Bookworm Faces (Nearly) Impossible Request

An impossible question was posed to me via Facebook: What are the top ten books that have made an impact on you?

You mean just ten books?  Mental scrambles. Head scratching. Seeks coffee.

For me, the impact of a book and/or author is rooted in the following:

1) Do I feel more connected to the world?

2) Is my world view broadened by this book?, and

3) Have I been intellectually challenged and invigorated?

 

I settled on this list:

• Force of Circumstance, by Simone de Beauvoir
• The Human Condition, by Hannah Arendt
• The Apology, by Plato
• The Story of My Experiments with Truth, by Mahatma Gandhi
• The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft
• The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie (I am a mystery buff after all!)
• The Doll, by Boleslaw Prus
• East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

But, of course, I threw my hands up because there are so many more wonderful authors who should be included!  Here are my honorable mentions:

• Soren Kierkegaard
• Aristotle
• Leo Tolstoy
• Nelson Mandela
• George Eliot
• Jane Austen
• Margaret Atwood
• Roberston Davies
• Zadie Smith

What books have made a great impact on you?