[netnichols]

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

It might not actually be my first choice, but this one of the few on my short list that no one else has mentioned.

I read it in my mid teens (not too long after we stopped playing Rambo in the back yard) and it profoundly affected the way I view war, violence, and suffering. I've only read it the once (almost 25 years ago), and I hardly remember the story at all, but I vividly remember the feeling that it gave me.