I wrote a multi-paged essay on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and all the nerve-themes it touched for me. Not because I had to, but because the reading of the book itself compelled me to do so. It's become lost in time, but I want to re-read the book just in order to re-write the essay. The Picture of Dorian Gray had a similar effect, but for only one perspective that rocked my worldview:

Life experience as art.