Here we go. Top 15 authors who significantly influenced me. I am not really attached to any particular author however, as I judge a work by its own merits alone. So instead, I'll list authors by the literature they produced that influenced me.
1. Scott McCloud
This book and its sequels not only defined how I think about comics, but also art and life in general. This book changed my life.
2. Sun Tzu
So much that happens in our world seems strange and terrifying, or even outright stupid. After reading this book, I finally understood. What we see on the news is insane because it is just another piece of the battlefield.
3. Orson Scott Card
This was the first novel that took over my soul after a literature dry-spell of several years after high school graduation. It didn't change me as a person much, it just got me reading again. The dialogue driven narrative really enchanted me.
4. George Orwell
This is a book every man, woman, and child should be required to read, in its entirety, at least once. It should be federally mandated literature in all school curricula. The more time goes on, the more relevant and important this book becomes to preserving our humanity.
5. Ursula K. Le Guin
Wonderful works of fantasy and charm. Le Guin's flouting of Tolkien's florid style while simultaneously producing a world that is at once more rich and vast is impressive.
6. J. R. R. Tolkien
This was the first major piece of literature I ever began reading and finished on my own. It changed my relationship with the written word.
7. Aldous Huxley
This book makes me feel things. Mostly pain. This book literally hurts to read. Every page is revolting to me. Yet it is so cold and clear in its savage truthfulness. This is the world as our worst tendencies would have it become.
8. Ray Bradbury
This is the only book I read in school that actually mattered to me. The teacher had us read this book outside of the curriculum, and told us we weren't allowed to tell people about it. There were no tests or assignments. We were simply required to read it on our own. I read it twice. This book is the ur text behind the story I am writing, Father's Library. This is a book about the destruction of literature.
9. Michael Crichton
The movies are cheap trash compared to this titanic monster story. The raptors in the kitchen scene do nothing compared to the chills I felt just reading about the tiny elephant in this book. True terror in print, and frighteningly relevant to our modern technological world.
10. H. P. Lovecraft
Sometimes, you just want to feel uncomfortable and slightly crept-out for a few hours, you know?
11. Isaac Asimov
I don't know what to say about these books. They aren't important, per-se, they are just something I enjoyed. His technical jargon goes over my head sometimes.
12. Warren Ellis
This comic series is our future. Literally. Others write about our fears of one or two technological changes. Transmet assumes all technological advancements will happen equally and simultaneously, both the good and the bad, all at once, all together. It is Star Trek and Fallout 4. Further, it assumes that no matter how insane our world, we will still yet somehow retain our innate humanity. This is a story about urine and blood, words and crimes, sex and money, it is about everything that makes us repugnant and exquisite.
13. Jhonen Vasquez
This book taught me morality in a postmodern and secular world defined by faith. Nny is a negative foil of our worst motivations. Utterly weak and contemptible in every way, he gives in to every violent and insane whim his mind fathoms. And yet, we identify with every spit-frothing word of his outrageous tirades, and cheer as he splits the skull of a child molester. This is a satire on the horror of everyday life.
14. Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman
Just damn good fun. I spend every day trying to be a little bit more like Crowley.
15. Philip K. Dick
And finally, this book. One of the few sci-fi novels where the movie did it better. The book is still worth a read though if you've already seen the movie. It fleshes out the world they live in with much greater detail.
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