These are the books that left me somehow changed after I'd read them.  Several I read when I was almost a child; others I discovered as an adult.  But each one has helped shape the way I think and see the world.

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Old and New Testaments - King James version
Pride and Prejudice & Emma by Jane Austen
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Winds of War & War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk

The books in this next list I read (and reread) for fun.  As you can tell, I particularly like British mysteries and follow favorite writers.

The Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter
The Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George
The Adam Dagliesh series by P. D. James
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Random Harvest byJames Hilton

Often I like to read poetry aloud - even when I'm alone.  I enjoy the sounds of the words as well as the idea the poet may be suggesting.    As you can tell from the list of poets below my taste is fairly eclectic.

John Donne
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Rudyard Kipling (yes, I know he may not be politically correct, but I still love him)
Wilfred Owen
William Butler Yates
D. H. Lawrence

(and yes, I know I'm the product of a "DWM" emphasis in literature)