This platform isn’t just for talking about myself. It’s for sharing my experiences and hopefully encouraging others to begin to tell their own tales, whatever form that takes.
As such, I want to give credit where credit is due. Here are the most influential books I’ve read. My favorites. My guideposts as I step into the wide world of writing.
Now it’s interesting – I loved books growing up. I read the Harry Potter series as it came out. I stumbled onto Black Water (book 5 of the Pendragon series) completely by accident one day and after reading half the book decided “I’d love to understand what’s going on in this magnificent world”.
I had my breath taken away watching The Lord of the Rings and promptly stuck my nose into Tolkiens fantastic world.
All of those stories had a profound impact on me. I saw those worlds in my mind’s eye and it just took me wherever I wanted to go. On vacation with my family, I’d take a few books and without fail run out of reading material. One small room becomes a thousand universes through the pages of a good book.
But I’m getting off-track here. Let me refocus – I say all of this is interesting for one reason. I never imagined myself becoming a writer during any of my time reading books. My art was drawing and I let my passions lead me forwards and away from books.
Strange, isn’t it? How we come back around to things we once gave so much time and attention to. I couldn’t be happier that I began writing – and hopefully my prose isn’t so terrible as to make other people unhappy that I write!
Anyhow. I need to get to this list, don’t I?
My top 7 authors and books:
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Pendragon Series by D.J. Machale
- The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
- The Stand by Stephen King
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
There are more titles that I enjoy but these would be the core ones that sucked me in the most.
How about you guys? Who are your favorite authors? Got any suggestions for me? I need to get reading as much as I’m writing!
