Favorite Writers & Influences

[Tania]

My favorite writier is Dostoyevsky and my admiration for Rand has been an influence on my writing? Who is it that inspires you?

[Lauren]

Piers Anthony god if only I could be half the writer he is.

[Dani]

I love Kathy Reichs, Dean Koontz (especially the Odd Thomas series)Amish and Mennonite fiction (Baumgartner, Kim Vogel Sawyer,and others my old brain can't bring to mind at the moment!) I enjoyed the Harry Potter Series, The Shack, Just finished the Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I seriously read almost anything except Mathmatics text books and enjoy almost everything I read. Everyone keeps telling me I should write a book, but after writing on on a rubber stamping technique I developed, I just haven't seemed to be able to make the time.

[D.E.]

At the top of my list of favorite living writers are David Mitchell, Cormac McCarthy and Haruki Murakami. My list of favorite dead writers is too long even to scratch the surface here, but it includes Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Hermann Hesse, Anton Chekhov, Italo Calvino, and John Updike. Everything I've read is an influence; some things more than others ... but it's hard for me to tell which has had the strongest influence, if any. Hopefully, they have all sloshed around inside me and resulted in a nice jambalaya that I can call my own.

[Lauren]

Some of my favorite writers and influences have been Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light, both of Mary Lawson's books (Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge), Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, John Knowles' A Separate Peace, and Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, which is like the handbook for all Southern writers, lol. I'm wanting to eventually go back and read all of these books. Especially The Scarlet Letter, A Separate Peace, and A Northern Light.

[D.E.]

Nice, Eleym! Thanks for the Donnelly & Lawson suggestions, I'll have to add to my list. The others, of course, have been consumed, savored and digested. I hold 'Mockingbird' to be the best American novel of the 20th century. The 19th century: a tie between 'Scarlet Letter' and 'Huck Finn.' Whatta the rest of y'all think? I will be happy to debate!

[Deanna]

My favorite authors are (in order- currently- it changes): Kay Hooper, Dean Koontz, & Nora Roberts/JD Robb. I read pretty much any and everything I can get my hands on though.

Old books- I like Pride and Prejudice and Moby Dick, Hans Christian Anderson (non Disneyfied), and Brothers Grimm.

[Laura]

My favorites are Fay Weldon's "The Life and Loves of A She-Devil" and Richard Adams' 'The Girl in a Swing' for modern novels, 'The Scarlet Letter' and 'Wuthering Heights' for classic 19 century Lit.

[Tania]

Laura,
I listened to Wuthering Heights on CD a few months ago.
~ T

[Laura]

Tania wrote: "Laura,
I listened to Wuthering Heights on CD a few months ago.
~ T"

Kate Bush, I presume? The 2001 vocal remix is breath taking.

[Laura]

Tania wrote: "Laura,
I listened to Wuthering Heights on CD a few months ago.
~ T"
...Or were you talking about audio books? I'm a musician, so I think about songs before books! ha, ha~

[Tania]

Yes- I meant the audio book of WH, I listened to it on a drive to Chicago (one of my favorite cities). Since I'm semi-obsessed with books, I fell in love with audio once I "tried it" because it allows me to "read" while I drive! Originally, I was reluctant to try audio books thinking it "wouldn't be the same" as reading since I love my books sooooooo much! Once I tried it, I liked it, and soon loved it when I realized I could get even more reading in (traditional books & CDs). My new personal challenge will be to graduate to one of those e-readers now (kindle, nook, etc.), I'm just really old school when it comes to my beloved books! :0)
~ T

[D.E.]

I've listened to a total of 2 audio books. Kite Runner and one about a guy always complaining about what a fatass he is and who (of course) whips himself into shape by the end (can't remember title, driving me crazy - ring a bell, anyone?). Anyway, I enjoyed both experiences in the car while commuting, but listening and reading are very different experiences and the listening never went beyond those two and if I ever do it again, I'm sure it'll be an isolated experience like the others. Reading makes the content a part of you in a way listening doesn't. It's like the difference between eating a meal and merely smelling one.

[Patrick]

I love Kingsley Amis, J.F. Powers, Jennifer Egan, Kate Christensen (of course), and W. Somerset Maugham.

[Charlotte]

I love many of the authors you all have mentioned here, including Dickens, the Brontes, Hawthorne, Hesse, and Chekov. In the past year I have tried to read a more contemporary and multicultural "classics" list and have enjoyed novels by Chinua Achebe, Jumpa Lahiri, Athol Fugard, Change Rae Lee and others. I think for pure, searing, soaring emotion, there is no author greater than Toni Morrison. I had not read Elie Wiesel until this year; Night is an astonishing work of non-fiction.

I am currently reading Mary Karr's Lit and think I will read SheGo next as it's on your group's list. Is this group still up and running?

[Lauren]

I already answered this question a while back, but I've been reading Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water, and every time I read it, I just feel so much in awe of her wisdom. She makes me look at things differently, and think seriously about things that seem impossible.

[Peggy]

I love Alice Hoffman. She does magical realism so well. i also find myself running to the bookstore anytime a new Ann Tyler novel is released.