I've been reading since I was four. My first influence was Dr. Seuss, and I thank my mother for letting me cut my literary teeth on his wonderfully skewed view of the world. I think it contributed to
my worldview.
The question this week is "What books or authors have influenced you the most in your growth as a person and as a progressive?"
Continued below-
My influences are many and varied. In general chronological order,
Anything by Dr. Seuss.
"My Friend Flicka"-Mary O'Hara
"King of the Wind" and anything else by Marguerite Henry
(Yes, I was one of those horsy girls)
"The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E L Konigsburg
"The Gulag Archipelago"-Solshenitzyn
"Fahrenheit 451" and many others by Bradbury
"Stranger in a Strange Land"-Heinlein
"The Missing Piece meets the Big O" by Shel Silverstein
"Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot"-Dostoyevsky
"Haroun and the Sea of Stories" and
"Fury"-both by Salman Rushdie
Many of Stephen King's books have influenced me as a writer, and I count his "On Writing" as one of my very few non-fiction books that have been a big influence on my way of thinking.
Umberto Eco is a lasting influence. He makes me think, and think hard. I love his fiction, essays, and books on semantics and semiotics.
I keep wondering if liberals/progressives read more than conservatives, especially neo-cons. I find it hard to believe that anyone could read voraciously, in many card-catalog categories, and remain so constricted in worldview. Drawing on personal experience and other purely empirical evidence, a varied reading list and reading experience tends to lead to liberal worldviews.
This week has been another slow reading week for me. I finished "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, (and it promises to be quite influential indeed,) took a few more bites out of Martian Chronicles, and read most of "Moving Mars" by Greg Bear. I'm liking it quite a bit-his vision of the future is intriguing. Another thing I like is that he's writing from a woman's point of view, which you don't see too many men doing. (My New Yorker subscription restarted this week which is one reason I'm a book or 3 down, plus it's been a busy week. And, I'm seriously trying to pick up one of my writing projects where I left off about 3 years ago-much easier said than done.)
So, what books or authors have influenced you? Do you think broad reading experience leads to liberalism? And, of course, what have you read lately?