The top five influential books of all time

Books have their ways to sink into our brains and create an everlasting impact. At least the good ones. You can always scan through the internet for titles that might be of your interest. Goodreads can provide recommendations based on many parameters.

However, in our list today, we will talk about books that have the power to shape your thinking or even change it! Some readers might find these titles heavy, but come on, I

urge you to reread the title of this article again! 

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 

The wisdom oozes out of its pages, over 1300 of them. Profoundly satisfying characters from diverse backdrops of life transcend through time. The fallibility of war and love that doesn't last often draw the most realistic parallels ever captured in a novel. War and Peace enjoys a special place in many readers' heart. It's lengthy, but not a difficult read. Let's say one requires a certain degree of wisdom to let this fantastic piece of literature brush it further up.

Favourite quote: "A man in motion always devises an aim for that motion. To be able to go a thousand miles he must imagine that something good awaits him at the end of those thousand miles. One must have the prospect of a promised land to have the strength to move." 

2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

It's disturbing! Very horrifying on top it. You might expect an adventure out of a plane crash leaving 50 odd kids stranded on an island. Lord of the Flies does the opposite. What happens when innocence escapes because children start behaving like adults? Hatred grows, politics rise, friendships decline, doubts overtake, minds rot! Disclaimer? Not for the faint-hearted. However, let it beat your soul to infancy again, and you might find some light by the end of it.

Favourite quote: “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”

3. The Lessons of History 

 The only non-fiction I'm considering for this list mainly because it's an important book that gives a bird's eye view of human civilisation at its best.

Favourite quote: 

1. “War is one of the constants of history, and has not diminished with civilization or democracy. In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.”

2. “History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing. The historian will not mourn because he can see no meaning in human existence except that which man puts into it; let it be our pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance that transcends death. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.”

4. 1984 by George Orwell 

The biggest issue or the horror, if I may be so bold to say so, of 1984 is that every passing day, its prophetic penance is becoming more and more real. We wonder how Apple released an ad in 1984 on positive sidelines using the premise of 1984 at the launch of Macintosh. Machines always watching and listening and knowing every little secret that the representatives of law can use against you at their convenience. We'll refrain from creating a mean world syndrome and say that we are already living in a world that 1984 predicted decades ago, but we'll also not refuse.

Favourite quote: “Big Brother is Watching You.”

5. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Also, add Atlas Shrugged. The world is divided into two; those who agree with Ayn Rand's philosophy and those who don't! It immaterial because Ayn Rand has inspired the world at a scale hitherto undreamt of. Did I just say that? Guess who am I mocking? 

Favourite quote: "The quest for self-respect is proof of its lack."