As much as I might not like how things turned out for the series, the Wheel of Time books arguably changed my life. Perhaps if I hadn't read them a different series would have done the same thing, but as it is the Wheel of Time books played an ultimately significant role in who I am today.

They were my introduction to the fantasy genre. Before reading The Eye of the World when I was 15, all I read were teen mysteries, Star Wars, and books for school. Fantasy books have had a profound impact on my eventual writing skills and choices, in particular authors such as Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, China Miéville, Matthew Stover, and Brandon Sanderson. Jordan's series also led me to wotmania, which was my first online community experience. I still have many friends I made from the site, including a woman I love like a sister and a fellow writer who I can call my best friend, and whose wedding I'll be attending this spring.

And the impact of those particular people, who I would never have met without the Wheel of Time books, is incalculable. I might have ended up in a very different place than I am right now, had those people not been in my life. My writing skills are both my passion in life and my career, and without my writing friend I might never have worked as hard as I did to improve them.

However, I suspect the question is aimed more in a this-book-changed-your-viewpoint way. To that I would have to say no; I don't believe a book has ever changed the way I looked at the world in a meaningful, long term manner. The closest might be The Sandman series of comics by Neil Gaiman. When I was a young adult they lent me the understanding that the world contains deeper currents than anything on the surface reveals. So I would list that as my primary influence. China Miéville's Perdido Street Station and Railsea have also influenced my current writing, along with Sanderson's Mistborn series.

For pure entertainment value, I'll take A Game of Thrones (the book, not the tv show). It rocked my world when I was 16.