A library director posed this question to the PubLib listserv:

"I'm writing a professional article on books that can change our minds. These are books that have so challenged our preconceptions and ways of thinking that they have jogged us out of our ordinary mindsets. Some of the ones on my list are Flatland by Edwin Abbott, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher. Each of these books brought us radical new ideas and ways of thinking. I'd appreciate your suggestions and comments. These should be books (fiction or non-fiction) that are aimed at the general public, not academic tomes. Furthermore, these should be books that present new ideas and ways of thinking rather than books that you found emotionally affecting."

The responses were collected into a spreadsheet and posted on Google Docs. You can add your own suggestions to that spreadsheet. We've also attached the spreadsheet as it stood on September 29, 2008, as a downloadable attachment to this page.