10 For A Short List - Open Book Blog Hop #122

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #122

Share a list of books that inspired your stories.

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

Every single book that I have read in my lifetime prior to the publication of each of my own work has inspired my stories. They have taught me by honing my imagination, perfecting my knowledge around language, and pushed my boundaries. If I had not read so much growing up, it’s very doubtful I would have become an author. Those days are remembered with the utmost longing.

For the sake of the readers of this piece, I will narrow the list to titles that stand out.

1. The Bible

Before you draw yourself up out of your seat and take your leave, let me assure you that I am not a religious person. My curiosity around this book began quite young as I tried to figure out what religion was, and if text could actually be sacred, if there was something truly magical here. What I learned was many legends. Some of it reflects history, a topic I was very much interested in, even back then. There was no magic, but there was fantasy. And oh, is it wondrous. To this day, one of my favorite figures is the Arc Angel Michael. He features in my series, but not how medieval Europe envisioned him.

A professor during my undergraduate studies insisted that we English majors read the bible, as it was referenced throughout literature. Those references would go unnoticed, or not understood. the experience of reading these works would be less without that. Intertexts, as you know, are one of my favorite encounters.

Have you ever read Epics? That’s where I place The Bible. It’s a romantic epic, before the genre was defined by European scholars.

2. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (and all of Tolkien’s work, really)

I put these titles together because what I have to say about them goes hand in glove. It would be a serious waste of your time for me to repeat the entry for each.

LOTR and Hobbit were read to me while I was in-utero. It’s true. While my mother was pregnant with me, she read these books. We still have the copies, though they rough and tattered. I’ve since bought my own copies, which I can read again and again to my heart’s content (though I chose to read this author’s other work to expand the experience instead). Re-reading these books was rather déjà vu. The poster for the animated Rankin-Bass film of The Hobbit hung in my nursery. I had the read along book and record. We watched the animation whenever it was televised. Smaug decorated the shield my dad built for my history class.

All I wanted to read were similar books…

3. The Chronicles of Narnia

C.S. Lewis and Mr. Tolkien were friends. The series echoed with biblical notions. It was fantasy. I devoured it. I cannot say that I loved it, but you don’t have to love a work to have it affect you, and thus inspire your art.

4. Charlotte’s Webb

Let’s just say, my series has talking critters. Oh, and a deep respect of the life of others, even if they walk on fours or eights, and have a lot of fuzz.

5. Dr. Seuss

Ted may have been writing for children, but those books are still with me at 43 as they were at 3. Their lessons did their job, and I’ve brought home quite a few for my daughter to start her learning with.

6. Wind In The Willows

You might start seeing a pattern in the books that I favor: fantasy, heavy on the talking animals. I also favor British works. It’s probably this book, and the Thames production that created the British narrator that reads every book to me in my head.

7. A Royal Quest

I remember reading this book during my high school years when I still read romance novels. It was definitely a cut above, and it made me think that writing was definitely something I wanted to undertake. Due to the higher caliber of this book (third in its series), it challenged me to also reach higher than average. After all, the author is a historian who graduated from Oxford. Of course her words challenged me to do better!

8. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

This book was recommended to me a few years ago. It’s helped hone my political arguments, and give them a peg on which to spin. It was a priceless experience. Being able to better articulate yourself is a true gift.

9. Alice In Wonderland

This book has haunted me most of my life. Like LOTR and The Hobbit, it seems to have always been there. Something about the narrative captures the imagination. When reading my series, the audience should get a flavor of Alice wending through the fare.

10. Metamorphoses

This is a work that is referenced nearly as much as The Bible. If you don’t understand the myths of the ancient world, then you’re missing another intertext. Your experience and understanding will be less. This book is a connection to ancient, Mediterranean Europe. It is also an epic fantasy. The material is presented in poetic verses.

To see more of the books I’ve read, and to see how I’ve ranked them, go to my Good Reads profile.

Now, let’s go and read the lists of the other authors. They might have something to put on our To Be Read Lists…