The 10 Books that Changed/Influenced Your Life

A friend of mine recently challenged me to list the 10 books that have changed and/or had a great influence on my life, and I thought "what a fantastic question"! I'd like to think each personal list would be the essence of its owner: their thoughts, cares, hopes, fears reflected in each. What would you put on your list? Here's mine after the jump:

dontcatchafallingknife Tumblr

1. Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga

2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

3. Chronicles of Narnia (series) - C.S. Lewis

4. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf - Ntozake Shange

5. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

6. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

7. The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank

8. Harold and the Purple Crayon - Crockett Johnson

9. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 

10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

I wonder if my list will be similar in 10 years...or 20! I'd love to know others' lists as well, and ask myself this question when I'm 35, 45, 55, and on. 

P.S.

The other bonus of these lists: exciting new (and highly recommended) reading lists for myself!