The Wishsong of Shannara, by Terry Brooks
Proving that in fact you CAN judge a book by its cover, I plucked this book from the shelf of my 6th-grade school library because the font of the title drew my eye. (I see that font in use in lots of places. Apparently, people are aware of its appeal.) I didn't realize until I was several chapters into the book that it was the final installment of a trilogy of stand-alone novels, but by then I was too hooked to stop. And starting with Wishsong was probably fortuitous anyway. That book is full of original ideas, as opposed to the first volume, The Sword of Shannara, which is widely (and not altogether unfairly) regarded as derivative of The Lord of the Rings. In any case, this was my first exposure to Terry Brooks, who I loved at the time and still have a perhaps-unreasonable affection for today.
A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin
I could easily have listed either this third volume of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series or the first volume, A Game of Thrones. Book One was the first time I felt I'd found a new level that fantasy fiction could aspire to: a much more realistic and evolved form of writing. But it was Book Three that evoked one of the most visceral reactions I've ever had while reading a book. The now-famous "Red Wedding" chapter left me dejected and mopey for quite some time.
Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk
This book by the author of Fight Club evoked the most visceral reaction I've ever had while reading. Haunted is basically a series of short stories unified by a larger framing device. One of the earliest stories, involving a character named Saint Gut-Free, concludes with fiendishly vile bit of imagery that aroused such disgust in me that I physically threw the book from my hands and got out of my chair. It took me a few minutes to "walk it off" before I came back and finished the chapter.
The Club Dumas, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
It's not that I loved the movie The Ninth Gate, but I did find it interesting in its own bizarre way. When I heard it was in fact based on a book, The Club Dumas, I decided to give that a try. This one sticks with me as a truly memorable example of a film "adaptation" almost completely departing from its source material. The last third of the book bears no resemblance whatever to the film. And nowhere in the film will you find any reference to Alexandre Dumas, the author whose work is a significant runner throughout the book's plot (as well as providing its title). How odd to adapt a book without keeping its title, theme, or plot.
World War Z, by Max Brooks
Here's another example where the book and the movie that came from it bear no resemblance to one another. (In this case, however, the movie was fairly good.) But it's not the differences that make this stick with me. It's that the book is absolutely amazing. It's hard to imagine right now, but this book hit before the resurgence of zombies in pop culture. It came at a time when the most recent zombies we'd seen were the "fast zombies" of 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead re-make. This went back to genre roots, but did it with tremendous creativity too, fusing zombies with historical fiction. I always wanted to see this adapted into a Band of Brothers style mini-series... and frankly, that still ought to happen, since the film was nothing like the book. Oh well, at least we have the brilliant audiobook version, which cast a dozen different actors as characters recounting the horrors of the Zombie War.
2061: Odyssey Three, by Arthur C. Clarke
I read this in junior high. I'd never read Clarke's prior two books, 2001 or 2010, though I'd seen both the movies that came from them. 2061 sticks with me as being one of the worst books I've ever read. 240 pages of mounting tension culminates in 10 pages of utter copping-out -- the sum total of which amounts to "you needn't have bothered reading this book, because nothing happens in it." To pour salt in the wound, the book concludes with a 2-page epilogue set in the far future of 3001, in which it is strongly implied that "now something is actually going to happen." Clarke did ultimately write a 3001 novel, but I'll be damned if I'm going to ever read it.
Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
In 1991, it seemed as though there would never again be another Star Wars film. But one day, I walked into the book store and sitting there was Heir to the Empire, the first book of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. Holy crap! A new Star Wars adventure? Featuring a badass new villain, and spot-on renderings of all the familiar characters we knew and loved? Yes, please! And, as we would learn 8 years later, this book was light years better than the next Star Wars tale that would actually spring from the mind of George Lucas. I suppose it remains to be seen whether next year, 24 years after the release of this book, the official continuation of the Star Wars storyline is better or worse. But I feel like Heir to the Empire set the bar rather high. Even though hundreds of Expanded Universe novels followed, almost none were as good (at least among the handful I read).
The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman
This is the third volume of Pullman's outstanding trilogy, His Dark Materials. The first book (titled The Golden Compass in the United States and Northern Lights in the rest of the world) really grabbed me with its clever fantasy premise and the thorough way in which that premise was explored. But it was the final volume that really revealed what an incredibly subversive idea Pullman had Trojan Horsed inside his work. The scathing rebuke of organized religion was icing on an already skillfully crafted cake. It's probably just as well that the film adaptation of the first book failed at the box office and sank the series; if they couldn't do that book justice, they would have failed utterly at this brilliant final volume.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
Speaking of final volumes, the seventh Harry Potter book is pretty amazing. It concludes the evolution of the series from something very surface and kid-friendly to something quite deep and adult. It surprises. It tugs at the emotions. And most improbably, it satisfies. It frankly should not have been possible for Rowling to write a satisfying ending to a series that had that many people waiting for that long. And yet, though most people I know don't consider Deathly Hallows their favorite Harry Potter book, I don't know of a single one who thought it was disappointing. I vividly remember canceling all my weekend plans, disengaging from the internet, and hiding in my apartment in a self-imposed blackout to devour the book as quickly as possible.
Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players, by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth
Though I've now become quite casual about poker, there was a time in the early 2000s where I was taking it quite seriously, reading all the strategy books on Texas Hold 'Em that I could get my hands on. I considered this to be one of the best. (Or at least, one of the first to make a big impression on my thinking.) The advice of this book has probably "stayed with me" in a more literal way than any other book on this list.
And there you have it, 10 books that have stayed with me in some way. If you're reading this, and are inclined to offer a list of your own, consider yourself tagged. Feel free, if you prefer, to take it back to Facebook and simplify things by just offering the titles without elaboration. In any case, let's see what books are on your mind.
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