A while ago, there was a meme on Facebook that everyone was tagging each other in about the books that influenced them. Here it is in full. Yes, it is going to be a wall of text but I don’t really care because I am lazy to go source for pictures. I am also not going to do it in descending order because I have decided not to care about the rules of online content creation for this post.
Here it is:
My fellow book nerd Shaun tagged me and so I shall write about it. While coming up with the list, I felt dissatisfied that I was only allowed to pick 10—there are too many books that have influenced me, and too many writers. I also realized that I am drawn to fantasy an meta-fiction, which really isn’t a surprise. Well, here they are. I also made an effort to include books by writers who are women, because women are awesome writers too.
1.If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
I deliberately went in search of books by this writer because I’d read Invisible Cities and I wanted more from him. I wasn’t disappointed with this one. It’s about a man who buys a book and reads it, only to realize that the book has an error. He goes to the shop to exchange it, but realizes that his second copy is a completely different book. The reader then goes on a search for this book, and gets into all sorts of crazy and dangerous situations. This is a fun work of meta-fiction and is layered with different worlds, and I get to see how Calvino parodies different genres that structure the book. Of course, everything all comes together beautifully at the end, which is a testament to his skill. This book showed me how to push the boundaries in fiction writing, and is fun to read.
2. The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
Technically, this counts as a trilogy, but Sanderson’s ability to conjure up immersive worlds and cool and believable magic systems astound me. In this series, a tyrant has ruled a barren planet for a thousand years. Resistance is futile, but a man named Kelsier takes on a young street urchin by the name of Vin to help form a resistance. Both of them are bestowed with the power to digest metals, which give them powers. They are called Allomancers, and together, they overthrow the ruler and set things right again. By the end of the series, Sanderson ties everything together—there are no plot holes, and we have a well-written female protagonist and a twist on the trope of the “chosen one.” I had no idea that world building could be so detailed, and I highly recommend this series for its flawless plotting and compelling characters.
3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A girl gets raped at a rowdy high school party. She calls the cops, who break everything up, and is shunned by the whole school because she “ruined everything.” As no one believes her, she remains silent for the rest of the school year. It’s not often that a YA book tackles weighty subjects, and the protagonist’s voice is well-written, witty and cynical in equal measure. Although it was written 10 years ago, it’s especially pertinent today because of more recent incidents. More importantly, this is a book of hope and survival, and will definitely inspire anyone who reads it.
4. Notable Women of China, edited by Barbara Bennett Peterson
This is a work of non-fiction and I felt like I had to include one or two in this list. I am a huge Chinese history geek so it’s awesome to see the many overlooked women who made huge—and I mean huge—contributions to Chinese society. They were not subservient at all, but awesome mothers, kick-ass generals, scholars, and poets. It’s a heavy tome that highlights prominent women from the Shang Dynasty to the more modern era, and it gives these awesome women their due. Nuff said.
5. Anansi Boys By Neil Gaiman
I think it’s pretty clear that Gaiman would make the list, since I’ve read most of his work. I wanted to pick the Sandman series, but it’s a bit obvious and everyone would have said something about it at one point in time or another because it’s his most famous work. So I pick Anansi Boys, which combines the myth of Anansi in a modern day setting. I think this is a fairly well-known book so I won’t talk about the plot, but I greatly admire and would like to use mythology in fiction creatively, like Gaiman.
6. The Unwritten by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross
Yeah, this is a graphic novel series, but it counts as a book because it’s an ongoing story. Wilson Taylor is famous for writing the “Tommy Taylor” series of books, which is an homage to the Harry Potter series. Taylor hasn’t been seen for years, and so his son, Tommy, (who incidentally has the same name the book’s protagonist ) has to find him. Along the way, Tommy chills with characters from various well-known books and finds out who he really is and what he has to face. Yeah, this is yet another work of meta-fiction, but it weaves so many narratives together into the main story—it also helps that Gross and Carey are willing to play with the structure of the comic book and we get a “choose your own adventure” section in one of the volumes. It’s great fun, any book lover will like it.
7. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson
I feel like I have to include Winterson in this list, because she writes so well. I picked this book over the others because it was her very first one, and it deals with personal subject matter—growing up in a very religious family and dealing with her coming out as a lesbian. I hope this isn’t tokenizing, but Winterson writes wonderfully (just don’t read all of her work at one go) and blends fact and fiction elegantly.
8. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Atwood is an amazing writer, and I’d be damned if I didn’t include her in this list. This is my first Atwood book, and she didn’t disappoint. It’s a novel within a novel that revolves around Iris Chase’s decision to marry a wealthy businessman to save her family. Without spoiling too much, Atwood is deft at handling conflicts and intricate plot points, which make for a gripping book.
9. Journey To The West By Wu Cheng En
I think this is the text that I was exposed to at a very young age—I remember my father read this story to get me interested in reading. What can I say? The plot is f***ing awesome and bad-ass, and showed me how cool Chinese mythology really is.
10. Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
The guardian of the dog star, Sirius, is sent to Earth after a transgression to find a magical artifact that will restore his status in the heavens. This is the first book by Wynne-Jones I have read, and it’s a fun and trippy, with a very satisfying ending.