Oh ,wow. I can still recall the emotions I experienced reading George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords. The author, who is is well known for killing off main characters, has beautifully set up a redemption ark for the Martells, championed by Oberyn, who duels the cruelest, most murderous and loathed character to this point (which is saying a lot,) Sir Gregor Clegane.

It's a David v. Goliath story that, as a cynical GRRM reader, you would be loathe to anticipate as his writing at times seems only to be a reminder of the injustice in the world. And yet, this confident-in-the-face-of-adversity prince, on a mission of retribution the reader is so longing for, actually seems to have a plan and it seems to be succeeding. As Oberyn faces down his opponent in a duel - a trial by combat to both save an innocent man from persecution and get revenge for a murdered sister - he deftly overcomes his opponent's ("The Mountain who Rides") shear size with tactics, slowly grinding him down until he finally delivers a fatal stab of his poison tipped spear to an exhausted opponent. Despite every logical resistance, the reader is finally presented with such a tale of triumphal justice that he can let his guard down just enough to savor it. The crowd is cheering, and there's a primal exultation of human spirit at this unlikely outcome.

It's at this point I considered that this series of books had finally paid off after all the horrible deeds committed by this monster of a character. At last we get a sweet victory to savor.... And yet, snatched from the jaws of victory, the dying Mountain grabs our victor by the boot and yanks him to the ground. The would be hero is slain in a such a stomach churning fashion that I can still recall the visceral repulsion I felt some decades ago while reading it. The cruelty matched only by the poignancy of the defeat. I couldn't bear to turn even a single page more at this point - I merely sat down the book and pushed it away, having to remind myself it's only a tale of fiction. I spent the next week in a slump, pondering the cruelness and injustice that must surely be possible in the reality of life if it could be so convincingly portrayed on paper.

Maybe nothing original in these circles here¹ but 1984 from George Orwell was definitely a read I did not expect to impact me in the ways it did. I had a lot of expectations before reading it. I think I only read it because I couldn't stand one more reference to the book like Orwellian or doublespeak which I didn't get since I didn't read the book. People seemed to regularly use orwellian terms online to describe something. So I was like:

So I started to read it and finished the 500+ pages within a week iirc. I still remember how I read it in the train on my way back home from university. I also remember how a friend and me read books in the train which we never did before. I think I told him I want to finish this book so hard that I would rather read this book than to have a conversation with him. So he just also read a book while we were driving back home as we did several times a week (same home town).

After I finished it, I felt like this book just gave me a reality check I desperately needed. It's also one of the books where I feel like I watched a movie or series since I have mental imagery of a lot of passages.² Additionally, it's not a book with a happy ending. But that's probably the reality check that I needed. That book left me in a state³ where I felt abused and betrayed.

The way it impacted me can be described as having a completely different view on governments, society and language ever since. I would say I am more aware of how language shapes our thinking (important for an aspiring writer, I guess) and can appreciate different languages more. For example, some languages have words for things that other languages don't have. Kind of crazy to think about. And this book basically describes how crazy it can get if language (and thus thinking) is politicized. We all think in a specific language, no? What if this language slowly ceases to exist?

And to be honest, I feel like this is very similar to what is currently happening. The latest example that affected me a lot was the discussion about master vs main. Or maybe that's just me becoming one of these annoying personas who push other to read the book, lol.

After I finished that book, I also read Animal Farm. Also a great book about power vacuums, how revolutions can mean nothing and how history repeats itself since people will probably always remain gullible.

Mhh, good question. Funnily, I remember that I once watched a movie with a lot of friends and thought I would remember this movie since we all seemed to like it and thus discussed it afterwards (in probably childish ways however). I think I thought in that moment that I will remember this movie. But seems like I have forgotten, lol.

However, while thinking more about it, it might have been Kick-Ass:

I think I would call it simply "profound experience" or if we want to be a bit more creative to feel "more connected". I like connections :)

I remember when I was on holiday about 5 or 6 years ago, It was the last day of a relaxing break, with great weather, food and drink.

I noticed a drop and swap shelf in the lobby and a book caught my eye, The girl on the train, now I know it's not the most high brow material available but as soon as I saw it, I picked it up and replaced the place on the shelf with some suncream.

I couldn't put it down and read it all the way to the airport in the taxi, in the departure lounge I was devouring the pages.

Then we got called to the gate for boarding and I was reading in the queue, after checking through security, I sat down on the plane and clipped in to my seat belt and suddenly realised, the book!

I'd left it at security when they were checking us, I was cursing until I realised I could download it on my phone, I quickly restarted where I'd left off digitally and finished it before landing.

Although simplistic to some, I really understood the characters and was completely immersed.

I watch the film a few months or years later and was utterly disappointed as one usually is with screen adaptations.

I wanna introduce to you all “The Housekeeper and the Professor”.

Started “The Housekeeper and the Professor” last December and finished it today. If I had concentrated fully on it, I could have finished it much earlier but you know, life happens. It’s a testimony to the power of Yoko Ogawa’s storytelling that I knew that I would definitely finish her book. As the title suggests, this book centres around the relationship between a retired Maths professor and his housekeeper. Yoko Ogawa undoubtedly fleshed up her characters with complexities. The Maths professor met with an accident, which left him with a working memory of 80 minutes. The housekeeper is a single mother who struggles to raise her 10-year-old son who is nicknamed Root. I think this book pays homage to the resilience of the human spirit. Even though the Professor forgets his housekeeper every morning, somehow they have come up with coping mechanisms - so well that Root regularly comes to hang out after school. The Professor is aghast that the boy is a latchkey kid and insists that the housekeeper brings him along. In short, they are a surrogate family of three. I guess one reason why it took me so long to finish this book is that nothing major ever happens. No drama, just everyday events. (I cannot even use ‘vicissitudes of life’, much as I want to flaunt my vocabulary because this is not that kind of book.) Going to the barber, watching a live baseball match, celebrating Root’s birthday - not the climatic plot we have come to expect from page-turners. Still, this is a book about relationships, which is something the Japanese do so well. The housekeeper grows to care about Maths through interactions with the Professor and ponders hard to solve various Maths problems. At one point, she even goes to the library to do research. The Professor is fiercely protective of Root and encourages Root to think critically and arrive at an original method of solving Maths questions. The mother-son pair do everything they can to not inform the Professor that his baseball idol has actually retired donkey years ago. The process in which they learn to support one another is heartwarming to read. I really hope there would be a movie adaptation one day.

I won't point to a specific piece but for the longest time I wasn't a fan of fiction. I preferred howto books because what I was after was practical knowledge. Over the past few years however I've appreciated fiction more. The main thing it provides is thought provocation, freedom to construction situations and get to issues and decisions which are more complex than that for which anyone would write a manual. There's inspiration as well. The fiction I've enjoyed most made me feel, like some music does, that anything is possible. Don't hold back. Sow your wild oats. Write from the heart and press reply.

Not all fiction is equal. It has potential for good and bad as well i think.

I want to say fiction affects me positively but how would i know? Maybe consuming it wasted time that could be spent having my own adventure or otherwise being productive and achiving goals.

Maybe consuming fiction is as good as having an adventure, and somehow makes you better off and helps you achive other goals. Who knows.

i decided to read a moveable feast while i was on a trip to paris, and was shocked to find that the opening chapters discuss the exact square my hostel was located in.

ernest’s old paris house was just down the street with a plaque on it. having that real-world experience of being in the setting of a book certainly heightened my awareness of it and captured my full attention.

years later, i think i would still be able to identify the square if i was roaming around the streets of paris and stumbled upon it.

Fiction done right can teach truths too real for reality. What the mind rejects by day ☀️ , it often accepts by night 🌙 .

My favorite overall work of fiction is Tolkien's. It was my first serious mythological work and will always hold a special place to me.

if i watch an horror movie, i will have nightmare, if i watch crime/thriller, i will dream of crime/thriller story, Until one day i understood if i told to myself when i watch the movie of this kind it is just a fiction, then i do not do this kind of dreams.

I i watch comic movies, it flips my mood to better ..... some say it can cure ...

Now is it what we need to generate emotions through movies, books... ? Cause, at the end, what we want is to be quiet, follow our inner flow... ?

well it s just some thoughts...

I have watched Boyhood probably three times, most recently just a few weeks ago. Not many films speak to my whole family like that one does (my wife, my daughter and I). As an added bonus we're Beatles fans, so we loved the concept of "The Black Album"! The three of us also were touched separately and later together by Harold and Maude. That film still sticks with me all these years later. Ignoring convention to live your life on your own terms and find happiness is what it said to me.
So many novels have moved me during my life. Most are cliches at this point. The Catcher In The Rye, On The Road, Atlas Shrugged, all moved me and changed me at different times for different reasons. Richard Russo novels always refresh and renew me to this day.