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Billy Mink by Thornton W. Burgess. It was possibly the first novel I read (and re-read) in early childhood. It was where I got the idea that reading was a joyful activity.
Travels with Charley: in Search of America by John Steinbeck. Now I know that a good deal of this book was fictionalized, but I don't care. It introduced me to the joy of road trips. Steinbeck was the first author whose books I searched out because he wrote so enchantingly.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I learned to think about tolerance, ethics, and "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view .. until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Walden by Henry David Thoreau. It caused me to examine my values and the way I wanted to live my life.
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. I learned about fascinating concepts such as existentialism, that endings aren't fixed by fate and can often be chosen, and that "...life...is not one riddle and one failure to guess it, is not to inhabit one face alone or to be given up after one losing throw of the dice...." At the time, that last quote was something I needed to hear.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. This book made me think about how much of daily life I might be missing and how to see.
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