I posted a question last night on Facebook and it has has had me thinking ever since. I wondered if anyone less then 30 has read anything by William Faulkner. After posting that, and then thinking about my own reading list over the years, it makes me wonder exactly what the next generation is reading, and how it will influence them. I will say this, the novels I read growing up have greatly influenced my life, and of course, my writing.
I was required to read one novel by Faulkner, As I lay Dying. I then read other works by him, most notably, A Rose for Emily. Poweful stuff. I would highly recommend reading any of his works, if you have not already.
Around that time, I also read Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberyy Finn for the first time. I of course, love Mark Twain and have read anything I can get my hands on over the years. Sadly, I have heard that if kids even do get a chance to read any of these stories, they are heavly edited due to language.
Steinbeck. I started with The Red Pony and The Pearl and then on to Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Memorable days of reading such good stories. Some of my favorite.
Hemingway, Dickens, all kinds of literary greats inhabited the halls of my school. It opened my mind. I read on my own Hardy Boys and then went into crime fiction early on in elementary school/junior high. Then in junior high my love of space took over.
I devoured SF. I can clearly remember reading Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Heinlein at night after finishing my required reading for The Red Pony. I did that throughout my school years, in addition to reading short story mags and anything else I could get my hands on. Still do really. Although in recent years I have slowed a bit.
I guess the long way around to my point is.. rather long. This is a part of my influence, in a rambling sort of way. I question how people in there twenties have been influenced by literature, or if indeed, as some would say, they are not influenced by words, but rather by images, i.e. TV and internet, etc.
I do wonder..
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