Tuesday, January 18, 2011

15 Authors / 15 Minutes


You all know that I love lists, both reading them and making them, so thanks to Bev over at her My Reading Block blog for giving me the idea for a new list just a few moments ago. Please use the link to see Bev's list.

(Like Bev's, my list is, of course, subject to change from day to day.)

Within 15 minutes list 15 authors - writers or poets - who have influenced you or who have stuck with you over the years.

Don't take too long to think about it.

List the first 15 who come to mind, no particular order required.

Here are mine:

Agatha Christie
Laurie R. King
Richard Adams
Jane Austen
Carolyn Keene
William Blake
Lewis Carroll
Astrid Lindgren
Thomas Wolfe
Rex Stout
Arthur Conan Doyle
Robert Ardrey
Evelyn Waugh
Josephine Tey
Robert Crais

14 comments:

  1. Several shared authors! Tey and Stout could easily have made my list too, but as I told Adam, I didn't want to make it an all mystery list. I could probably do that as a separate one!

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  2. I have five here as my favourites as well.

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  3. I know there are probably some important ones I left off, Bev. But I tried to follow the directive and just do authors that immediately popped into my head and also that I had fond memories of. Several of them have actually influenced my life in very positive ways. I reread ALL the Nero Wolfe books every few years, so Stout was definite. ;)

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  4. Mystica, why don't you post a list on your blog?
    We can link back and forth. ;)

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  5. Dear Yvette:
    An excellent list!
    Waugh is a favorite of mine as well.
    Sincerely,
    Randolph

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  6. Off the top of my head I would have James Joyce, Herman Hesse, John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy,Jane Austen and Stephen King on my list!

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  7. Off the top of my head without lots of memory exercises, I'd say:
    John Steinbeck
    Theodore Dreiser
    Upton Sinclair
    Toni Morrison
    Alice Walker
    Emile Zola
    Barbara Kingsolver
    Sara Paretsky

    Not many mystery authors influenced me early on, although I devoured mysteries, starting with Nancy Drew.

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  8. Randolph: Well, what can I say, Mr. R., but welcome to my blog. Are you wearing your smoking jacket? I'm so happy we share a taste for Waugh. Thanks awfully, for dropping by. Good dog. :)

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  9. Pat: Oh well, you've brought out the heavy hitters, Pat! I've read Austen and Steinbeck and a bit of King, but that's it. My favorite King book is actually his non-fiction ON WRITING.

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  10. Kathy: Great list. I've only read one of your authors: Steinbeck. But I'm sure there are many others we've BOTH read.

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  11. There's also:
    Zadie Smith
    Marge Piercy
    Margaret Atwood
    James Baldwin
    Sherman Alexei

    My two all-time favorite books, of many, are The Grapes of Wrath, Beloved and White Teeth.

    I have to think more what I was doing curled up in my bedroom on weekends with my big tree's branches shaking me, reading up a storm.

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  12. Kathy: Isnt't it amazing what different books have influenced all of us over the years. Some similar, some not. If I had to narrow my list to The Best, it would be a slightly different list, of course. This is more of an emotional list.

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  13. I tried to do this--I had a total brain fart and for the life of me couldn't come up with 15 authors!

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  14. Ha! I did too, at first. My mind went blank. Grace under pressure - NOT! ;)

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