What book has changed your life the most?

the bible.

made me realize how stupid and fake the entire concept of god really is.

"Lies My Teacher Told Me"

Game of thrones

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.

"The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand.

The Bible

2nd would be "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices"

Atlas Shrugged

The Dice Man by George Cockcroft (pen name Luke Rhinehart)

Atlas Shrugged

Books what are those? Stop bothering me with nonsense while I am on my tablet computer.

The Feminine Mystique, published about the time my sexual life was shifting from back seat fumbling and stolen moments when parents were out to a more mature movie dinner and a sleepover in my own bed, helped change the social landscape of the time and my life in extension.

Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land touched me in many ways. The concept "Waiting Is" brought clarity to the idea that reactions and actions evolve from different places in the mind and must serve different purposes.

A Jubal Harshaw quote touched and shaped the way I viewed things throughout my life.

“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, wineturtle. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them.”

Two other thoughts from Heinlein's writings :

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea

and

Never try to out stubborn a cat

In juxtaposition they have taught an invaluable lesson. I grok the idea that the process is a learn, f-up, relearn one and fortunately the lovely creatures that are not cats have an uncanny ability to forgive the forgivable f-ups.

have to say World According to Garp - It helped me understand that I was not alone in the world in my oddness.

It has sent me around looking for other unusual artists and that has made all the difference.

The Book of Matthew. Particularly the end. First time my eyes were really opened to how much Jesus had to suffer and what He really did and how amazing and loving His sacrifice is

Born To Run.

"None Dare Call It Conspiracy" by Gary Allen with Larry Abraham

and

"The Secret Relationship Blacks and Jews" Volume Two - The Nation of Islam

"The Stranger" by Camus. It didn't make me want to go out and shoot anyone, but I read it when I was 18, decades ago, and it made me realize I didn't have to keep trying to please everyone to no avail and to my own detriment.

Ultramarathon Man.

Not necessarily changed my life, but books that affected my thoughts and to which I return again and again include:

Got to agree w/"The Stranger."

Will add "1984" (I think about it a lot -- add Zamayatin's "We" and Huxley's "Brave New World").

For offbeat takes on major writers, try Ayn Rand's "We the Living"; for Hemingway, try "Garden of Eden."

Plays: August Strindberg's "A Dream Play" haunts me to this day, 25 or so years after I first saw it.

Charles Bukowski drives me nuts (in a good--although excruciating--way).

Thanks for the other suggestions: I'll check some of 'em out.

"Jaws", Swimming in open water has never been the same!