Books That Had A Huge Impact On You

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I loved it. One of my top five books of all time, hands down. Have you seen the movie? I really liked it, but the book really puts the movie to shame .

 

Everyone and their mother had read Lord of the Flies, but still this book was absolutely amazing when I first read it. No other book has really captivated me since then.

 

Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan. It's maybe not his best work as far as prose goes, but beautiful nonetheless. "A purpose in life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whomever is around to be loved."

Also the Lilith's Brood series by Octavia E. Butler.

 

Escape from Freedom and Nicomachean Ethics. Practically they made me want to improve myself.

 

I know it's painfully corny, but The Perks Of Being A Wallflower was pretty memorable (I was 15 when I read it shh).

 

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami.

 

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

 

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

 

The Secret Island by Enid Blyton. Totally captured my imagination as a kid.

 

A busy coffee shop-a robbery gone wrong. Two gunmen, nine hostages, flashing lights. And Zach is caught in the mayhem.

But nobody realizes that Zach-who has no gun and no knife-has a mind more dangerous than any weapon.

I read this book when I was 12 or 13. It's one of the best I've ever read.

 

People are going to make fun of me: Harry Potter. That series defined how growing up should be to me-- not the magic, of course, but the interpersonal relations and coping with stress and grief. While I did have the benefit of loving parents (unlike our nearsighted hero), I feel like we can all learn a lot from how the characters dealt with things, especially as kids/young teenagers.

Also, Night by Elie Wiesel. You don't know how horrific the Holocaust really was until you've read his first-hand account. It wasn't just murder; it was hell on earth.

 

I have to say Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and also To Kill a Mockingbird; some of the classics.

But some other books that have also had a large effect on me have to be the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. They may not seem like all that important, but the characters and the ability to relate to them is phenomenal. The characters, their motivation, and their actions are all able to effect you so much.

 

Ya, some might think that the Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments can't have a huge effect, bur you're right, they are pretty amazing. The character connections between the two series themselves are quite genius XD

 

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I highly recommend it.

 

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini times a million, and a million more.

 

Tuesday With Morrie and Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom both discuss faith and family, issues I've had my whole life involve both.

 

I forgot to mention Just Hit Send by Grasshopper. The CORNIEST and SAPPIEST book I've ever read in my whole life. But, it had a really great message about resilience and endurance that I live by.

 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I read it when I was just a little younger than the protagonist, who is raped and murdered at 14, and tells the story of the events following her death from a vantage point in Heaven. Because it's been so long since I first read it, I don't recall whether the impact the book had on me was because I identified with it in some way, or simply because it was a topic I'd never seen discussed in such depth, from such a unique perspective (the fact that I do not believe in an afterlife had no impact on my enjoyment of the story). Whatever the reason, it has remained one of my favorite books.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. My father and I have always had a tumultuous relationship, but The Hitchhikers Guide has always been a shared passion, one that transcended whatever issues we were dealing with at the time. I would read it to him all the time, and I would often fall asleep listening to the book on tape. Douglas Adams continues to be one of my favorite authors, both for fiction and non-fiction work, and it also continues to be a very common topic of conversation for me and my father, even though I no longer live with him.

There are quite a few books on philosophy that have impacted my way of thinking, but have not had the emotional value of the two above.

 

I Am Better Than Your Kids by Maddox. It taught me everything I ever needed to know.