A worn out, moth eaten copy of Lord Byron's complete works. It took me almost a decade to outgrow the influence. Especially the poem Manfred, and the soliloquay at the beginning! The Sanyasin - Satprem. I walked the streets of Chennai not knowing what the hell was happening, while reading this. Magical, mystic..anyone who has ever held any spiritual notions should read this... Last Temptation by Nikos Kazantikakis, what can I say..every word has drilled through me! Ka by Roberto Calasso, this made me confront my own culture and religion like no other. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Godel, Escher & Bach - Douglas Hofstadter. Barely made it to 4th chapter but that alone has shattered opinions I held about my style of thinking. And Sri Aurobindo...almost everything that he has written touches me like no other. It was like coming home after being in exile. Not that I understand anything but... And of course Don Box's talk on DDJ about the origins of .NET!
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