Music:
The Bicycles, Sam Roberts, Jeremy Fisher, LCD Soundsystem, Modest Mouse, Rogue Wave, Motion City Soundtrack, Broken Social Scene, NIN, The Bravery, City & Colour, Angels & Airwaves, Bloc Party,Limbeck, LoveDrug, AFI, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, RJD2, The Stills, Nightmare of You, Scissor Sisters, Phoenix, The Clientele, The Doves, Emily Haines, Hooverphonic, The Rapture, Morningwood, The Knife, Razorlight, The Sounds, The Subways, Wolfmother,Gomez, The Strokes, Thievery Corporation, Taking Back Sunday, Spoon, She Wants Revenge, and some more that I cannot think of off the top of my head.
Books:
"Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse, "Beyond Good & Evil" Fredrich Neitzsche, "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Death Be Not Proud" John Gunther, "White Oleander" Janet Fitch, "Freakonomics", The DaVinci Code.
Heroes:
Martin Luther King, Jr.