I have recently finished reading, 'The Haunting' by Margaret Mahy, which won the Carnegie Medal years ago. Brilliant prose. As soon as I had finished, I ordered another of her books online. I know I wont be disappointed.
What authors have had a profound affect on you?
My list includes, but is by no means limited to, the following: Curly Martin; Fiona Harrold; Dan Millman; Eckhart Tolle; Christopher Nolan; Elizabeth Gilbert; Professor David Clutterbuck; and, more than all the rest put together, Quran: A Reformist Translation.
Jim Dodge, Alasdair Gray, Jack Kerouac,Haruki Murakami, Paul Bowles, Paul Auster, Richard Ford, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, ....to name but a very few.
The book that the most profound effect upon me Kerouac's On The Road. I was 16 when I read it and very impressionable. I actually took off and travelled round Europe because of this book.
As an adult, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying knocked me for six. It still moves me with every reading of it.
Sorry but I am with J.K. Rowling and James Herbert.....