Your Three Most Influential Books

[Marsellus Wallace]

catcher in the rye, phonies....phonies everywhere

[Anima]

Collected Works of Aristotle, Plato, and Various Philosophers
Critiques of Immanuel Kant

Then I would say it is tie between The Wealth of Nations, In Praise of Folly, and The Little Prince!

[Ravenshire]

I've got to say, I've read so widely that I cannot pin down particular books as the most influential. How about most influential authors?
In no particular order:
Douglas Adams
Parke Godwin
Carl Sagan
Charles Dickens
Neil Gaiman

[Thumpalumpacus]

As a reader:

Dune, by Frank Herbert. Between that book and high-school geometry, I got a good start to the art of analysis -- albeit a late one.

Cosmos, from Carl Sagan (though I could easily have inserted Dragons of Eden, or Randi's Flim-flam! in this spot as well) -- all these books furthered the beginnings of analytics, for me, by demonstrating book-length examples.

Catcher in the Rye really resonated with me -- I was an outcast in high-school, and the alienation in the book spoke to me almost directly.

As a writer:

On the Road, because the style was so left-field that it taught me about writing as painting pictures, rather than writing as exposition or writing as art.

On Writing, from Stephen King, has much great advice for writers of all levels in it.

A Farewell to Arms taught me to write sparely, but be florid when the moment demands it.

But if you asked me tomorrow, you'd probably get six different titles.

[ignoramus]

off the top and in no particular order.

Freud's, the phychopathology of everyday life (original lectures - penguin paperback) - This helped me the most dealing with my tyrannical father.
Dale Carnegie - you guys know the one
I also enjoyed the "grapes of wrath"

[SteelCurtain]

But if you asked me tomorrow, you'd probably get six different titles.

So true. Aside from East of Eden, which will always and forever be my favorite novel, the top "other four" you would get from me would depend on my mood. You might get The Sun Also Rises or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, or even Jurrasic Park.

[Exian]

I've never enjoyed a book more than The Story of the Human Body. I feel as though it was written to cater to every one of my interests.




These last two are kind of a tie, if I was to rank them. I'll edge it to Addy Pross because he knows how to write for the layman. These two books really helped me to be okay with death after becoming an atheist, both for myself and for my loved ones.



And finally, a Jack Handy book, because he makes me laugh, and also, I can't think of another book that has influenced me. I'm stubborn and it takes a lot to influence me to live differently in big ways.

[SteelCurtain]

Just a heads up for everyone, the [imgfit] tags will scale all images to the same size. It will make supermassive images fit the page, but it will also blow up small images to "fit" the screen, as well. It is generally better to find a smaller version of the image, but if that is not possible, then you can manually resize an image with the following code:

Code:

[img=150x200]www.bewbies.com/bigguns.jpg[/img]

The numbers inside the [img] tag correspond to {width}x{height} in pixels.

[Longhorn]

Code:

[img=150x200]www.bewbies.com/bigguns.jpg[/img]

lols

As for teh books, I'm two chapters through God is Not Great, with God Delusion and Pale Blue Dot lined up next~

[Whateverist]

Just a heads up for everyone, the [imgfit] tags will scale all images to the same size. It will make supermassive images fit the page, but it will also blow up small images to "fit" the screen, as well. It is generally better to find a smaller version of the image, but if that is not possible, then you can manually resize an image with the following code:

Code:

[img=150x200]www.bewbies.com/bigguns.jpg[/img]

The numbers inside the [img] tag correspond to {width}x{height} in pixels.

This has got to be cheaper than implant surgery.  

Not that I'm considering it.  Just pointing it out for a friend.