Cult Books & Miscellaneous discussion

So Authors that have had the biggest impact on you, that you've read one book by them, and instantly had to go and read every other book by them!

The first author that popped into my mind is Kurt Vonnegut. I can't even remember why I picked it up, but I started Slaughterhouse Five and was just dumbstruck! It was so many things I didn't know I was missing and I just wanted to inhale it. I forced myself to slow down and enjoy it. I've been a Vonnegut fan ever since.

So far I've read Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Welcome to the Monkey House and A Man Without Country. I've purchased Timequake and Cat's Cradle and I also have Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him by Rackstraw.

I don't think I could ever get enough of his writings.

I second Alice's sentiments on Vonnegut. His work combines humanist warmth and surreal antics with a strong moral message. His characters are always painfully human.

If we define "cult" as lesser-known writers then one author worth seeking out is Lucy Ellmann. Her work combines polemic with powerful and hilarious prose. See Dot in the Universe.

I have to third Vonnegut, he was just a complete original. I'm not sure how on earth I found out about him but find him I did, and it was just this complete revolution for me, not only in books but in life, it taught me that I wasn't completely mad that other people saw through things too, and cared and was sad.

Reading his books became like this secret retreat. when all the mundanity wears me down, I go spend a while in the wonderful land of Vonnegut and it makes things better.

He died on my seventeenth birthday though it was sad.