ha ha, more coincidences. le petit prince was awesome, and my interpretations of it changed as i grew up (obviously), but by that i mean that this book was very close to me for years. jls i read i think when i was seven i remeber feeling quite melancholic when i was done! i still remember where i was when i read it (in a motel, on a trip, and it was raining).

I remember seeing the film musical adaptation of The Little Prince in 1974, but can't remember if it was any good. You?

Some other interesting things about Le Petit Prince (Wiki):

1. In the 1940's/50's, Walt Disney planned to make The Little Prince into an animated movie, but due to some problems, it was never made.

2. In 2005, the book was translated into Toba, an indigenous language of Argentina, as So Shiyaxauolec Nta'a. It was the first book translated into this language since the Bible.

3. The book is one of few modern books to be translated into Latin, as Regulus.

4. The actor James Dean was so fond of the book he actually memorized most of its passages.

L I N K

animal farm the illustrated (one of) that my mum read me as a kid

Reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne in 3rd grade turned me into a novel reader.

I am going to say Crime and Punishment because I read it in my basement mostly on a couch with a pile of rags for a pillow in tattered clothes that I was too busy reading to change. I was pretty much becoming Raskolnikov. I've thought about killing someone just to make myself a better person.

Probobly the book "Diffrent Seasons" by Stephen King. It wasn't the first book of his I've read, but I just remember the stories in it really sticking with me. When I read it, "Stand By Me" was the only story from it that had been turned into a film at the time, so this was pre-"Shawshank Redemption" or "Apt Pupil", films. And the book as a whole was unlike anything I'd ever read before, even for Stephen King, and it really inspired me to want to write.

Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on the philosophy side. Definitely my own On The Road.

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski on the art side... tied with anything by Faulkner of course.


EDIT: Umberto Eco's Baudolino and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning are also important mentions

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn.

This book recently made me a Socialist... lets talk about it.

The ever typical On the Road story here. When I read some two or so years ago I had to re-read at least twice before I could get over how much I loved it. But Dharma Bums is my favorite kerouac.

1984 or Animal Farm probably.

huh, I know somebody else reading this

sounds interesting but I don't thinkit would make me a Socialist (been there, done that)

1984 was one of the only few required high school books I actually cared to and enjoyed reading.

le moutoun que tu veux est dedans

what does that mean?

the something that you see is something?

no, it says "the sheep that you want is inside the box"

The Rum Diaries - Hunter Thompson
Panama - Thomas McGuane

yeah, I had sworn off Socialism when I picked up the book, but the book put an entirely different perspective on conflict theory and private property. Check it out, it may rekindle something.

Can't quite get it down to just one, as it really depends on the period of life for me.

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse may be the most lasting though.

Now Wait For Last Year by Phillip K. Dick was major in the acid days.
Then Naked Lunch was very influential on my way of seeing and creating art in general.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller definitely hit a major spot for me at a time when I was more able to identify with the protagonist. I can still appreciate it now, but I wouldn't want to identify with him any more.

That was Then This is Now by S.E. Hinton, I like that there is a smart character in that movie. It made me realize that smart people are not always those that go to college and get a degree.

Obviously The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I was angsty in High School.

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg. It made turn my writing into poetry instead of a short fiction. But I was blown away by his words, and everything he wrote.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It gave me some perspective on what it is to be a woman. Also I felt her alienation.

The Plague by Albert Camus, it made me realized humanity is all for themselves. How each and one of us will go to extremes to survive.

The Stranger by Albert Camus, How people judge people on just pure rubbish, and ostracize them for it.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It is sad when your own family despises you or treats you differently, cause you are different.

I think that is about it.

SERIOUSLY! Howl is just fun to read and get caught up in.

My first big one (at eleven years old) which really got me into writing was Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" which I have mentioned several times in the forum.
Others as important:
"The Brothers Karamazov" - Fédor Dostoyevski
"The flowers of evil" - Charles Baudelaire
"Complete Works" - Alejandra Pizarnik
"Ulysses" - James Joyce
"Run with the hunted" - Charles Bukowski
"On the road" - Jack Kerouac
"Rayuela" - Julio Cortázar

And there may be more.
*EDIT: Oh you said novels. Well I included a couple poetry books that were VERY influential for me in their time.