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Which Books Have Influenced You The Most?

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Dayton3

Admiral
Aside from the Bible of course which is more accurately a collection of books and letters.

For me:

Not in order

Heaven by Randy Alcorn

A Quick and Dirty Guide to War by James F. Dunnigan

Star Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents

The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin

Super Duty Earthmovers by Eric Orlemann

Death of the West by Pat Buchanan

Macro by Davidson

To name just a few.
 
Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner

Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Plague by Albert Camus

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Brave New World by Huxley

Black Boy by Richard Wright

Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
 
Can't think of a list, but one of the books that influenced me the most is Der Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche. I already had my doubts about Christianity and the Church but in this book Nietzsche makes brilliant points. Ever since I can't take modern day Christianity seriously.
Come to think of it, Nietzsche in general has probably influenced me heavily. Quite a scary thought. :lol:
 
The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
The purple cloud by M.P. Shiel
Spaceships in Prehistory by Peter Kolosimo
A collection of Apocalytpic prophecies printed by a small independent Italian publisher
God Knows by Joseph Heller
 
Many Lives Many Masters -- Brian Weiss
Excuse me, your life is waiting -- Lynn Grabhorn
Awakening the Buddha Within -- Lama Surya Das
You Can Heal your Life -- Louise Hay
A New Earth -- Eckhert Tolle (reading it now, its pretty good)

I guess those had the biggest impact on me, but I read a lot so I'm probably leaving a lot out!
 
Influenced as in had an actual effect on what/how I think? Oddly enough, many of Robert A. Heinlein's books. As preachy as he got at times, losts of what he said made sense to me, especially since I was first exposed to him at the tender age of 13.

Influenced as in being memorable? Far too many to list.

Jan
 
Off the top of my head:

Applied Regression: An Introduction, by Michael Lewis-Beck. Yes, it's an econometrics monograph, but it finally made me "get it," and kept me in graduate school.

Homestyle: House Members in Their Districts, by Richard Fenno. Best political science work ever. Has never been and will never be duplicated. The book's over thirty years old and is still worth reading for what it can teach.

Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis. One of the best books out there which humanizes the founding fathers. Influenced how I teach.

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. A very disturbing and deeper-than-it-seems piece of science fiction essentially told as three short stories. It was actually assigned to us in our Advanced Standing Program class in high school. I've reread it several times since.

Many works by Mark Twain, but probably Roughing It over most. I'll always be jealous of how Twain writes.

The Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer. Yes, it's a cookbook, but years ago it opened up a whole world to me. I've collected probably 200 cookbooks since.
 
I don't like long books. They take too long to get their point across, which can usually be summarised in much less obfuscated ways.

I like fairy tales. The paradigms and metaphors contained within them introduce us to some important lessons about life; the human nature of handling situations, the choices we have, and the consequence we face from our choices. It gave me much to visualize and contemplate in my childhood, and they have undoubtedly influenced me the most. :)

Chicken Licken

Snow White

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The Ugly Duckling

The Three Little Pigs
 
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place - by Aron Ralston
West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origin of Belief - by Steven Kotler
Chosen Soldier - by Dick Couch
The Sword and the Olive: A History of the Israeli Defense Force -
Immediate Action - by Andy McNabb
Bravo Two Zero - by Andy McNabb
 
The most memorable books in my life, which have influenced me a lot:

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" - Eric Carle. How was I supposed to know it wasn't an instruction manual?! I'm still waiting to evolve into Butterfly status and rule Humanity with my massive wings... :(

"Charlotte's Web" - EB White. Or: "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Spiders". ;) In all seriousness, it was a book our primary school teacher read to us at school, and despite the sweetness, the sadness, and the Americana of it all, it struck a chord with me. So much so that I bought the book myself later. Sadly my childhood ended (and my arachnophobia returned) sometime in 1991. :scream:

"To Kill A Mockingbird" - Harper Lee. Pretty much required reading for everyone (I hope everyone on the BBS has read it, you could learn something :)). I was never into books, but fortunately this was another school text, and it did help me understand the world better.

"Sunset Song" - Lewis Grassic Gibbon. A none-more-Scottish text with a somewhat impenetrable tone to the uninitiated, I fell in love with this allegorical school text in the later years.

"Animal Farm" - George Orwell. My first real introduction to the history of the Soviet Union and communism. :bolian:

"Nineteen Eighty Four" - George Orwell. The first book I actually wanted to read after I left school, I'm saddened I didn't read it earlier. One of the most powerful books I've read.

"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley. I actually enjoyed this more than "Nineteen Eighty Four", and was well warned from my English teacher that the first part of the book was somewhat confusing and hard to follow. It didn't bother me, and I was well rewarded.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" - Robert A Heinlein. I had heard so much about this book by the "Starship Troopers" author, that I had to try it out. Read it while on my first holiday in New Zealand several years ago.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" - Arthur C Clarke. It changed my whole perspective of Humanity and the Universe. Essentially the story on which "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was based. :bolian:



Jadzia said:
The Three Little Pigs
Click to expand...
Indeed, you have truly not fully experienced the Three Little Pigs until you have heard it in the original Walken. :bolian:
 
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Animal Farm - George Orwell
What you think about me is none of my business - T. Cole-Whittaker
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Manufacturing consent - Noam Chomsky
Women as revolutionary agents of change - Shire Hite
Fingerprints of the Gods - Graham Hancock
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
The power of now - Eckhart Tolle
From Atlantis to the Sphinx: Recovering the lost wisdom of the ancient world - Colin Wilson
 
Little House in The Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder-first book I read when I was 4 and gave me a series to continue to want to read.

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery-same. Second series I read.

Carrie by Stephen King-First grown up book I read at 10. I had nightmares :lol:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte-My intro into 'English Literature' when I was 12. I got addicted :lol:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. A masterpiece of the human condition and how it can fail and blossom at the same time. A must read. (I didn't first read it in school even. It was recommended to me by my librarian when I was 13...I teach it now :D)

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I wasn't introduced to Shakespeare until Grade 12, and this was the play that got me interested. Not Shakespeare's best (Hamlet is that for me), but a great intro that plays into teens passions and hormones :lol: I teach this one too ;)

Oh, I could go on and on...
 
I'm throwing Infinity Welcomes Careful Driver into the mix. Any book that starts with the line 'Describe, using diagrams where appropriate, the exact circumstances leading to your death' deserves some love.
 
I liked the first Red Dwarf novel too. An interesting reiteration and reinterpretation of the TV series.
 
jamestyler said:
I'm throwing Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers into the mix.
Click to expand...
That was an excellent book. It doesn't make my list, but still, I really enjoyed it and Better Than Life.

My list would be:

The first four Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books, and the two Dirk Gently books, by Douglas Adams

Spock's World, by Diane Duane

The Robots/Empire/Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov

The Wager (aka The Bet) by Anton Chekov

The Mission Earth series, by L. Ron Hubbard (scary thought, but true)

Asimov's Guide To The Bible

The Federalist Papers, by Publius (Jay, Madison, Hamilton)

True Magick by Amber K

and, to a lesser extent, every book in the Star Trek, Star Trek: TNG, and original 'V' series of novels.
 
I forgot about the Hitchhiker books there. A very major influence on my sense of humour. :guffaw: (Somewhere there I forgot the fact that I used to read books for fun when I was at school... Not many, though.)
 
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