Books that influenced me: influence understood as either life-changing or transformative in reading patterns, both, in effect, the same. Listed in approximate chronological order of encounter:
- Johann David Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
- Kem Nunn, Tapping the Source
- Winston Graham, Angell, Pearl and Little God
- George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
- Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
- J. P. Donleavy, The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman
- Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
- Bruce Sterling, The Artificial Kid
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea and Being and Nothingness
- Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past
- Roger Deakin, Wildwood
- Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night
- Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
- James Joyce, Ulysses
- Gabriel Josipovici, Whatever Happened to Modernism?
>I, for one, would be most interested in the changes which occurred. A fascinating list, sadly not many of which I've read.
>It's far from a list of recommendations, Bellezza. These cover from about age 9 to the present day, and I am sure many would mean nothing to the reader/person I am today.
>Not taking it as recommendations, but as influential books for you at one time. It's got me thinking about what that list would look like for me, which I've half created now. I hope to do a similar post soon as it's such an intriguing idea.
>It took me a week to scour my memories for those books that were influential. I'll enjoy reading your list.
>a great list anthony ,I loved wildwood , must get another from him soon ,such shame about deakin seemed be a writer getting in his stride ,all the best stu
>Thanks, stu. Deakin was a unique writer; his Waterlog is outstanding, his Notes from Walnut Tree Farm also first-rate.
>I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see that so many of us went from science-fiction to "literature," but it still makes me happy to see nonetheless.
>Yes, me too. One of your commenters referred to an alternative route via horror; I dabbled with Stephen King and Clive Barker, but opted for science-fiction.