Now that you have read what some of the nation's most distinguished writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature have to say about the books that influenced them, we hope it will also inspire you to consider the ways in which your life has been touched by books.

Please share with us the book or books that have changed your life by clicking on the link and e-mailing us your response. Your responses will then be posted below.

National Book Foundation's "What book changed my life?"

Please note: submissions may be posted unedited, use discretion.

R. Hart Since I have always been an avid reader, it's hard to point to just one book and say, "Without this book, my life would have been different," because that statement is true of almost every book I've read. Each one has shaped me in some small way. However, I choose Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, because it convinced me completely that one can never trust what someone says simply because they say it; one must look at why they say it. The companies is Fast Food Nation say and do certain things because they want to make money, which is fine; but I learned never to assume that a company has my best interests at heart--there is no reason to believe that they do. Fast Food Nation also led me to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which I also highly recommend.

Laura Fuller The book that changed my life: Upon initally seeing the topic, "The book that changed my life," i thought to myself about the many novels that i have read and found myself thinking out loud, "Although they were great novels, they in no way changed my life." Then after searching through my library collection, Bam! There it was, my motivational, highly inspirational, totally devotional, revised edition of Prophetess Juanita Bynums, No More Sheets: The Truth About Sex. This divine book teaches, if God has a destiny for your life you should begin to prepare for it and you can't do that if you are "in the sheets." Bynum goes on to explain that anytime you have sex with a mate that is not your husband or wife, what happens during intercourse is that men are loosing strength, what women receive is a deposit, and from that moment on the spirit of that man steps in your body. Bynum also teaches the do's and don'ts of dating, being accountable, getting out of debt, being disciplined, developing character and so much more, including the Proverbs 31 Woman, (The woman that every woman should desire to be, the woman that i have become.) This is truly the book that has changed my life. God has taken me from partying to praising him, from having an "Occasional drink" to taking part in Communion to choosing to remain celibate until I'm blessed with the man whose rib i was taken from. In The Holy Bible, Hosea 4:6 states, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." If you lack knowledge ladies and gentlemen get it, but above all, get understanding. P.S. Since my marvelous revelation of this must-have book and my choice to walk according to the word, (For faith without works is dead being alone) God has revealed to me my calling, which is a writer. To date i have several published pieces and although they're not paid works "Yet," I'm well on my way. To God be all the glory. Prophetess Juanita Bynums "No More Sheets" is published with Pneuma Life.

Dawn Brouillette, Natchitoches, LA I know this will seem strange, but the first book to change my life was Lassie Come Home. I had never read a novel before. I was afraid to try. I read very slowly. I had only read short stories or joke books or picture books. My friend saw the books I'd picked at the school library and dared me to read the entire first chapter of any novel. I just reached over and picked up the nearest book which was Lassie Come Home. I cried, I laughed, I read the first chapter amazed of the brand new point of view I had never experienced before. It's written from Lassie's point of view. The one thing I couldn't do was put it down. After the first chapter I just kept going. It took me at least a month to finish it, but there was no stopping me after that. That book opened up a whole new world for me. I've been an avid reader ever since. The next book to change my life was A Wrinkle in Time. I started writing myself after that one.

Robert Juniper, Elk Grove, CA Fiction and nonfiction both have changed my life. Works of fiction that influenced me early on were: the Little House on the Prairie series. I was particularly influenced by Siddartha, The Stranger, Women In Love and The Bagavad-Gita during my late teens. In college I was impressed by The Dubliners (Araby), Watership Down, The Hobbit, Invisible Man, and Lawrence's short stories. Whitman and Dickinson I liked, however, Wordsworth's poem,"Tintern Abbey" blew me away. The best nonfiction I've read is The Gnostic Gospels, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Road Less Traveled, and The essays in the Orwell Reader. Recently, I have been impressed with J.S. Mills writings especially his idea of the Golden Rule.

Trina Royar, Asheville, NC Jane Erye was the book that really got me reading and realizing it was fun. Previously teachers had never been able to inspire me -- all they wanted were book reports. Mr. Clough, of Northfield Mount Hermon school, was finally the teacher (in 12th grade! I wasn't a Northfield previously) that showed me that there was more to reading than doing homework. He inspired me to want to learn and I've been voraciously reading ever since.

Anonymous I was an immature, newly married lady with two infants. My husband was working downtown almost all the time. I was bored, sad, and frustrated. Shopping became a bad habit - I over spent in a major way. An affair was not out of the realm of possibility either. Everything in me screamed "escape"!! One way to escape was through books. I was very lucky to have Madame Bovary drop into my lap one day. I read it with great seriousness. Could it be that I was becoming Madame Bovary? I cried for days after reading that book. I was so jolted by her character! This would never be me! I vowed it then and I still hold my vow today - so many years later. I have a very happy and loving life now - thank you Gustave Flaubert!

Chris Doyle, Roseville, CA Albert Camus’ The Plague introduced me to the bowels of the concept, and realities, of suffering. It’s one thing to passively observe suffering through the sensational window of broadcast and cable news channels, but reading The Plague offered me new insights into true and extraordinary suffering. Since reading the book, any emotional or physical pain I’ve experienced is always pitted against the images and emotions stirred up by The Plague. Needless to say, my aches pale in comparison and can’t really even be called “suffering.” Though sheltered in America by the wonders of our first-world advantages, I believe I’ve been better able to appreciate the very real suffering that I know plagues our world today.

Sandy Malloy ...was Black Beauty, which I must have read at least ten times. Part of it was, I'm sure, that classic connection between horses and little girls, but I was also deeply moved by Anna Sewell's message about how animals should be treated. I still don't have the menagerie that I once imagined myself having as an adult, but I'm still an animal lover.

Anne Doop Without reservation, the book that changed my life was JD Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye. Not the book so much as the man who taught me eleventh grade literature, Mr. Victor Taylor. He was perceived by most of the student body as a stuffy man who wore bow ties and chastised students for their lack of maturity. We all thought of him that way, and cringed when his named was mentioned, as it rendered thoughts of endless writing assignments. While in his class one day Mr. Taylor read pages that takes place in church. Holden Caulfield, the main character, relays an episode of gastrointestinal distress, and in vivid detail describes the resonating sounds made by the student delivering them. Mr. Taylor broke down in uncontrollable laughter. He physically could not finish reading the chapter. He revealed to those of us who got it, a man who was not the crusty tyrant who assigned copious amounts of reading to torture his students, but a man. He was a human being with a great sense of humor who laughed at the most juvenile of things, just as a sixteen year old had. I learned that people sometimes put up a façade to protect themselves from the outside world. Mr. Taylor taught me that it was okay to let the façade come down from time to time. Even with a bunch of immature high school kids. Thanks Mr. Taylor, and thanks Holden Caulfield

John Kelley, Washington, D.C. It would probably be better to call it the book that most increased my understanding and perspective of the world, which I guess does change your life in many intangible ways. But, at any rate, for me that book would have to be To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which I first read when I was 10 years old. I grew up in the panhandle of Florida, the part of Florida that despite the beaches is more like southern Alabama that the rest of Florida. My mother and grandmother were both raised in Northern Alabama. And the novel, told from the view of a young girl, really exemplifies in the form of a powerful tale the values I learned from my mother and grandmother. While both were products of their upbringing in the deep South, they both impressed upon me and my siblings that all humans were worthy of respect and a belief that our society, while flawed, was capable of growth - and healing. I still cry when I read it because it helps me realize those truths again, no matter how barbaric and uncaring our world can seem. All the characters are drawn clearly and lifelike. And even the most despicable are presented fairly, helping the reader understand that they are simply human beings with all too real frailties and weaknesses.

John Wiese, Nashville, TN I think it would have to be, Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. I was around 17 at the time and the book really introduced to me to the many hardships a young man faces in getting through life. And of course Maugham is a brilliant writer.

Leigh Sinclair, Denver, CO The book that changed my life was The Courage to Change by Dennis Wholley. I read it in one sitting almost 20 years ago. It began my path of getting sober. When I discovered how other people had done it, what they had been through and where they were some period of time later, I knew I could do it. I was 30 years old and raising my 5 year old son on my own. This was before it was a popular thing to do-especially at my age. I will forever remember the summer sitting by the pool reading the book and trying to figure out how to unload the boyfriend that was my drinking buddy. Thanks to the courage of the people mentioned in the book, I have 17 years sobriety and a totally different life.

Jeri Martinez No book in 59 years of reading has changed my world view to the extent that The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering into Meaning and Purpose by Polly Young-Eisendrath has. She taught me a new way to view the world and my role -- as though the lens through which I'd looked a life shifted. As a result, I see everything and every one differently now. For me, the "promise" of transformation in the title has been amply fulfilled. This is not a "self-help" book. Instead, it shows the reader a view of our place in the stream of life that has given me a peace I lacked before reading it.

George Longsworth I grew up as a middle class person who never really knew poverty but also never knew riches. I did not truly understand what poverty and need were until, as an adult, I read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Having been born in Oklahoma, as was my part-Cherokee mother and her mother (when it was still called Indian Territory), I felt a special relationship to the Joad family. I have read that novel probably fifteen times and have often used it (as well as The Good Earth) as a teaching device in my high school English classes. Having read that story and really dug into the motives and reactions of the persons involved, I have, over the years, developed a genuine understanding and empathy for poor, migrant, working people. I found myself working in Senator Harry Byrd's apple orchards near Winchester, Virginia years ago, and saw first-hand what migrant laborers go through just to try to survive. They are often treated worse than most people would treat an animal. During my tenure in the apple orchards, I grew to understand the despair of people who travel up and down the country chasing the harvest. They have no benefits of any kind or even the most basic things like child care, etc. More than anything else in my life, having read this and other of Steinbeck's works and having experienced the squalor myself, did more to help me have sympathy with poor people and those who must work from dawn to dusk (and beyond) to feed their families even minimally and to relate to the dirty, sweaty, tired, weather-beaten fellows I meet in the supermarket from time to time, who have just come off the job and want only to get home, see their families and get some rest. These are the good people. These are the people who make the world tick. Theses are the people we must all learn to appreciate for their contributions to the ease and comfort of the rest of our lives. I thank Mr. Steinbeck for turning me on to what real need is.

Molly Kingston, Incline Village, NV One of my very first and most-beloved books, The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper, not so much changed, but shaped, my life. The anthropomorphized, smiling little train symbolizes perseverance and grit, and to this day, "I think I can, I think I can" echoes in my memory when facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Effort pays off, and the engine demonstrates that the downhill coast is proportionately rewarding to the difficulty of the climb. Thanks for the childhood lesson.

Helena Gingras, Medford, MA The first book that changed my life was one of a Fairy Book series. Each volume had a color, The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, and so on. I had finished reading one of them, and when I replaced it on the library shelf I saw the rest of the series and realized that people could write more than one book each. For some reason I'd assumed that every book was written by a different person. The realization made writing seem more worthwhile because the writer wouldn't have to stop when the first book was written.

Jennifer Vogt Alcoholics Anonymous (aka "The Big Book"). After reading this book my entire outlook on life, people, and my relationship with God profoundly changed for the better.

Jonah Goldstein Every book I've read changed my life - at least temporarily. Frank W. Dixon's The Tower Treasure came at a very impressionable time in my life, and the dust has never quite settled. It was part chummy humor, part noir, and all mystery and intrigue. It was best read with a flashlight.

Claire Riley, Vineland, NJ In 10th grade, my English teacher assigned us Damien, by Herman Hesse. I think this was a very daring choice for a Central Virginia high school. This book encouraged me to find other ways of knowing, affirmed my questioning nature, validated that it was OK to seek new paths. In my hometown, it was not always easy to find support for any ideas but those of a biblical nature. There was not a lot of support for being a seeker.

Jill Taylor, College Station, TX The one book that most influenced me, as in had more effect than simple pleasure, was The Chosen by Chaim Potok. In the book, a young boy is raised "in silence" by his Rabbi father. As you hear more of how this man raised a son to whom he never spoke, you cannot help but cry out for his young, damaged heart and hate his father in turn. However, the realization that he did it to give his son strength of character and understanding for human suffering brought me two realizations: one, people do strange and awful things to each other in the name of love; and two, adversity is often the one thing that leads to character. These two axioms were incorporated into my worldview when I read The Chosen in high school and were part of the impetus that pushed me from childhood into womanhood. I would recommend this author to most anyone having read another of his books, My Name is Asher Lev. But, The Chosen will always be the book that most influenced my life.

Mary Hegardt, Santa Ana, CA My life changing book: As a white girl growing up in suburban Southern California, the book Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement by Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer changed my life in that it made me realize that the rosy picture that my school books painted of the civil rights movement had left out some information. Not only did this book shift my attention to social justice issues (a lifetime interest), it also opened my eyes to the reality that Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia (to name a couple) were not the only evil regimes in the 20th century. When the recent "fuss" over Trent Lott's comments supporting Jesse Helms' politics came up, I was well equipped to understand why we cannot dismiss such views as harmless ancient history. See also I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.