What Books Have Most Influenced You So Far?

[Breedingvariety]

Or otherwise: What books would you take to a desert island.

My world view has been most influenced by:
1. Arthur Schopenhauer "The World as Will and Representation"
2. Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

[Aske]

those are big ones for me as well (though I could as easily say Beyond Good and Evil or the Fourfold Root..). Kierkegaard, Either/Or is nearly or equally important.
For literature (working backwards):
Hamsun, Hunger
Njal's Saga
Egil's Saga
Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
White, The Once and Future King

[Oreka Bailoak]

For me my most influential books are practical...
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1) "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (how investing works)
http://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Do...1506897&sr=8-1

2) The Geography of Thought: How Westerners and Asians Think Differently (how thinking in terms of being part of a group is better than thinking in terms of simply being an individual- that's not the purpose of the book but that's what I got out of it)
http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Thou...1506921&sr=1-1

3) (a book that I cannot name because my professor wrote it) but it's about the unseen costs, cultural ramifications and inefficiencies of a welfare state. (quotes from "Bell Curve", "G-Factor" etc.)

4) "Culture Counts" and "Beauty" by Roger Scruton- shows how nihilistic/hedonistic/greedy thinking is stupid and easily proves so. He touches upon many core philosophical issues like love vs. lust, greeds effect on beauty etc. It all makes perfect sense to me. The conclusion is that beauty, religion and love are all rooted in one same emotion and that this emotion is being corrupted and/or ignored by our society.
http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Counts...1506965&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Hardcov...1507003&sr=1-3

5) A Christian book about thinking in terms of group family moral values rather than individual desires. Goes into practical ramifications of group thinking which have ramifications in many areas of life from dating to personal virtues. (book is "staying Christian in college") Also, I'm not Christian but the book is helpful in crafting my own philosophical dating plan in life.

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Books 2,3,4,5 completely changed the way I see the world around me and how I fit into it. And book #1 is going to make me a millionaire through long term simple and rational financial planning (I'm a financial analyst in training). (Also I'm not putting literature in my list because literature, for me, strengthens my own values but doesn't change those values)

I don't see how people can be so influenced by Nietzsche- he never touches the core values of humanity; family values, honor etc. I feel depressed after reading his books because he seems like an empty soul. His books are high on my list though because I do like the idea of philosophical Ubermensch very much. But I don't think his philosophy is very practical when compared to other philosophers at strengthening or improving ones family values- which is the most important value class in my opinion.

Honorable mention for me is "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (who was one of those Stoic philosophers that Nietzsche hated so much and did such a bad job at criticizing in "beyond good and evil". If you read Nietzsche after reading "meditations" you will see how arrogant and weak Nietzsche's critique is)

[Solomon Kane]

Just a few that I can think of:

The Bible. The Jefferson Bible. The Gospel in Brief by Leo Tolstoy. Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Utopia by Thomas More. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The Gospel of Thomas.

[anonymaus]

Off the top of my head?

Common Sense, Thomas Paine
The Art of Worldly Wisdom, Baltasar Gracián
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
L'Étranger, Albert Camus

George Orwell (Ouevre)
Ayn Rand (Ouevre)
R.A. Heinlein (Ouevre)

[Beorn]

Mein Kampf: The teenage years.