Like, increased empathy or altered your perspective a bit.
On a lighthearted note, 1984 taught me that most people who quote it in political discussions have probably never actually read it.
I read the His Dark Materials trilogy in middle school, and that hugely influenced my thinking about power structures generally, religion specifically, and morality broadly. I mean, I didn’t have words for a lot of that stuff at the time, but looking back they were massively influential.
I re-read them a couple years ago and they really hold up astonishingly well. And yes I am secretly smug about having read these books as a kid while most of my peers were reading Harry Potter.
Removed by mod
The Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Much in there about being skeptical of political and religious leaders—and wannabe leaders—and especially in the later books, acceptance of Others.
The science fiction stories of Cordwainer Smith
