1.The Bible (so many forms of literature, and existential questions asked and wisdom given!)
(the following in no particular order of importance)
2. The Concrete Jungle
3. Catcher in the Rye
4. Run Rabbit Run
5. The Kite Runner
6. Susan Howatch's 7 novels on the Anglican Church (though they are really about behavior and their short and long-term consequences)
7. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons for reigniting theolgical discussion in a culture that has greeted it with a yawn for years, even if the theology is weak since it is based on weak historical foundations.
8. The Road Less Traveled
9. The Agony and the Ecstasy
10. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Most influential, from what I've read.

The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner - first time I read this, I had no freakin' clue what was happening in the 1st 'diary'

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell - just finished reading it. Amazing book, that I think may go down as a 21st century classic.

Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

This is a great idea for a thread, and when I get more time to think about it I'll post a list.

Sorry, but I have to add one more book that was very influential for me. I loved "Empire Falls." The "systemic" relationships that define town reveal so much about human nature. We can find ourselves in every character which is always an element in a good book. I have read the book twice this year.

I guess I missed this somehow. The Bible is probably the most poetic and beautiful book I've ever read. I understand that some people are afraid of it, but just read the first few chapters of Genesis, and you will be compelled beyond belief (at least literarily). Psalms and Proverbs are also incredibly poetic, but hell, there is a reason why James I put all his best poets/writers into translating The Book. Of course, I highly recommend all of Jesus' words in the New Testament; not to proselytize, but to open your mind to beautiful language.

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
I guess I missed this somehow. The Bible is probably the most poetic and beautiful book I've ever read. I understand that some people are afraid of it, but just read the first few chapters of Genesis, and you will be compelled beyond belief (at least literarily). Psalms and Proverbs are also incredibly poetic, but hell, there is a reason why James I put all his best poets/writers into translating The Book. Of course, I highly recommend all of Jesus' words in the New Testament; not to proselytize, but to open your mind to beautiful language.

Thank you for recognizing the value of the Bible as a source of great literature, even if one does not accept all of its teaching. There is also a sense of wonder about the Bible related to it as a collection of various literary forms by probably at least 30 or more authors. For a collection of so many literary forms, written by a myriad of writers spanning hundreds of years of history, and containing a common theme of God's interaction with the human creature is mind-boggling! Thank you for realizing one can appreciate the Bible for reasons other than theology.

1. Carl Sagan - "The Demon Haunted World" - This one's not so much for the content (though it was a fantastic book) but because it was one of the first science books I read while in high school and it inspired me to read a lot more science stuff.

2. Noam Chomsky - "Understanding Power" - This is a collection of essays and speeches from Chomsky, and it really influenced my political outlook. Again, like #1, it also propelled me into other political books.

3. Isaac Asimov - "The Roving Mind" - A collection of essays on science and a number of other topics, this was the first Asimov book I ever read, and I've since read dozens and dozens of his books, mostly his non-ficton stuff.

4. Richard Dawkins - "The Selfish Gene" - Seminal book on evolution. Taught me a lot about it that I didn't know and led me to read almost all his other books.

5. Mark Twain - "The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts" - This was the last book Twain worked on, and though he didn't quite finish it, he had two versions almost finished and another partway done. They're really entertaining, and they portray a rather bleak view of the human race, which for some reason I find really funny/appealing/true.

6. John Steinbeck - "The Grapes of Wrath" - I read this while recovering from bilateral lower-leg fasciotomies during my senior year in high school. Great book, great message.

7. Paul Weidensaul - "Raptors: An Almanac" - I've been in love with birds of prey since I was in 1st grade, and this is my favorite raptor book.

8. Donald J. Sobol - "Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective" - If not for this Idaville sleuth and his hot sidekick Sally Kimball (I always imagined her as being hot), I never would've developed my critical thinking skills.

9. Steven Pinker - "How the Mind Works" - Really good book based largely on evolutionary psychology. I've actually read it twice, and it's like 700 pages long.

10. Woody Allen - "Side Effects" - Along with "Getting Even" and "Without Feathers," also by Allen, this is the funniest book ever.

I probably forgot some stuff. I may add it later.

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9. Steven Pinker - "How the Mind Works" - Really good book based largely on evolutionary psychology. I've actually read it twice, and it's like 700 pages long.

I would take a lot of what you learn from Steven Pinker with a big grain of salt, especially in his books. He has a very poor reputation among cognitive scientists. In particular, it is his unchecked reliance on evolutionary psychology, and use of just-so stories that make his work hard to take seriously. Although evolution certainly played a large part in our psychological make-up, and as such, there probably is a just-so story to tell, there is no good way that I know of to make them scientifically useful, in that there is no way good way to test one story against another. For now, evolutionary psychology is essentially a bunch of hypotheses with no way to fill out the rest of the scientific method on them. For a list of really good cognitive science writing go to this link of the hundred most influential works in cognitive science.

http://www.cogsci.umn.edu/OLD/calendar/past_events/millennium/top100.html

Read Turing's 1950 paper for some of the most charismatic and pursuasive (although I think ultimately wrong, or at the very least over-extended by his followers) writing I've come across, and then move on to Shannon's article on information theory if you really want to feel stupid (seriously, I've read through it carefully, and I still can't get much more than the broad picture of what he is doing.)

Thanks for the link, KLT. The only thing is, I'm not terribly interested in how influential a book was so much as how accurate and up-to-date it is. If cognitive science were my professional field or something I'd read that kind of stuff, but I'm just an armchair type. I feel like if I read something from the 50's I'd constantly be asking myself if what the author is saying has been disproven in the last 50 years.

I really like Pinker, partly because he's such a fantastic writer. I really don't know enough about cognitive science to defend him against other neuroscientists, but I do think evolutionary psychology is an effective way to explore much of our mental capacities and characteristics.

I actually just picked up a couple cognitive science books at the library a few days ago. One was by Michael Gazzaniga (who I notice had a book on that top-100 list) and the other was by VS Ramachandran. I haven't started them yet (I'm currently reading a book on the origins of and explanations for our love of music by Stephen Mithen), but I'll get to them soon. Are you at all familiar with those two guys?

When I was at college in Vermont I took a J-term course called "Cognitive Neuroscience." Our textbook was called "Mapping the Mind" (I think by Rita Carter though I'm only sure about the first name), and I loved it. We also read stuff by Gazzaniga and Ramachandran, which is where I got the idea to check out their books.

Definately picked up two great authors there RL. No complaints from me about either of them. Gazzaniga pretty much created (or at least named) the field of cognitive neuroscience. Pinker is definately a great writer, and that is part of why he is a bit dangerous. It is easy to get wrapped up in his great writing and not his thinking. Anyway, let me know what you think of the two you just checked out.

Sorry, I'm going to have to break the rules a little. It's going ot have to be a more general discussion for me. Two great passions in my life are writing and religious studies, so you can imagine the difficulties in assembling such a list of ten. These will not necessarily be specific books, but authors whose books in general have influenced me. The first five are fiction entries, the second five are non-fiction entries. Beyond that there is no order and they are not ranked.

1. John Barth - Pretty much anything, but to name a few: Chimera, Lost in the Funhouse, The Floating Opera.

2. William H. Gass - The Tunnel

Both of the above authors experimeted with form and structure. Barth especially got me very interested in meta-fiction.

3. William Gaddis - Again, all of his, but to name one: Carpenter's Gothic.

4. Ernest Hemingway - His short fiction. I never really liked a lot of his novels, but his short fiction is perfection on the page.

5. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Anything, but my obvious choice is One Hundred Years of Solitude. Magical Realism is very difficult to make sound nautral, and he is the master.

6. Mircea Eliade - Everything of his I have read has influenced me, but one series in particular is his A History of Religious Ideas. It starts with the stone age and runs through the age of reforms.

7. Paul Tillich - Dynamics of Faith. What is that in which you place your ultimate concern?

8. Lawrence Kushner - Honey from the Rock. My love is Judaic studies, especially the mystical teachings, and this is the book that got me started.

9. Gershom Scholem - Anything. Two I'll mention are On the Kabbalah and It's Symbolism and Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. This is not Madonna's Kabbalah.

10. Abraham Joshus Heschel - Anything. Again, I'll mention two: God in Search of Man and The Sabbath. If you ever have an afternoon to kill, read The Sabbath. It's pretty short, but the ideas within weigh a ton!

11. I almost forgot! Martin Buber - Anything, but I and Thou in particular.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PRG,

I'm gonna work at this in pieces and in no particular order but ten books that have been influential in my life:

The Bible - It is a book that colors my choices daily

"Where the Wild Things Are" - Perhaps my first loved/feared book

The Watchmen - A book that stretches, defines, and loves an important genre

The Lord of the Rings - My most read books (5 times)

im going to have to agree with craigster on Faulkner's The sound and the Fury, although i might be particularly partial to him seeing as he is from my hometown..

some more of my favorite and most influential books would have to be..
1.the kite runner
2.haunted by chuck palahniuk
3.catcher in the rye
4.brave new world
5.the cheese monkeys
6.ethan fromme

The funny part about this, for me, is that my answer is short, simple, and sweet.

Hermann Hesse Siddhartha

I first read this when I was 16 and have, at least once a year, ever since. The beautiful part is that it is never a waste each time I do it.