Do you have an author that has infulenced your life?

Well apparently it is God, as disputing much of what is in the Bible has entertained me for decades.

@DarkScribe Touche. I did not think of that. :)

I wish they had more influence, but Peace Pilgrim and Ghandi’s writings influenced me. Solzhenitzen as well (and profoundly) for better or worse.

Hermann Hesse is the author I always feel like I have become a better person after reading one of his books.

Nothing profound or deeply philosophical or anything, but I’d say Stephen Chbosky.

Victor Hugo—Les Miserables

Hermann Hesse is one of my favorites, but I have to give ultimate homage to Robert A. Heinlein. As far as actual influence on my lifestyle (but not politics), Helen and Scott Nearings books on modern homesteading have prominence of place. Farrington Daniels “Direct Use of the Suns Energy” sparked my lifelong interest in alternative energy sources.

Also, while not traditionally thought of as an author, Theodore Roosevelt’s autobiography has made a pretty tremendous impact on my life.

Everything I read influences my life.

But if we are talking about authors in addition to the texts they’ve produced (authors who could be texts themselves, or whose lives are/were just as valuable to us as their art) then I have to say Walt Whitman, Herman Hesse, and Yukio Mishima.

Especially Whitman.

Dawkins, for one.

David Pelzer whose writings have taught me not to be a victim of my environment, but rather to use it to inspire me to succeed in spite of it

Wally Lamb whose writings have taught me just how profoundly men are capable of understanding women

Mitch Albom whose writings have taught me what my parents couldn’t about human emotion, love, and trust

Dr. Maya Angelou whose writings have given me hope and lifted my soul when my eyes were closed to all the beauty that surrounded me

Kurt Vonnegut. Hi-ho.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard T.R. wrote some good history, too.

Haruki Murakami always puts me in a contemplative mood, which I enjoy. It’s certainly influenced the way I read fiction.

Lao Tzu, Hesse, Salinger, Doug Adams, and Jack Kerouac.

@aprilsimnel :: Vonnegut got me into reading. I wasn’t a fan of books until I got a job as a projectionist. I had about six hours of spare time at work everyday. The dude that got promoted to janitor (I was his replacement) recommended reading a book everyday to kill the boredom. He brought me in “The Stranger” and “Breakfast of Champions”. When I quit a few years later we had a massive library in the booth. Eugene is a college town and there are a lot of used bookstores. I would go and buy ten books for 99 cents every week. All the projectionists started doing the same. Then we had other employees coming into the booth to borrow books. It was awesome, we had a little library for employees without the use of cards.

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@johnpowell That sounds awesome. My sister went to college in Eugene.

@eden2eve I can’t believe you stole my answer! Les Misérables changed my life, if only because I find myself drawing references to it every single day.

My two runners up are Jean-Paul Sartre and Anaïs Nin… Notice a pattern?

R.A. Salvatore we seem to be on the same page on Abusive relationships…Its like he’s copied my family to a tee.

Tuesdays with Morrie
Les Miserables

Those two books taught me more than I ever hoped to learn in life.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
Mark Twain

Joseph Heller was a great humorous writer and for me taught me to look at the world from other angles as what you see is not always if ever what it appears to be.

Kahlil Gibran.
James Thurber.

James P. Blaylock
Michael Moorcock
Benjamin Hoff
Carlos Castaneda

God
Malcolm Gladwell

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, yep. His book on the navy was awesome too.

Anne McCaffrey, Jules Verne, Stephen King, Charles Dickens, Peter Straub, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe,
Anne Rice, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, L.J. Smith, Chris D’Lacey, Tom Clancy, Maeve Binchy, & Raymond Khoury.

Pretty much every author who’s work I’ve read.