books that have changed your life

psb13

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon..awesome book!!

OMG I thought I was the only one who loved this book! This and The History of Love by Nicole Krauss are some of my favorites.

Lets see...
-Harry Potter hands down. I remember reading the first book when I was 6 but not being able to finish before the first movie came out, lol, but then going home right after the movie and finishing it. I never really liked to read before that.
-LOTR, I can just get lost for weeks on end reading it.
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I love this book so much, it really changed my perspective on loss and family, and will be one of those books that I will probably read a million times.

unfortunately I don't get a lot of time to read books that aren't for school except during the summer, and lately all of the books I've been reading in school haven't been that great. They're classics and I appreciate their literary value but I guess the fact that I have to read them for school always somehow turns me off to them. They're are also a ton of teen books that I love but haven't changed my life, and then there are some books that I have loved but can't fully remember anything about them sometimes, haha

funny, you're the only other person who's heard of shadow of the wind!! his next one "the angles game" wasn't as good. totally agree about HP and LOTR. haven't heard of the others you mentioned but i will check them out since i also love some of your other choices.
recently finished the "hunger games" trilogy. also excellent-i think it has been mentioned here previously.

kevinthenerd

One sticks out that changed my life recently (within the last six months):

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion

Some others had effects that are more difficult to assess against the background noise of life's other experiences:

Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Rainer Maria Rilke - Letters to a Young Poet
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time

The principle author of AutoCAD wrote a diet book that I really like. It's free, too. What's interesting for me is that both the author and I studied mechanical engineering but ended up doing computer programming for a living.

John Walker - The Hacker's Diet: How to Lose Weight and Hair through Stress and Poor Nutrition
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/

Kimmer2011

The Power of Myth
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Handmaid's Tale
Life of Pi

JayneWilson1963

Bump

Purpleflipflops

The Great Gastby
Love Wins
The Misunderstood Jew
The whole Harry Potter series was pivotal in my childhood. I was 11 when I read the first book and had just graduated high school when the last came out. I literally grew up with the characters.

I was going to say the same thing with Harry Potter. The series literally shaped who I am. :,)

Jade_Butterfly

The Bible
Bait of Satan
Spiritual Authority
Power of positive Thinking
Creation

jfinnivan

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman - I try to read this once every year.
Lord of the Rings
Dune
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Many many more....

spicy618

Bump. Need to read more