The very first book I can remember reading was Amelia Bedelia and the Baby by Peggy Parish. I had a doll that I had even named after the zany book character. Amelia was always taking figures of speech literally and then getting into all kinds of adventures. She would be given a task and turn it into her own version of what she felt should be done. I kind of think I'm a version of Amelia Bedelia because by the end of her books she was baking a pie or a cake and winning everyone's hearts.
Children's literature is really what has shaped me. My Mother taught everything through a book. I was potty trained and taught many lessons through the use of children's literature. When I was given a baby sister at all of four years old by storks, or so I thought, I had an issue with sharing. My mother immediately went to the Christian bookstore and bought me Buzzle Billy: A Book About Sharing. Buzzle Billy was a little blob of a boy who had many awesome toys and when he chose not to share with his friends, he sprouted another arm, a GIMMIE HAND! All the other blob kids were then horrified that BILLY HAD GIMMIE HANDS and he ended up by himself with all his arms and toys. Once he started sharing, his gimmie hands went away and there I was, lesson learned. I wasn't growing any extra limbs, Pinocchio already covered that for me but whatever gap in understanding I had left, Billy had filled.
Thus, as a child I had Amelia Bedelia and then my strong Christian background mixed in with some Grimm's fairy tales, Bernstein Bears, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Roald Dahl tales, Shel Silverstein poems and Pilgrim's Progress. Clearly, I was an English major in the making. Then I became a teenager and started to read more classical books. Even though I've said this in the past, being home schooled sometimes I was limited on what I was allowed to read so I was late to some of the big trends and banned books.
Another huge influence on my writing would have to be comic strips. I have the whole Calvin and Hobbes collection because my Mom always said I reminded her of Calvin except better behaved. Calvin seems like it might be for kids because the main character is a child but it's actually quite clever. Calvin asks some pretty deep life questions. I also read Peanuts and Garfield and Pearls Before Swine.
Another huge influence on my writing would have to be comic strips. I have the whole Calvin and Hobbes collection because my Mom always said I reminded her of Calvin except better behaved. Calvin seems like it might be for kids because the main character is a child but it's actually quite clever. Calvin asks some pretty deep life questions. I also read Peanuts and Garfield and Pearls Before Swine.
I always tried to think about anything and everything and I think my readings really shaped that. I wasn't much of a scholarly reader as a kid and I honestly haven't read that many classics even now, but I don't know if the classics have influenced me as much as the random assortment of reading has. My Mom was also my main source of books and frankly that's probably why in conversations I'm annoyingly always saying, "well, my Mom..." because she really was who gave me all the books I have read until I was 13 or 14. In high school, she had me read the most. Most memorable books would be Uncle Tom's Cabin, Moby Dick, Les Miserables, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Odyssey, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, All Quiet on the Western Front, Walden and many more.