When I was younger, I was drawn to Ayn Rand books and other works of fiction celebrating individualism.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I read all of Ayn Rand's novels when I was 17.
I tend to really be partial to Ayn Rand, and to The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Whether or not you agree with Ayn Rand - and I have certain issues with some of her beliefs - the woman can tell a story. I mean, the novel as an art form is just in full florid bloom in 'Atlas Shrugged.' It's an unbelievable story. The characters are so compelling, and what she's saying is mind-expanding.
In my youth, I found that I was quite often inspired and pushed forward by what I read.
I was encouraged to be imaginative and read, and it was a great childhood for a budding writer because I had the time and the freedom to go into a world of my own.
To me, at forty-four years old, my book was a search for truth and identity.
It wasn't until I was in my teens that I started admiring writers as inspirations for my own work, and my earliest influences there were Stephen King, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Richard Adams.
I was really influenced by Joan Didion and Pauline Kael; they were both at the height of their influence when I was coming into my own as a reader.
I was passionate about reading from an early age, and I would always be carrying a different book each week.
Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.