When I was a teenager I read "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant. I hadn't had much exposure to philosophy before, but it sparked my interest in philosophy at a relatively young age. It covers the most widely known Western philosophers, one philosopher per chapter, and was written for a mass audience. I don't recall a whole lot about the book itself (other than thinking it was fascinating at the time), but it was very influential to me because of the foundation it established, and all the other stuff it inspired me to read and learn and think about later in life.
The other book that feels most influential to me is "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter. I read it many years ago when I was in college and studying CS. Maybe I just read it at the right time in my life, but I remember loving everything about it and being fascinated by all the different topics from math/science/CS/AI/history that it touched on while exploring its central thesis. In really broad strokes, the book is an exploration of logical paradoxes and the insights we can draw from them. It ultimately leads to a focus on the concept of recursion (in nature, in the human mind, in mathematics, in CS and AI, etc.), and how certain patterns of recursion found in math, nature, and the mind could form the basis of creativity, inspiration, natural diversity, human intelligence, etc.
But that's selling it short. It's a huge book that ranges over so many topics that it can seem overwhelming. I devoured it at the time, and it fired my imagination for many years later.
It's been 20-30 years since I read either book, so I can't say if they would hold up for me now. Maybe. But they introduced me to so many different ideas that led to so many more ideas and lines of reasoning throughout the rest of my life. For better or worse, I would be a different person if it weren't for those books.
The other book that feels most influential to me is "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter. I read it many years ago when I was in college and studying CS. Maybe I just read it at the right time in my life, but I remember loving everything about it and being fascinated by all the different topics from math/science/CS/AI/history that it touched on while exploring its central thesis. In really broad strokes, the book is an exploration of logical paradoxes and the insights we can draw from them. It ultimately leads to a focus on the concept of recursion (in nature, in the human mind, in mathematics, in CS and AI, etc.), and how certain patterns of recursion found in math, nature, and the mind could form the basis of creativity, inspiration, natural diversity, human intelligence, etc.
But that's selling it short. It's a huge book that ranges over so many topics that it can seem overwhelming. I devoured it at the time, and it fired my imagination for many years later.
It's been 20-30 years since I read either book, so I can't say if they would hold up for me now. Maybe. But they introduced me to so many different ideas that led to so many more ideas and lines of reasoning throughout the rest of my life. For better or worse, I would be a different person if it weren't for those books.