"Omg! That book changed my life!"

[omegaxx]

For me, it will have to be George Eliot's "Middlemarch". I abhorred the very idea of morality before. That book turned it completely around for me. Orwell has famously said that all writing is political. I think Eliot can add that all writing is moral, and all decisions are moral ones. Her moral message is also the wisest and most humane of all those that I have come across. I can no longer do anything without wondering, "Now which character in 'Middlemarch' would that make me?"

[Wintermute]

Well, I've recently been on an Elizabeth Peters binge--my sister and I are both reading her Amelia Peabody books. In a couple of weeks we're leaving for a 2 week vacation to Egypt. This is a direct result of reading her wonderful novels. Is this what you mean?

[Schokokeks]

There have been many books I liked and digested when reading, many I liked after reading, and many that are still waiting. But I hope that it will still be me changing my life, and books to inspire me thereto.

[Demian]

These will always be a few of my favorites:
The Last Temptation of Christ by Kazantsakis
Steppenwolf and Demian, both by Hermann Hesse
The Valis trilogy, esp. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Phillip K. Dick
The Colossus of Maroussai and the Nexus trilogy by Henry Miller
The Stranger by Camus
Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
and of course On the Road by Kerouac, which propelled me through much intercollegiate disillusionment...

[Durgamol]

"The God of Small THings" y Arundhati Roy - i've found out that i can not only read but even like romantic stories (especially when it doesn't have a happy ending)

and

"The Silence of The Lambs" by Thomas Harris - because of it i chose a subkect for my MA paper and i am constantly studying it for more than 2 years (the subject not the book )

[grace86]

Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Fahrenheit 451, The Chronicles of Narnia....so far...but I am always taking parts from all my books with me to alter the way I view the world.

Haven't gone to a foreign country because of one yet

[bazarov]

Ana Karenina, War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons...

Haven't gone to a foreign country because of one yet

I can't wait to visit Russia

[Quark]

I can't say if these are the book that have changed my life the most--that may be for a neutral observer to decide. But, I can list the books I have learned the most from and recall most often.

Heart of Darkness: Kurtz's decline from a humane--almost philanthropic--leader to a raving lunatic is a constant reminder of the peril involved with high moral principles. Morality can cause us to do great things, but, when it fails, exploitation, violence, and greed can dominate the mind. As Bertrand Russel said, "He [Conrad] thought of civilized and morally tolerable human life as a dangerous walk on a thin crust of barely cooled lava which at any moment might break and let the unwary sink into fiery depths.

Paradise Lost: A great epic and a warning against self-importance and vanity:
“His Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High,
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God” (I, 36-42).

Critique of Pure Reason: For me it was the beginning of critical thinking and reason. Kant explains how we have modes of understanding that precede and alter experience. The book explores this metaphysical terrain at a slow and careful pace which can sometimes seem dull, but the discoveries that Kant makes are worth the incomprehensible prose.

The Death of Ivan Ilych: Here, Tolstoy takes the lessons that Levin learned in Anna Karenina and brings them home to his middle-class Russian audience. Ivan Ilych lives a pointless, uninspired, and selfish life which he repents of moments before his death.

"Resolution and Independence" and "Ode to Duty": Wordsworth weighs the advantages and disadvantages of commitment and freedom.

Walden: Important because of its idea of self-reliance, its distrust of a casual and thoughtless existence, and its poetic language.

Culture and Anarchy: Mathew Arnold suggests that liberty should not be the only goal of an enlightened society. He argues that selfishness would become the guiding principle in a free society. This selfishness is caused not by anything innately human; instead, it is forced on people by society. Arnold argues that people should follow "Culture" which would remind people of their humanity.

[grace86]

I can't wait to visit Russia

Here here baz!

[kenikki]

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. When I read it, I thought finally a book I can relate to and a book I could have possibly written. The language and imagery conveyed emotion like no other book I had read. I was so touched by it being a student of literature and a sufferer of mental illness. I regained my faith that books are not just not meant to analyzed and there is a message in every text.
(I am also a bit of Plath-ite though)

[bazarov]

The Death of Ivan Ilych: Here, Tolstoy takes the lessons that Levin learned in Anna Karenina

Tolstoy's main problem was that he didn't came up with something new; he just repeated himself...

[Aiculík]

I can't say that some book changed my life, and I don't think that will ever happen. I don't think book has that power. It can give some impulse, but not really change.

But there were (still are, in fact, because when I really like some book, I read it again after some time... and again... and again ) important in my life:

Lord of the Rings - I discovered the book during worst years of my life (no matter how long I lived and what will come, these will always be worse). This book saying that even small, weak, common man can change the future, save the world, that even worst and most despisable creature deserves second chance, saved my life. Literally.

Then two Slovak poets, Milan Rufus and Ivan Krasko, when reading their poetry it seems to me they know my feelings, they know what I'm afraid to say aloud and so they say it instead of me.

And then Foucalt's Pendulum and A Chronicle of Death Foretold, which cured me from my apathy towards books and literature that lasted almost two years.

[LizB]

Another Country, James Baldwin.

Read it when I was 15 and had never read anything like it. Whole new worlds appeared. I have only just joined the forum so have only had a quick look about but haven't seen any Baldwin mentioned as yet.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. When I read it, I thought finally a book I can relate to and a book I could have possibly written. The language and imagery conveyed emotion like no other book I had read. I was so touched by it being a student of literature and a sufferer of mental illness. I regained my faith that books are not just not meant to analyzed and there is a message in every text.
(I am also a bit of Plath-ite though)

As a woman and one that has been to the shallower depths of despair, I am drawn to Plath. In fact, I have a fascination with Plath and Hughes. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury to spend hours reading and contemplating, reading some more and researching. But I will again!

[andave_ya]

I can think of no other one than the Bible with such an impact on me.

[setPhree]

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - "Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is you soul that I am buying for you. I am withdrawing it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I am giving it to God!"