Zen and the Art of The Road

There are books out there that are far from just books, their quotations are not just mere quotations...they are life....pure and raw. To me those books were On The Road and Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I remember when I first read On The Road. I found myself nodding, over underlining and wanting to scream with alleviation. I consumed On The Road as if I were starved. I felt like it was speaking to me and me alone, it flowed in my blood, inspired me...

My copy of Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was put through the same torture my copy of On The Road was. This was a novel of traveling, analyzing human existence and pure truths (derived from Greek philosophy). Pirsig brought about a perception of the world embracing both the rational and the romantic. He truly expresses how being rational and "living in the moment" can coexist. A dash of reason to the romanticist philosophy! ;) I felt as if I were personally conversing with him. I soon dubbed him the Kerouac of our generation.

It makes me wonder....what novels have had that pure, all-consuming effect on others?