Most Influential Books

Friday, April 4, 2014


Jillian at Random Ramblings posted about ten most influential books in her life and she encouraged others to do the same with one rule... you can’t explain your choices. I tend to over explain my choices for lists, so this was an intriguing idea. Then Brona listed her books and Adam listed his and I knew I had to join in the fun.


Jillian said "I love a lot of books. However, I've learned that the favorites list and the most influential list are two completely different things." As I started making my own list I realized the same thing. The most influential book I read by one author might not even be my favorite by them.
 
So here’s my list…
1) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
 
2) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
 
3) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
 
4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
 
5) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
 
6) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
 
7) Matilda by Roald Dahl  
 
8) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
 
9) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
 
10) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  

Photo by moi.

14 comments:

Jillian said...

Yay!! I LOVE your choices. I'm excited that people are doing this, it's pretty interesting seeing their list, and it really sparks your curiosity as to why the blogger picked their choices. I almost put The Little Women as well, just because Jo's character was quite influential to me. I love that Matilda is on here as well :)
By the way, the link to my post is wrong for some reason! Thank you for linking me though :)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea (and so hard to do)! I've just written my list and it'll go up April 15th. :) I've read most of your list (we even have some overlap), and I've got Ender's Game on my Summer TBR.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Jillian - Jo and Matilda were such wonderful examples of smart girls for me. I related so much to them, especially Jo, (fixed the link!)

abibliophilesstyle - It was hard! I kept wanting to list favorite books. Ender's was the first book to teach me not to judge books by their genre.

Sandy Nawrot said...

That is a great list, with lots of variety. I just think this is such a tough question to answer. I'd have to seriously ponder it before responding. I'd say that Harry Potter would be there though.

Kailana said...

What a fun idea! I tend to over-explain, too. haha

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Sandy - It really is tough! I kept going back to the books that I vividly remember reading and thinking about for years.

Kailana - We are word people! We can't help ourselves.

Bryan G. Robinson said...

While I can't relate to all of your choices (um, yeah, Little Women, not so much ;) ), I can relate to many of them, especially Travels with Charley and The Hobbit. I'll have to think about my own too...

Roof Beam Reader said...

Ah, yes, The Hobbit for sure. Ender's Game almost made my list, too, and I had Austen on it originally (Northanger Abbey) but swapped her out last minute. Honestly, we could go on for days with these, right? But I love your list! We should get together and write follow-up posts actually explaining our choices, sometime. ;)

I still haven't read Little Women. =X

o said...

Love these!

Travels with Charley is one of my favourites! And Matilda - not read that in years, I'm due a re-read :)

Jillian said...

I agree with your the idea of follow up posts explaining the choices ;)

Lemon Tree said...

Hamlet. I can't express how influential this book is. You are right. The most influential book may not be your favourite. In this case, Hamlet is not the most influential book for me (mine would be The Bible first and Monte Cristo second), but it's certainly my Shakespeare's favourite.

Matilda is inspiring. I watched the movie adaptation and read the book as a child, and it encouraged me to read, just for fun.

To Kill a Mockingbird is amazing. Pride and Prejudice is a classic everybody should read. I have an old friend (I mean he is old) who could just fanboy about Lizzie Bennet. I accompany him by talking about her relationship with Darcy so it's super excellent.

Amazing list, thank you. (I'll try to do the same later on maybe.)

By the way, you are nominated Liebster Award. Please visit my blog here: http://half-filledattic.blogspot.com/2014/04/liebster-award-11-facts-about-me.html

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Bryan - I think Little Women might be a better fit for girls :)

Roofbeam Reader - There are so many books I swapped on and off at the last minute. I would definitely like to do a follow up post!

o - I think Travels with Charley is at least partially responsible for my love of road trips and travel memoirs!

Jillian - It's too hard not to explain your choices!

Lemon Tree - Monte Cristo is definitely one of my favorites! I didn't even think about the Bible! So many books, so little time.

Unknown said...

I read 6 out of 10 of the books you mentioned. Very interesting list! :) I loved Harry Potter, Matilda, and To Kill A Mockingbird! Thanks for sharing!

by the way, I just started a new book blog around last week and I was wondering if you want to check it out? We can follow each other too, just let me know so I could do the same :) Thanks again!

xx Jillian (http://jilliansbooks.blogspot.com)

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Jillian Lopez - You've already posted about some wonderful books on your blog!