I remember a while ago that ZeWhatcher chose a few authors he thought were inspirational so I thought I would list my personal favourites of books which made me feel strangely different after finsihing them, each with a brief description and why i find them to be so good.
I'm not one to talk about the most known books such as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy so don't expect them here even though their fantastic.



Now the first novel i find to be well worth a read is a novel called the Forever War written by Joe Haldeman. It's from what i remember the first serious book i've ever read and it has certainly changed my views on literature.
The book has a sci fi setting but in a way runs parralell to the Vietnam war. The author is actually a veteran of Vietnam which is why the novel has some of the characteristics of the war. The plot focuses on one soldier and how he first trains then fights and eventually gets promoted. You'd think it would be a normal book about war, well that's where you are wrong my friend. The setting is of a war which lasts a thousand years and the soldier which the book revolves around serves the entire time. It sounds impossible but as its set in space the ships they are on seemingly travel for years upon years while the soldiers are in suspended animation. This is how the soldier serves for the entire time. But each time the soldier returns to Earth, everything has changed usually for the worst as well. To fully realise what i mean, you'd have to read the novel which i recommend.
The reason its so good is that it's different to anything else i've ever read and i have read quite a lot. It just makes you think about what happens to a common soldier during war.



Book two is called the Zombie Survival Guide written by Max Brooks. As the name suggests, its a guide on how to survive a zombie outbreak. Though it is purely fiction it is so well written that you'll be questioning the author if he knows something we don't. The book doesn't really have a plot but its split into certain sections such as useful weapons, survival tips, safe locations (Alaska's a good one) and other things.
Like i said before, it is very well written and seems to have a comedic yet serious genre which is the reason i enjoy it.


Another book would be I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I was lucky enough to read the book before I saw the film and lets just say they are quite different. The book isn't set in NYC and the main character is the ONLY human left which gives it a lonely feeling. The creatures are in fact vampires and not mutated creatures and want nothing more than to kill the last human.
I'm not going to spoil the ending of the book because it really is fantastic(Maybe if you ask politely) but i will share one part i found very emotional. Because the character is so alone, he wants nothing more than some company and one day he finds a stray dog roaming the streets which isn't infected. The last human spends nearly three chaoters trying to get this dog into his house so he could have some company and when he finally does, the most unexpected thing happens. At the end of the chapter where he gets the dog into his home, on the last line all it says is this "A week later, the dog was dead". It was really moving like you had made a connection and understood his suffering. It's fantastic, the ending really is for lack of a better word EPIC.


The final novel i find amazing is All quiet on the western front written by Erich Maria Remarque. The author was a veteran of WW1 so a lot of their personal life has gone into the novel. Originally written in German,the book shows the war's horrors and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. Though the focuses on one certain soldier, its more about a class of students who enlist together. Because of the harshness of WW1, most of them die which makes the novel very moving. he ending is most certainly the best part of the book because its very sudden like it was a telegram on the battlefield, very clever how it was written.


Well these are some of the books i think to be fantastic and they are of course mown opinion. I do recommend you read some of them if you havent already becauser they are indeed very good.