Books that changed your life

[Hirsch63]

When I consider things that I have read that changed my life or thinking
....
pre-teen:

Riki Tiki Tavi by Kipling
Ghengis Khan by Lamb
Leonardo DaVinci by???
Lord of the Rings

Later:
Six Great Ideas by Adler
Fine Wood Working Magazine The first 10 years...
The Historical Jesus by Crossan
The Craft Apprentice
Amish Society
The Birth of Christianity by Crossan
Arts of the Pennsylvania Germans by Swank
A Peoples History of the United States by Zinn

[Roger Mexico]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

You mean you woke up to the fact that Heinlein's political ideas are puerile and worthless?

Stranger in a Strange Land was that book for me, but Starship Troopers was a handy reassurance.

[Lozzy]

There was a thread in the NF section about 'life defining' moments, and it kind of made me wonder what books people have read that they genuinely felt changed their life? If not changed your life directly, have you read any books that have radically altered your views on the world? Maybe a book inspired you to travel to the far east, or made you start trusting strangers.

Hypothetical example: Ever since reading my first Charles Bukowski novel, I decided to take on a string of meaningless jobs whilst drinking myself in to the ground and having countless sexual encounters.

Original ideas/thoughts welcome.

[Tayshaun]

Belle du Seigneur - Albert Cohen
The depth and the contradictions of human psychology.

Walden - Thoreau
A kindred soul who broke my feeling of isolation. Shook me into action. A friend.

The One-Straw Revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka
Set a new philosophical and practical standard in my looming career in market gardening.

Siddartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, Steppenwolf, Beneath the Wheel, ... - Hermann Hesse
Accompanied my transition to adulthood and gave me a sense of life being a journey. Add Rilke's letters to a young poet here.

Michel Onfray's contre-histoire de la philosophie (Audio)
Gave me tools and philosophical references to better formulate my ideas on metaphysics, ethics, politics, and ultimately my worldview. Oh yeah, and introduced me to the thoughts of Epicurus and Nietzsche, two buddies.

Yoga for Men
Made me discover that which most profoundly impacted my life since. Other books on the subject have taken its place (Light on Yoga, The Yoga Sutras, etc.)

The Ayurveda Encyclopedia
Best assistant in improving my quality of life.

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry - Jack Kornfield
Self-improvement, how to translate Buddhist teachings in a Western lifestyle.

[laintpe]

Originally Posted by Tayshaun

Walden - Thoreau
A kindred soul who broke my feeling of isolation. Shook me into action. A friend.

Second that one.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (and Ulysses) - Joyce

Really.... anything by Thoreau

there are others... I'll put more thought into them before posting.

[GargoylesLegacy]

Uhm, that was one book of a witch called Kithara when I was around 13.
And what also did a big change was "Simplify your life" from W.T. Küstenmacher (read that somewhen this year).

But in general I always take something from any book. Tho, those two were like milestones. I am just not sure if there are any English translations of that. Maybe from the simplify book.

[helen]

"I and Thou" by Martin Buber.

"God's Grandeur and Other Poems" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

[Misty_Mountain_Rose]

The Tin Box by Holly Kennedy

and

"The Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind

[mippus]

José Saramago's "Blindness", cured me from the last moral/religious remains I had. Ironically enough, the book didn't make me cynical, but made me admire my fellow man for the way he suppresses/controls his very nature.
I got the same message from Agotha Kristof's Diary-trilogy.

Hesse's work seems like an opposite of this, but in a way it brings the same message...

Paul Auster tought me the role of coincidence and the illusion of control we have...

And as for pure synesthesy and (weird) aesthetics: anything Peter Verhelst wrote.

[Peguy]

Too many to count, but here's a small sampling from my list:

The End of the Twentieth Century and the End of the Modern Age - John Lukacs
Challenges many common notions held about 20th century history and the nature of modern society.

Transformation of War - Martin Van Creveld
Wonderful book concerning the nature of warfare in the future, and a refutation of the high-tech fetish of most major militiaries, and how such weaponry will be largely ineffective and even irrelevant.

The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century - Charles Kupchan
The author does a nice job demolishing common myths spouted about Globalization.

Breakdown of Nations- Leopold Kohr
Written 50 years ago, but this masterpiece is more relevant than ever! In an age obsessed with large national or even supranational states(NAFTA, EU, etc.) - Kohr shows the advantages of smaller and more decentralized political entities.

I'll add more as they come to mind.