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
Awestruck
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
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