Influential books can inspire us to believe a certain thing, or even pursue something. As an author, influential books inspire me to read and write–encouraging me to find my own voice.
An influential book doesn’t have to be popular or well known, since it might only influence you or a small group of people. For me, books such as The Road, War of the Worlds, Cujo, Eye in the Sky, and The Lottery And Other Stories have had a tremendous influence on me as a writer. Why did they influence me you might ask? I’ll explain why below.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a post apocalyptic story about a father and son who are surviving in a bleak and unforgiving world. McCarthy’s descriptions and dialogue put me in the characters shoes–made me feel the danger they faced around every corner. For me, the book encapsulates the kind of story I want to write where I don’t want it to end.
War of the Worlds has a simple premise: an alien invasion that humanity cannot defeat, but nature can. The story is gripping, tense, and H.G. Well’s writing is crystal clear, taking us through each moment–play by play–of the invasion. But it’s the idea of an unbeatable, unstoppable alien force that is the most influential, which many films and writers have explored. My novel, THE INVAS10N, is an example of this.
Cujo is an incredibly gripping story by Stephen King that explores a different kind of horror–a rabies infected St. Bernard. The opening chapter is one the best I’ve read that describes the varieties of evil that exists. The story is quite simple: a mother and son are trapped inside of a car during a hot summer while a St. Bernard stalks them. But it is the tension that Stephen King creates with this simple setup, where you don’t know if they’ll be saved in time, where her husband and the authorities are at a lost to find them.
Philip K. Dick’s Eye in the Sky, a group of people get zapped by a beam at a facility that transports them into the minds of the other persons. Each mind is a world that operates on the beliefs of that individual. For example, in one world, miracles are the norm (i.e. a vending machine that can duplicate objects). In another world, a house turns on the people and attacks them. It’s one of the strangest and surrealist things I’ve read, yet, it is absolutely fascinating and gripping to read.
Lastly, The Lottery And Other Stories, a collected work on Shirley Jackson’s short stories, has had a profound effect on me in writing short stories. Many of her stories have a setup where things start off normal until something completely bizarre happens. She wrote her stories with a twist, where things caught you by surprise.
The story Charles, for example, is about a kid who tells his parents about a classmate named Charles, who is causing mischief at school (I attached the link to the story title). The Lottery, her most famous story in the collection, is about a village where the villagers perform a dark lottery ritual. In each story, what appears normal slips into something odd or dark.
I can probably name more books that have been influential to me, but the five I listed are sufficient. Each author influenced on me in some aspect of literature and writing. Whether they inspired me in how I view storytelling, or on what ideas I can write about, these books have one thing in common: they inspire me to read and write.
Fallton Havenstonne 