I can't belive nobody has mentioned "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau.
To be fair, I'm not a big recreational reader. But this one will always stick out to me. When I read it in college, it had such a profound effect on me, I belive it literally helped shape who I am as a person even to this day
Maybe it was right place, right time. It is certainly an impressionable age, but I have read it again as an older man, & it was just as powerful.
I've read "Guns, germs & steel", "How to win friends & influence people", "Freakonomics" & some of the other stuff that pop up in the comments, they are all fine. But none of them influenced me like "Walden" did.
When I initially read this thread I had precisely the same reaction.
Emerson and Thoreau weren’t just naturalists preaching justice. Their Nature is the same Nature Marcus Aurelius refers to in Meditations. Once you put their work in the context of the Trinitarian/Unitarian debate of the early 19th century, you see how deeply they thought about not just civilization, but science and philosophy together.
I’d add to Walden, Emerson’s Nature, and especially his essay Man, the Reformer. In today’s ultra-specialized and mostly-capitalist society, this piece has the power to simultaneously shatter and solidify your identity and sense of worth.
The Transcendentalist practically gave young America its voice following independence. They’re certainly worth revisiting if you only remember Walden as a reclusive pond.
To be fair, I'm not a big recreational reader. But this one will always stick out to me. When I read it in college, it had such a profound effect on me, I belive it literally helped shape who I am as a person even to this day
Maybe it was right place, right time. It is certainly an impressionable age, but I have read it again as an older man, & it was just as powerful.
I've read "Guns, germs & steel", "How to win friends & influence people", "Freakonomics" & some of the other stuff that pop up in the comments, they are all fine. But none of them influenced me like "Walden" did.
A true American classic.