14.1.11

15 authors in 15 minutes

ratita de biblioteca

Stephanie of Sunbeam Soapbox tagged me to list fifteen authors that had influenced me back in December.  I'm usually really bad at getting around to doing these sort of things, but the topic really appealled to me.  The challenge is to spend 15 minutes thinking about 15 authors who have influenced you in some way.

"Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen writers 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 at least fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what authors my friends choose."

So... my list. In no particular order
1. Roald Dahl
2.EE Cummings
3. David Malouff
4. Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Margaret Atwood
6. Robin Klein
7. Tim Flannery
8. Peter Carey
9. Paul Farmer
10. Charles Bukowski
11. John Keats
12. Enid Blyton
13. Tim Winton
14. Jane Austen
15. AA Milne

Amongst the mix is a collection of childhood authors who instilled in me a love of reading and a curiosity to pick up books and discover the worlds within them.  There are quite a few Australian authors, mostly based on books I read in my last years of high school - I still have a copy of a very dog-eared, highlighted and bent out of shape "Fly Away Peter" which I must have read twenty or thirty times before sitting my final english exams in Year 12.  And then there are Paul Farmer and Tim Flannery, two passionate scientific men who have brought very important topics (access to healthcare and climate change) to the masses.


And now it's your turn, I'm supposed to list 15 other bloggers who should also participate.  This is the part that I hate.  Incidentally it's also why I tend not to reply to blog awards. I mean this in no way as a criticism to those who are brave enough to give and receive awards and I am humbled everytime I am tagged. But it reminds me of high school and I was never really "good" at the high school popularity thing.  

So, if you are interested in taking part in this challenge (and it's a worthy task to spend 15 minutes thinking about authors who have influenced you), please link back to me so that I can see who makes it to your list.  And because I think these people might be interested, here are some blogs I read who have, at one stage or another, showed an interest in reading too.

E tells Tales,
Cracks in the Pavement
Tea with Lemon Photography
Striking Keys
Resident on Earth
We Heart Books
Pieces of Me
For the Easily Distracted
Emerging Em

I just realised that this short list also provides a view of my fairly ecclectic blog reading.

Happy Weekend!

8 comments:

Eva said...

Anything about books has me interested! Thanks so much for sharing!

Jamie said...

Your list makes me want to head the library.

Justine said...

love your list here, did you read Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivia? absolutely fantastic.

Stephanie said...

I also hate tagging people, so I'm glad I don't do memes often. But this one seemed so fun. :) Thanks for participating! I'm surprised how many lists I've seen EE Cummings on. I'll have to check out some of the other authors you've mentioned!

Joyti said...

Your list is fabulous :)

Clare B said...

@ Stephanie - I really only 'discovered' EE Cummings when I was doing my poem on Thursday posts, but I really love her poems now and should really go out and purchase a collection of her work.
@Justine - I've read so many of Peter Carey's books, but not Parrot and Olivia - will have to add it to the list.

Jen said...

Ooooo...this is definitely something I'm interested in. Thanks for calling me out! :-)

Wendy Ramos said...

Oh, you've tagged me! I'm just catching up on my blog reading post vacation. I'm going to have to think about this one. Louisa May Alcott is definitely on the top of my list. Where to go from there?