Books that Influenced My Writing
Recently I wrote about a book and an experience that affected me probably more than any as it pertains to my writing. Barbara left a question that got me thinking about the books and writings that have influenced why I write, what I write and how I write it.
First off, I'm only talking about the books that have influenced my fiction. There are many, many books I've read that have influenced my life that I'm not talking about right now. Sure, those books will have made an impact on my personality which will impact my writing, but I'm not even going to try to cover all of that here.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein was the first real scifi book I read. I've read it again since then and I loved it the second time, also. It's a book that has to be read because there's no way I could do it justice here.
Another writer that I loved when I was young was Piers Anthony. I read six of the seven books in the The Incarnations of Immortality Series. It's a strange series of fantasy books based partially on Greek mythology. I read these books between the age of about 16 and 21. When I was younger, they really worked for me. I read the sixth book at 21 and just didn't like it. I had changed. They didn't work for me any more, so I never read the seventh book.
I definitely went through a huge Stephen King phase. I must have read a dozen of his books. The only two that stand out for me are It and The Tommyknockers. Those two books scared the bejeebies out of me when I read them.
These days I'm a big fan of Dan Brown, Brian Haig and Brad Thor. I tend to read more action/suspense than scifi/fantasy now. The reason for that is long, complex and another story all of its own, but I'm still a fan of the Harry Potter series, and I've already written about my love for a new book called Fablehaven.
Other memorable books for me are Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
I'm curious to know what your favorite books are and why.
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I also like Dan Brown and other current suspense thriller authors like John Grisham in the arena of current works. I also love Harry Potter. The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables are two of my favorite classics. Another favorite author of my past is Robert Fulghum. I enjoy a good mystery and grew up reading a lot of Phyllis A Whitney's books with an ocassional Nancy Drew. When I want to distract myself I read a good mystery or suspense thriller. When I want a pick me up I read a good classic.
Posted by: Holly Schwendiman | September 1, 2006 10:24 AM
Watership Down is excellent, and for other classics worth checking out, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Those last two are sort of the ultimate chick-flicks of literature, but both feature great bad-ass male characters. (Rhett and Liz's father, respectively)
Posted by: Mike Purvis | September 1, 2006 01:56 PM
Steinbeck - All are great especially the long valley, in dubious battle, grapes of wrath & east of eden & wayward bus
Hemingway - Islands in the stream & for whom the bell tolls & some of his short stories...some of his books are poorer seeming to follow just one lunch & drink after another
Somerset Maugham - short stories
Wilbur Smith - Cry Wolf
Kipling - Kim & great poems
Dickens - a tale of two cities, a christmas carol, great expectations
anna sebold - lovely bones
anne applebaum - gulag
nial ferguson - empire
spike milligan - various comedy books
alice munro - some of the stories in runaway
swift - parts of gullivers travels are superb & some are dull - the best of this book is always used for the films
h g wells - the time machine is excellent
twain - tom sawyer & huckleberry finn stories are fantastic
harper lee - to kill a mocking brid is great
salinger - the catcher in the rye is fantastic but his other ahort stories i find poor
jonas ward & peter field wrote great entertaining westerns
jeffrey archer - fantastic prison diaries, but false impression was bad
mitch albom & nick hornby - pretty middle of the road and uninspiring - worth reading but average
joseph conrad - very good - heart of darkness etc
steven king - on writing is brilliant
yann martell - life of pi is excellent..v good.. v original
athol fugard - tsotsi - is one of the best books I've ever read - great development of characters in a very a few pages
neil strauss - the game - great entertainment - but dips at the end
by the way
terry pratchett can be very good - night watch and going postal are good, monsterous regiment not so good
Posted by: richard arooga | September 1, 2006 02:24 PM
I have the dubious fortune to be an addict to the printed word. I will read almost anything and have at times.
Mostly sci-fi and fantasy will get pulled from the shelves first. Heinlein got crazy in his latter years, but I still read and re-read every book until they fell apart.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books made a huge impression on me also.
I read Kipling as a child (and I cringe at every "Jungle Book" movie that comes out).
My parents brought home boxes of books from the auctions and I was allowed to read anything that held my interest. Most of my childhood was spent reading "inappropriate material for my age". Direct quote from my 5th grade teacher when she took Valley of the Dolls away from me.
My retention is not great - this allows me to re-read favorites without getting bored.
Barbara
http://the-string-and-i.blogspot.com/
Posted by: barbara | September 2, 2006 06:37 AM
I love reading, and any book that can hold my intrest and make me a part of it! Marry Higgin's Clark is great for a good mystery, I also got into Dan Brown, thanks to you. John Grisham, Dave Pelzer wrote some very intersting works about himself. It, A Child called It, and Lost Boy. They are sad, but well worth the read.
Louis L'Amour is always a great read for me. I too enjoyed Anne Seebold's, Lovely Bones. Alicia My Story, by Alica Appleman-Jurman
Posted by: Mardean | September 2, 2006 03:36 PM
I tried to buy your short story from amazon.com, but my amazon.co.uk account would not let me make a purchase, and it's not available on amazon.co.uk.
Richard Arooga (UK)
Posted by: richard arooga | September 3, 2006 03:49 AM