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.
Shannon Turlington 
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.