In my opinion, one of the most important things that any human being can do is to be able to read.
The ability to read informs, ones ability to learn.
Reading allows a person the chance to learn, to get an education.
But in other ways, reading can liberate a person and open them up to new experiences, new locations, allows them to visit times past and it allows access to thoughts and deeds of people, with whom they may never have any contact with.
One may never get the chance to visit Antartica - but read Ernest Shackelton's biography and you're immediately placed in that desolate location.
Thankfully many of us will never experience the life of a soldier in WW1 - but read Sassoon or Wilfred Owen and one is transported back to a time/place which can only be regarded as hellish.
Which books have you read and which you could say have made a great impression on you?
My list would have to include the following (in no particular order) :
1. 1984, Animal Farm, by George Orwell.
2. Most of Shakespeares works.
3. Ulysses by James Joyce
4. Strumpet City by James Plunkett
5. Most of Charles Dickens stories.
6. The Time Machine by HG Wells
7. Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
8. Catch-22 Joseph Heller