At first I ordered these in descending order of preference or impact, but found I couldn't really do it that way. It's too often a matter of apples and oranges. However, there are some books that had a truly significant impact on my life, that caused me to think differently, to live differently. Frequently, these are books I read when I was quite young (9 or 10 years old; I had a "college level" reading ability since second grade and read adult books from about 8 years old on), and they had enormous influence on my values and aspirations. I've marked these with an asterisk, and I still think they are wonderful stories, but be warned that a couple of them are very cheesy indeed.