<p>the kite runner.. it made me shake inside. I like fasted for five days, i was really depressed... i decided to make a fundraiser for afghan children, and research the country.</p>
<p>The Crucible</p>
<p>1984
Girl with a Pearl Earring</p>
<p>I suppose that I'm a bit like the OP -- I've read huge swaths of lit, but not a single one has really exerted, independently of the others, any discernible influence upon me.</p>
<p>I suppose that Verne's novels were what first sparked my interest in science and technology when I read them whatever number of years back, so I suppose that they might have influenced me rather strongly (which I attribute not so much to the profundity of the writing but rather to my own naivety and inexperience with science up till then)</p>
<p>A Confederacy of Dunces taught me to never take anything too seriously, your life, your story, or your environment. Nothing is greater than the decisions you make, and the only thing holding anyone back is themselves.</p>
<p>Beyond Good and Evil, Hardball, Career Warfare, Bible, Wealth of Nations, Art of War</p>
<p>I don't understand how anyone can honestly say that Water for Elephants "changed their thinking" or impacted them in any way. That's the kind of book you read when you've got like 2 free hours to waste, then you finish it and move on.</p>
<p>Anyway.
I adore The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton. It was just.. really, really good.</p>
<p>i like The Time Traveler's Wife</p>
<p>I wrote my college essay about how "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy changed my life. </p>
<p>The other ones I can think of are "The Grapes of Wrath," "O Pioneers," and, less intellectually, "Little House on the Prairie" and "Harriet the Spy."</p>
<p>Oh yeah. I HATE Ayn Rand.</p>
<p>Catcher in the Rye</p>
<p>One Hundred Years of Solitude messed with my head and made me question everything.</p>
<p>Band of Brothers - awesome, very gripping and emotional war book by Stephen Ambrose.</p>
<p>Middlesex - summer reading book for AP English that turned out to be very enlightening. by Jeffrey Eugenides</p>
<p>art of war
consolations of philosophy
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAITNENCE ----- most thought provoking book I have ever read</p>
<p>Everything by Kurt Vonnegut.</p>
<p>...Oh how I aspire to be him.</p>
<p>Hm. . . </p>
<p>I think the non-fiction book that changed my life was "The Four Agreements," by Don Miguel Ruiz. </p>
<p>The fiction ones are The Lord Of The Flies and All The King's Men. All The King's Men is one of the best books like, ever. O.O</p>
<p>1984 and The Alchemist, both of which I read this summer.</p>
<p>East of Eden. Steinbeck is a genius, and this is a masterpiece.</p>
<p>Annie Dillard is very good, too...I really enjoyed Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which she won the Pulitzer Prize for. I want to read more by her.</p>
<p>The Kite Runner, hands down</p>
<p>I loved the Kite Runner toooo, though we read it in English class. You are all going to hate me now, but I also have to read Jane Eyre right now and I think it's absolutely godly.</p>