(From a friend's Facebook page)

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets 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 some friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose.


1) Umberto Eco

2) Jarod Diamond

3) Emily Dickinson

4) Charles Dickens

5) Douglas Adams

6) JRR Tolkien

7) T.S Eliott

8) Barbara Tuchman

9) Allison Weir

10) John Kenneth Galbraith

11) Kimiz Dalkir

12) Oscar Wilde

13) Molière

14) Isaac Asimov

15) Sinclair Lewis

1) Terry Pratchett

2) Douglas Adams

3) Carl Sagan

4) C S Lewis

5) Charles Dickens

6) Ian Fleming

7) Michael Shermer

8) James Randi

9) Enid Blyton

10) Neil Gaiman

11) Graham Masterton

12) Stephen Jay Gould

13) Ronald Story

14) [an Honourable Mention to] Fawn M Brodie

15) [an infamous nod towards] Erich Von Daniken - who's books I voraciously devoured as a teen, and who made me more skeptical as an adult

1. Andre Norton
2. Isaac Asmiov
3. Robert Heinlein
4. Mercedes Lackey
5. Anne McCaffrey
6. Robert Forward (Dragon's Egg is awesome if you're into SCIENCE science fiction.)
7. Piers Anthony
8. Richard and Wendi Pini
9. Tolkien
10. Laura Ingles Wilder
11. Whoever wrote Cadie Woodlawn (If I remember the title correctly.)
12. Marion Zimmer-Bradley (not sure if I spelled her name right)
13. Lois McMaster Bujold (AWESOME writer -- by the way -- great sense of pacing and really insightful about being different in a challenging world)
14. C.S. Lewis
15. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1. Jim Thompson
2. James Ellroy
3. David Baldacci
4. J.R.R. Tolkien
5. Upton Sinclair
6. Frank Norris
7. Larry McMurtry
8. Jack Kerouac
9. Jack London
10. Ken Kesey
11. Tom Robins
12. Peter Straub
13. John Nichols
14. Woody Guthrie

And saving the best for last:
15. Mark Twain

1. Steven Pinker

2. Lewis Thomas

3. Thomas Moore

4. Anne Tyler

5. Carl Sagan

6. Victor Hugo

7. E. B. White

8. Fawn M. Brodie

9. Kurt Vonnegut

10. Will Bagley

11. Irving Yolum

12. Walker Percy

13. Garrison Keillor

14. Stephen Gould

15. Bruno Bettleheim

1. Maya Angelou

2. Carl Sagan

3. Thich Nhat Hanh

4. Pema Chodron

5. Leo Tolstoy

6. Gore Vidal

7. Carl Sandburg

8. Ken Follett

9. Rosamunde Pilcher

10. Amy Tan

11. Toni Morrison

12. Charles Dickens

13. Alfred Lord Tennyson

14. Kurt Vonnegut

15. Ernest Hemingway

16. Howard Zinn

Kerouac
Henry Miller
Albert Camus
James Baldwin
George Eliot
Thomas Hardy
Plato
Hume
Shakespeare
Camille Paglia
Emerson/Thoreau
Wallace Stevens
Harold Bloom
Wordsworth
Yeats

Maybe I'm too hung up on the word "influenced" as in the definition "to cause a change in the character, thought, or action of" which is what the word means to me.

The only ones that come to mind that *remotely* fit that definition are:
1. Mark Twain
2. George Orwell

My compliments for mentioning you-know-who...

Leave it to an Aussie to give Americans lessons in their own history...

BTW, George Orwell's real name was Eric Blair... Useful if you're ever in a game of late nite trivia...

The word "influenced" is certainly the key word, Scarecrow. Sans that word and I wouldn't have Kerouac or Henry Miller on my list. If it was 15 authors that I considered to be the best I wouldn't have included Baldwin or Camus, either, but they were enormously influential to me. If it was favourite authors there are many I would have hated to leave off, and I certainly wouldn't have included Hume. I would have had to include Orwell's Essays for favourite and best, but since they confirmed rather than influenced my character I couldn't include them on my list.

Shakespeare alone could make my list for favourite, best and most influential writer. He's inexhaustible.

If I could have had one more I would have included Bill Watterson. His Calvin & Hobbes was influential, but I couldn't say how exactly

You didn't have to put Samuel Langhorn Clemens (look it up if you don't recognize it) at the top of the list, but overlooking him is inexcusable...

Cretins, all of you...

You were probably influenced by him even if you don't recognize it... He was, hands down, the most famous American of the 19th Century...

And a Cabbie note to Rebeckah... Caroline Woodhouse wrote "Caddie Woodlawn." The old gray cells came up with that one without consulting Google (although I did fact check afterwards).

My fifth grade teacher is resting in peace knowing I remembered...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2010 02:50PM by SL Cabbie.

Sorry, I never enjoyed reading Twain. He has some great bon mots, but I've never enjoyed any of his novels and I've read 4 of them.

Well you better pass one out to yourself. According to Amazon Caddie Woodlawn was written by Carol Ryrie Brink. I'd never heard of the book so I looked it up.

It looks like a pretty exciting book for kids.

Same goes for Herman Hesse, Elmore Leonard, Zane Grey, and Thornton W. Burgess.

Burgess's animal stories were the very first books I ever checked out a the library. I must have been in first grade. They sparked a lifelong love of reading.

Hmm since so many of us are avid readers could that have something to do with the exmo thing?

Yeah, the brain cells suffered a slight cramp, but I don't think it was a dunce cap moment... And you missed an opportunity to really nail things down by figuring out where I went wrong instead of just tossing some brickbats... And part of what contributed to my error was a name change...

Yeah, Carol [ine] Ririe Brink authored the "Caddie Woodlawn" books, but the stories were her grandmother's from her childhood in Wisconsin...

Here was what I pulled up from Google when I searched on Caroline Woodhouse... That was the lead my memory had given me...

http://www.dunnconnect.com/articles/2007/06/25/history/history01.txt

>"Caddie" Remains Perrenial Favorite

>Just 11 days from today, the Dunn County Historical Society will be searching for look-a-likes of Caroline Augusta Woodhouse — better known as Caddie Woodlawn and members of her family at the celebration of the Fourth of July’s “Freedom Fest” at Wakanda Park. Find your match in the family here.

Way down in the article was...

>Caroline Ryrie Brink, a granddaughter of Caddie and the author of the Caddie Woodlawn books, was wary of using the real names of the characters in the stories. Many names, especially the last names, were changed to avoid any lawsuits. Brink ended up modifying her name to “Carol” and kept that name on the title pages of all of the 31 books she wrote during her lifetime. She was 86 when she died in 1981.

Okay, Mrs. Fox; I corrected things... Now can I go outside for recess?

I was just honking my horn to let off steam from some of last night's road rage... Gonna be worse tomorrow; Texas just invaded Zion, and it could get bloody... Of course the Tribune is "being impartial" and touting up the UNLV/BYU game as well...

Okay... I like Jared Diamond even if axel misspelled his name... I would certainly include Asimov although many wouldn't...

Dang, I see Charley sneaked his test answer under the pile and slipped ol' Clemens in as well... Better have that third cup of coffee... Sorry Charley, my bad...

Kudos to you and Helen for Kurt Vonnegut, but you forgot the "Jr."

Thomas Hardy is good, but don't leave "Jude the Obscure" around where children can read it...

From the ladies, Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" is awesome (Hey, until I get around to reading "The Third Chimpanzee," Diamond remains a one trick pony; I haven't been able to get into "Collapse). And don't forget Harper Lee, either... If you're only going to write one, that one's pretty good...

Nobody mentioned Shakespeare, either, BTW...

Or Jonathan Swift, he of "Gulliver's Travels" and "A Modest Proposal...

And personally I liked F. Scott Fitzgerald, although I do wish he had sobered up and lived a little longer... And not treated Zelda so badly...

And from my youth, there's Robert Ardrey and Desmond Morris... Really good antidotes to LDS faith-promoting stuff...

I'll leave it at that so others can remind me who I missed...

Alexandre Dumas
Richard Dawkins
T.E. Lawerence
Kenneth Roberts
Sir Thomas Moore
Charles Dickens
Frank Herbert
Joe Haldeman
Ernest Hemingway
F. Spencer Chapman
Oscar Wilde
Kevin J. Anderson
B.H Liddle Hart
Sliverstien
Max Brooks

Gene Roddenberry (Does he count?)
William Shirer
Leon Uris
Plato/(Socrates)
Michael Crichton
Shakespeare
Thomas Paine
Robert Ingersoll
Amy Tan
Susan Cisneros
Charles Dickens


And I feel "smart" just being in the company of people who read from all the authors listed in this thread!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2010 03:20PM by jpt.

One of the best history writers ever.

Agreed. Her portrait of Europe in the 14th Century, "A Distant Mirror", is so much more than a history book. The book breathes.

And If I could have had President no. 43 read just one book, just one, it would have been Tuchman's "March of Folly".

Barbara Tuchman is superb.

I read lots of history and most of the authors don't get well known. I include 4 historians in my list: Tuchman, Weir, Asimov (I included him for his histories), and Galbraith. Galbraith is an economist, but he had great historical criticisms.

I almost included Prof. Douglas Tobler, my senior adviser at BYU, but decided he was more influential to me for his teaching and advice than his writings.

Another author I should have included is Robert Graves for his terrific "I, Claudius".

1. James Joyce

2. Spinoza

3. Tolkien

4. Arthur Conan Doyle

5. James Fenimore Cooper

6. Hemingway

7. Roger Angell

8. Faulkner

9. Flannery O'Connor

10. Thomas Hardy

11. Mark Twain

12. Robert Louis Stevenson

13. Saki

14. Jonathan Swift

15. Dostoevsky

t.s. elliot

Phillip Larkin

Margaret Attwood

Kurt Vonnegut

Sue Townsend (unlikely name on this list, one of her works read in grade school set me on a path I followed through university)

David Lodge

Sor Juanna Inez De La Cruz

Rumi

Richard Bach

Roald Dahl

Sartre (specifically No Exit)

Aristotle (specifically Nicomachean Ethics)

Hanif Kureishi

Johahan Swift

Gore Vidal

1. James Joyce
2. Ayn Rand
3. Tolstoy
4. Dostoyevsky
5. Chaim Potok
6. C.S. Lewis
7. George Elliot
8. Edith Hamilton
9. Fawn Brodie
10. Michael Quinn
11. Richard Dawkins
12. Shusaku Endo
13. Bertrand Russell
14. Paul
15. Muhammad



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2010 04:18PM by madiran.

Agatha Christie
Carl Sagan
Mark Twain
Bill Moyers
Thomas Paine
Charles Dickens
Pearl S Buck
Arther Conan Doyle
Don Miguel Ruiz
Leonard Tourney
William Gault
Garrison Keillor
Carl Sandburg
Michael Shermer
Sue Grafton

I feel quite 'lightweight' comparing some of my choices against some of the other..... although the *rules* did say not to overthink it.

I studied Shakespeare at Grammar school, and he certainly influenced me.... mainly influenced me to never, never, pick up another Shakespeake text in my entire life. Ditto Orwell.

If I could add one more I would go for Chaucer.... I have picked at his 'Canterbury tales' through my life and always found them 'life affirming'.

Terry Pratchett is my #1 - His discworld series is funny and thoughtful in equal measure. He is also the source of my favourite religious quote:
"Prayer is just a sophisticated method of pleading with thunderstorms"

Classical authors
Homer,
Catullus
Virgil
Horace
Ovid
Shakespeare
Sappho
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
Byron
Shelley

Modern authors


Jared Diamond
Carl Sagan
Robert Massey
Antonia Frazier
Allison Weir
Michael Grant
Bart Ehrman
John Dominic Crossan
Ann Rule

I guess it would be more like 15 books but I'll list the writers of them:

1.Paul of Tarsus
2.Ernest Hemingway
3.Albert Speer
4.Henry David Thoreau
5.George Orwell
6.Albert Camus
7.Thomas Paine
8.Jack Kerouac
9.Kurt Vonnegut
10.Bob Woodward
11.Martin Luther King
12.Same Harris
13.Christopher Hitchens
14.Mark Twain
15.William Faulkner

Madeleine L'Engle
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Torrey Hayden
Barbara Kingsolver
John Robbins
Mark Twain
Christina Rosetti
E.B. White
Louisa May Alcott
E.L. Konigsburg
L.M. Montgomery
T.B.H. Stenhouse
Theadora Stanwell-Fletcher
Chaim Potok
George Betts

1. Susan Blackmore
2. Richard Dawkins
3. Carl Sagan
4. Harry Dickensson
5. Karen Armstrong
6. Asimov
7. Heinlein
8. Tolkien
9. Stephen Donaldsson
10. Elaine Pagels
11. Ayn Rand
12. Terry Pratchett
13. Douglas Adams
14. Grisham
15. McCall Smith

Mark Twain
William Shakespeare
Kurt Konnegut
Douglas Adams
Carl Sagan
John Steinbeck
Ken Kesey
Jack Keroack
Tom Wolfe
Hunter Thompson
Richard Brautigan
Elmore Leonard
Carl Hiaasen
David Ogilvie
George Lois

1) William Shakespeare
2) Edgar Allan Poe
3) Mark Twain
4) Albert Camus
5) Jean Sartre
6) Carl Sagan
7) T. S. Eliot
8) J. R. R. Tolkien
9) J. K. Rowling
10) Thomas Paine
11) Richard Dawkins
12) Christopher Hitchens
13) Carl Sagan
14) Henry David Thoreau
15) Ernest Hemingway

Sam Harris
Jane Austen
L.M. Montgomery
A. A. Milne
Stephen Hawking
Martha Stewart
Victor Hugo
Faulkner
Bart Erhman
Sir Author Conan Doyle
Beatrix Potter
Stephen J Gould
Grant Palmer
Mark Twain
And I can't believe no one has mentioned him yet SIMON SOUTHERTON

1. Abraham Joshua Heschel

2. Annie Dillard

3. Lawrence Kushner

4. Gershon Winkler

5. Chaim Potok

6. Nevil Shute

7. Erle Stanley Gardner

8. Elie Wiesel

9. Max Hastings

10. Richard Preston

11. John Steinbeck

12. Lewis Carroll

13. Leon Uris

14. John McPhee

15. My Dad

From my childhood, Louisa May Alcott,Laura Ingalls Wilder, Johanna Spyri and the authors of Pollyanna and The Five little Peppers and all of the Bobbsey Twin books.I can't believe I left out Leon Uris, Susan Howatch, Anya Seton, Lloyd C. Douglas and especially Harper Lee who needs to write another book.I also enjoyed reading all of Kirk Douglas' books. Even if he had no acting talent, he would have made a great author.

1. JRR Tolkien
2. Andre Norton
3. Kurt Vonnegut
4. Madeline L'Engle
5. Edgar Allan Poe
6. Paulo Freire
7. bell hooks
8. Gabriel García Márquez
9. Gabriela Mistral
10. Fernando de Rojas
11. Chaim Potok
12. Gloria Anzaldúa
13. Umberto Eco
14. Pablo Neruda
15. George Orwell

1. Terry Pratchett
2. Charles Dickens
3. Steven Jay Gould
4. Arthur Rimbaud
5. Charles Baudelaire
6. René Char
7. Arthur Ransome
8. Raymond Chandler
9. Dashiell Hammett
10. James Ellroy
11. Jorge Amado
12. Heinrich Böll
13. Harry Harrison
14. Elizabeth Moon
15. Robert Graves

Yeah, I like poetry and I live in France! Kinda shows, I think.

Not wanting to be influenced, I set down my list very quickly before reading the thread.

Now I've seen all your choices, and I agree, there are so many I could have put in, but they were not floating amid the scum on the top of my mind when I looked...

Some fantastic choices - Shakespeare, of course, Larkin - yes, nasty man, great poet.

Nice to see so many mentions for Terry Pratchett, arguably the best all-round English writer in the last 50 years... and a very nice, rational bloke!

Exmos and other people interested in the thinking behind religions will probably enjoy 2 of his books in particular:

"Small Gods" and "Nation"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2010 07:11AM by Soft Machine.

OMGoodness! my most favorite 15 authors are these guys!!!! They're the most wonderful men in the universe!!!!

Thomas S. Monson
Henry B. Eyring
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Boyd K. Packer
L. Tom Perry
Russell M. Nelson
Dallin H. Oaks
M. Russell Ballard
Richard G. Scott
Robert D. Hales
Jeffrey R. Holland
David A. Bednar
Quentin L. Cook
D. Todd Christofferson
Neil L. Andersen

I'm not sure if they've all written books, but I know they'd be my most favorite if they have. When I get a chance, I will read them. I just been so busy watching the kids, going to school and working in the ward presidency. Our Heavenly Father is so loving and good to me. I say this in the name of Jesus Smith Amen.