Thanks 1hun - Now the money question: Are the books that you love and the ones that influenced you most and ones you keep going back to -- are they the same ones that are piled up by your bedside? Strangely, the books by my bedside are not the ones I'm reading or ones by my favourite authors --except the Paul Auster book. He is one of my favourite authors, but the one by my bed is one of PA's books that starts with a man sitting alone in a room.
That's a good question, lil. I'd say it's a mixed bag--certain authors and books influenced me at different points in my life, for a bunch of different reasons. So I guess my list bedside books would be different depending on when you asked me. For example, when I was in high school I read this book called The Last Domino by little-known author Adam Meyer. It's one of my favorite books and I remember at the time how great of a story I thought it was. I read it three times, I e-mailed the author and asked him for writing tips. I haven't picked it up in a few years now but it inspired me a lot. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is another favorite book of mine that (again) I read in high school. Now, I have a much broader view of literature as a whole--I read (a lot) more than I did in high school and other books have had time to impact me.