Name a book that had a big impact on you during your adolescence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you there God - its me Margaret.

Same here!

[Anonymous]

Tiger Eyes
A Wrinkle in Time
Ender's Game(I know the movie is recent, book is from the 80s!)
Les Jeux sont faits
The master & margarita

[Anonymous]

Oh yes - Judy Blume!

I also liked all the S.E. Hinton books.

(Yes, I am dating myself!)

[Anonymous]

Aesop's Fables

[Anonymous]

Flowers in the Attic
The Thornbirds
Forever

[Anonymous]

Illusions, by Richard Bach
The Outsiders

I never saw the movie because I didn't want it to mess up the vision of the characters that I had in my head. Looking back I'm sure that was the right call. I think I would have hated everyone who was in the movie (except maybe -- maybe -- Matt Dillon).

[Anonymous]

Slaughterhouse Five

[Anonymous]

The Hite Report
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

[Anonymous]

Later in adolescence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cat ate my gym suit

Wow. I loved that book too but haven't thought of it in years!

Also:
The Outsiders
The Are You There God It's Me Margaret
The Summer Before
Herman Hesse's Demian, even though I mainly read it because the boy I had a crush on was really into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Yes! I had a long affair with Tom Robbins. Although I liked skinny legs and all a little more than even cowgirls get the blues.

[Anonymous]

Siddartha
The Autobiography of Malcolm X

[Anonymous]

I had a mix of high and low stuff. I was a voracious reader and just devoured everything I could get my hands on... I was reading out of context at the time, everything from John Cheever to Saul Bellow to Erica Jong. I didn't know if it was crap or literature/in or out of the canon at the time. I just wanted to read.

So here is my list:

Tiger Eyes

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (insipid title but actually a really beautiful love story written in the 1940s)

Portnoy's Complaint

Jane Eyre

The Bell Jar

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

And of course, The Catcher in the Rye

[Anonymous]

Pretty much all of Nancy Drew. Slightly cringe-worthy.

[Anonymous]

Atlas Shrugged is the only book I can remember where I was blown away, but I'm going to think about this for a while and post back. It's an interesting question, OP.