Most Influential Books Ever.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

WHATS ON YOUR LIST OF TEN MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF ALL TIMES?

Toy way of thinking most lists are populated with bullshit. I mean, when was the last time F. Scott Fitzgerald or Maya Angelou had any impact on your life? Never?

Topping my list is A FIVE DAY COURSE IN THINKING by Edward de Bono. Its a skinny, simple book with 5 puzzles to solve over 5 days time. Like....build a suspension bridge with 2 glasses of water and 3 knives; make it stout enough to hold a glass of water at the center of the span.

CHANGE YOUR MIND AND KEEP THE CHANGE by Richard Bandler/John Grinder.
When you change you, you force everyone else to change, too. Rocking the boat with integrity.

 

[harding]

I don't know about five, but for good or evil (in my opinion mostly evil) they have got to be the Bible and the Koran.

If you mean personally, anything by John Steinbeck.

 

[trysail]

Here's a start:

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

De Motu Cordis by William Harvey

Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? by Albert Einstein

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus

 

[squarejohn]

Leaving holy scriptures aside, one that comes to mind is Das Kapital

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Penick's Little Red Bood, by Harvey Penick

 

[KillerMuffin]

Excluding religious scriptures/sutras

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (they're constantly being recycled).

Shapespeare: The Complete Works of Shakespeare (again with the being recycled).

Marx: Das Kapital (seconded!)

Milton: Paradise Trilogy (Milton = poetry god)

Journey to the West (a Chinese book that's constantly being recycled)

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

Weird but for me, Catcher in the Rye got me hooked. I don't know what it was about J. D. Salinger's character Holden Caulfield, but that's what started me down this road. It was almost, as if he was writing about me and I found out later that a lot of kids my age felt the same way about that particular book. As it turns out, it was a dangerous book for many mentally disturbed men.

We all know the story of the two celebrities and one president, two were murdered and one was wounded while the shooter held the book.

Then, of course, there was Hemingway's Old Man in the Sea and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Even though I am a total movie buff, love movies, the book is always better. I remember reading Benchley's Jaws and before that being hooked on James Michner's descriptions. Books take you where you'd never otherwise go.

By the time I got to high school, my reading material was already at English college level.

Yet, now that I think about it, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson got me hooked on reading.

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

Here's a start:

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

De Motu Cordis by William Harvey

Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? by Albert Einstein

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus

I like the way you think, but believe there's more to life than old science...

(and excluding the obvious Bible and Koran)

Ditto on #1's 1 and 2.

Add Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Throw in A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson

Finish with the 'other' Bible: C Programming Language, Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie

Ok, a little tongue in cheek. I'd say just to go with the St Johns Reading List. If it's not on there, it didn't really matter

 

[trysail]

....Throw in A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson

Finish with the 'other' Bible: C Programming Language, Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie

Ok, a little tongue in cheek. I'd say just to go with the St Johns Reading List. If it's not on there, it didn't really matter

Obviously, there's enough ambiguity in the OP that there have been very different responses.


Hell, if you going to do a dictionary of the English language, why not go with the sui generis, nonpareil O.E.D.?


If only Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce had written a book— that'd have been an easy choice!


Medicine is an area that ought to be included; unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with a single overarching work— Harvey was the best I could think of.


St. Johns! I wish I'd thought of that; it would have saved me a lot of time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John's_College_(United_States)

 

[bronzeage]

When I was 12, I read a book titled, Automotive Chassis and Suspension.

In retrospect, it was a mistake to do this. It was the most influential book in my life. I should have chose my influences more carefully.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Obviously, the there's enough ambiguity in the OP that there have been very different responses.


Hell, if you going to do a dictionary of the English language, why not go with the sui generis, nonpareil O.E.D.?


If only Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce had written a book— that'd have been an easy choice!


Medicine is an area that ought to be included; unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with a single overarching work— Harvey was the best I could think of.


St. Johns! I wish I'd thought of that; it would have saved me a lot of time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John's_College_(United_States)

Maybe its ambiguous to you; ma be it invites others to reconsider what truly influences them.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

Some may say this is a geeky answer, but I'd have to put Tolkien up on the list.

The Hobbit and LOTR have had profound influence in all parts of the world for 50 plus years. They inspired art, music and imagination in almost everyone that has read the stories. He truly made a quantum leap in using imagination and showing us how to create a complete and detailed fantasy world.