As you can see, the lists are a bit different. In some cases, I've found other books by the same authors which resonate on those themes with me more deeply, so I consider them a bit more influential. In other cases, I've realized that I was influenced in some different ways that weren't evident several years ago.
The books are organized in roughly the chronological order that I read them, to the best of my memory, along with a description of why I found them so influential.
It should also be noted that the most influential book in my own life would have to be String Theory For Dummies, but I assume it's ineligible.
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov - The first science fiction novel that I can remember reading. I fell in love instantly. I read literally dozens of Asimov's fiction and non-fiction books throughout my teenage years.
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - This novel taught me some of the best elements of theme, character, and drama in storytelling. The 40-page description of the Battle of Waterloo, just so that the last page could have a scene relevant to the plotline, also taught me some things to avoid.
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - A book about brilliant youths, read at a very impressionable time in my life. For a generation of science fiction geeks, this was our version of Tom Sawyer.
- Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension by Michio Kaku - While much of my early interest in science was cultivated by the non-fiction work of Isaac Asimov, this book introduced me to the concept of string theory and helped foster my interest in the full scope of theoretical physics. When my own book on string theory was published, I was interviewed by Dr. Kaku on his Science Fantastic radio program!
- Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael Behe - This book introduced me to the modern culture wars surrounding science and religion, which has fascinated me ever since. I'd never encountered a scientifically-literate pro-Creation argument from an intelligent, articulate author before ... my only experience with creationists were of the very ignorant, often redneck, young-Earth variety. Though subsequent reading quickly showed that most of Behe's "challenge" was easily debunked, this set me on the road to giving these debates more serious attention.
- Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer - In addition to being a great book, it introduced me to Robert J. Sawyer, who quickly became one of my favorite authors. Both his fiction itself and his teaching on fiction writing have helped me realize that science fiction is the literature of philosophy.
- Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Evans - I was briefly involved in a book/publishing-oriented multi-level marketing business. It never took off the ground and folded within about a year, but this book by the founder really influenced how I thought about money and even my writing career.
- Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart Ehrman - As a teenager, the idea of the Bible as a historical document was established when I read Asimov's Guide to the Bible, but then I got busy and didn't really give the Bible much thought for about a decade. In the wake of my interest in the science v. religion wars, this book was my re-introduction to the Bible. It was also the book I was reading when I met my wife. I recall discussing it (since about the only thing I knew about her was that she was a Christian) on our first date and she's indicated that I impressed her on that date, so it had influence far beyond anything expressly contained within its pages.
- Hacking Work: Breaking Stupid Rules for Smart Results by Bill Jensen & Josh Klein - Certainly the most pragmatic book on the list, this made me realize that the rules put in place in a business don't exist for the benefit of doing the work well, but so that management can manage the work. Since reading it, I have focused more on figuring out how to get work done well than how to follow the rules.
- The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values by Sam Harris - Made me realize that it was possible to be a secular person without being required to be a moral relativist. This was my post-college re-introduction to moral philosophy.
Honorable mentions
I tried above to list the books that set me on a new intellectual course or modified my existing course, and didn't list multiple books that had similar effects. For example, I actually found Bart Ehrman's God's Problem a more significant book than Misquoting Jesus, but not in a way that made me look at anything in a new fundamentally new way. The below books were also highly influential, but usually in a way that resonated with the influences of the earlier books. They helped propel me upon a course I was already on, rather than providing any modifications to the path:A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Asimov's Guide to the Bible by Isaac Asimov
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Dragonlance: Legends Trilogy by Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse
A Mind At a Time by Mel Levine
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
The Science of God by Gerald Schroeder
The Language Police by Dianne Ravitch
The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Sir Ken Robinson
God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer by Bart Ehrman
Excuses Begone by Wayne Dyer
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future by Bruce Bueno de Mequita
The Evolution of Faith by Philip Gulley
Grace by Richard Paul Evans
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Lying by Sam Harris
Free Will by Sam Harris
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