Books That Have Made a Difference: Part I

I've been talking about books a lot lately, so I thought I'd continue on that theme.

I've been thinking about the books that have made an impact on my writing. Over the years I've read a lot of books. I was trying to come up with something close to a number the other night, but after just a few minutes I realized that the number is probably over 1,000. Maybe more. (What can I say; I like to read.) Anyway, during all this thinking, I also realized that despite the ridiculous number of books I've read, there are still only a few that I know had a large impact on me and my writing.

The first of those books was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (well really, the whole Narnia series, but that one was my favorite). It was my first experience with fantasy and, because of that, I'll never forget it. Reading about the adventures of kids my age who found a secret portal to another world was the most exciting thing I'd ever heard of. I was an imaginative child, and Narnia was a whole new way to look at things.

Reading about Narnia was my first real inkling that I wanted to create worlds the way Mr. Lewis did. It was my first experience with someone creating a whole new world. After I read the Narnia books, I wanted to create worlds too. And so I did.

But the Chronicles of Narnia had another effect on my writing. After reading it, I became kind of obsessed with the idea of people finding ways to another world, somewhere fantastic. After I read it, I wanted to write about the same kinds of things, about kids like me finding their way into amazing places and having great adventures there. The idea of our ordinary world being connected to somewhere like that has stayed with me ever since then. It effected much of my imaginings, and it eventually led me to writing my first book (The untitled one listed on my Projects page).

Narnia was an eye-opening experience for me. It changed the way I looked and the world and made me start thinking about creating the same type of fantasy I'd read. But it was just the first step in my road to deciding to write fantasy. I'll talk about the others another day.

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