If you plan to order any of the books referenced, please use the order link at http://shalomplace.com/books as the retreat center where I work receives a small percentage of sales.

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I'll start with a few novels:

"Crime and Punishment," by Dostoyevsky. A deep and penetrating exploration into the intricacies of the human mind/spirit and our capacity to justify our guilt.

The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoyevsky. Wonderful writing! Spoke to my soul years ago when I had many religious and spiritual questions.

"War and Peace," by Tolstoy. Yes, I read it -- and saw the TV series. Breath-taking in sweep, and superbly written.

"Doctor Zhivago," by Pasternak. Can you tell that I like Russian novelists? I read the book at least three times and saw the movie five. Why? Well, read it or go see the movie and you'll know why.

"Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl. His testimony to the reality of "attitudinal meaning" helped me to recognize the value of spirituality and religion.

"Markings," by Dag Hammarskjold. It's still by my bedside. Short, pithy insights, full of wisdom.

"That Man is You," by Louis Evely. It's been awhile since I've picked it up, but it was my companion on an 8-day retreat years ago.

"The Perennial Philosophy," by Aldous Huxley. A superb collection of quotes by mystics of all religions with Huxley's wonderful reflections on their meaning.

"Will and Spirit," by Gerald May. A foundational work on psychology and spirituality.

"The Human Core of Spirituality," by Daniel Helminiak. My all-time favorite book on human nature and the meaning of spirituality.

"Zen Catholicism," by Dom Aelred Graham. Still profoundly relevant in discerning the relationships between Buddhism and Christianity.

"St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. G. Jung," by James Arraj. Helps to clarify the differences between spiritual and psychological growth, dark nights and other types of transformation.

"New Seeds of Contemplation," by Thomas Merton. Meat-and-potatoes reading for contemplatives.

"On Being a Christian," by Hans Kung. A scholarly but highly readable but somewhat modernist presentation of Christianity for today.

"Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of the Christian in the World," by Robert Faricy. I didn't agree with everything Teilhard wrote, but I understood him much better after reading this book.

"Ways of Imperfection," by Simon Tugwell. An educational and enlightening presentation of non-Carmelite mystics and traditions in Christianity.


- OK, that'll do for now.

"The Enchanted Wood" - Enid Blyton. I love Moonface!

"Catcher in the Rye" - J.D Salinger. Must have read it 4 or 5 times as a teen. Totally moved me.

"Tess of the D'Urbevilles" - Thomas Hardy. Most important book of my university years. Haunting and beautiful.

"Under the Volcano" - Malcolm Lowry. Dense, complex novel about one man's descent into an alcoholic abyss.

"Lanark" - Alasdair Gray. Greatest Scottish novel of 20th century. Modernist masterpiece.

"Ask the Dust" - John Fante. A writer struggles in Holywood. Fante is great. American needs to know about him.

"On the Road" - Jack Kerouac. Exhilerating and super cool.

"A Season in Hell" - Arthur Rimbaud. Wonderful prose poem by French teenage genius. Concerns his failure to become a seer through disordering of the senses. Spoke to me during my K awakening when my senses were pretty disordered. A kindred spirit. Rimbaud gave up poetry around 19-20 and went on to live an incredible life in Africa.

"Complete Minimal Poems" - Aram Saroyan. Introduced me to minimalist poetry. Lightght.

"The Road" - Cormac McCarthy. The most important novel of the 21st century thus far. Won the Pulitzer Prize last year. Stunning!

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Magic realism at its best.

"The Miracle of Mindfulness" - Thich Nhat Hanh. Essential introduction to mindfulness. My whole prayer and meditation life opened up after reading this.

"Autobiography of a Yogi" - Yogananda. Lovely book, well written. So many holy men and miracle workers and an amazing description of the afterlife. True or not, it gets you excited about all things spiritual.

"Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast" - Such a tender spirit. So much love and care and some amazing visions. A beautiful gentle read.

John's Gospel - Christ is just so beautiful here.


Movies to come.

What a fun topic!

These are the ones that influenced me most...

CHILDHOOD:

The Black Stallion books, read at age 8.

Along Nature's Trails, read also at 8. This is a lyrical book about the animals one might meet in one's own backyard or park.

The Mysterious Stranger, by Mark Twain. This both terrified and delighted me at age nine. Was the stranger evil, or good? Was he the devil himself, or was he a dark angel? This one still has the power to make me shiver.

Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. Read at age 11. Growing up in Georgia, this was a given. Even these years later, I think back on it and realize what a really good story it was, and how fascinated I was even then by anything that dealt seriously with death, honor, love.

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, age 13. Loved it for the same reason I loved Mitchell.

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, age 19. It seemed to me to be a radical new idea. Good story, even if the writing is not so artful.

Autobiography of a Yogi. Read the same year I began Transcendental Meditation, age 19. This made a HUGE impression. Even now I remember passages as though I had read it yesterday. I am not so enamored of the philosophy, however.


ADULTHOOD:

The Bible, finally, at age 21 I read it. It made the hugest impression of all. Even though I had been brought up Catholic, I never had read the Bible and certainly not the KJV, which is pure poety. Ecclesiastes and John are the books I keep returning to again and again.

The Lymond Chronicle, by Dorothy Dunnett. Read at 25, and consider to be the finest writing and finest storytelling and finest Scots novels ever, notwithstanding Steven's choice above! Just google her and read the raves. Anyone who is interested - begin with Game of Kings and try to last at least 100 pages, as it takes most that long to get into it. I can not say enough about these books. They deal with life, love, history, brotherhood, religion, spiritual things, death. In short, they deal with capital L life.

Read almost everything by Tolstoy in my 25th year, and still have profound respect for his writing.

St. John of the Cross, same year.

Joseph Chilton Pearce, his books on child rearing and his books on consciousness. That is where I first encountered Bernadette Robert's name.

Bernadette Roberts, read her books, still trying to understand much of what she says. Spent a conference with her, and though I realize she is the real deal, I am still struggling with her ideas that define a state beyond the unitive. Having not experienced such a thing, I have only the intellect to work with in imagining it.

I will think of more books, probably the second I hit Send on this.


TOP FIVE MOVIES, in no particular order:

1. Babette's Feast
2. Walkabout
3. Don't Look Now
4. Local Hero
5. I can not recall the name at the moment, but there is a French movie about a donkey that brings tears on remembering any scene from it. It is said that in this film the donkey represents Christ.

This is clumsily worded, but I thank you for this forum.

Caitie

Movies:

On the Waterfront - Brando at his best.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Bogart at his best.

Raging Bull - The music of De Niro's voice contrasts with the brutality of the performance. I watched this film over and over, studying the scenes and cinematography, relishing the whole feel of the film.

Taxi Driver - Another Scorcese/De Niro masterpiece.

Summer With Monica(Swedish) - Ingmar Bergman story of young love gone wrong. Very dreamy, very real.

A Bande A Part(French) - Jean Luc Godard movie, very cool and creative. Inspired me creatively in so many ways.

Latin American cinema of recent years, including City of God(Brazil), Central Station(Brazil), Amores Perros(Mexico), Y Tu Mama Tambien(Mexico). The most creative, exciting movies in years.

Lost In Translation - I love the feel of this film, the use of music and silence, the performances by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanssen. Lovely and moving.

Trainspotting - Best Scottish film ever. Story of Edinburgh heroin addicts. Defined my generation in Scotland, although we're not all heroin addicts. Just very cool and creative and had the right attitude for the time, despite the drugs.


Once saw an ancient French movie starring Jean Gabon whose title I can't remember. May have been a Jean Renoir film. And another French movie about young homeless people who lived under a bridge. Both of these haunted my adolescence.

P.S. - Caitie, I love Walkabout and Don't Look Now.

Books:

Wishful Thinking and Whistling in the Dark - Frederick Buechner

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

The Road Less Travelled - M. Scott Peck

I also read a lot of history and biographies.

The Velveteen Rabbit.

Ah yes . . . "The Velveteen Rabbit"

An excerpt:

quote:

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

But the Skin Horse only smiled.

Thank you Phil for this excerpt....My eyes are glistening as they did when I first read this beautiful story immediately upon the completion of my training as a spiritual director in 1994. (the book was a gift to me by one of my co-trainees )

Beannacht

Has anyone here seen the film "Syriana"?

No I haven't seen Syriana? What is it about. Two of the films which touched me deeply are Cinema Paradiso, and Les Choristes. Has anyone seen either of these.

I haven't seen those, Clare. I have seen Syriana and thought it was a good action/adventure movie. George Clooney was very good in his role.

I like to use http://rottentomatoes.com/ to research movies. Lots of good info and reviews.

Movies that have moved me
--------------------------------------

A few movies that have really moved me are:

The Shawshank Redemption -- by Frank Darabont
Stalker -- by Andrei Tarkovsky
Powaqqatsi -- by Godfrey Reggio
Schindler�s List -- by Steven Spielberg
Seven Samurai -- by Akira Kurasawa
The Sixth Sense -- Shyamalan
The Beauty and the Beast -- Gary Trousdale
Babette�s Feast -- Gabriel Alex
The Green Mile -- Frank Darabont
Water -- Deepa Mehta

Also excellent, each in their own way:

2001, A Space Oddyssey -- by Stanley Kubrick
Blade Runner (director�s cut) -- Ridley Scott
Lord of the Rings (trilogy) -- Peter Jackson
Dr Strangelove -- by Stanley Kubrick
Full Metal Jacket -- Stanley Kubrick
The Matrix (first one) -- Andrey Wachowsky
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre -- John Huston
The Unforgiven -- Clint Eastwood
Das Boot -- Wolfgang Petersen
American Beauty -- Sam Mendes
Forrest Gump -- Robert Zemeckis
Yojimbo -- Akira Kurosawa
Ran -- Akira Kurosawa (one of the best Shakespearean tragedies ever filmed)
Batman Begins -- Christopher Nolan
Trainspotting -- Dany Boyle
Big Fish -- Tim Burton
Toy Story -- John Lasseter
Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough
Fried Green Tomatoes -- Jon Avnet


Enjoy!
HeartPrayer


.
PS. Syriana was on last night, but didn�t really have time to watch. Thanks for the thumbs up, Phil. I�ll catch it another time.

I have seen hundreds of movies since I was a teenager. Here are some favorites:

1. Bergman http://homevideo.about.com/od/.../aBergmanMoviesa.htm

2. Fellini
http://www.amazon.com/Fellinis...der/lm/1LXCQLY0WZ45T

3. Pasolini Accatone/The gospel according to St. matthew

4. Tarkovsky http://www.leechvideo.com/tag/tarkovsky/3/
Stalker/Andrei Rublev/Nostalgia/Sacrifice

5. Taviani Brothers Padre Padrone

6. Antonioni http://www.littlerabbit.com/antonioni/index.html

7. Lean Brief Encounter/Bridge on the River Kwai/Doctor Zhivago/Ryan's Daughter/ A Passage to India/Lawrence of Arabia

8. Capra http://classicfilm.about.com/o...ank-Capra-Movies.htm

9. Chabrol http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Chabrol
(all movies!)

10. Sautet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Sautet

11. Kurosawa
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa
Seven Samurai/Dersu Uzala/Ran/Ikiru

12. Saura http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Saura
Anna y los lobos/Cria Cuervos

13. Truffaut
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut
Jules et Jim/La Nuit Am�ricaine

14. Into the great silence
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1910423.htm

15. Stellet Licht http://www.stelletlicht.com/

16. Derek Jarman Caravaggio

17. Frank Darabont The Green Mile http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/

18. Frank Darabont The Shawshank Redemption

19. Richard Attenborough Gandhi

20. Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings

21. Robert Zemeckis Forrest Gump

22. Martin Scorsese Taxi Driver

23. Steven Spielberg Schindler's List/Saving Private Ryan

24. Gabriel Axel Babette's Feast

25. Lasse Halstr�m Chocolat and other movies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasse_Hallstr%C3%B6m

26. F.F. Coppola The Godfather

27. Mel Gibson The Passion/Braveheart

28. Istvan Szabo Mephisto

29. Carol Reed The Third Man

30. Neil Jordan The End of the Affair

31. Orson Welles Citizen Kane

32. Michael Curtiz Casablanca

33. Bruno Nuytten Camille Claudel

34. Marcel Carn� Les Enfants du paradis

35. Werner Herzog Nosferatu/Aguirre

36. Roman Polanksi Chinatown

37. Charles Chaplin Citylights a.o.

38. Luis Bunuel Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie

39. Jen-Luc Godard Bande � Part

40. Stanley Kubrick Barry Lyndon/Space Oddyssey 2001

41.Rainer Werner Fassbinder Berlin Alexanderplatz

42.Alain Resnais Mon oncle d' Am�rique/Hiroshima, mon Amour

...

Fred (Ostend/Belgium)

http://frimmin.com/2004/06/24/...mmer-fall-winter/!!!
Fred

I love Middlemarch by George Elliott,it is up there with the Brothers Karamazov for me.