What books blew your mind upon first reading?

The Dune series is immense. The original book in particular is a masterpiece. People need to read more science fiction.

would the thread starter make a list of those recommendations in the first post? (the serious ones I mean :rolleyes: )

Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul - Francis Crick
The Engine of Reason the Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey Into the Brain - Paul Churchland
Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Watership Down - Richard Adams
catch-22 - Joseph Heller
the alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck
Ice People - René Barjavel
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield
The Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Icing On The Damper - Marie Mahood
White Coolies - Betty Jeffrey
Voyage From Shame, The Cowra Breakout - Harry Gordon
A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
Emergency Sex And Other Desperate Measures - Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson
Singer of The Bush, Song of The Pen The Complete Works - A.B. (Banjo) Paterson.
the princess bride - william goldman
Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
Chart Idol - Ben Elton
Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
The Accidental - Ali Smith
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kessey
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Brick Lane - Monica Ali
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller
Mysteries - Knut Hamsun
The Thiefs Journal - Jean Genet
The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehardt
In The spirit of crazy Horse - Peter Matthiessen
Journey to Ixtlan - Carlos Casteneda
anything by roald dahl
Fathers & Sons - Ivan Turgenev
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Damage Done - Warren Fellows
Into Thin air - Jon Krakauer
The picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
Homeland: The Dark Elf Trilogy - R. A. Salvatore
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Breakfast of Champions - Vonnegut
Desert Solitaire & The Monkeywrench Gang - Edward Abbey
what uncle sam really wants - noam chomsky.
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
The Dune series - Frank Herbert
the stranger - albert camus
American Gods ~ Neil Gaiman
The Winter King/Enemy of God/Excalibur ~ Bernard Cornwell
Hell's Angels ~ Hunter S. Thompson
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom ~ Cory Doctorow
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove ~ Christopher Moore
The Stand, Insomnia, Talisman ~ Stephen King
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman ~ Richard Feynman
Richard Scarry books
charlotte's web - E.B. White
Peace Like A River - Leif Enger
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
Things Seen and Unseen- A Year Lived in Faith - Nora Gallagher
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Shining - Stephen King
Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
Walden - Henry David Thoreau

tylerpjtx wrote:

i know its typical but To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee...one of the greatest stories of all time.

I completely agree.

tybird wrote:

Watership Down

Yes, that is a great one. High on my list too.

Also...

American Gods ~ Neil Gaiman
The Winter King/Enemy of God/Excalibur ~ Bernard Cornwell
Hell's Angels ~ Hunter S. Thompson
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom ~ Cory Doctorow
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove ~ Christopher Moore
The Stand, Insomnia, Talisman ~ Stephen King
Foundation Series ~ Isaac Asimov
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman ~ Richard Feynman

Edited to add:

Richard Scarry books. No offense to Dr. Seuss, but when I was a kid, I would have picked Richard Scarry over Seuss every time.

Ken Kessey, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'
Stephen King, 'The Shining'

edited my list post up to this point

Hmmmm...

Into the Wild (John Krakouer)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood)
Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)
Eleanor Rigby (Douglas Coupland)
Hey Nostradamus! (Douglas Coupland)
The Mountain and the Valley (Ernest Buckler)
Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
Without You (Anthony Rapp)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Shining (Stephen King)
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
The Golden Compass trilogy (Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)
Angel Square (Brian Doyle)

Nice to see some of my favourites have already been mentioned.

In no particular order:

LOTR - Tolkien
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Coraline -Neil Gaiman
Magician - Raymond Feist
The Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
The Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
Hidden Agendas - John Pilger
Failed States - Noam Chomsky
Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter. S. Thompson
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby




And I know there's many more that I can't recall at the moment.....