Which book has impacted your life the most and how?

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The giver - showed me what life would be like in a "cured" society.

Your questions are very deep
This is difficult to answer... right now I would say Siddartha, because when I read it I was going through exactly the same search for the meaning of life as the character. I identified a lot and it gave me good insights and in the end I didn't feel like I was that lost in existence as before.

Flowers for Algernon - for years I believed that people judged you on your IQ alone after reading that book - it also made me cry and depressed for two days. (Yeah, I'm that sensitive) I read this book in eighth grade. Only until I was around 34 did I realize the true meaning of that book; it was the opposite of what I thought before - that intellect doesn't matter in the world. A kind heart and good moral personality does. Charlie had both of these qualities whether his IQ was 68 or 204. As a genius, people used him without being a true friend to him; when his IQ was 68, he knew who his true friends were. That is the moral of the book. Sorry if this was a "spoiler alert", but I just wanted to teach this to others in case they get the wrong idea like I did.

Another one was 1984 by George Orwell. I realized how powerless I am in my current state in comparison to the government; that I alone cannot change the world and its horrors. Still, I could change how I lived my life; perhaps this could significantly evince what is more important in the context of human living?

My own. I'm a writer, so of course the decision to write books in itself has had a large impact on my life.

Haven't gotten anything published though, but still.

I'm not sure. Chomsky's books, probably.

Probably stuff by Stephen King, which helped inspire me to become a writer.

Showing my age in this reply: Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse made a big impact on me. I read and re-read it over 30 years, long before I had any Aspie self-awareness. Harry Haller (the main character) is stultified, depressed and appalled by the society in which he lives, it's petty conventions, hatred of difference, small-mindedness. Hesse used the novel to suggest that though the danger for "misfits" like Harry was suicide, the answer was to become more consciously himself, to explore and expand his own unique possibilities, that "trying to fit in" is a living suicide of the self.

Hesse said in interviews, much later after this novel was published, that it was his most misunderstood novel, that sadly, many young people saw it as encouraging them to suicide. Obviously it didn't have that effect on me. It was quite a comfort at the time.

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which I read when I was 18.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I spent most of the previous decade or more clinically depressed, primarily due to AS (which didn't yet exist as a diagnosis). By 18 I'd pretty much kicked that, but was well on my way toward cynicism and bitterness. The Fountainhead and Rand's other writings helped me learn to love life.

Off the top of my head, I'd say the Bible, but so much of my experience with it has been negative because my elders misused it. Seeing it as a tool for encouragement rather than destruction or regret is a challenge I still wrestle with every day.

You sound like you're on the cusp of out and out atheism. This might be a good time to read Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great. He is more readable than Dawkins and they cover a lot of the same ground. It's a fun, and informative read.

The Atheist Experience covers atheism, and anti-apologetics from a variety of different angles.

http://www.atheist-experience.com/

He's not on the cusp of atheism. He just feels that his faith is being misused by some of the people that claim to be leaders. Sounds to me like it's just the opposite of being on the cusp of atheism. It sounds to me like he's was only one in his own "world" that tried to be a follower of his faith. It's not easy feeling alone so he wrestles with it. He didn't say he is giving up.

Precisely; thanks for your support. I appreciate it.

Well, I'm going to be honest (instead of choosing some classic author) and say Robert Anton Wilson, the Illuminati trilogy. It was so wild and exciting to read, and dealt with actual real world things I had read about.

Green Eggs and Ham. It was the first book I ever read. Now I am a writer myself.

You are welcome. Stay strong.

Probably my favorite book I've ever read is the book of Job. I wonder how you feel about it? It's considered one of the toughest books for Christians and Jews.