Ok so what 3 books would I add at this point to the 2 that you listed would be on my list? Hmmm...

Demian, also by Hesse. My favorite Hesse book is Narcissus and Goldmund, but for meaning, Demian makes the list ahead of it. I suspect when I finally take The Glass Bead Game out of my pile, it may upend my list of 5.

I absolutely love Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolled. By way of comparison and for anyone who thinks I'm just venerating the old man, I hated The Sun Also Rises

Conversations with God, An Uncommon Dialogue, Book One. It's the only one of the now too many books written by Neale Donald Walsch that I read, and none of the others need to be read.