I would say that each of these books has influenced me to want to be a writer. They have influenced my desire to write about the human experience in a fantastical setting. They all have depth and most contain humor, along with excellent craftsmanship.
Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh
Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
Tenth of December - George Saunders
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
Thanks for sharing your list, Cathrine, and for sharing what moves you about these books. There's a lot of fantasy and speculative fiction on there, but also some solid Great American Fiction. I'm excited to see where these influences guide you in your work. Happy new year!
Your loathing to recommend is, I imagine, a variety of the conundrum I mentioned: The challenge of matching the book to the tastes and idiosyncrasies of the reader, of finding a reader worthy of the book. In flagrant violation of your intentions, I will take this list of books you've loved as a recommendation, albeit a daunting one that I can never hope to complete. In fact, with the exception of The Western Lands, I haven't read any of these. Curse you, Wise!
I would say that each of these books has influenced me to want to be a writer. They have influenced my desire to write about the human experience in a fantastical setting. They all have depth and most contain humor, along with excellent craftsmanship.
Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh
Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
Tenth of December - George Saunders
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
Thanks for sharing your list, Cathrine, and for sharing what moves you about these books. There's a lot of fantasy and speculative fiction on there, but also some solid Great American Fiction. I'm excited to see where these influences guide you in your work. Happy new year!
While loath to ever recommend anything I read, I thought it might be interesting to note what I've loved:
Everything from Nietzsche
Les Chants de Maldoror - Lautréamont
Dialect of Enlightenment - Adorno / Horkheimer
No Sense of Place - Joshua Meyrowitz
The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe
The Decline of Western Civilization - Oswald Spengler
Democracy in America - Tocqueville
Cool Memories - Jean Baudrillard
Les Fleurs du Mal - Charles Baudelaire
The Western Lands - William Burroughs
Post Office - Charles Bukowski
Crowds and Power - Elias Canetti
Listen Little Man - Wilhelm Reich
One Dimensional Man - Herbert Marcuse
The Third Unconscious - Franco Berardi
The Social Conquest of Earth - E.O. Wilson
The Fabric of Reality - David Deutsch
Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin
Your loathing to recommend is, I imagine, a variety of the conundrum I mentioned: The challenge of matching the book to the tastes and idiosyncrasies of the reader, of finding a reader worthy of the book. In flagrant violation of your intentions, I will take this list of books you've loved as a recommendation, albeit a daunting one that I can never hope to complete. In fact, with the exception of The Western Lands, I haven't read any of these. Curse you, Wise!