Which book has influenced my life the most? That’s a tough one.
Do I credit Disney Read-a-long records, which read the story to me until I could read it myself, or Spaghetti Eddie, which, according to my mom, was the first book I read on my own? (I also checked it out of the library so much, my name alone filled one side of the check-out card!)
Fun With Dick And Jane?
The biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, in which I admired the day the muse hit her with a vengeance, and she wrote night and day until she finished Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
Little Women, which had me longing to play the piano like Beth, travel and marry rich like Amy, fall in love like Meg, or be a writer like Jo?
Judy Blume’s Deenie, Lavryle Spencer’s Separate Beds and The Hellion, which told stories more relevant to timeless issues?
The Bible, which I think I read MOST of in high school? (I’m sorry; the book of Chronicles and a few other books gets reeeeeaaaaallly boring and tedious after a while!) My faith is important to me. Yes, Kenzie needs to go to confession, lol….if I was Catholic!
Or Jean M. Aul’s Valley of the Horses, which explained nearly everything about what to expect in the bedroom, much like Blume’s Forever?
The biography of Jane Addams, which inspired me to pursue a Social Work degree?
The above books inspired me to start writing in the first place, first with my own fairy tales, then branching out into a YA series, much like the First Love series from Silhouette.
But then I heard about Ellora’s Cave, and read a story by Mary Winters about a woman who fell in love with a merman. Other EC authors whose books I read, and decided to spice up my own bedroom scenes, instead of keeping it more to the imagination.
So thank you Mary, Anny Cook, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, and several more too numerous to mention here.
What book (or author) would you say has influenced YOUR life the most?
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Molly's Musings/Kenzie's Korner 
I’ve read many of the same books, including Jean Aul’s epics. Interesting choices.
That’s quite a list and I see several o there I can relate to as well!
Interesting list, Kenzie. Little Women is on my list, too.
“Spaghetti Eddie?” Ugh. Never read the book, but my sometimes-nickname as a kid was Eddie Spaghetti, for the simple reason that our place was surrounded by Italians.
Wonderful list Kenzie. I remember Judy Blume, read that a lot as a kid, but never that story. Crazy how books can have an impact. I remember reading my first ‘dark’ romance while in the middle of writing Fiendish. Here I thought I was a little off by having the villain also be the leading man, but to learn there was a whole sub-genre of romance that did just that gave me a little validation that I wasn’t as crazy as I thought.
A friend of mine thought about writing a book in which the villain was the leading man! Glad to know those DO exist; I’ll have to let her know. I don’t know if she ever wrote it or not.
Great list, Kenzie. It’s hard to narrow a lifetime of reading down to one influential book, isn’t it? I couldn’t. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, everyone! Great minds DO think alike, lol:)