A Little Ink Blot

This question seems to pop up whenever an author is interviewed or a successful writer is mobbed by envious aspirants: What do you read and what authors have inspired you?

Now, I write as voraciously as I read. Right now I have 3 novels, 2 shorter stories, 2 screenplays and 8 articles in process now. Meanwhile, there are 4 books, my Bible and 2 magazines on my nightstand (I didn't count the ones in its drawers); 3 puzzle books, the Penguin History of America (British imprint) and Raising Your Spirited Child in the built-in magazine rack in our family bath; 2 web-programming tomes, trade magazines, a crochet and a knitting book in the spaces around my computer desk. All being devoured as I often as I catch a minute to rest in each location.

So, how can I distill the thousands of books I've read down to just a few with impact? Maybe, these to start with:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo, my alter ego and muse for more than 25 years. I read the Penguin paperback at age 10, and found out at age 35 that it was only 1/3 of the entire.
2. The entire Dune Series. MacroQuestions handled with MicroPrecision.
3. The Hobbit, LOTR and Silmarillion. Received as a Christmas gift at age 9, they inspired languages, alphabets, codes, coming of age stories and poetry through college.
4. Reading Christopher Tolkien's commentaries on JRRTolkien's entire process and development. Encouraging! I'm not as "off" as I think.
5. Works of Charles Dickens -- whether I could stand the stories or not, his descritpiveness in setting and character live and breathe.

Are there more? Oh, yes! Don't you have a list, too?