Modern Lit Greats - Who Influenced You?

Like my friend Kallie, and other friends I have yet to meet on this wonderful site, I am mourning deeply the loss of Kurt Vonnegut.  In thinking of him this morning, I started to reflect on the Authors that have had the greatest impact on me, and my development as a human being.

Please share with me, whether you be in my karass or not, which Authors have most influenced you.

For Me:

Frank Herbert - he challenged my conceptions of what it means to be a human being, and the roadblocks that face us all.

Robert Heinlein - he taught me levity among seriousness, and really, sexual liberation.

Kurt Vonnegut - he taught me that we are all in this together.

Hunter S. Thompson - (why did you have to off yourself?) he taught me that there are several prisms in which to view life.

Who has influenced you?

A closing in the words of Bokonon: "All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies."

Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, Chuck Palahnuik, and John Steinbeck... to name a few.

Great thread, Verve. =]

ayn rand, stephen king, piers anthony, Dr suess, roald dahl

Lots of great books I have read throughout my life have infulenced me. 

Louis L'Amour, Robert Munsch, Piers Anthony, Tolkien and Dame Agatha.

Also Grant Naylor.

Vonnegut, of course, Heinlien, Huxley, Steinbeck, Salinger, Walker.  If we go back further - Dickens, Austen, Shelley, Poe

And Dr. Suess- I agree py.  Who doesn't love his books?  Ok, maybe someone, but I do!

Aldous Huxley
Kurt Vonnegut
Orson Wells
JD Salinger
James Joyce
Ayn Rand
Toni Morrison
Albert Camus
Sylvia Plath
Homer
Arisotphanes
Kahlil Gibran
Louisa May Alcott
The Brontee Sisters
Aristotle
Plato
Shel Silverstein
Theodore Geisel (Dr. Suess)
Carl Sagan
Judy Blume
e. e. cummings
Bill Bryson
JK Rowling
Michio Kaku
Mark Z Danielewski
and any memoirist who takes the time to put into their own words using their own voice their experience here on this crazy planet.

My sweetheart says I'm addicted to books.

heather: I especially like that you used lower case for e. e. cummings... in addition...

Rand, Joyce, Hemingway, Thompson, Keroac, Vonnegut, Poe, Austen, Zeus, Spock...many many more..

thanks...

this is hard.... i wanted to keep going...

it's great to find other book readers on here!

Vonnegut, Steinbeck, and Heller are probably my favorite moderns.  Also a big fan of Aldo Leopold.

Edit:  (still thinking!)  Camus, especially The First Man.

Second Edit:  Douglas Adams

lysistrata -- i thought of you when i put down aristophanes. i love his work (though not modern) and find it hilarious. isn't it crazy that some humor can transcend time and culture?

hg, you're the first person ever who's recognized the name!  ha ha! 

my list was short because I like the classics better.  Aristophanes is a riot.  I love his characters, especially how he portrays Socrates in The Frogs.  Great stuff!

*acknowledges complete nerdiness of last paragraph!*

*revels in nerdiness of entire thread*

Hemingway's straight, forceful, yet simple stlye of prose has forever shaped this mind's view of literature and beyond...

The author that has most incuraged me would be david yes the man in the bible that wrote most of the psalms he has incuraged me most because he had so much love for god and was able to write something everytime he had sinned or done something wrong in gods eyes i feel like i should be more like that!

Classics - Poe, Hawthorne

Modern - Dan Brown, Dean Koontz, Peter Abrahams

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - fantastic books

William Nicolson - the Wind on Fire trilogy

Philip Pullman

Salman Rushdie

JD Salinger

and loads more. i like this thread. Favourite books anyone?

C.S. Lewis

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

J.R.R. Tolkien

Don Pendelton

Ian Fleming

Adam Smith

Walter E. Williams

R.A. Salvatore

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (big time!)

L.M. Montgomery

Carole Nelson Douglass

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Stephen King

H. P. Lovecraft

Lyda Morehouse  (the best blending of religion and sci-fi ever! without being "Christian" sci-fi)

Edgar Allan Poe

Bret Easton Ellis, Sylvia Plath,

Vladimir Nabokov

Chuck Palahniuk (notice that my "name" is Marla Singer?  Fight Club, anyone???)

Edith Wharton, J.D. Salinger, Margaret Atwood, David Mamet

Salinger, Douglas Adams, Heinlien, Heller, everybody already took all the good ones :P

There are some interesting modern authors: Christopher Moore and Laurel K. Hamilton if you like schlocky horror/sci-fi/vampire humor.  George R.R. Martin for excellent modern sci-fi. 

And no one has mentioned Truman Capote.  Scandalous!

Salinger, Douglas Adams, Heinlien, Heller, everybody already took all the good ones :P

There are some interesting modern authors: Christopher Moore and Laurel K. Hamilton if you like schlocky horror/sci-fi/vampire humor.  George R.R. Martin for excellent modern sci-fi. 

And no one has mentioned Truman Capote.  Scandalous!