Life Changing Books

Strange title but it's the only thing I can think of to describe what I'm talking about.
Books that elicit a deep emotional response from me, the reader. Books that will move me, maybe change my views on life. Any genre... though I'm not a huge fan of epic fantasy or long series. If you want some examples,
Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
Slapstick, Kurt VOnnegut
Ballad of Reading Gaul (a poem, probably spelled wrong) Oscar Wilde
My Sister's Keeper-whoever wrote it
Pillars of the Earth- Kevin Follet
Uncle Tom's Cabin- whoever wrote it

As you can see, it can be science fiction, contemporary, classic, satire, poetry, prose...
Just anything that you read and thought, Wow. I have The Book Thief on my list, as my English teacher recommended it.
I also really, really really LOVE screenplays. So if you can help me out here; I'm trying to get past books that are kind of neat to books that rip you apart. Action's not good at doing this, but I'm sure it can happen in that genre,as well.

Thanks so much. I'm currently broke but I will get my hands on your suggestions one way or another, and when I do I'll post my reviews here.

I often find self-help books more 'life-changing' that any other type. The current bestselling 'Outliers' is great, along with Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People etc.

Classic Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie, or maybe the new Have a Little Faith - I haven't read it yet, but my sister has it, tell you more after I've got through it) is moving, too.

And since I haven't read all that many books, I googled it and got this:
http://www.openculture.com/2007/08/life ... picks.html
They come with reviews.
Five of them:
1984 - George Orwell
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Ariel - Sylvia Plath
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Crooked Cucumber – The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
Hope this helped!

Thanks jessica, I just looked at that website and its looks really, really good-- covers a borad range of topics and everything.
I would disagree with them in that Great Expectations didn't elicit anything from me but utter boredom.... but I'm not a Dicken's fan.

Thanks for the thought. Now I just have to decide which I want to read...

Just thought I'd cut in real fast

I've read My Sister's Keeper. Great book! Jodi Picoult wrote it . Just thought I'd let you know.

My life-changers /fiction/:
1. Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
http://www.literature.org/authors/tolst ... er-01.html
- a stylistic atom bomb, with the shattering attention to the most minute behavioral and psychological details, pioneered by Gogol and Lermontov, but perfected by old Leo
2. Karamazov Brothers, Dostoyevski
http://www.online-literature.com/dostoe ... ramazov/1/
- A tribute to the depth of self-deception in which people wrap themselves as self-defence against responsibility. Also sylitically perfect.
3. On the Eve, Turgenev
http://www.online-literature.com/turgenev/on-the-eve/1/
- a style like an un-pretencious and un-decadent Oscar Wilde, a swift dissection of the madness of love in a general context described only like the 19th century Russian literary monsters can.
4. Hero of our time, Lermontov
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/myl/hero.htm
- dazzles with natural panoramas described within a Cooper-like plot, but with emphasis of psychology of course. The very first novel of the modern type, written by a scandalously young military officer, it plunged me into frantic self-questioning combined with aesthetic extasy.
5. Martian Chronicles, Bradbury - who else would describe the martian sands turning into black glass beneath the earthmen rockets landind?
6. Dancers at the End of Time, Moorcock - the most elegant fantasy of the 20th century, which I reread on a yearly basis for the pleasure of it, and the sense of total freedom.
7. Dune, Herbert - an eternal example of what serious sci-fi should be like. Unfortunately spowned dozens of immitators, whose takes at his approach create mind numbing endless courtroom intrigue based magalomanic soap operas
8. Lord of the Rings - the style is like honey. Whenever I open it, by the second page I'm totaly relaxed. An antidote to the frantic paranoia of city life. And when I first read it when I was 10, it sure changed my life
9. Girl, 19, K. Amis - the nearest to a Russian master that I've met in an English writer. Super consice, attentive, non-judgemental and elegant.
10. Generation P, Pelevin - a post-modernist master with a sense of humor which overlaps with mine a 100% Changed my life and outlook on it in many ways

Stewart's "Calculus: Early Transcendentals"

Halliday, Resnick, and Walker's "Fundamentals of Physics."

Like... I consult those two books waaaaay more than I would like to admit. And without those books, I probably wouldn't be doing the awesome things I'm doing!

Harry Potter. It taught me with determination, I can slay voldemort with my magic... Now I just need to find those horcruxes

The only book that ever really changed anything about me was The Giver by Lowry.

It influenced my writing every day. And I have been in love with it forever.

Snoink wrote:Halliday, Resnick, and Walker's "Fundamentals of Physics."

Like... I consult those two books waaaaay more than I would like to admit.

*sheepishly grins in agreement with snoink.*