Most influential authors…

I keep a record of what I read in LibraryThing. I haven’t recorded every book I’ve ever read, because I don’t remember (boy, I wish I had started keeping a list at the age of 5 or something). But I have recorded almost 1,200 books, so I thought I’d take a look at my authors list and see which authors were most influential on me.

It seems I read widely, because there are only 2 authors with more than 10 listings, and only one, Stephen King, with over 15 listings. I think being an eclectic reader is a very good thing. For purposes of this little poll, done for my amusement only, I decided to count any author with more than 5 listings as highly influential.

Here they are then, in order of influence:

  • Stephen King
  • Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Jonathan Lethem
  • Edward Gorey
  • Christopher Moore* (once, maybe, but not anymore)
  • Margaret Atwood
  • Jane Austen
  • Michael Chabon
  • Fred Chappell
  • Nick Hornby* (like Moore, this one is dubious, unless it’s him writing about books and reading)
  • Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Octavia Butler
  • Tom Perrotta
  • Ray Bradbury
  • Roald Dahl
  • Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Shirley Jackson
  • Francine Prose

What’s the point? None, really, just thought it was interesting data.

One response to “Most influential authors…”

  1. Shannon,
    Your list made me dig up my own. Here is my list of most read authors since 1996:

    Truman, Margaret
    Le Guin, Ursula K.
    Shakespeare, William
    Tyler, Anne
    Atwood, Margaret
    Stewart, Mary
    Baum, L. Frank
    Bleeker, Sonia
    Geisel, Theodor Seuss
    Paretsky, Sara
    Grafton, Sue
    Dick, Philip K.
    Hesse, Hermann
    Avi
    Sjöwall, Maj and Per Wahlöö

    Some of these, like Margaret Truman, I wish I hadn’t spent so much time on. I read Baum’s Oz books recently because I remember loving them as a child, but this time around I wasn’t so impressed. Every year I try to set a goal to read the classics, which is why Shakespeare is towards the top. Though about this time of year, I always get lured away by crime novels.

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