Lud Heat
Suicide Bridge and White Chapell, Scarlet Tracings by Iain Sinclair. I never thought of the written word in quite the same way afterwards.

La Vie, Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec. Like a whole world somehow shoehorned into a book.

The Illuminatus! & Schrödinger's Cat trilogies by Robert Anton Wilson (and, in the case of Illuminatus!, Robert Shea). Genuinely changed the way I looked at the world and definitely helped set me on the path to my first proper paying job. I was lucky enough to have dinner with Robert Anton Wilson the last time he was in the UK, about twelve years ago and he was every bit as fascinating in person as you'd imagine from the books.
(Wong Fei-Hung - now with added flickr.com (see profile), Thu 15 May 2008, 20:44, Reply)

Wuthering Heights
For some reason the "Powers that be" decided to drop Shakespeare and we got the above mentioned instead. I love reading BUT it was the first book that I could not read.

It changed my life because I was dropped out of the top set for English way down to the CSE group. I only got a grade 2 at exam time and was turned down for so many jobs because I did not have an English GCE O level. I ended up going to night school in my early 20s to get it.

Since then I have managed to read all types of books and decided to buy a copy of the above for myself, thinking I could read it when I was older - no can do. It must be a mental block somewhere.

I love Jane Eyre though.
(whiskas loved by 8 out of 10 cats, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:44, 1 reply)

I read a lot
I usually get through 4 books a week. I have a number of favourite authors, and a few favourite genres, but honestly, I'll read almost anything.
Some books I have read have cast me into depression, others in turn have angered, elated and frustrated me. 'the kite runner' affected me so deeply I have been unable to finish it, and I doubt I will ever go back to it. It's such a heart-rending story, and so well written that I get teary just thinking about it.
The book that has most changed my life, however, is without doubt 'extremely and and incredibly close' by Jonathan Safran-Foer:
www.amazon.com/Extremely-Incredibly-Close-Jonathan-Safran/dp/0618329706

It's such a truly moving study of loss, love and obsession that although I was in floods of tears during parts of it, I felt compelled to finish it. It is the first book I have ever read that made me want to write to the author to thank him for writing it.

Of course, there are bound to be plenty of you that think it's utter bollocks, but hey, that's the joy of opinions - everyone's got one :)
( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:37, 2 replies)

From opposite ends of the spectrum
The secret diary of Adrian Mole. I still read it now, when I first read it the family unit was slowly collapsing, it helped me more than I care to say on this form of website.

Catch 22, that made me realise that sarcasm and satire are the greatest weapons we have ever needed, and that we shouldn't have to resort to international fisty cuffs.
(The_Greyhound wrote www.luckymcdanger.blog.co.uk on, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:31, Reply)

If nobody speaks of remarkable things
By John McGregor

A stunning story about an ordinary street in the north, and what is going on in everyone's lives. Very oddly, almost detachedly written, and yet gives the pleasure that is akin to hearing the first few bars of a song and knowing that you'll love it forever ("La Retournelle" BTW). Sensible twist at the end and heart-wrenchingly human.
(reknaw, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:29, Reply)

I forget the title
But it was an early book (this was back in 1974) on computer programming and "The heuristic approach to algorithms", or something like that. I was in my second last year of high school, and the school go a "computer" - actually, a large programmable calculator about the size of a large typewriter.

My maths teacher was the only staff member that knew anything about computers, so he was given custody of the machine - and asked if I was interested in learning to program it.

34 years later, I'm still programming computers.
(Maclir, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:26, Reply)

I'll have to think long and hard about this
but it has brought to mind a book I read billions of years ago in primary school.

I remember it as the first book I ever actually enjoyed. The story (or what I remember of it) centred around a young girl who meets a young disabled boy in her dreams. The boy is trapped in a house, while outside sinister talking rocks (or something similar) are coming ever closer.

The thing is, I can't remember either how it ends or what it was called. I remember it as being the first thing that freaked me out.
( baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:24, 2 replies)

Earth's Children
a series of books by Jean Auel.

Written around a Cro-Magnon girl raised by Neanderthals and her continuing life story, it made me think of early man in a whole new light.

The characters even have a "creator" myth - and its a woman! Not having made the connection between sex and resulting childbirth, a woman's childbearing ability must have appeared to be some kind of magic.

There are five in the series so far, and I've loved every one.

Oh, and there's lots and lots of sex, if you're into that kind of thing!
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 15 May 2008, 20:23, 4 replies)

1) Nineteen Eighty-Four
First, I'll mention that quite a few books have made an impact on my life. I'm not going to put them all together, or I'll end up writing a bloody story about the stories I've read, then possibly end up comparing, contrasting, pontificating similarities, and.. well, it'd be a very long post, and with all the apologies thrown around, I've figured people don't like 'em long.

Anyway, on to Nineteen Eighty-Four, by Eric Arthur Blair George Orwell.

Back in my GCSE school days, we were forced to read George Orwell's Animal Farm, and to learn the meaning behind every single sentence, and commit one or two chapters to memory, much like many other people here were, I'm sure. Now, as much as I enjoyed the book, and the message behind it, and the accompanying crash-course in Contemporary Russian Revolutionary history, I didn't enjoy the force-feeding of information, nor the subsequent regurgitation under exam conditions. But, this is the education system, and I had to obey.

So, it was with Animal Farm that I first got my teeth into Orwell's work. After my exams, I decided to look into some more, and I found Nineteen Eighty-Four. I'd heard of it before, of course, and I was vaguely aware of its general dystopian theme, but I'd never read it. And I wasn't ready for the depressingly bleak story that lay ahead. The morales to that tale were numerous, and hard-hitting.

Perhaps it was because it was the first book I'd read for leisure since leaving forced-reading education. Or maybe it's just powerful.

The book has made me distrustful of humans. I came to realise that we're all deceptive, plotting, scheming creatures, and that even the most precious of our morales, standards and beliefs will crumble when faced with threat.

We are also capable of the greatest betrayal. O'Brien, the utter bastard, with his honeypot for catching dissenters, in order to crush their soul, has probably made me more wary of relationships in which I need to trust the other person, than any number of bad relationships could.

And the emotion at the end of the book.. what is it? Am I glad that Winston's suffering is over? Do I feel sorry for him? Am I angry at him?

Or is it deeper? Am I reflecting more on the millions of people who just get swept up by the norm? Celebrity culture, wild patriotism, the youths who hate because they hate, the people who'll eat low-cal foods because "low-cal = good" has been drummed into their brain?

Moreso than Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four has given me a political eye. It has- perhaps ironically- made me a fan of the principles of Glasnost & Perestroika (Гла́сность и Перестройка), as so beloved by Mikhail Gorbachev.

I'll stop here, though, as this is probably longer than it needs to be.

Apologies for length; but at least you can trust me on it.
( Thinker, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:14, 2 replies)

Anne of Green Gables
Didn't so much change my life as provide a bloody good escape from it when I needed it.

And you're all kindred spirits, might I add.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:09, 1 reply)

please dont laugh
When I was growing up I was a shy little ¼y (before I grew into my current ½yness) and didn't have a lot of friends, because of this I read a lot of my parents books and so have a strange love of

Bernard Cornwells Sharpe series, long before it was Beaned up as a tv series (the battle scenes were embarrassing, not enough people!!) I read and re-read them written in sequence throughout the napoleonic war.

However I have some issues, basically the fact he got all famous and started jamming new Sharpe books in left right and centre. Look we have all (figuratively speaking) read Sharpes Waterloo, we know he was still alive then so adding another book based in 1810 just fucks the continuity up big time

edit: because of my folks have also got a large aount of Douglas Reeman, Hornblower books and have read more Dick Francis than should be acceptable (i.e. more than 1!)
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:09, 1 reply)

HHGTTG
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, possibly the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Douglas Adams' head. Did this book change my life? I find it astonishing to what degree it did, and how far reaching an effect it had on my young mind.

I first came across a copy of the book when I was 11. It was quite by chance that I had forgotten to bring any books with me for the long flight home, and so I was desperately scouring an airport bookshop full of chicklit and thrillers. I picked up a book for no other reason than the cover interested me. Looking back, it was an incredibly random cover for the book - 42 roughly egg-shaped things floating in a grid with a scenic snow-capped mountain backdrop - I have no idea. I decided it would do.

I was unsure about the book as I first read it. I was used to the ready comedic style of Terry Pratchett and this was far drier - yet it felt good, far more sophisticated, clever, and then the moments that grabbed me, the throwaway lines. Things stuck in my head - digital watches, disused lavatories emblazoned with 'beware of the leopard', Dentrassi underwear and then Marvin, oh Marvin! Slowly but surely I fell completely and utterly head over heels in love. I couldn't stop reading it, I was completely immersed. Suddenly, the book stopped. I went out and bought 'Restaurant', the story continued and I was happy. None of my friends were geeky or at all into science or sci-fi, and so I had my own private world to enjoy. A couple of years later, as my friends had started to read it I felt a pang of sorrow - it was no longer a private world.

My mum was immensely pleased that I liked HHGTTG. She'd heard the radio plays when they'd first been broadcast and raved about them to me. Then, for my 12th birthday she got me the cassettes - the entire series on tape. Not the books read onto tape, but the radio plays as they'd been re-recorded from the original scripts. At first, as with the book, I was dubious. I was so attached to the book that anything different seemed strange, and the plays differed from the books! Horror! But there was something about it, the energy, the madness, the inspired genius that grabbed me. So much freer, so much less constrained than the books, I became obsessed by the radio version. By the time I was 13 I knew the entire thing off by heart, the exact tones and inflections, the pauses beats and awkward stumbles. Now memorised, it was a part of me, it was there, I could use it at will and just be safe in the knowledge that deep in my brain was a part that forever remained trapped between being Arthur and Marvin.

I remember when the news came out of Douglas' death. I was heartbroken, but I still had HHGTTG there and that was enough. Over the years I have met and connected with so many people through a love and knowledge of HHGTTG and it has brought me closer to a group of friends who I love, adore and can have fantastic conversations with on a high intellectual level and on an off-the wall flight of fancy imagination trip level.

Nothing can really convey how I feel about this book. I just phoned to wash my head at you.
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:05, 5 replies)

Is it just me
Or could J.R.R. Tolkien not actually write?

I finally got round to finishing LOTR about 3 years ago, and it struck me that whilst he could write a fantastic, convoluted plot with loads of backstory and footnotes, none of the characters has much development in a book spanning three decades and 1000+ pages, he has no talent for describing things, and his fight/battle scenes are coma-inducingly tedious?

Having read fantasy authors such as Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, even Terry Pratchett who can make you care about their characters and actually explore their motivations and feelings a bit, describe scenery in a bit more detail than "there was a big mountain" and produce fight scenes that actually make your pulse quicken, am I being completely heretical, or do I have a point?

Slightly off-topic I know, but several people have already named LOTR as life-changing, but I can't say it would have changed my life if it had been the first fantasy book I'd read. It may even have put me off.
(Axeman Jim, Thu 15 May 2008, 20:03, 12 replies)

The Catcher in the Rye
I bought this book a while ago. Usually, I don't buy books, I don't have the time (or the effort) to read, but this one sort of found its way into my arms.

I know its just human nature to relate things, like seeing patterns in clouds, but I couldn’t help it with this book.

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, goes to a private school. I did too... I'm a posh bastard, and not afraid to admit it. I hated every single second of it though.

He says in the opening chapter, that the more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has. I can confirm, that this is 100% true. Most people at my school were thieving cnuts and I hated them.

One of his Holden’s friends, (Ackley) is a big, dumb, lazy, insecure lad, who is often lying about his sexual encounters.... that would be my best friend Morgan then...

There is a teacher at Holden’s school called Mr. Spencer. There was a Mr. Spencer at my school, but he's a communist, and I despised him.

Anyway, in the story Holden runs away, to New York, and although I’ve never done that myself, the fact that I seriously considered leaving for good, without telling a soul is basically parallel.

The final thing about the book, is that like my teenage years, I thought it was utter shite...

Something else I found out about, post reading the book, as that John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, also hugely identified with the book, and believed himself to be Holden.

Bugger.

I may have to go and kill a musician turned peace activist.

I choose Bono.
(DanS like you've never DanSed before!, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:59, 10 replies)

Not me, my mum ...
is a huuuuge fan of Catherine Cookson and her ilk.

Staying at mum's one time while our new bathroom was fitted, I had reverted to childhood.

"Muuuuum, I'm boooooored. Got any good books?"

She handed me her newest book from CC's extensive catalogue. I got about forty pages in and abandoned the attempt. I went off and cleaned her kitchen floor, because it was either that or slit my wrists. I had no idea until then that a book could be so depressing.

When she realised I'd chucked the horrid thing back on the shelf, mum wanted to know why I hadn't kept reading. She wasn't impressed when I told her I'd rather go down to the Registrar's Office and read the death certificates. It would almost certainly be cheerier reading.

I've no idea why my mum (and all her friends) enjoy these books so much. From what I can make out, they've all got similar plot-lines revolving around unmarried mothers and grinding poverty. With occasional rape thrown in for a bit of light relief.

Any Catherine Cookson readers on here who can enlighten me?
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 15 May 2008, 19:54, 6 replies)

'Good Omens' by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
In my opinion, two of the best British writers alive today. I have read this book at least 5 times, and I'll probably read it again in the future. It never fails to raise a chuckle, and I've actually burst out laughing on a packed train while reading (one way to get a seat all to yourself).

It's essentially about the battle between heaven and hell, and the latter's attempts to bring about Armageddon by introducing the antichrist to the world. However, owing to a mix-up at the maternity wards, the antichrist ends up being taken home by an English accountant, rather than the American ambassador. I don't want to spoil any more of the plot - let me just say that if you haven't read this book, I can't recommend it enough. It's funny, intelligent, thought-provoking and witty, with just a hint of pathos brilliantly peppered throughout. The characters are all memorable and brilliantly realised, and every line is quotable. I could sing it's praises from now until the end of time, but I think it's best to leave you with a quote.

"God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
(Pavlov's Frog figures no-one really reads sigs anyway, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:52, 8 replies)

"Address Unknown" by Kressmann Taylor
It's a very short book, you'll finish it within an hour, but it's well work it. Told in a series of letter, it's about two former business partners keeping in touch between Germany and America. The thing is...well. Read it. No spoilers here. (Beware - Amazon reviews may spoil it.)

Changed my life by bringing home the truth about people's understanding a period of history. Note : contains no crudely drawn cocks.
( Tepid_Halibut felt like a cold, empty shell of a human...until, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:48, Reply)

Treasure Island
...no, it's not what you think.

When I was about 14, my mum decided that I was reading the 'wrong' books - mostly non-fiction, newspapers or magazines, and needed an injection of Literature(tm). To that end she attempted to force me to read the aforementioned Treasure Island along with Kidnapped and The Hobbit.

In one of my earliest acts of teenage rebellion, I sped-read Treasure Island so fast I don't remember a thing to this day and simply pretended to read the other two. I carried on reading what I wanted to read, and continue to do so to this day. I don't think I've lost anything, quite frankly.

Refusing to read Treasure Island proved to me that I should develop my own voice as a reader, and, later, as a writer. I won't learn anything about language by reading 200 year-old books; English has moved on since then. You can learn more about effective use of English by reading a Charlie Brooker or Jeremy Clarkson column than you will from reading Shakespeare. And you won't gain any imagination from reading "classics" either, it's something you have or you don't. There's only about 6 basic plots anyway, and they're recycled over and over in every book, film and video game.

So now I write, not for a living (although I have been published once or twice, and, in my proudest moment ever, made the b3ta newsletter last week, yay!), but for joy and to express myself. Skill with English has always helped me in work, and as I have a fairly creative job at the moment I can derive satisfaction from that.

And I still haven't read Treasure pissing Island.
(Axeman Jim, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:46, Reply)

Brookmyre and Banks
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre. For those who haven't read it, it revolves around a school reunion and a bunch of terrorists, an unbeatable combination I'm sure. This is the book that finally gave me pause to think about and consequently forget permanently, the majority of the cuntbuckets I had to put up with at school.

The Crow Road by Iain Banks, this is a Scottish family saga spanning a few decades. The protagonist discovers the truth about his close and extended family and just how supremely messed up they are, but still manages to find love and happiness. This book simply resonated with me on a personal level, along with a few worrying parallels; I'm still working on the love and happiness part though.

Length, couple of hundred pages each, easily
(ShiftyBastard won the World Cup on World Soccer Champs 2010!, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:45, 3 replies)

Didn't actually change my life, but
The Novelization of 'The Mummy Returns'.

When I was about 6 or 7 me and my brother shared a room and had a bunk-bed. It was common for us to read for a little while before we went to sleep and we would often talk for a while afterwards. Anyway, one night my brother (Jake) was reading the aforementioned novel and, all of a sudden, leant over the side of his bunk and said 'Listen to this'
He then read a sentence from the book. It went something along the lines of 'Lok-Nah turned purple with rage'.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, Lok-Nah was a big black guy.

I was a bit confused as to why Jake had read this out to me and asked why he had read it.

Me: Why did you read that?
Jake: It says he turned purple with rage.
Me: So?
Jake: He's black. How could he turn purple?

To my childish mind, this was fucking hilarious and I didn't stop laughing for at least 5 minutes. After a while I had calmed down and, after wiping the tears from my eyes, I got back to whatever it was I was reading. Until Jake leant over again.

Jake: Listen
Me: What?
Jake: 'Lok-Nah turned white with fear'

I almost died.
(littlenipple hate's bad grammar, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:39, 1 reply)

It didn't change me at all, but my favourite book ever has to be
"Goodnight Mister Tom" by Michelle Magorian. I don't have a clue why I got or where I got it from either. I now sometimes skip out the part where Willie has to go back home to his mum though. A few weeks later I bought it for my best friend for her birthday, and a few weeks after that I studied it at school (year 7/8 I think). But this didn't change my love for it as it was already my favourite book and the only book that I have studied that I can still bear.

And for my favourite non-fiction "One Red Paperclip" by Kyle Macdonald, it's just such an interesting adventure and show's how truly anything is possible (with enough media coverage!)
(deadly_sinners, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:38, 1 reply)

Volume 1 & 2 of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
A brilliantly twisted view of many folklore characters melded into various situations; was rather unfortunate to suffer from the bastardisation of cinema, but there again when 1st scene in the original story involved one of the main "anti-heroes" almost getting raped, you knew it wasn't going to happen onscreen. Twas good to see many old horror story characters melded together and the friction which occured; especially as when I was a kid I used to love watching the horror films from the 40's to the 60's.

Am reading the "Commonwealth Saga" by Peter F. Hamilton at the mo, on "Judas Unchained". Cracking sci-fi for you lackies if you aint heard of it.
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:37, 4 replies)

The bible changed my life.
Before that I never believed that a colaborative work of fiction could be so bloodthirsty but still be alowed to be read by children!
( riverghost servicing your mum since, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:32, 1 reply)

An author who has shaped my writing
is a rather obscure sci-fi author named Jack Vance.

One of the things that people have commented on over the years is how visual my stories tend to be, with a lot of detail to colors and textures and food and anything else to evoke sensations. I also often use rather dry humor and bits of absurdity which kind of hit the reader by surprise.

Guess who I learned that from?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 15 May 2008, 19:29, 3 replies)

Join Me
By Danny Wallace

It taught me to stop taking life so fucking seriously. Sometimes acting on impulse gives you the best life. So what if run off on some mad quest? Isn't that what life is there for - to live?

And doing nice things for the very sake of doing them, not because you think some spaghetti monster will look kindly upon you if you do. For a short period in my life I gave flowers to Mormons, gave flasks of hot tea to the first homeless guy I saw of an evening (no matter what they smelled of).

I've fallen out of practice lately. I need to pick up the good book and read it again.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:26, 1 reply)

All Creatures Great and Small
all Creatures is the story of a young man that's just graduated veterinary school and the trials and tribulations he faces while establishing his practice.

Tis one of the best books ever written. I've read it many, many times over the years. Not only is it a great read with interesting characters and cuddly vet stories, but it taught me that men can be compassionate, caring, strong and love tiny little animals. Really, I learned a lot about how to be a man from that book.

I urge anyone with children to let them read this book around puberty.

It's also got a great bit where he's elbow deep in a sheep trying to pull out a ewe - if you're into that kinda thing.
(apathymilkshake, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:25, 2 replies)

I love the vast majority of the books mentioned so far
Books have always been important to me - When I was about 8, my family set off on summer holiday and got half way to the airport before realising I wasn't in the car with them - I was under the dining table, reading.
A couple which I haven't seen mentioned yet:
"Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban - A vision of Kent, millenia after a nuclear apocalypse. Written in a debased English, it makes me want to sing and cry at the same time.
"The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien - When people don't realise they are in hell, and involves love between a man and his bicycle.
"An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (Or 2000 years of upper class idiots in charge)" by John O'Farrell - The title says it all.

I've just remembered - "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" by Robert Tressell. Everyone who works or wants to work should read this.
(onefishtwofish Redfishbluefish, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:23, 3 replies)

I've given this one a lot of thought.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - My dad started reading these to me when I was about seven, and I re-read them as often as I possibly can. They were the first books to properly suck me into their world, and I still remember exactly how I saw everything when I first had them read to me.

Lolita - An experience from my first year of uni. Having taken a tall, skinny goth with velvet clothes, ringlet curls and a lip ring home from a house party, we spent the next twelve or so hours talking about books, and he mentioned this as one of his favourites. I was amazed by how much he'd read and how well he could quote it; not just Lolita, but everything else he was passionate about, it was one of the most geekily erotic things I've ever experienced. Immediately, I went out and read it and loved it: yes, it is about a pervert, but if you ignore that, it's a story of ultimately unrequited love that moves me every time I read it.

Last Chance - A teenie pulp novel that's ultimately about overcoming your fears and learning to love yourself the way you are, that I re-read whenever I feel like everything is hopeless.

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Much darker in tone than the film; whereas the fact Holly is a call girl is glossed over in the film, it's light, but has a real gritty undertone to it that appeals to me.

Empress Orchid - At first, this was the only book I had with me in Pervland and I read it over and over so as to have something to do in the evenings. I don't normally enjoy historical novels but this one moved me.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - One of my all-time favourite books, recommended to me by a dear friend, and one I re-read as often as I can. If you can read it, and not at least go "oh no!" at least once, you're made of stone.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Having re-read this more times than I can count, it does actually read a little like a thesis rather than a book, but it drew me in and made me want to move to Japan and pour tea forever.

Shanghai Baby - I'm the first person to admit I really, really enjoy Oriental books, and this is no exception: it's wistful, it's erotic, it's fluffy, it's everything. The same for the sequel, Marrying Buddha.

I loathe almost everything I've had to read for school and uni, because I had to analyse them to death before I could appreciate them in their own right (like someone else has said before on this thread about To Kill A Mockingbird). The books I loathe include: War Horse, An Inspector Calls, Grinny (shat me up), Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Brave New World, 1984, and recently anything to do with organised crime.

Also, don't get me started on Harry Potter. Ever.
( Maladicta, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:13, 10 replies)

A few more that really deserve a mention
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and John Lloyd - I'd bought a boxload of old comics from a car boot sale on a Saturday morning and spent the afternoon sorting them out. Three of them turned out to be issues of V for Vendetta, something I'd heard of in Pop Will Eat Itself lyrics but never read. I think they were issues 6, 7 and 8. At first I thought it was a bit dull and wasn't getting into the story very easily - I suppose jumping in more than halfway through didn't help - but then something clicked in my brain and I raced out of the house to the nearest comic shop to pick up the graphic novel. I got home and read it cover to cover. By the time I finished I was in tears. Then I picked it up and read it again. By about 11pm I'd read it three times. The phone rang - I was supposed to have met my new girlfriend for a date that evening. She wasn't my girlfriend any more. I didn't care though, I'd discovered something far better. Alan Moore truly does know the score.

Neuromancer by William Gibson - I've seen this mentioned once already, and suspect it will be a popular choice. This one really did change my life, I went from being a print graphic designer to a web developer almost immediately after reading it. Now I'm in Singapore, living the Gibson lifestyle to the full. Pretty much all of his other books are just as good (Pattern Recognition and Spook Country are fantastic real-world sci-fi), but this is the one I've read about 60 times and keep coming back to...every time I find something new in it.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - again, this one has been mentioned before in this QOTW but it was when I found that I'd bought it for my stepdad for Christmas and he'd bought it for me, and in the end (since Christmas was a few weeks away) we agreed to keep and read the copies we had, that I realised how well we were going to get on together. Shortly afterwards I managed to snag two tickets to see Dawkins speak at the Oxford Union debating chambers (the final date on his God Delusion tour) and we went together. It was an absolutely brilliant night and I got to ask the great man himself a question, then we went for a curry and a beer. My stepdad's marrying my mum this year and she's asked me to give her away (despite her dad still being alive), which I suppose is pretty life-changing.

The Transformers by Simon Furman - at the time the best-selling weekly comic in the UK and it still resonates with me now, because Furman never wrote down to kids, he included all kinds of graphic violence, complicated time-travel plotlines and realistic characters that truly breathed life into those toys I had...and still have. About 600 of them now. I've helped organise conventions, written and produced my own comics and last month I got a Decepticon tattoo. I've also made some very good friends amongst fellow Transfans and as we all turned 30 recently someone commented how "Furman's children are growing up...wait, that sounds wrong." He's still writing the comics to this day (nearly 25 years in the business) and I'll keep reading them until he stops.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:08, 4 replies)

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Hilarious and disturbing.

You start reading it and think "Christ, this is boring". 'I wear this, I wear that, I shave with this' etc etc, lulling you in to a false sense of security. You read on. You start getting horny through reading the sex scenes and then all of a sudden POW! Patrick's stabbing a tramp and stamping on a dog.

How's it changed my life? Every time myself and Mrs Smurf make love, I just cannot help but think of popping her eyeball with a sharp knife.

No really.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:04, 1 reply)