Most influential? Boy that's tough.
Well without a doubt the most influential on my life as a whole has been the Bible. I don't put any religious stock in it any more, but for the time that I did it was a major part of my life.
Now more interesting ones.
Note these may not actually be the most influential, but I love them anyway.
"En la ardiente oscuridad" by Antonio Buero Vallejo
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Chaos by James Gleick
Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith
The first one is a play not a book, but I love it so much I thought I should include it.
Oh yes, one more!
Discrete Event Systems: Sensitivity Analysis and Stochastic Optimization by the Score Function Mehod by Rubinstein and Shapiro.
Just kidding. 🙂
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Originally posted by zucchiniOK. I'm not sure that these are the "most influential" but I have a few that I think are worth reading in any case.
My reading tends to be science, politics, government, social issues, biographies, business, etc.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226458083/qid=1091118651/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2609746-1923868
Readable, revolutionary on its own when it was published about 40 years ago. Some people love it, some hate it with a passion, some nitpick it to death, but it has a lot to say about how science undergoes major changes. Personally, I think there's more than a little truth to it.
The Third Chimpanzee and Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060984031/qid=1091118893/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2609746-1923868
and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393317552/qid=1091118893/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/103-2609746-1923868
Both are extremely readable and worth reading. GG&S won the Pulitzer Prize.
The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence by William H. Calvin.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595161146/qid=1091119189/sr=1-13/ref=sr_1_13/103-2609746-1923868?v=glance&s=books
Out of print. 🙁 Great book! Quirky but fascinating reading. I loved it!
Several by Marvin Harris, including Cannibals and Kings http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067972849X/qid=1091119463/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1811094-0421709?v=glance&s=books
Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679724680/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/102-1811094-0421709?v=glance&s=books&st=*
Why Nothing Works : The Anthropology of Daily Life (Original Title America Now the Anthropology of a Changing Culture) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671635778/qid=1091048470/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-1811094-0421709?v=glance&s=books
The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig: Riddles of Food and Culture (Original title Good to Eat) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671633082/qid=1091119640/sr=1-13/ref=sr_1_13/102-1811094-0421709?v=glance&s=books
and Our Kind : Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060919906/qid=1091048470/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1811094-0421709?v=glance&s=books
Harris's books are kind or repetetive so you probably don't want to purchase all of these right away. He includes a lot of the same examples in many of them, though often with slightly different perspecitves. I'd probably recommend starting with The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig and possibly branch out from there Cannibals and Kings is (I think) the oldest of the ones I mentioned, but has at least some material that I don't remember from any of the others and in some ways a clearer presentation of where Harris is coming from or going to. Of course that may just be a result of the fact that I haven't read it in a long time. 🙂
The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/069111532X/qid=1091120356/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2609746-1923868?v=glance&s=books
I'm still pretty skeptical of certain details, especially the timing, that Wells argues for, but overall, I found this a fascinating read. For a "non-technical" book it nevertheless has quite a good discussion of some very illuminating genetic research. Personally, I was disappointed by the lack of some information that I thought should have been included and so I remain a little confused about how some of the points he argues really work, but for the time being, I'm more or less willing to give it a provisional ok.
Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization by David Keys.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345408764/qid=1091120867/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2609746-1923868?v=glance&s=books
Keys pretty carefully demonstrates that something happened in the year 535 CE (AD for you dinosaurs) (plus or minus maybe a year or so) that affected the climate worldwide and resulted in events that transformed the political/cultural/ethnic/religious shape of subsequent history. Not to give away too much, but his hypothesis is that the climatological disruption was caused by a huge volcanic eruption of (a precursor of) Krakatoa.
Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006093736X/qid=1091121592/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2609746-1923868
This is an historical account of what is known about the 1883 eruption of Krakatau (or Krakatoa, as it is commonly misspelled). Among other things, Winchester casts some doubt on Key's identification of Krakatoa as the site of whatever event Keys was describing, but IMHO, neither is conclusive about that. Both books are good anyway.
As zucchini asked for "influential" books, I have tried to lean in that sort of direction. I should note (as anyone might be able to tell) that I am fascinated by sweeping hypotheses. IMHO, it is worth offering an idea that attempts to "explain" something even if it turns out to be wrong. I am not terribly sympathetic to real crackpots like von Däniken or Velikovsky, but I don't class any of the books I recommended among those. All of the above are controversial. Don't believe for a minute that any of them is "generally accepted." Some of them have more general acceptance than others, but none is without its legitimate detractors.
I also want to note that I am not a believer in "determism." Furthermore, I don't think any of the authors (despite their accusers) actually advocate any sort of "environmental determinism" either. OTOH (and I believe Harris probably explains it best) several of these works do advocate the position that environmental (climatic, economic, geographic) conditions can have the kind of influence that encourages certain broad directions of development.
For example, the eruption of Krakatoa (or similar) in 535 may not explain why it was Muhammed who came up with Islam but it can explain why conditions were ripe for that kind of religious movemnt. The shape of Eurasia may not explain why the Indo-European peoples expanded as they (we) did, but it does explain why conditions were more favorable for some Eurasian population to rise to "world dominance" rather than for some population from Africa or the Americas to do so. The climate of India may not explain all the features of Hinduism, but it does provide some good reasons why Indian peasant farmers ought to take special care to save the cows.
I am completely aware that not everybody agrees with any of these conclusions, but the concept of explanation for contingent facts is very important. Not all facts will actually have explanations, but I think that the search for explanations is itself worthwhile.
Best Regards,
Paul