Questions like this always see a bit odd to me, because, as Shakespeare reminds us, "the readiness is all". The books that really changed my life were able to

Questions like this always see a bit odd to me, because, as Shakespeare reminds us, "the readiness is all". The books that really changed my life were able to change my life because I was in a position to be changed by them. Someone else reading the same books might have no result at all. And, I suspect (but can't prove) that some of this is related to age as well; I can't say I know of anyone whose outlook has been radically altered by a book they read past the age of 30. Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't had my life improved in small but significant way by books I've read in the past couple decades-- but the effects are nowhere as significant as those texts from my teenage years, and early 20s.