danceken1

I want to get a good list of life changing or inspiring books. If someone else votes for the same book you were going to vote for say it anyway as I want to see witch book gets the most votes. My favorite books in this category are Teusdays with Morrie and The Five People you meet in heaven. Thanks Kenney

foxdvd

1984 still gives me chills when I read it every few years or so. As a teenager it was the first time I felt a real sense of hopelessness. When you read it again, and know where your characters are going, it just makes it weigh down on you even more.

Lateralus

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, it almost turned me socialist but if government goes to far in fixing these issues that would just lead to events that will happen in Orwell's 1984; another book which also inspired me.

foxdvd

indeed, The Jungle overwhelms you with a level of hopelessness that surpasses even 1984, but I find it a bit more dated...

Drop

Look into Raymond Carver's work. His minimalist style really connects with me. His characters are always interesting. His new Library of America's collection has all his short stories I believe.

dino88

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

I read this during my first trip out of the country and I haven't stop moving since.

TimeandTide

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

The entire time I was reading it, I wondered how I would fare as a father (I have a six-year-old) in McCarthy's uber-bleak setting/novel.

Best book about being a Dad I've ever read. (And it's about a post-apocalyptic U.S.!)

tofu

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer

It made me want to give everyone in my family a hug and I never hug my family.

movieking

My wife was pregnant with our first child (a boy) when I first read it, and the book affected me like no other I'd ever read before or since. It's probably my favorite book of all time.

I will say that I am still haunted by some of the things that I read in Elie Wiesel's Night,a book I read earlier this year. And I can't see some of those images ever leaving my mind.

mlemmond

The Shack, it's less about organized religion than it is spirituality, it makes you think.

Where Then Red Fern Grows, it formed my love of reading when I was a kid.

The Count Of Monte Cristo, it's the first book that really amazed me.

Travis McClain

The first book I ever read in one setting was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I was in high school (a sophomore, I believe), and I was literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown when I finished it. Until I read that book, I had just assumed that everyone else shared the idea that being educated was better than being ignorant. Ever since then, I've been very conscious of how fiercely many people will resist being taught things or asked to think about things.

Plus, there's a bit in there about how new homes haven't been built with front porches, so as to discourage people from sitting outside facing their neighbors and socializing, directing them instead inside their homes to watch TV in isolation. Ever since I read that, I've noticed how rare it is to actually find a house with a legitimate front porch.