The Great Shark Hunt-Hunter S. Thompson, Stranger In A Strange Land-Robert A. Heinlein

The work of Carl Sagan in his book and show Cosmos has had a significant amount of influence on how I think and look at life.

All of Alan Watts. More recently, Hannah Arendt "The Life of the Mind" and anything by Daniel C. Dennett.

Robert Heinlein novels and short stories.

I was in 7th grade in Catholic school and we had to go to our little library and pick a book to do a report on. I wasn’t much of a reader so I picked the slimmest book I could find. It turned out to be Brave New World. It’s not so much that the book itself informed my world view but it opened me up to the fact that there were many views that I hadn’t considered. Because of that book, I eventually became an avid reader and skeptic.

The March of Literature by Ford Madox Ford
I read this book when I was 18, it opened my eyes to the fact that there are actually other religions other than judaism, christianity and islam, and about how and why human thought about religion, it is a fascinating book

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Eckhart Tolle...The Power of Now..... The New Earth
Richard Carlson Don’t sweat the Small Stuff...... What about the Big Stuff

Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance ... Kahill Gibrans the prophet ... Johnathan Livingston Seagull ... Winnie the pooh ... and finally The Hobbit!

All have in one way or another given me pause for thought or just made me feel good! There is however a common thread in each, and that is the ability to overcome ... whether that be obstacles of both a physical or psychological nature. Or if you wish to be more profound they hold certain philosophies that I find both calming and enlightening.
All I am sure would depend on what you're looking for ... or in my case not looking for ... smiles!

A Brief History of Time

The Bible, in a big way - but perhaps not quite the way it's supposedf to shape thoughts and philosophy.