Books/Art That "Changed Your Life" -

[norrington]

Could probably include movies/music/tv shows too, but I can't think of a movie that's impacted me quite the same way several books have over the years.

Obviously I don't mean it made you into a whole new person, made you turn over a new leaf (I'm not looking for 'The Secret' or whatever the hell) but maybe something that's impacted your outlook on life, influenced your own work, or something that was just very emotionally powerful for you.

I've got a few:
Too Loud A Solitude -- Bohumil Hrabal
The book was a really emotional read for me, and the questions the author raises about guilt and self-interest honestly fucked with my head for a while.

Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo
This book's had a big impact on how I view others, and the Priest from the first chapters still comes to mind when I'm thinking about having faith in other people to do the write thing. Basically, it pushed me to be more foolishly optimistic than is probably necessary or advisable. Hugo's pretty heavily Christian, but in my experience, the religious difference didn't impact the weight the book had on me.

His Dark Materials -- Philip Pullman
Read these in 5th or 6th grade because I was an edgy primary school student who was sold the second the librarian at my Episcopal Day School said I needed to be sure my parents were okay with me reading them. I dug the whole steampunk fantasy vibes and got a bit lost in the whole allegorical analysis of Paradise Lost in the third book, then reread them a few years ago and found them just as rewarding. I think the way the books play around with moral gray areas (in a mostly kid-friendly way) probably did a lot for me growing up to be somebody who wasn't quite so quick to think of things in inherently good or bad terms.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Shin Sekai Yori was the anime that made me become a conservative

 

[Bogs]

For Esme--with Love & Squalor -- J.D. Salinger
A short-story compilation from the guy who wrote Catcher in the Rye and then dissapeared from the face of the earth for 55 years. I read it in my college library during some turbulent years and was/is the primary influence on my writing style.

 

[TheProdigalStunna]

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
A bunch of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound poems
Tago Mago - Can
Requiem in D Minor - Mozart
Symphony No. 8 - Mahler
Stalker
2001: A Space Odyssey

Spoiler

Neon Genesis Evangelion

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Although I quite liked Evangelion I felt like it really wasn't something that changed me in any significant way

20th century boys really made me contemplate how my actions can have consequences in the distant future (later in life)

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

The Jungle Books I & II, by Rudyard Kipling.
The War Against the Chtorr series, by David Gerrold.
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury.
The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain Banks.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty and Starship troopers both got me interested in economics

 

[TheProdigalStunna]

Although I quite liked Evangelion I felt like it really wasn't something that changed me in any significant way

It was definitely a "right place in the right time" situation for me. I saw it when I was fifteen, just on the cusp of "finding myself" and really getting into philosophy and psychology for the first time. It helped define my interests, both intellectual and aesthetic, ever since. I'd probably laugh it off as a serious work of art if I saw it for the first time now, but my deep-seated personal attachment will always keep me coming back.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

It was definitely a "right place in the right time" situation for me. I saw it when I was fifteen, just on the cusp of "finding myself" and really getting into philosophy and psychology for the first time. It helped define my interests, both intellectual and aesthetic, ever since. I'd probably laugh it off as a serious work of art if I saw it for the first time now, but my deep-seated personal attachment will always keep me coming back.

I watched it immediately after I resolved everything that was going on in my life at the moment. It was cathartic but didn't feel like it changed me in any way. Code Geass on the other hand I had the same reaction to

 

[Kitlen]

The Lord of the Rings- All of them influenced my love of fantasy, I was obsessed so heavily in junior high that my friends instituted a "no talking about LOTR" rule at lunch.
Wuthering Heights-Any girl who reads this at too young of an age develops a thing for brooding characters
The Bible-My faith is Christian, so of course this is in there.
Howl's Moving Castle- Actually came along in a very dark time in my life, helped me believe in goodness again. I know, ridiculous.
The Sound and the Fury-This hit my heart, it helped me better understand my family history. I felt it resonate and almost mirror my family history, especially the hapless re-enactement through each generation.
The Real Story of Ah-Q and other Tales- Showed me there was literature outside of the West.
Selected poems by WH Auden-Auden is my favorite poet.

 

[Abethedemon]

H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu and Dagon - charged my interest in cosmic horror
Tibetan Buddhist art in general - Made me interested in religion
The Phantom Tollbooth - the first big book I read by myself. It also probably influenced my interest in demons.
Lord of the Rings - obvs.

 

[CreepyGrowlWolfCaptcha]

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime -
Yes, I've got aspergers. Yes, the hero of this book has aspergers. Yes, it's good to read about a good aspie instead of someone like Christine Chandler.

A Song of Ice and Fire -
I'm listening to it at the moment on audiobook while I minecraft. Definitely the best book I've ever encountered. Much better than the TV show - Jon's character arc works much better when he's a teenager instead of a grown man like he is in the show.

Harry Potter -
It's embarassing to think back on it now but when I was a youngling I was obsessed with this series

Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" -
One of the biggest influences for my writing style even if it was completely butchered by the Hollywood adaptations.

 

[VJ 343]

If games count then Dark Souls and Bloodborne changed me, I wouldn't have made it through university without first that crushing hopelessness of Dark Souls, then the uplifting mind rending horror of Bloodborne.

Both their final product and massive value of production as creative outputs have influenced my art and style considerably.

I was also influenced considerably by horror, including Lovecraft and Stephen King. I think even into my childhood when I borrowed The Silence Of The Lambs to covertly read when others had gone to bed, things that made me react with visceral fear would leave their mark long after the "fuzzy wuzzys" of usual media left.

For that reason a painting I saw in my childhood depicting grief is probably one of the most life changing pieces I saw. I do not know the artist, only that it was a childlike technique painted in blues and oranges on a six foot tall canvas. It showed a man screaming over the coffin of another. I saw it once in the gallery when I was about eight.o remember seeing it at the end of the hallway and freezing in fear.

I hope to one day pull the same response from my viewers.

 

[Null]

I don't know if this counts cuz it's not really a book, but this shit did.

And no, I'm not kidding. Power through it. You need to see it.

 

[KingGeedorah]

Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang 36 Chambers

 

[Tranhuviya]

Communion.

 

[Abethedemon]

The CWCki. It made me realize how horrifying and interesting people can be, and without it, I wouldn't be here now.

 

[Raziel]

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskBy
Berserk by Kentaro Miura
1984 by George Orwell
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
20th Century Boys/21th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Terry Pratchett books helped me battle depresion.
The Boys by [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis']Garth Ennis
and finally Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis .

[/URL]

 

[A Potato Named Vodka]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I found a very strange kinship with Raskolnikov- I was a wanna-be edgy 14 yo at the time. I've read the damn book 9 times. Now I just laugh at Raskolnikov's antics.

 

[swingbatta]

This Side of Paradise--it was definitely a "right place, right time" book. I read it when I was 18 and just starting to figure out who I was, so Amory Blaine was practically my 1915 Princeton boy alter ego the whole year. That said, it did inspire me to read literally everything F. Scott Fitzgerald's ever written, and I don't regret anything.

I also read Ella Enchanted until my book fell apart, and 15 years later it still has a definite influence on my writing. It was the first book I read with a female protagonist that was interesting for things besides being generically spunky. (The movie with Anne Hathaway is the biggest abomination on the planet. I was 8 when I saw it, and it was the first movie adaptation I remember being genuinely furious at.)

I also loved the Clue book series as a kid, which I think shaped my morbid sense of humor.