UK Book Club discussion

Just got sent this on Facebook, thought I'd post it here...

Fifteen Authors - The Invitation Guidelines:

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who have influenced you and that will always stick with you.

List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Hmm, don't know if they've 'influenced' me, but authors I love (or loved as a kid), in no particular order (although first 6 are children's writers)...

1: AA Milne
2: CS Lewis
3: E Nesbit
4: Susan Cooper
5: Alan Garner
6: Nina Bawden
7: JRR Tolkein
8: Margaret Atwood
9: Peter Carey
10: Ian McEwan
11: John Irving
12: Rose Tremain
13: Beryl Bainbridge
14: Pat Barker
15: Graham Greene
(16: Angela Carter)
(17: Roald Dahl)

Looking back, mine are so bloody British (John Irving, Peter Carey & Margaret Atwood are the exceptions....)
Who'd be in your list?

1. Amis, Martin
2. Aristotle
3. Banks, Iain
4. Byatt, A.S
5. Eco, Umberto
6. Huxley, Aldous
7. Marlowe, Christopher
8. Moore, Alan
9. Orwell, George
10. Plato
11. Shakespeare, William
12. Silva, Daniel
13. Tolkien, JRR
14. Wilde, Oscar
15. Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

1. Alistair MacLean
2. Harper Lee
3. John Wyndham
4. Ian Fleming
5. Rohinton Mistry
6. Ayn Rand
7. Robert Heinlein
8. Stephen King
9. Isaac Asimov
10. Edgar Rice Burroughs
11. Laurel Hamilton
12. Robert E Howard
13. George Orwell
14. Tolkien
15. CS Lewis

Interesting. Not sure if some actually influenced me, but they were people whose books I couldn't put down and had to read each new one as it came out.

If I start thinking about it I will never decide so just wrote the first ones that that came to mind, here goes...

1. Roald Dahl
2. C.S. Lewis
3. Lewis Carol
4. Armistead Maupin
5. Jeanette Winterson
6. Bruce Chatwin
7. Jane Austen
8. JRR Tolkein
9. Margaret Atwood
10. Doris Lessing
11. Sylvia Plath
12. Haruki Murakami
13. Khaled Hosseini
14. Isabel Allende
15. Brontes (don't make me pick one)

1. JRR Tolkien
2. Terry Pratchett
3. Sheri Tepper
4. Orson Scott Card
5. George Orwell
6. Harper Lee
7. Issac Asimov
8. John Steinbeck
9. David Mitchell
10. John Wyndham
11. CS Lewis
12. Enid Blyton
13. Hilary Mantel
14. Neil Gaiman
15. Margaret Atwood

More sci-fi/fantasy than i was expecting maybe because i have only read single books by other authors

Stephen King
John Saul
James Herbert
Terry Goodkind
Sarah Gruen
John Wyndham
DH Lawrence
Charlotte Bronte
Jane Austen
J K Rowling
Robin Cook
Graham Masterton
Robert R McCammon
Alison Weir
Ken Follet

1- Julie Johnston
2- Patricia Windsor
3- Roald Dahl
4- Gaston Leroux
5- R.L. Stein
6- Ann. M. Martin
7- Dean Koontz
8- Graham Joyce
9- JK Rowling
10- Frances Hodgson Burnett
11- Joanne Harris
12- KA Applegate
13- Johanna Spyri
14- Darren Shan
15- Stephen King

Wow, that was harder than I thought! Mostly because a lot of the authors who have influenced me was only the one book :)

A tough one indeed. Here's my list. Some of these authors have influenced me, some have moved me, some have inspired me, and some are authors whose work I admire greatly - either for the way they write or for the stories they've told.

Ernest Hemmingway
Ramon J Sender
Joseph Conrad
William Golding
Stephen King
Elmore Leonard
Albert Camus
Graham Greene
Cormack McCarthy
Raymond Chandler
L P Hartley
Anthony Burgess
Junot Diaz
Rudyard Kipling
Homer

Here's mine (think I went a bit over but was on a bit of a roll so I just went with it):

1. J.R.R Tolkien
2. Roald Dahl
3. Bram Stoker
4. Mary Shelley
5. Edgar Allan Poe
6. H.P. Lovecraft
7. A.A. Milne
8. C.S. Lewis
9. R.L.Stine
10. Stephen King
11. Colin Dann
12. Lewis Carroll
13. Enid Blyton
14. Robert Lewis Stevenson
15. Kenneth Grahame
16. (James Patterson)
17. (Brothers Grimm)
18. (Hans Christian Anderson)
19. (James Herriot)
20. (James Herbert)

1 Rohinton Mistry
2 Geo Orwell
3 Milan Kundera
4 Athol Fugard's plays
5 Shakespeare Lear, Macbeth
6 Marquez
7 Faulkner
8 Bernard Malamud
9 IB Singer
10 Twain

Thinking here of the ones that initially kick-started me reading in my early teens, followed by the ones that mean most to me now (too many to mention of course)...

George Orwell
William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
Kate Atkinson
William Boyd
Charlotte Bronte
Pat Barker
JRR Tolkein
Kenneth Graham
P G Wodehouse
Lawrence Durrell
John Wyndham
Roger McGough
Emile Zola
Angela Carter

(aagh...also cant help mentioning Wilkie Collins, Gavin Maxwell, CS Lewis, Gerald Durrell, M R James, James Herriot, Toni Morrison, Jeanette Winterson and the list could go on).

Mine is a complete mixed bag!
1.Jane Austin
2.Thomas hardy
3.Harper Lee
4.Wilkie Collins
5.Joanne Harris
6.Philip Pullman
7.William Shakespeare
8.William Golding
9.Laurie Lee
10.CS Lewis
11.A.A. Milne
12.Mark Twain
13.John Steinbeck
and more recently
14.Jonathan Hayes
15.Lian Hearn
Loads more but 15 is the max

1. Haruki Murakami
2. Paul Auster
3. Dorothy Parker
4. Brian Keenan
5. Charlotte Bronte
6. Joyce Carol Oates
7. Laurie Lee
8. Charles Dickens
9. Barbara Kingsolver
10.Jane Austen
11.Markus Zusak
12.Dr Seuss
13.F. Scott Fitzgerald
14.Jeffrey Eugenides
15.P.G. Wodehouse

1. Emily Maguire
2. Enid Blyton
3. P.J. Tracy
4. Elizabeth Chadwick
5. Pat Barker
6. Angela Carter
7. Anne Fine
8. Anne Frank
9. John Steinbeck
10. Kevin Brooks
11. Melvin Burgess
12. Augusten Burroughs
13. Nuala Gardner
14. Torey Hayden
15. Lewis Carroll
And of course - anyone who wrote any school/university text books :P But they're boring so don't count!!

Wow, hard to winnow down, and not in any particular order:

CS Lewis
Michael Crichton
Dickens
Tolstoy
Robert Ludlum
Erich von Daniken
Euell Gibbons
George Orwell
Issac Asimov
DH Lawrence
Gerald Durrell
Barbara Pym
Laurie Colwin
Kaye Gibbons
Rosamund Pilcher

But I must also include four authors who each had a single entry which grabbed me and has retained hold of me:

Lewis Carroll (the Alice books)
Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)
Greg Bear (Blood Music)
Shirley Jackson (The Lottery)

Some of these are very early influences to be sure, but I think the books we read (and love) make us who we are!

...and there are so many more...

With apologies to those I'm not able to include in a list of 15.

Charles Dickens
William Shakespeare
J.R.R. Tolkien
John Steinbeck
Oscar Wilde
C.S. Lewis
Enid Blyton
Laurie Lee
Thomas Hardy
Rudyard Kipling
George Orwell
Joseph Conrad
Jules Verne
William Golding
Sally Vickers
etc.etc.etc.

1. Sebastian faulks
2. Peter Carey
3. John Irving
4. Thomas hardy
5. Carlos Ruiz zafon
6. Alexander McCall smith
7. Margaret Atwood
8. Ian mcewan
9. Salman Rushdie
10. Kurt Vonnegut
11. John Steinbeck
12. Guy vanderhaeghe
13. Jim crace
14. Geraldine Brooks
15. Charlotte bronte

Ps. Took me ages to do that - damn auto correct on my iPhone !

Darn it, I missed off David ebershoff. Not sure who I'd take off, but have to add this author to my list.

Enid Blyton
C S Lewis
Terry Brooks
J R R Tolkien
Raymond E Feist
Sheri Tepper
Anne Rice
Janny Wurts
Robin Hobb

Those are the authors that whooshed straight to the front of my head.

This was harder than I thought!

Enid Blyton
Elizabeth Goudge
Charlotte Bronte
Leo Tolstoy
Thomas Hardy
Alastair Maclean
Michael Crichton
Dick Francis
Graham Greene
John Le Carre
Phillipa Gregory
Barbara Erskine
Robin Hobb
JRRTolkein
CSLewis
William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
(Norah Lofts)

Enid Blyton
Roald Dahl
J R R Tolkien
C S Lewis
J K Rowling
Stephen King
Lian Hearn
Jasper Fforde
Charlotte Bronte
Charles Dickens
William Shakespeare
Suzanne Collins
Christopher Paolini
George R R Martin
Carla Land

1. Enid Blyton
2. Stan Lee
3. Stephen King
4. David Eddings
5. Terry Goodkind
6. Peter David
7. Charles Dickens
8. Sue Grafton
9. Elizabeth George
10. Roger Stern
11. Jane Austen
12. JK Rowling
13. Tad Williams
14. Arthur Conon Doyle
15. Terrance Dicks

1. J.R.R.Tolkein(Time to read the lord of the rings again).
2. Iain Banks
3. Tolstoy
4. Dostoevsky
5. Solzhenitsyn.
6. Robert Louis Stevenson
7. M.R.James
8. Sheridan Le Fanu
9. Kathy Reichs
10. Patricia Briggs
11. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
12. Terry Pratchett
13. Charles Dickens
14. Thomas Hardy
15. Javier Marias

1 JRR Tolkien
2 George RR Martin
3 Enid Blyton
4 Agatha Christie
5 Piers Anthony
6 Anne McCaffrey
7 Richard Morgan
8 James Patterson
9 Val McDermid
10 JK Rowling
11 CS Lewis
12 Mark Twain
13 Robert Frost
14 Barbara Taylor Bradford
15 Raymond E Feist

1)Gaston Leroux
2)JRR Tolkein
3)Victor Hugo
4)Jane Austen
5)Charlotte Bronte
6)Terry Pratchett
7)Douglas Adams
8)Jules Verne
9)Richard Adams
10)Frank Herbert
11)Agatha Christie
12)Arthur Conan Doyle
13)Oscar WIlde
14)Phillipa Gregory
15)William Shakespeare
16)ALexandre Dumas

mine are more the books I cant see in a shop and not buy!

1)Christopher Brookmayre
2)John Irving
3)Jasper FForde
4)Colin Bateman
5)Patrick Gale
6)Roahl Dahl
7)Augusten Burroughs
8)Christopher Fowler
9)Peter James
10)Mo Hayder
11)Malcolm Pryce
12)Dennis Lehane
13)Jo Nesbo
14)Armistead Maupin
15)Neil Gaiman

Deanne wrote: "1. J.R.R.Tolkein(Time to read the lord of the rings again).
2. Iain Banks
3. Tolstoy
4. Dostoevsky
5. Solzenitsyn.
6. Robert Louis Stevenson
7. M.R.James
8. Sheridan Le Fanu
9. Kathy Reichs
10. Pat..."

Deanne - A Solzenitsyn fan - cool. We have similar tastes Deanne. I should go and look at your read and tbr list.

Make that three for the wierdy beardy Russian Nikks

1. Alastair Maclean
2. JRR Tolkien
3. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. Samuel Beckett
5. Pat Barker
6. Sebastian Faulks
7. John del Vecchio
8. Michael Herr
9. Patricia Cornwell
10. Luigi Pirandello
11. William L.Shirer
12. Dante Alighieri
13. James Fenimore Cooper
14. Mario Puzo
15. Steig Larsson

I posted this idea on FB to see who others liked. My list there was slightly different but not much.

What books has wierdy, beardy Russian written? I've not heard of this writer before.

Nor me:)

ooh this could be fun... let me see if I can even think of 15 authors - particularly ones that have influenced me and will always stick with me..

1. Judy Blume
2. Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. Philippa Gregory
4. Og Mandino
5. Khalil Gibran
6. V.C. Andrews
7. Danielle Steel
8. Truman Capote
9. Brandon Mull
10. J.K. Rowling
11. Marion Zimmer Bradley
12. Sarah Addison Allen
13. C.S. Lewis
14. Howard R. Garis
15. Erica Bauermeister

Many of these are authors of childrens books, I have so many wonderful memories of books from my childhood so that's why the authors names stand out to me. Some of the others it may only be one book that I've read by the author but it made an impression on me for sure.

I rest my case http://www.famouspeopleinfo.com/aleks...

Are there any authors that any of you simply refuse to read? (Didn't know where to post this so figured I'd just put it here and then we can figure out what to do with it :-) )

In no particular order:

1 Arthur Ransome
2 David Higginbottom (pen name Nicholas Fisk)
3 Willard Price
4 Arthur C. Clarke
5 Edgar Rice Burroughs
6 Terrance Dicks
7 Douglas Adams
8 Dan Brown
9 Andre Norton
10 John Christopher
11 Alan Dean Foster
12 Anne Rice
13 Doug Naylor
14 Agatha Christie
15 Patrick Moore


They're not necessarily all good authors, but their writing has in some way influenced mine. A few (like 1,2,3,9 and 15) are from my childhood.

Any authors I simply refuse to read? I've given up on J.K. Rowling. Three goes at the 1st Harry Potter book and then finally failing with the audio book version, proved her writing simply isn't my thing.

Ian wrote: "I rest my case http://www.famouspeopleinfo.com/aleks..."

Dont think I'd ever seen a pic of him before. His interesting, often sad life experiences inspired his books. Maybe I should read more by him, he is a great author, although its not easy reading.

Kim N wrote: "Are there any authors that any of you simply refuse to read? (Didn't know where to post this so figured I'd just put it here and then we can figure out what to do with it :-) )"

I dont think there are any authors I avoid, I will give anything a go. But as far as genres go, I really need to avoid ethnic cleansing books for a while. I read Half of a Yellow Sun and Sarah's Key close together - excellent reads but I was traumatised by both !

I won't read Nicholas Sparks.

Ian wrote: "I rest my case http://www.famouspeopleinfo.com/aleks..."

Nice beard.

Hehe this has come up in another discussion, I can't bring myself to read Jeffrey Archer.

I read some Jeffrey Archer years ago, in my teens/early 20's. I quite enjoyed it at the time.

I think I can safely say I wont read EL James - Oh hang on I did ! LOL Enough said - never again !

Kim N wrote: "I won't read Nicholas Sparks."

How come Kim ?

Nikks wrote: "Kim N wrote: "I won't read Nicholas Sparks."

How come Kim ?"

Well I have a rather negative opinion (I hate to admit) but I don't think he writes to write good books or to entertain people I think his sole purpose for writing is to see how badly he can make people cry. (just from what I've heard of other people's reactions to his books and from reading the plot lines of his books).

Now, don't get me wrong I've cried at books, but I don't think those authors have written specifically to MAKE me cry.

Yes, ridiculous. I know. *sigh*

I also won't read most of Jodi Piccoult books - I've only read two (Second Glance which I loved, and Lone Wolf which I liked), but I won't read her books that touch on more controversial subjects mainly because I don't like the negative emotions they stir up in me.

Authors I won't read - Salman Rushdie tops the list followed by Peter Carey and then of course the loathsome Archer as Em has said.

As for the great beardy russian - is a relatively easy (as in short) place to start, but I would also heartily recommend .

1. Tanith Lee
2. Mary Renault
3. Jane Austen
4. Charlotte Bronte
5, Pat Barker
6. Erastes
7. Marion Husband
8. Helen Z. Smith
9. Julian Putkowski
10. Melvyn Burgess
11. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
12. Vera Brittain
13. E.M. Forster
14. Oscar Wilde
15. Dick Francis

Kim N wrote: "I also won't read most of Jodi Piccoult books - I've only read two (Second Glance which I loved, and Lone Wolf which I liked), but I won't read her books that touch on more controversial subjects m..."

Totally agree. I haven't read Nicholas sparks, so cant comment but I hate that forced emotion thing. I read one Jodipicoult book and felt it was trying to force all these emotions on me - it did - I got mad ! That was my sisters keeper and I said I would not read more by her.

Ian wrote: "Authors I won't read - Salman Rushdie tops the list followed by Peter Carey and then of course the loathsome Archer as Em has said..."

I've never tried anything by Salman Rushdie, but I've always found Jeffrey Archer to be very readable. Certainly not great literature but fairly entertaining. I should temper that by admitting I haven't read any of his work in a decade or so, so I don't know how he's developed (or not!).

Nikks wrote: "Kim N wrote: "I also won't read most of Jodi Piccoult books - I've only read two (Second Glance which I loved, and Lone Wolf which I liked), but I won't read her books that touch on more controvers..."

I wouldn't read (or watch) My Sister's Keeper. Just hearing what the book was about ticked me off lol. I applaud you for getting through the book!