The selection might seem trite, but I suspect that there wasn't a book with bigger impact on me than Hobbit, for very simple reason. It made me into voracious reader, put me on a path of reading, actually reading. All because my father prodded me to read out loud first few pages so that I could show off how well I read. That was enough to get me hooked and probably nothing compares in impact. Then there was LOTR, later on Silmarillion, and to this day I remember sometimes surprising amounts of trivia from them. A definitive positive impact.
- Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Had an impact mostly unrelated to its sci-fi content but related to more down to earth things mentioned. Whether it was positive impact remains an unanswered question, over 18 years later.
- Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. A book series that, now that I think of it, fed probably disturbing amounts of growth of my personal morals. Unclear on how positive that impact was, but I think it was? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Hobbit was important for me too. I wouldn't have read it without the C64 adventure game (same with Color of Magic). I was probably only around 7 years old so it was a big book and took me a while to get through and kicked off a love of reading. Around the same time I read the whole Narnia series. Then next came the Lord of the Rings which was a multi-year epic for me.
Strangely, the Fighting Fantasy series was also a big influence - a cousin gave me Citadel of Chaos just after it came out and it really pushed my interesting in books and a an only child I tracked down almost every solo roleplaying booking I could find.
I also loved Eric the Viking ( the Terry Jones version ), which I now read to my children and The Odysseus books that Tony Robinson wrote that kicked off an interest in mythology.
In sixth grade, back in the '70s, my English textbook had Chapter Five ("Riddles in the Dark") as a selection. It turned out my teacher was a huge LotR fan. She gave the class a choice—we could either continue on with the textbook or each purchase a copy of The Hobbit (which was 1 dollar for the paperback) and read that instead. We opted for The Hobbit. I don't even remember her name anymore, but I would say that that decision of hers was monumental for my life. I liked reading before that, but this was something completely different.
I went through what I suspect is a common experience in that I had The Hobbit read to me at school at about 8, then read LOTR to get more hobbits. Even though the vocabulary was far too difficult for me, the experience of getting through a 1000 page book at that age, gave a massive boost to my reading and writing ability.
The selection might seem trite, but I suspect that there wasn't a book with bigger impact on me than Hobbit, for very simple reason. It made me into voracious reader, put me on a path of reading, actually reading. All because my father prodded me to read out loud first few pages so that I could show off how well I read. That was enough to get me hooked and probably nothing compares in impact. Then there was LOTR, later on Silmarillion, and to this day I remember sometimes surprising amounts of trivia from them. A definitive positive impact.
- Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Had an impact mostly unrelated to its sci-fi content but related to more down to earth things mentioned. Whether it was positive impact remains an unanswered question, over 18 years later.
- Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. A book series that, now that I think of it, fed probably disturbing amounts of growth of my personal morals. Unclear on how positive that impact was, but I think it was? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯