Flatland by Edwin Abbott - if it doesn't break your brain thinking about seeing in shadows of reality, and never being able to all of anything at once, you need to read it again
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - read it a couple years ago on vacation as my "beach read". Thought a bunch of what he wrote was pretty interesting/entertaining (though I disagree with some of his presuppositions and/or conclusions). Also made watching Tenet more enjoyable. And gave me an idea for a story (that I do not know how to write) wherein there is a class of people who only "remember the future" - they know what is going to happen before it happens, but as soon as it happens, they forget ... iow, they experience time half-backwards (they live it forward, but can not recall anything once it's occurred - it's all a "prediction" or "guess" to them...just like the future is to everyone else)
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy - contemplating a 100% 'conventional' WWIII, Clancy does a couple interesting things in the story that I have often wondered why they have not been talked about elsewhere (maybe they have in classified circles, but certainly not anywhere I have run across them) ... notably, using a A-10 Thunderbolts flying close to the deck over the ocean to strafe thin-hulled warships
Learning Basic for Tandy Computers by David A Lien - first programming book I ever had/used (it's even available on Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/LearningBasicForTandyComputers/) ... got me into programming/scripting when I was about 10
Even if you’re not spiritual or never read it yourself - all the story archetypes used in modern fiction are there. Not to mention ethical standards.
Literally there is very little fundamentally new in literature that isn’t there already in the bible in one way or another.
I also really enjoyed "A History of God', but found the author's conclusions a bit odd. She seemed to still be devout, and yet her book destroyed what little faith and hope I still had in organized religion. It really laid bare how so much religious change was due, not to some sort of new understanding of the world, but either attempts to acquire political power or abstract debates over semantics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Two_Three..._Infinity
Name drops Neil deGrasse Tyson (Is he that old?)
Internet Archive has a 1961 copy.
https://ia801305.us.archive.org/19/items/OneTwoThreeInfinity...
The Nature of the Universe, by Fred Hoyle, as well.
Value-based fees by A. Weiss: I was a freelancer and it taught me the importance of building a relationship that's more than just providing a service.
So Good They Can't ignore you by C. Newport: Got my head of the sand and makes me realize that no one really thinks that you're special. You can only get ahead with your project by being valuable (Not sure this is the exact message, but that's what I learned)
Atomic Habits by J. Clear: Helped me realize that big changes comes from small actions. So I always try to frame what I want to achieve in that way.
The Selfish Gene (Dawkins) - helped nudge me over the line in terms of really identifying as an atheist, by satisfactorily refuting any lingering hints of the "irreducible complexity" argument that were lodged in my brain.
The Fountainhead (Rand) - I actually saw the movie before reading the book, but the Howard Roark character is a real role model character to me.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Blank) - As far as I'm concerned, this is THE book for startup founders / entrepreneurs. Very detailed, very logical, iterative process for building a company, defining a product, finding customer base, etc.
Nineteen Eighty-four (Orwell) - Read this one my senior year in High School and it left a profound mark on my psyche. I was already leaning towards a very individualistic / libertarian worldview, but 1984 really enflamed my hatred for big, heavy-handed, oppressive government(s).
The book that popped into my head from my subconscious when I read the question was 'Catch-22'. I was a teenager when I read that. It taught me to be less naive, more cynical. It was also very, very funny. And it tickled my offbeat Sense of Humor.
Then I was pretty much raised by the Perry Rhodan scifi books - they were a bit like star trek, lots of physics in there, that lasted from 6-16 or so, I guess I missed puberty a bit.
byron katie's - the work, turned around a lot of beliefs I held, I've been suffering less lately.
As for stories, Greek or Norse mythology. Many of the concepts in the book above come from these myths.
Left around at home to indoctrinate me into "stuff" at age 8. Ended up being the first sparkle of my rebellion against "stuff".
You might have fared better with Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child .. it's a cracking search for the secret of being self-winding.
http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/mouse.html
Failing that, Kleinzeit
The book is a masterpiece every person should read, several times, at different ages.
The message of choosing the better story is at the heart of the book, and I apply it in so many areas of my life.
