Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Authors I'm Thankful For

1) William Shakespeare - I don't think I can even think about why I love literature without mentioning Shakespeare. I am so thankful for his contributions to English Literature, which remain as beautiful and relevant today as they were when first written and performed all those years ago.

2) Sylvia Plath - Plath always makes me feel like it's okay not to be so cheerful and positive all the time, because I'm not - and life's not. Her work has a huge dose of reality in it, but it's a kind of reality not normally found in poetry, and I'm so thankful for the stark truth that came from this woman. 

3) Emily Dickinson - For some of my favourite poems. 

4) Allen Ginsberg - Howl gets under my skin every time I read it and will always be one of my favourite things to read. I think he was a great man and a great thinker as well as a wonderful writer, his soul seems to permeate his words, and it's always wonderful to find something so thought provoking.

5) Charles Bukowski - For being the vulgar, male version of Plath and making me feel like less of a loner. I find so many facets of my own personality reflected in Bukowski's Hank Chinaski  I always feel a little less alone with one of his books in hand. Picking up a new one is like being reintroduced to an old friend. 

6) Chuck Palahniuk - For getting me into a whole new, wonderful, darkly satirical, humorous  romantic genre of books. I'll be reading his books as long as I'm alive and  don't think he will ever disappoint me. I am Jacks grateful smile.

7) Jane Austen - She and a handful of other women paved the way for mainstream female authors and I'm extremely thankful for that, she also creates beautiful romance that is so readable I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone these days who hasn't at least heard of her work. 

8) Emily Bronte - Again, for her following her dreams and publishing work as a woman in her time. And for creating the best love story ever written.

9) Frank L. Baum - For Dorothy Gale, who I will forever associate with my childhood, and wonderful memories with my mum, who gave me ruby slippers.

10) Roald Dahl - Again, for my childhood - and probably the reason I love to read so much. My brother and I would be read a Dahl story every night before bed and I think it's what gave me my enthusiasm for books, his stories are still so magical to me.