(no subject)

[curuchamion]

Ah, what the hey. Influential authors meme!

'Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets [and comic book authors] included)* who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag everyone, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose.'

In no order at all:

1. Chris Claremont (hey, when they said "comic book authors"...)
2. JRR Tolkien
3. Laura Ingalls Wilder
4. Eve Titus (of the "Basil of Baker Street" series)
5. Elizabeth Enright ("Gone-Away Lake" and "The Saturdays")
6. Shakespeare (really)
7. Rudyard Kipling
8. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
9. C.S. Lewis (I'm not fond of him, but he did influence me quite a bit)
10. G.K. Chesterton
11. Robert Arthur ("Three Investigators" series)
12. Arthur Ransome ("Swallows and Amazons" series)
13. Adam-Troy Castro
14. Timothy Zahn
15. Kate Seredy

Comments

[meneleth.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I can come up with 15, but here goes:
God (the Bible, y'know)
Joy Adamson (Born Free got me hooked on reading forever)
JRR Tolkien
CS Lewis
Shakespeare
Walter Farley
Carolyn Keene
Franklin W. Dixon
Georgette Heyer
Dorothy Sayers
Jim Butcher
Josephine Tey
Tanith Lee

That's 13 without really thinking about it.

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Oh right, Walter Farley! And Dorothy Sayers! And Carolyn Keene and Franklin W Dixon! And and and...

...who are Jim Butcher and Tanith Lee? Those are the only names I don't recognize, and since you obviously have excellent taste...

[meneleth.livejournal.com]

Jim Butcher gave the world the "other wizard named Harry" - Harry Dresden. Excellent urban fantasy. Most of Tanith Lee's work isn't to my taste but I totally love her book Cyrion.

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

Mm, here goes, will be interested in how many you know; I don't know a lot of yours!
In no particular order:
William Shakespeare
Andre Gide
W H Auden
Charles Dickens
Patricia Highsmith
John Burningham
Tolstoy
Michel Quoist
Carlo Corretto
Kazuo Ishiguro
Michael Cunningham
Ted Hughes
St John the Divine
Ivan Turgenev
Baudelaire

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read Shakespeare (some), Dickens (less), and that one Tolstoy short-story about the shoemaker at Christmas; if St John the Divine is the one who wrote the Gospel, I've read him; heard of W.H. Auden (vaguely); I think that's it.

So who are all those other people anyway? :-)

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

OK, Carlo Corretto and Michel Quoist are theologians and priests. They date from my youth, when I had the time to read poetry and theology! Turgenev is also a Russian 19th Century author, a wonderful writer. I recommend 'Fathers and Sons'. And please, you must read 'War and Peace'! Patricia Highsmith is an American author of the highest calibre, writing wonderfully suspenseful stories, often with a real twist. Try 'strangers on a train'. Ted Hughes and Auden are poets, Ted Hughes was married to Sylvia Plath the American poet and is often hated by Americans who blame him for her death. However, he is a superb poet in his own right. Kazuo Ishiguro - wonderful author - Remains of the Day' a superb book and wonderful film adaptation too. Michael Cunningham also an excellent American author. John Burningham is there as a children's author of supreme talent, including wonderful illustrations. Try 'Mr Gumpy's outing' - beautiful. Andre Gide and Baudelaire; both French, very different writers. I was particularly addicted to Gide in my youth, but he's not to everybody's taste. I loved 'Straight is the Gate'. Hope that's at least informative!

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course St John the Divine is the author of the Gospel of St John, natch.

[lothithil.livejournal.com]

Oooo! I'll play! :D