I would say at various stages of my life I have been affected by books. In no specific order they are the following:

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Diary of a Madman - Nicholai Gogol
El Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges (actually anything by Borges)
James & the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
Slaughterhause 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson Mc Cullers
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
20 Poems of Love and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy (all five)

A lot of my humor, taste, desires, and most of all my style of thinking can be linked in some way to these books. The way Douglas Adams wrote was just so refreshing, so perfect, it really was exactly the kind of thought processes I love.

And, not so much changed me, but defined a lot of my life, has been everything by Shakespeare. I've grown up with all of his works, so a lot of my tastes are from that.

The Purpose Driven, the Bible and that little harry potter. Harry keeps me laughing and grounded.

The books that immediately come to mind are:

Nigger by Dick Gregory
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Dale Carnegie is the only recent addition to the list, it got added about five years ago. The rest were from almost 20 years ago and I reread them every few years.

Hmm, I should read more often than I do....I just cannot read fiction anymore though, It's lost it's appeal completely, but I'm sure it's just a temporary hiatus.

Anyway, some books that have had profound effects through my life (up to this short point at least):

Animal Farm

The Che Guevara Biography (big, thick red one....it was a while ago, no idea of the author but it was a long read)

Insomina, The Talisman & The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Them by Jon Ronson

Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck

Lennon Remembers - Rare and some previously unpublished interviews with John Lennon in his late days.

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - Excellent book on the origins of language and words.

Theres more that I'm forgetting, but they stick out in my memory.

I agree about Shakespeare. I remember reading and rereading Hamlet and being gobsmacked. And with each new reread the human concepts become more familiar. Can we ever really get tired of the greek tragedy and the search for psychological truths? And Douglas Adams... what a completely unique and refreshing way to look at the world. Shame about his death.

Duzey: Some of those are on my fave list as well - Farenheit is brilliant, as is old 'Papa'. I remember being a teenager and reading the 'Sun also Rises' and feeling it was great to be so young and alive. It made me want to run off to Spain and drink lots of wine and fall in love.

Annie: The great thing about Harry Potter is how much it makes you feel like a little kid again, staying up past your bedtime reading way into the night, getting hooked. Did you know they have grown-up book jackets - plain black with brown trim - for all those adults reading on the trains? Funny how many businessmen I saw eagerly turning the pages the first few weeks it was released.

I go through periods like that where I can only read non-fiction. It's usually temporary and I find a good book will break me of that. It is sort of like reader's block.

I read Mother Tongue and liked it a lot. I have read most of Bill Bryson and find him very funny and droll. Although Mother Tongue was one of 'serious' works. I started The Complete History of Everything but haven't finished it yet. The thing is like a big city phonebook. It is huge!

The Philosophy And Opinions Of Marcus Garvey
My Bondage and My Freedom-Frederick Douglass
Up from Slavery-Booker T Washington

Essential reading for all black people.

"Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. It changed my life! And, when Jesse Jackson read it on Saturday Night Live many years ago, it brought a tear to me one brown eye!!

In no particular order:

Heidi - Johanna Spyri

How To Practice - The Dalai Lama

An Open Heart - The Dalai Lama

Anger : wisdom for cooling the flames - Thich Nhat Hanh

The Three Billy Goats Gruff - no idea. Traditional? First book I ever read. I was 3. (My mother will tell you that if you ever meet her.)

The Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

Diary Of Anne Frank

Stedman's Medical Dictionary (triggered an addiction to medical literature)

The Merck Manual (because I'm never more than 10 feet away from one...)

Let's Go Play At The Adams' - Mendal Johnson.

The Mallory Towers Series - Enid Blyton

That's about it for now

I just read last night, for a dare, He's Not That Into You. It's a total chick book, but it's really very good. A lot of it is wrong, and can be taken the wrong way if you're not careful, but there's far more in there that's true, and very helpful.

I've had very good luck with women, but the book showed me a few things that, while not necessarily wrong, could definitely be true. In fact, there'e a girl sitting next to me (she doesn't know I'm writing this) who I shall be kissing later on (she doesn't know this either) because of reading that. (If she would just shut up about her ex-boyfriend! )

Above Top Secret - by Timothy Good (c'mon, you KNOW that had to be in there...)

Siddartha - the story of Buddha (I'm not a Buddhist, but echo many of the beliefs)

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Conversations with Seth - Jane Roberts (not 100% sure on the title)

Well - I think in many respects, any truly good book could and should change your life in some ways...The author has transcribed their trials and tribulations to us all for our own edification, or amusement in some cases...

There are so many books I could probably list here, but brain cells are limited these days and I’ll only try and share with you all the most profound…

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair:
One really should read up on the history and turmoil this book stirred up before reading it to fully grasp the entire scope of this literary work…A truly invigorating read that sends shivers up and down your spine

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad:
Unfortunately, I hear the word “darkness” now and think Charlie Murphey…lol...But again, what a beautiful piece of symbolism this book is – And one of the few books that I can say produced a movie which became as near and dear to me as the book itself…

Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum, or The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, by Heinrich Böll:
I was introduced to this book in a college German literature class and was really mesmerized by the book – One of the few books I had to read in college that I actually read twice! It’s a story of morals, virtues and reputations that are lost, won back, and then questioned for a lifetime – Primal human urges and instincts that can twist your life into endless circles…

Night, by Elie Wiesel:
Again, another book I had to read for a World Religions course in college – Smacks of the disheartening and surreal adventures of one man and his father into the concentration camps of Nazi Germany – Even if you’ve seen Schindler’s List, you haven’t fully grasped the conditions of that era until you’ve read this very short but powerful book…

Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman:
When you’re looking for a work of art that can show you the beauty and evil of our world, one needs to look no further than the poems found in this master collection…I’m drawn to it for inspiration, revelation, despair and grief….There’s literally a poem for every mood and emotion, and each one with its own sublime beauty and grace…

The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling:
Simply put, because it makes me feel like a imaginative young child again every time I read them…

There are many many others, but these are the ones that first spring to mind…

[edit on 9/7/2005 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

I almost forgot.




Truly amazing.

1984- Orson Welles
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
The one that got away- Chris Ryan
The Making of a Royal Marine Commando- Nick Foster

I'm sure that there are others, but I can't remember....I suppose people are wondering about the last 2, but they make me push myself further now.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice:
--This is the book that really got me hooked on vampire/gothic literature, and since I'm a big fan of vampire literature, I'd say it changed my life. Although my opinion of the author has changed somewhat over the years, I still pick up the novel now and then and marvel at how dynamic and deep she made Lestat seem.
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling:
--I like these books because they're childish in their own special way... but then the symbolism and imagery tends to be very grown-up.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:
--I hated this book when I read it. It was for a class assignment my sophomore year in high school, and at the time I finished it, wrote my paper, and put it out of my mind. More recently, I've found myself drawing parallels between the novel and society. It's scary, really, how that works.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi:
--I'm morbid, I know. But I read this book because I've always been interested in crime (particularly Jack the Ripper), and after I finished it, I decided to major in criminal justice. I'd considered it, but this book really cemented my decision.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte:
--It's just a wonderful piece of work. There's nothing else to it.

I also forgot to add
"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Jean Marie Remarque. It's just beautiful which is ironic as it's about one the worst wars.

A Happy Death~Camus
Thus Spoke Zarathustra~Nietzsche
The Sorrows of Young Weirther (sp?)~Goethe

Ya, I'm a cheery person.

I'm kind of glad no one has posted "Catcher in the Rye"... I didn't get the point of that book... I don't think it had a point really... was that the point of it?

Books that have changed my life:
Wiseguy - Pileggi (when I was 15)
A Brief History of Time - Hawking (16)
Book of Revelations - John the Apostle (13-present)
Survivor - Palahniuk (20)
The Giver - can't remember but who cares (16 made me hate reading)

I know there's more I just can't think of them now. The Book of Revelations made me want to be a writer and I got over The Giver tragedy... geezus I mean a world without color or anything to really describe... that's not a book now is it? Hahaha.

It was written by Lois Lowry, I believe.