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Authors' influences

How to find which books influenced an author

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How to find out what your favourite author is reading

Oct 6, 2009

by anniec

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There are a number of places online where you can find out which books your favourite author was inspired by, recommends or simply just keeps as an old faithful on their library shelves. These are some of the most useful that I've come across in my online surfing:

RedRoom - this one is neat because you actually get to interact with the authors and comment on their blogs. Some blogs are not maintained for very long, but still, for those who do take the time to post regular updates, it's nice that you can post back to them on an intimate one-on-one level.
Infloox - Although this site doesn't have one-on-one interaction with authors, I like it because you can research authors all the way back to when they practically invented paper! Everything from the ancient philosophers to modern day bestsellers are all in there, and you can view details on who influenced them and who they in turn influenced. If you like it enough, you can also sign up for your own account (it's free) and enter in some of the more obscure authors they might have missed.
Amazon - I know this one is not all that likely, but you'd be surprised by how many authors (smaller ones at least) spend a good deal of time browsing user reviews/feedback and then posting back there. The editorial reviews usually contain some good info as well.

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plantsandbooks October 06, 2009

Nice list. re: Amazon. I always enjoy finding authors that trash people's reviews, to a huge backlash by the reviewing community, i.e. the infamous Ted Bell.

Another good site to keep up with authors is GoodReads. A number of my favorite authors are members there and it is neat to see what they are reading.

anniec October 09, 2009

Yeah GoodReads is definitely a great site, heaps of info there! Def check out Infloox though, cos it looks like they're basically dedicated to just that (providing research material on author influences etc). And lol @ the Ted Bell incident :) hehe

plantsandbooks October 10, 2009

Thanks; I'll take a look at Infloox. Yeah, whenever I need a quick laugh I always look up Ted Bell's comments over at Amazon.