Johnny Got His Gun & Moby Dick
This is kind of a weird one really. It's the first book I've purchased on the basis of a music video (Metallica's 'One'). It took me ages to find out what the film clips were from and to then find a copy of the original book.

Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' (1938)

I can't explain it any better than Wikipedia:

"Joe Bonham, a young soldier serving in World War I, awakes in a hospital bed after being hit by a mortar shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost all of his mobility and his senses except for touch — his arms, legs, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, both jaws and all of his face have been blown off — but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. He tries to kill himself by suffocation but he has been given a tracheostomy, which he cannot remove or control. He attempts to communicate with his doctors (by banging his head on his pillow in Morse code) his wish is that he may be put in a glass tube and tour the country, to show the people the true horrors of war. His wish to die is never granted and throughout the several years the book covers it is implied that he will live the rest of his natural life in this condition.

As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight."

I'm anti-war anyway, but to read this book and to realise what soldiers may go through is just devastating. Please, please, please read this book yourself.

And last but not least, Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I believe it can be a lesson for all humans. And it has my favourite phrase ever in it:

"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

A beautifully written book.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:51, 3 replies)

That sounds fucking harrowing.
Reading Dulce et Decorum Est for school was bad enough, but that just made me want to cry!
( Maladicta, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:57, closed)

Hmmmm
I was about to say I'd not heard of "Dulce et Decorum Est", but I just Googled it and the line "Gas! Gas! Quick boys!" makes me think I have read it before. Thanks for putting me on to it, I'm going to have a read.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:07, closed)

where did you get it ?
I've seen the movie a few times (own the dvd)
but never knew it was a book
(Funkwomble XBL and PSN DangerBoy73, Tue 20 May 2008, 14:35, closed)