I don’t know if it’s the best book I ever read, but it’s one of the best and funniest running books I’ve ever read.
“And Then the Vulture Eats You” edited by John L. Parker.
A collection of hilarious stories about ultra runners and their exploits.
ISG:
“What manner of beast lurks in the sweaty ethers out there beyond the 26.2 mile post? What manner of rare enkephalin does your brain secrete in reward or dismay? And now that we’ve had any number of great grandmoms happily finish marathons, where, finally, are the real limits to what the human animal can persuade itself to endure on foot?”
Enkephalin: an opiate like substance produced by the brain! What you learn on Slowtwitch! This book definitely made my list. I may read it next! 
Thanks.
-Robert
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The One True Story of the World (out of print and hard to find)
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Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Huck Finn by Mark Twain. It’s a classic and I’ve probably read it at least 20 times since I was a youngster.
Blackhawk Down.
This is the SCARIEST book I’ve ever read. Stephen King’s got nothing on this true story. I couldn’t sleep for hours any evening I read some of this book.
True. I think it brought to reality the horrors of war. Thats what made this book great. None of this hollywood stuff where no one gets hurt.
Maybe not the best book as far as writing style, but the best as far as impacting my life, “The Razor’s Edge” by W. Somerset Maugham. Later made into a really mediocre movie starring Bill Murray. I read it in high school and again in college when I had lost my way, so to speak.
Recently started readingBarbara Tuchman’s 1962 book, The Guns of August. So phenomenal at the time of publication that they created a new category just so they could give it a Pulitzer Prize. It’s about the outbreak of WW I, but is a thrilling account in which you hold your breath as the inbred monarchies of Europe helplessly drift into war–a really fitting book right now for lots of reasons (some but not all of them in support of an anti-war viewpoint).
Also loved some of the other selections: Blackhawk Down, The Hitchhikers Guide, the killer Angels trilogy, almost anything by Ed Abbey, and so on…
I’m 15 now and my favorites would be
Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto
Goethe - Faust
Louis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching
and Jon Lee Anderson - Che Guevara
Music: Led Zeppelin, The Who, Crystal Method and the Clash, and not to forget Pink Floyd
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Top couple of books… off the top of my head and no order
- Breakfast at the Victory - James Carse
- Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu (stephen mitchell translation)
- Catcher in The Rye - Salinger
- Autobiography Of Malcom X
- Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
- Miles - Miles Davis
- Hamlet