All The Books #MFRWAuthor – Tarina Deaton
Tarina Deaton

All The Books #MFRWAuthor

Week 5's prompt is to name a book that influenced my life  

First, a little background. I was literally that kid whose parents had to take my books away at night so I would sleep. In one house we lived in, the flood light on the side of the house shined into my window and I would sit in bed with my book propped on the sill and read until I feel asleep like that.

But for all the books I’ve read, I can’t point to one single one and claim that it altered my perception of reality or my outlook on life. Maybe I’m not reading the right books…not that I think there are wrong books.

What I can do, is point to the books that inflamed my passion for reading. The books I disappeared into while the world around me vanished. The worlds I escaped to when my parents were fighting or we had just moved to a new place and I had no one to hang out with except my annoying little brother. 

I rode dragons in the world of Pern thanks to Anne McCaffrey and I journeyed through magical lands with Garion thanks to David Eddings. These epic fantasy novels encouraged my imagination and taught me that happy endings didn't come easy – a lot of times you had to fight for them.

The first romance I remember reading was My Enemy the Queen by Victoria Holt. I’m sure I was way too young to be reading it (12 or 13), but ever since I’ve been fascinated by the Tudors. Not that I claim to be an expert on Tudor history – I just find them fascinating. Probably in the same way people today find the Kardashians fascinating.

Every book I read imprints itself on my mind. Whether I like, love, or could leave it. It makes me believe in the unbelievable and allows me to hope for impossible. The truth is it’s not a book that influenced my life – it’s all books.

Anne McCaffrey wrote the Dragonriders of Pern series and David Eddings wrote the Belgariad and the Mallorean series. 

Don't forget to click here to find out what books influenced other MFRW Authors!

4 comments
Raine Balkera says February 3, 2018

Agree 100% – Thanks for sharing!

Ed Hoornaert says February 3, 2018

Escapism tends to be underrated. And, since you brought up the Kardashians, reading books is a waaaaaaaaaaay better form of escapism.

Robin Michaela says February 3, 2018

Like you, I don’t have a single book that influenced me, but I also read until it was so dark that I couldn’t see at night. I solved mysteries with Nancy Drew and journeyed to different worlds in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I agree – all books leave their imprint on my mind.

Helen Henderson says February 4, 2018

You are so right that all the books we read influence in some way or another. And I think it was mean for them to make us choose just one.

Comments are closed