Ah, as far as that goes, two things come into mind immediately. The Lord of the Rings was definitely one. It was my first real fandom, and one of the first times I have ever enjoyed the characters as characters. It led me into the world of fantasy, even though now I notice its shortcomings and plot holes (I mean literal ones, not PPC-verse ones). And then 1984. I don't think I've ever thought so much about a book.

Misfile and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first one, I'm not saying why. The second one is even more valuable to me, however. It was my first exposure to a Utopian civilization, and made me look for more. I still believe something like that to be possible, and I'd say that hoping to see one is a big part of me, even still.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a big one. I discovered it right as it made the jump to the Sci-Fi channel in the late '90s. Every Saturday morning I would get up and watch it, regardless whether it was a repeat or not. That show helped shape both my sense of humor and my outlook on life. I might not be here writing this right now if it weren't for MST3K.

I definitely wouldn't be here writing this right now if it weren't for Discworld. That series probably had the greatest effect on me, far more than MST3K. I was getting burned out on traditional high fantasy by the time I discovered my first Discworld novel. That showed me that there was more than one way to look at a setting that might otherwise seem played out; that humor had a place in the "big" genres; that characters were the lifeblood of a story. Pratchett reaffirmed my love for reading and planted the seed of what would become a love for writing. I will always be grateful for that.

Finally, I have to give a nod to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. I honestly wasn't a huge gamer as a kid. I played a few titles on and off, but nothing really hooked me. Then I played Shadows of Amn and had my mind blown. Games I had played before then didn't really have very engrossing stories. They didn't offer me choices. Shadows of Amn was like a playable book, and that stunned me. That was the first title that showed me there might be something to these video games after all, that they could offer me the depth I typically only found on the page. Still gaming to this day.

Well, actually that wasn't the first life-changing media, but it was a big one. It introduced me to the idea that authority is not always correct, and taught me to be suspicious of corporations.

The first one was arguably either Spider-Man the animated series from the early 90s, or my dad introducing me to GURPS, and by extension RPGs, at age 8.

And that's Salamandastron. It was the first book I ever really cared about. Before then, reading just wasn't a thing I did, then my older brother loaned me his copy, and I got sucked in. It was my introduction to the series that inspired my love of reading, fantasy, history, writing, drawing... Just about everything I enjoy today. In fact, it was through the Redwall fandom that I got here. From Kelaiah and Arawolf Beechclaw, to OFUM, to the Original Series, to here.

A rather obscure Christian YA trilogy, but it got me through some rough patches when I was dealing with self-confidence issues. The whole plot revolves around normal, everyday people actually being courageous knights in another world-- and that sounded pretty good to me. I even took my screen name from them!

And, obviously, the Bible has had an incalculable impact on me. I can't even begin to imagine what I would be without it: depressed, probably. Perhaps dead.

-Alleb

False Assumptions, by Drs. John Townsend and Henry Cloud.

Which is THIS SONG

Don't ask why. It's just at that time I thought that I should pull myself together and change my attitude. Just like the song says:

It's a chance to leave it all behind
Start again, begin a brand new life
They were right that I wouldn't hate it
To think that I hesitated
I finally checked my checkered past
And I'm not going back!

If my memories serve me right, that was the first books series I ever read, making it my first real step in the world of books, fantasy... Duck, just anything.

(That's 'Fellowship of the Ring-Movie', in Philosopher@Large-speak.)

I was already an LotR fan before the movies came out, but the movies - and Fellowship in particular - kicked it into high gear. That set me on the path towards writing and publishing fanfic, which brought me into contact with the PPC - which led directly to me meeting Kaitlyn and (eventually) marrying her.

It doesn't get much more life-changing than that.

hS

Not sure if they're life-changing per se, but...
1) Anything composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It's the music I turn to when I'm feeling like crap. It usually helps.
2) Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Anime comes and goes, but MGLN is the only anime I found something profound in. Takamachi Nanoha is the closest I have a fictional role-model.

I think it was Captain Hook who first convinced me that the villain could be, and often was, cooler than the so-called hero. Over the course of my formative years, the collective mass of Disney animation (and also Batman, because Batman) also convinced me of something else: not only were villains cool, but sometimes they had a point.

I pretty quickly got annoyed with the fact that only one side got to actually show what they thought. Maybe if you numbskulls just talked to the hyenas, they wouldn't think murdering you was the only way for them to get food. Admittedly, this had less of a profound emotional impact on me, and more convinced me that I would do better in a field where everyone at least had a shot at arguing their point. That's why I'm majoring in politics and/or law.

It's odd, that, how seemingly meaningless things can influence so much of who you are later on.
Pretty much every aspect of ourselves can be traced back to something. Except sideburns.

The most important to me?
Catch-22.
It taught me that the world was a hateful, dark, incomprehensible place, in which we were all nothing but fragile brains inside of fragile flesh with fragile skeletons, waiting to break and get thrown under a million kilograms of dirt and worms.
It was a thoroughly mournful experience.
And it made me laugh at it.

That's how I see life.
Nothing but pain and laughter.
One moment your Dad's croaked, the next you have to pause Life of Brian because your sides feel like they're caving in.

But, okay, Excluded, a book of essays by Julia Serano, completely changed the way I look at the world. Its perspective has some kind of effect on most of my opinions. It made me think about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a community, and what it means to be human. It made me notice interesting patterns in the way humans think and act, and in general made me more conscious and thoughtful. This is especially important for me because I naturally tend to live in a cloud, fairly oblivious to social cues. Basically, it gave me a really interesting, deep perspective on society, and made me more capable as a human being.

This book is great, but maybe not for everyone. I mean, I think anyone could learn a lot from it, but the target audience is feminist and queer activists, so if you don't know anything about those movements it would not be a good introduction.

The Black Parade is a great album. I wouldn't say it changed my life, but it was really important to me in middle school. Especially, yeah, Welcome to the Black Parade.

I was bullied quite badly while in elementary school, and many days the only thing that kept me going were the Harry Potter books. Whenever I'd start making plans to run away or worse, I'd read them again and be reminded that there had to be people as good and kind as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, just had to, because to me, coming up with those characters would have been impossible if people like them didn't exist. I just had to hold out until I found them... and I did.

I honestly feel like the books are what taught me about friendship and doing the right thing, because I sure as heck wasn't learning from my peers. The books and the characters within were my first friends, and because of that they'll always have a very special place in my heart. They made me into who I am today, and they're still my go-to read whenever I'm feeling down.