Saturday, July 10, 2010

Prelude to My 100 Most Influential Books

Taking a cue from Seanan McGuire this morning, I decided to come up with a list of 100 books that influenced me in some way.  (Not to be confused with my list of books I think everyone ought to read.)  Until this morning I didn't realize how much work making such a list would be.  I've been at this since I woke up and I'm only at about 60 books. 

In the course of making this list, which I hope to have done sometime this weekend, I discovered a few things I'd like to pass along...

Thing One: I may not have liked every story I've ever read, but sometimes even the stories that disturbed me were influential - like say, Lord of the Flies.

Thing Two:  One of the books that's been stuck in my head for 25 years may be up there, but the title, author, and main character names are gone.  Even so, the scene where they sacrifice the slave to the god by impaling her on his statue is etched in my head in very crisp and horrible detail.

Thing Three:  My Amazon wishlist is now littered with old paperbacks I loved but had almost forgotten.  Like One on Me by Tim Huntley and E Pluribus Unicorn by Theodore Sturgeon.  (Umm, the Huntley should probably be rated R or worse. Purchase at your own risk.)

Have you ever made a list like this?  What surprising things do you think you'd find if you made a list like this?

The actual list will be published as soon as I get it finished.  Whenever that will be.

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