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Books that changed your life?

It's just a short story, but I read "Horsie" by Dorothy Parker when I was young and it still keeps me from making fun of people. It's so sad.

And it's idiotic, but for years I couldn't pass a wardrobe without, you know, checking, thanks to CS Lewis.
 
The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert.

After having been inturned in a religious tomb of thought which tried to pass itself off as a high school, those books were incredible food for thought, and were instrumental in liberating me from the trough of dogmatic gruel I had been feeding at.
 
Sagan's The Demon Haunted World came right at a time when I was truly becoming a skeptic, and it really meshed with the thoughts and ideas I was having. Without that book, I probably never would have fully been propelled into skepticism.
 
And, jeez, without LOTR, I likely never would have been driven to 25 years of incessant roleplaying geekdom, and all it entails (the innumerable hours I've spent painting miniatures and drawing dungeon maps, as well as the people I chose to hang out with, all the weekend hours sitting around the table rolling dice.) Wow. Tolkien, directly and indirectly, has probably had a greater influence on my life than any other author. Weird to think about.
 
I read "DHW" after I was a skeptic, and LOTR after I'd gotten involved in D&D. Still great works though.

Add to my list the "World Book Encyclopia", publisher unknown, 1966 edition. I read that set through before starting Sunday School and obtained a scientific world view and cosmology, thus insulating me somewhat from being totally indoctrinated into the church.
 
TragicMonkey said:
It's just a short story, but I read "Horsie" by Dorothy Parker when I was young and it still keeps me from making fun of people. It's so sad.
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Yeah, that's a really punchy story.

Books that changed my life, well. There was a book I had on science when I was a very little kid, but I can't remember it. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee somewhat later. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury somewhate later. Nietzsche's So Said Zarathustra and On the Geneaology of Morals later still. The Boomer Bible by R.F. Laird. Gateway by Frederik Pohl.
 
"Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty," by Roy F. Baumeister.

I'm serious. I've never seen a more concise, insightful look at human nature. I especially liked the chapter on The Myth of Pure Evil.

Regards;
Beanbag
 
Godel, Escher, and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.

The Bible (for the worst, unfortunately...).

Foriegn to Familiar (can't remember the author). This last one was only 100 pages, but I learned so much about the assumptions and expectations that underlie social interaction...

Beyond Good and Evil - Neitchze (probably misspelled...)

While not really a book, it fills the role that books used to fill, and the Internet has of course *massively* changed my life.
 
Catch 22, Joseph Heller

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn
 
"Die Wallfahrer", by Carl Amery.
I doubt it has been translated into English, and in fact I believe it is pretty much untranslatable - even not being Bavarian turns it into a hard read. It showed me that there is such a thing as intelligent, thoughtful Catholicism, which up to that time I would not have thought possible. Sounds stupid, I know, but I guess it turned my view of christianity from "them stupid rosary kneaders" to "fellow seekers for whatever's up with it all".
OK, I'll slink away now :)
 
First time posting on any of these lists.

I'd have to count The Annotated Alice as the book that changed my life. I was already a Lewis Carroll fan, but it lead me to realize there were others out there. It also lead me to read more Martin Gardner, which eventually lead me to skeptical thinking.
 
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein (Yeah, like any Heinlein book, they go a bit weird at times, but the underlying social commentary in these two make them a great read, even if you don't agree with him)
 
The book that changed my life is the Bible. Although I now despise Christianity and any other religion that urges its followers to be desireless and lead miserable lives, the Bible did greatly influence my views on morality.
 
Childhoods End A.Clark...far as I know the first novel outside of Shakespeare's Othello that had a non-white protagonist.

Atlas Shrugged...nuff said.

My uncle's text "Introduction to Metaphysics" D.A.Drennen which showed me that one could wrap ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ in a papyrus and some will consume it.
 
Originally posted by
Or at least, you like alot....
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Eric Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods". Read it when I was a young teenager and all fired up to believe these marvellous wonders etc etc. I can still remember (some 30 years later) the disappointment and anti-climax when he came up with his "explanations" for such things as Mayan and Australian Aborigine "spacemen" carvings.

Here he was showing me marvellous things like the Nazka carvings, and the best he could do was aliens?

I felt cheated then and I've felt cheated ever since by every other kook and whacko that leaves logic at the door when they check into Hotel Woowoo.
 
Asimov's compendium of some of his first stories called The Early Asimov was what guided me towards hard science fiction and eventually skepticism. I was greatly offended that Asimov would die before I had a chance to meet him.
 
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