Some books change the world. Read at the right time, they have the power to change our thinking, to inspire us, and to change our lives. When we put them down, we are no longer the same people we were when we picked them up.

The books listed below are the books that have had the greatest impact on my life and my development as a writer. I’m not claiming that they’re the best books ever written (that’s a topic for a different article); but each holds a special place in my heart, and each has contributed something to the way I now see my relationship with the world around me. If I hadn’t read them when I did, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today.

Some books change the world; and these are the books that changed mine.

Continue reading “Five Books That Changed My World”

Last week John DeNardo, the editor of SF Signal, asked me to write about the books that changed my life. The resulting article is now available to read on the website..

Click here to read ‘Five Books That Changed My World’.

After the Second World War, Isaac Asimov and Jack Kerouac were both hanging around the Columbia Univerity campus in New York. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if they’d become friends. Would Asimov have lured Kerouac into writing science fiction? Would Kerouac have turned Asimov into a “Beat” writer?

Here’s a snippet of an interview I gave yesterday to Ann Wilkes at Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys:

“I grew up at a time when the Cold War seemed likely to turn hot at any moment. We were shown “Protect and Survive” films at school, and I remember that the local doctor’s surgery had leaflets about nuclear fallout and guidelines for the disposal of relatives who’d succumbed to radiation sickness. As a teenager, it was a scary time. It was hard enough dealing with all the emotional stuff teenagers have to go through normally, without the added worry that the world was about to end. I guess a lot of that fear worked its way into my psyche. Part of me still expects society to fall apart at any given moment, and so those stories are to a certain extent an exploration and exorcism of that fear – a way of confronting my personal demons.”

You can read the full interview here: Interview with Gareth L Powell

Tomorrow is the 39th anniversary of the death of my all-time favourite writer, Jack Kerouac, who died in St Petersberg, Florida of cirrhosis on October 21st, 1969, aged just 47 – and to mark the occasion, I’ve just completed the first draft of a new 4,000 word short story called Laptop Jack.