The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Non-fiction:
Anne Frank's diary
Grizzly Heart by Charlie Russell
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Non-fiction:
Anne Frank's diary
Grizzly Heart by Charlie Russell
What novel blew your mind?
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One that has stood out recently was The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. If you are not a person of christian faith, it may not appeal to you at all. But it came across with such imagination and made so many things that are difficult to wrap our minds around, make sense.
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Oh, I have to add Beloved. I think she was too obscure at times for my tastes and perfectly obscure in others, but DAMN overall 
The Time Machine by HG Wells. I don't remember how old I was when I read it. I know I was very young, but I still think about the Eloi and the Morlocks sometimes.
Also, the entirety of the Harry Potter series (maybe it didn't blow my mind, but the books are up there in my all-time favorites). Yes, I went there. I grew up with those books.
Also, the entirety of the Harry Potter series (maybe it didn't blow my mind, but the books are up there in my all-time favorites). Yes, I went there. I grew up with those books.
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Dracula by Bram Stoker. So strong is my reverence for this book I actually fished a copy out of the garbage when I noticed someone had thrown it away.
One of my favorite books as a youngster.
I remember staying up late, reading it under the covers with a flashlight. Stephen King's Pet Cemetery and Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show. There are countless books that stick out in my mind, but those two made me fall in love with reading when I was a kid.
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I'm about 100 pages into it, and it hasn't blown my mind yet. Does the mind-blowingness show up later on? And it's not that I can't buy beetle-headed women. It's fantasy. I'll buy whatever the author says is possible for the most part.
So many I've loved over time -- anything by Jane Austen, Hesse, Mark Twain . . .
The three novels that blew my mind, above and beyond anything else, have to be Letters from the Earth (Clemens/Twain), The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (McKillip) and The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss).
The only time I have ever thought DAMN, I wish I'd written that was when I read the prologue to The Name of the Wind. That feeling held all the way through the book, every time I've read it. I quit counting after the first dozen readings.
EDIT: OH! How did I leave off One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Kesey)!
The three novels that blew my mind, above and beyond anything else, have to be Letters from the Earth (Clemens/Twain), The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (McKillip) and The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss).
The only time I have ever thought DAMN, I wish I'd written that was when I read the prologue to The Name of the Wind. That feeling held all the way through the book, every time I've read it. I quit counting after the first dozen readings.
EDIT: OH! How did I leave off One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Kesey)!
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I finished it in three days, as it was such a page-turner and absolutely riveting. I loved her ability to weave multiple plot threads and narratives together in a manner that was easy-to-follow and also interesting. Plus it was a refreshing look at vampires that actually were vampires and not sparkling wimpy creepers.
Fahrenheit 451, whenever Guy Montag tells off his wife and the two horrid wifes for all of their abortions and apathy while standing in his kitchen.
Yay! A second nomination for this classic. It never fails to astonish me how many aspiring SF writers have never read The Time Machine, and how many seem never to have even heard of it.
Wells invented the modern genre, even the terminology ("scientific romance" is what he called it). Every subsequent SF writer owes a huge debt to this single short and enormously readable novel, and I'm confident that Bradbury, Clarke, Sturgeon, Dick, Van Vogt, Silverberg, Simak, Kornbluth and the other deities of the genre, if still alive, would have readily admitted it.
caw
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Oh, and the book that turned me onto Science Fiction as a genre: The Telepathist, by John Brunner. (I was young)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I finished it in three days, as it was such a page-turner and absolutely riveting. I loved her ability to weave multiple plot threads and narratives together in a manner that was easy-to-follow and also interesting. Plus it was a refreshing look at vampires that actually were vampires and not sparkling wimpy creepers.
This was such a great beach read. Made me long for the life of an academic.
He's also credited with coining the term "time machine". Where would we be without that?
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Have to second (or fifth, maybe!) The Historian and The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
I think the first novel I got completely lost in -- to the point that I never wanted it to end -- was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
One that's out of print now but every YA author should read is Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt -- LOVE that book and read my copy every year. Highly influential on my writing style and for integrating history and mystery with a snappy narrator. It still influences how I write today.
The Sword of Shannara was the first SF book I read, and the multiple plot lines and characters, as well as the battle scenes, had me reading it over and over.
I think the first novel I got completely lost in -- to the point that I never wanted it to end -- was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
One that's out of print now but every YA author should read is Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt -- LOVE that book and read my copy every year. Highly influential on my writing style and for integrating history and mystery with a snappy narrator. It still influences how I write today.
The Sword of Shannara was the first SF book I read, and the multiple plot lines and characters, as well as the battle scenes, had me reading it over and over.
I am shocked (but sooooo happy) to hear so many people say they liked THE HISTORIAN. I loved it, but I thought I was alone on an island over here. Honestly, every single person I recommended it to was like, "Um, a vampire who likes books? I'd rather they sparkle!" Or, "It cured my insomnia."
But I loved it.
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You would fit in quite well with everyone I know. I can't put my finger on exactly why I enjoyed it so much, but I just ate it up.
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