On the Road – was the book for me when I was a teenager.

Recent books that have done it for me would include JPod and Life After God by Douglas Coupland. Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. The Arabesk Trilogy by Jon Courtney Grimwood or Syrup by Max Barry (the funniest book I have ever read).

Kinda got beaten to it but definitely
On the road by Jack Kerouac. It made me realise that I too was spending every moment just chasing that last hairpin turn too

The other and more sporting focussed I suppose was
the mind gym by Gary Mack. Virtually every page turned was met with “I do do that!!” Helped me a lot with “head based” issues in my Archery

Oh, I forgot to add anything by William Gibson or John le Carre. (Gibson’s early stuff is more sci-fi but the recent stuff like Spook Country are pretty straight thriller material).

Bit of a cliche but War and Peace is geniunely amazing. It’s such an epic, and you spend so long (entire lifetimes almost) with the characters, it’s like a part of my was missing when i finished reading it.

anything by stuart mcbride

website of crime writist and bearded raconteur

Another Steinbeck to consider – The Grapes of Wrath – a stunning book that left me 100% fulfilled at the end.

Cross of Iron book Willi Heinrich (semi-autobiographical).

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig

I re-read this book every few years and it helps keep my life in balance.

Marley and Me….

…made me cry.
The films out soon as well.

Empty Cradles – Margaret Humphreys

not sure it changed my life but it did move me

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

“Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates’ Tom Robbins
Switters is not a character you’ll forget in a hurry. He turns down some cocaine with the phrase “why take a drug that makes me feel better looking and more entertaining than I know I already am?” A phrase I’ve used myself whenever some coked up boor gets on my tits.
Or ‘Any Human Heart’ by William Boyd. An epic.

Fingerprints of the Gods – Graham Hancock.

Didnt quite “change my life” but “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”

A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes)
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Clockwork Orange
Bonfire of the Vanities

An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpected-Light-Afghanistan-Bestselling-Backlist/dp/0312288468

Also nearly finished Shantaram which has been a gripping read

Affluenza by Oliver James.

Or….

Brave new World is a great book. I thought of another: “The Long Walk”, by Slavomir Rawicz. It’s the story of a Polish army officer who was captured and sent to a work camp in Siberia. He, along with a group of other prisoners, escaped and walked (!) to India.

It’s allegedly autobiographical, though there are some records that suggest it can’t have been entirely true. Either way, i can’t recommend it enough. Incidentally my grandfather was a Pole and was also captured and sent to Siberia, and – like the author – eventally moved to Nottingham after the war.

Not really changed my life, but a book that I simply cannot stop thinking about, more than 2 years after reading (and also the book my book group keeps returning to discussing) is We Need to Talk About Kevin bu Lionel Shriver.

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Kite Runner
The World We Are In – Will Hutton – a rather eye-opening account of world economics and Britain’s relationships with the US and Europe

Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry. Simply wonderful.

(and, in the same series, Dead Man’s Walk, Comanche Moon and Streets of Laredo. Don’t be put off by the cowboy theme, they’re truely excellent)

Just started re-reading Grapes of Wrath. Enjoying it more this time. Once Ther Was a War is another excellent Steinbeck read.

“The Long Walk”, by Slavomir Rawicz. It’s the story of a Polish army officer who was captured and sent to a work camp in Siberia. He, along with a group of other prisoners, escaped and walked (!) to India.

I read that also Finbar, a great book.

Everyones probably read them but the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series of books are brilliant, read them quite a few times now, in fact stuff by Douglas Adams always puts me in a good mood, he was a good and funny writer…

Big fan of John Steinbeck too, Cannery row being my favorite, recently found a book of the diaries that he wrote on a trip to the Sea of Cortez with Ed Ricketts to study marine life that I found quite inspiring…

Just finished “The reader” which I found extremely moving.
My favourite authors are John Irving (The World According to Garp) and Douglas Coupland (Generation X, JPod, etc). From their works I’d recommend A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving) and Girlfriend in a Coma (Coupland).

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque has to be the book that left me feeling more than any other I have read, though it certainly isnt a happy feel good book.

If I want some easy entertainement then I find Christopher Brookmyre quite good. Some of Tom Sharps books have made me laugh more than any others.

The Great Bicycle Adventure
by Nicholas Crane

The best book I ever read.

/thread.

Feet in the Clouds – a book all about how a relatively normal person became a fell running nutter. Although there is a danger you will find yourself getting sick desires to put on funny shoes and super-short shorts and go jogging up mountains.

Joe

the magician by raymond e feist
the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera
the feather men by ranulph fiennes
lord of the rings by you know who
annapurna by maurice herzog

in no particular order 😉

as i kid i read ‘flowers in the attic’ read it few years back, still a very powerful book.

I learnt to read with books like this. Probbly the most influential books of my life!

Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

Hitchikers books

Thirded To kill a mocking bird – Harper Lee
The wasp factory – Iain Banks
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson

The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
The Sound and the Furry – William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck, just for the very last page alone.

A brave new world takes some beating, but heart of darkness is up there as well.

For shock try Last Exit to Brooklyn, heavy subject matter but a classic

Not life changing but highly recomended:

The Road to Nab End, and Beyond Nab End by William Woodruff.

Makes you realise how easy we have it now. Crikey, it were grim up North in the early 1900s.

Also, Two Wheels North, story of two lads just out of high school riding bikes from Santa Rosa to Seattle in 1909 – now that was adventure

surfer I was just about to type The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists then read your post. So how about Keep the Aspidistra Flying or Homage to Catalonia or anything by Orwell really.

Handmaid’s Tale

The Magus

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Never Let Me Go

We Need To Talk About Kevin

1984

The Time Traveler’s Wife

“Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman