15 Authors - a different take

This is another one of those Facebook memes that's going around (they seemed to take a powder for a little while, or at least nobody deigned to include me). When I was tagged in this meme, I said to myself "Self," (because I always address myself), "why not post this to your blog instead of Facebook? She reads the blog anyway, thus fulfilling the contractual Facebook obligations of responding to these memes" (it's signed in blood...didn't you realize that's what they were doing when you felt that prick on your finger the first time you logged in?)

The Rules - Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors, poets included, who've influenced you and will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I am interested in seeing what authors my friends choose.

Ok, I won't be tagging anybody specifically, but any of you who are reading this must respond!!! You....cannot.....resist.....

Mine are after the break. Not only will I name the author, but also their finest work, or at least what affected me the most.

1) Steve Jayward: Washington Myths

Did Washington really cross the Mississippi during the Vietnam War to surprise the Nazis? Jayward presents some compelling evidence.

This book taught me just how valuable true scholarship and academic rigor really is when writing a History book.

2) Bob Leinhein: Friend in a Strange Land

Leinhein's protagonist wows his friends, and the reader, with his 2000 snapshots of his holiday in Nebraska.

Compelling prose, and it includes pictures!

3) George Butz: Man-Pac Fever

The biography of a man before his time, this is a story of a man in the 1970s who invents a video game where a yellow triangle runs around a maze collecting muffins while being chased by screaming banshees, which somehow didn't catch on.

The tale is made all the more tragic as we see what his life comes down to after being rejected: working at the DMV

4) Timmy Kotick: Video Relations

Kotick makes an interesting case for how Donkey Kong has inspired United States foreign policy through the years. With diagrams and pictures, including Quadaffi as Princess Peach!

5) J.R. Cowling: Abe Ewing and the Magical Oil

The story of the son of a Texas oil baron, whose parents are killed by an ancient Evil that must not be named: the EPA

6) J.C.C. Polking: The Lord that Sings

Lord Hatchclyde of Strudwick discovers a magic ring that forces him to constantly try out for American Idol.

This work is most known for its race of little people, called Habits, four of whom have a weekly sojourn to take the ring to Mount Rushmore to try and destroy it.

7) P.D. Jugular: The Catcher of the Sty

The riveting tale of the great Pink Eye epidemic of 1953

8) Shawn Borrower: Martha Stewart: The Man, the Myth, the Legend

Is Martha Stewart really a drag queen? Borrower offers some compelling evidence, including pictures of "her" at an Iron John rally!

9) Steven Meyer: Midnight

The overly emotional story of a bunch of gothic teenagers who have a vampire fetish, and feed that need by staying up past their bedtime reading bad books.

10) Sue Chatterton: O is for Ornery

The first mystery on the list, detective and sex psychologist Kinsey Alfreda taxes her brain to figure out just why Old Man Withers refuses to die.

Some readers wonder why Chatterton has Alfreda spend the entire novel in the little white dress (even the very exciting chase scenes), but I found it an interesting metaphor for society.

11) Stu Bradley: The Mario Duty Effect

Bradley presents an interesting study that clearly shows the harmful effect of playing too many video games: mobs of kids jumping from platform to platform, yelling "TANGO DOWN!" at the top of their lungs.

12) Susan Toil: Youtube Phenomenon

The incredible autobiography of a woman who is brought onto a reality audition show in order to be the butt of the scathing comments from the British judge.

Especially mesmerizing is the scene where she gets up on stage and proceeds to prove the producers right.

13) Gaston Le Pew: The Opera of the Phantom

Caspar does show tunes!!!! Guest appearance by Richie Rich, who sings the ballad "All This Money and 60 Years, and I Still Can't Shave"

14) Stanley Buckchop: Blogging Wars

The story of two bloggers in an ongoing attempt to kill each other because they keep writing the same thing.

Hilarity ensues when they finally realize that the reason for this is that they share the same brain.

I especially loved it when *SPOILER* the brain kills them both and moves on to more fertile pastures where it might be more needed.

15) Lee Harper: To Kill a Hummingbird

The intense tale of a man who's just trying to get some f-ing sleep.

And there you have my 15 Authors. Let me know who the 15 authors who have most affected you are!

Maybe we can kill this meme quickly.