These are books that moved/inspired me, and shaken me to my soul. Feel free to add your own in the comments section below. I am curious as to what has inspired you and why.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – describes a love so passionate, Heathcliff cries for the spirit of his love to haunt him.
“I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”
-For me, this is one of the most beautiful sentences written in the English language.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – how hope, perseverance, and vision outlast everything.
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, … that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope.”
The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London – both about man fighting against the harshness of nature but alongside the oldest human companionship of time – wolves, and dogs.
From The Call of the Wild –
“When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.”
A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare – imagination at its best; a comic yet moral story of love and merriment, and living life to the fullest.
“If we shadows have offended,/ Think but this and all is mended,/ That you have but slumber’d here/ While these visions did appear./ And this weak and idle theme,/ No more yielding but a dream, /Gentles do not reprehend: / If you pardon we will mend./ Else the Puck a liar call. / Give me your hands, if we be friends, / And Robin shall restore amends.”
The Last of the Mohicans by James Feinmore Cooper – a “man’s” book, about Uncas, the last of his Indian tribe, and Hawkeye, his white settler friend as they travel the wilderness of 18th century America.
“My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong;
and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans.”
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. A story about modern true love, and following your vision no matter the sacrifices.
“To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?“
The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille. A story from the 1990s about materialism, happiness, love, genuineness, passion, and struggle for meaning when all material/financial needs are met.
“And there was a time, you know, not so long ago, as recently as my own childhood in fact, when everyone believed in the future and eagerly awaited it or rushed to meet it. But now nearly everyone I know or used to know is trying to slow the speed of the world as the future starts to look more and more like someplace you don’t want to be.”
Muses 
