The Best Authors I’ve Ever Forgotten

john irving

john irvingThe other day I was listening to NPR while driving, something only about half the people in my audience approve of, and I caught an interview with world famous author and full-time curmudgeon John Irving.

Irving is the author of The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Son of the Circus and many, many more. In the interview he refused to answer as many questions as he actually addressed.

While he presented himself in a generally professional manner, he was as crusty as day-old bread and gave the impression that he would really rather not be there.

Why do I bring this up?

I bring this up because John Irving is one of the best authors I have ever read and because he is also one of the authors I never, ever mention as my favorite writers, even though I should.

In addition to being a mystery/suspense writer, I am also a huge reader of the genre. I think that one of the greatest writers of the 20th century was Dashiell Hammett.

I love getting lost in a Spenser or Jack Reacher novel.

One of my favorite things to do is to catch a noir movie on the big screen in one of those old movie cathedrals from the glory days of Hollywood.

When I work out, I sometimes listen to Golden Age Radio detective shows on my iPod.

The long and the short of this is while my feet are set solidly in the world of thrillers and mystery, like you I read other things, as you should. If you never venture outside of your comfort zone, you’ll miss the works that might really shape how you think.

A few years ago I had a dialogue with Neil Gaiman (yeah, that Neil Gaiman) where he mentioned being a fan of Peter S. Beagle’s works.

I told him that when I was about ten or eleven, I went on vacation to Lake Tahoe with my parents. While I was there, we went to a great Indy bookstore (or as they were known then, bookstores) and found a book called The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle.

It was a book of short stories, the main ones being The Last Unicorn and Come Lady Death, and I fell in love with them.  I wore the hell out of that book, reading it over and over, and its dog-eared remains are still with me today.

In making the decision to one day be a writer, Peter S. Beagle was one of the building blocks. Yet whenever people ask me who my favorite authors are, the ones who influenced me to be a writer, I always forget to give Peter S. Beagle his due.

Neil mentioned that Peter Beagle was an influence to some of his early work, and he sometimes falls through the cracks on who we thank as authors who help us become who we are.

It’s easy to remember the writers who you read constantly, or the genre that you live in most of the time, but try and take a moment to remember the books that you read that weren’t what you’re used to.

The books that someone you trusted recommended to you and you ended up loving.

And when you do, maybe check out those authors who gave you such a great experience and give their other works a try, because if they thrilled you once…

And also a thank you to Peter S. Beagle for giving a bored pre-teen kid a reason to read a book much thicker than anything he had ever tried to read before and love the hell out of it.

Oh and also thanks to John Irving.

Whew.

 

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