Writerly influences on my self

I’ve been tagged to give my top ten most personally influential book list. I have this habit of reading every book by a particular author as I like to see how their style develops. Sort of like binge-watching a TV show. Due to that habit I thought I’d share my influential list of authors instead.

These are people I read in my early teens who made a big impression and they were not works required for school.

In putting together this list off the top of my head I note that it is a pretty good indication of my current interests, secular humanist politics, and sense of humor. I guess we don’t change that much from our teen years. Although, I should add that I kind of hated Mailer’s writing, which was instructive in its own way. Also, Asimov took me forever because he wrote a lot of books and you can skip his book on humor–oy vey ist mir, that was a slog.

1. Stephen J. Gould

2. Isaac Asimov

3. Pearl. S. Buck

4. Toni Morrison

5. Norman Mailer

6. Flannery O’Connor

7. Keri Hulme

8. Kurt Vonnegut / Joseph Heller – read at the same time

9. Truman Capote

10. E. M. Forster

#writing #irony #KeriHulme #influential #prose #IsaacAsimov #humor #novels #writers #KurtVonnegut #PearlSBuck #FlanneryOConnor #authors #ToniMorrison #EMForster #blackhumor #books #secularhumanism #StephenJGould #NormalMailer #JosephHeller #TrumanCapote