Sorry for no great revelations here
Spike Milligan - Adolf Hitler, my [part in his downfall. and his other war diaries.
Some of the funniest, most rivetting and most poignantly 'human' books I've ever read.

Favourite quote, that still makes me laugh when I just think of it, but without the full text here it'll have to be a paraphrase.
"Letters from the Draft Office kept arriving. Eventually I opened one. It contained a cunningly worded invitation to take part in World War Two. 'The king must think very highly of you to send all these letters.' said my mother. Laughing, I felled her with a right cross."

Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Gave me my name and reminded me after a hiatus that reading for pleasure is wonderful. This book more than anything else gave me the mental step between being merely intellectually aware of racism and feeling the real, pointless horror of it in some way.

Richard Laymon's horror books and Richard Morgan's 'Takeshi Kovacs' novels - One lot are massively gory and spooky, the others are violently, futuristically fun. For indulgent pleasure reading with little or no highbrow redeeming features look no further.

Pratchett and Gaiman - Discovered together through Good Omens, both these authors have been a reliable source of enjoyment for year upon year. Every copy I have of any of their books is battered, cracked, folded and stained from being read over and over, when at home, when I'm ill, when eating, in the bath, when I should be asleep... Whenever I run out of money/time and haven't any new books to read it's always a Discworld book I reach for to tide me over.
The Sandman comics (call them Graphic Novels if you like) are the only ones I've ever bought in trade paperback and are worth re-reading too. The Corinthian is still the best villain ever. "A nightmare created to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront."

Gray's Anatomy - The amazing illustrations showed me the insane and beautiful complexity found inside people and put me on the path to a degree in Anatomy and Human Biology.

Patricia Cornwell's 'Kay Scarpetta' novels. Aside from taking the concept of "strong female lead" to astonishingly over-the-top heights, these gave me a mild interest in pathology/forensics.
I've always been attracted to the idea of some kind of law enforcement, ever since I first noticed that a lot of humanity is fucking horrible to each other through a kind of low-grade, ignorant disregard for each other, rather than deliberate evil. It turned out that the reality of forensic science was far, far more interesting than these books and that's why I now do it for a living.

The bible - I was raised C of E. I spent a dozen years learning that "this is what Jesus did and is the truth" versus "This is what other people believe", before waking up to the fact that I didn't believe any of them, and had independently concluded that people should be nicer to each other because it's right, not because of god, and that religion in an organised church is un-necessary and frequently counterproductive.

Oooh, I want to write much more, but sadly (thanks to Patricia Cornwell) I've got to go put on a silly costume (scrubs, hat, mast, gloves, lab coat, more gloves) and try and fight crime.

edit for being a div:
I forgot the most important one!
Relatively recently I read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon - It's the best, most enjoyable book I've read in probably a decade. Go and read it.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Tue 20 May 2008, 9:55, 3 replies)

A mast?
Are you some kind of sea-borne crime-avenger? Sailing the seven seas with the wind in your gown, taking you wherever crime may have struck on the oceans (or at least near to shore)?

You could sell your story to Jerry Bruckheimer as a pirate-themed CSI-alike show.
( Ghoti Fingers, Tue 20 May 2008, 10:40, closed)

damn damn damn damn damn
my spacky fingers.
_{MASK, like the crusaders}
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Tue 20 May 2008, 11:09, closed)

Spike Milligan
I nearly pissed myself reading Hitler MY PART.Always liked him,sadly missed ...
(andycrass loves two hats on, Wed 21 May 2008, 3:19, closed)