Under the Influence

I tagged myself on Sarah Laurenson's latest post, Under the Influence. Here are the top 25 authors who have influenced me, and the books they wrote that influenced me most (listed in no particular order):

Stephen King (The Stand, The Shining, Green Mile)

Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Smoke & Mirrors, Fragile Things)

Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time)

C.S. Lewis (The Narnia Series, Till We Have Faces)

J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, LOTR)

J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter series)

Katherine Anne Porter (The Collected Short Stories of Katherine Anne Porter)

Shirley Jackson (The Lottery and Other Short Stories, The Haunting of Hill House)

Richard Matheson (I Am Legend)

Joe Hill (20th Century Ghosts, Heart-Shaped Box)

Gene Wolfe (Book of the New Sun series)

Fredericke Busch (The Night Inspector)

Mark Twain (The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain)

Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Phillip Pullman (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife)

Angela Carter (Wise Children)

Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farenheit 451)

Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Bleak House, The Christmas Carol)

Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon)

Judy Blume (Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Blubber, Forever)

Beverly Cleary (The Ramona Collection)

Kathryn Kenny (the Trixie Belden series)

Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen)

Frank Miller (The Sin City series)

Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road)

As a kid, I was sick quite often with kidney problems (I was constantly getting kidney infections) and strep throat, not to mention I had surgery to correct the problem that was causing the kidney infections. So I had plenty of time to read, and one of my favorite things to read was Kathryn Kenny's books about Trixie Belden and the mysteries Trixie solved. I probably read a lot of Nancy Drew, too, but I don't remember now. I think I liked the Trixie books because she rode horses, and even as a kid I loved horses.

Sadly, the only Madeleine L'Engle book I read growing up was A Wrinkle in Time, but I'm proud to say I have my 12-year-old niece reading the series, and I can't wait to borrow the books from her to read them myself. I think I also only read Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a kid, but I've read the entire series now. I read a lot as a kid, but most of it was forgettable drivel. There are many, many authors I wish I'd read as a kid: Daniel Pinkwater, Lewis Carroll, Ronald Doahl. Reading these authors now does bring out the kid in me, but I know I would have enjoyed Alice in Wonderland much more as a child.

As a teenager and in my early 20s, I loved Stephen King and his conversational style. I went through a period where all I wanted to read was Stephen King, a period I lament now, but I guess it was because my studies in music were so taxing, all I wanted was someone who knew how to talk to me in a book, and Stephen King fit that bill perfectly. All of the rest of these authors are people I discovered as an adult.