Readers often ask me what books have inspired me most as an author. It's a great question, but how can I ever even begin - or end - the list? As someone who began writing my first novel at age 11 (it was horrendous, but I did write several hundred pages in lead pencil!), obviously, pretty much everything I had ever read as a child served as inspiration. But later? Three books stand out as having had tremendous impact on me at age 18-20, and I do think they all, in each their way, pushed me toward the grand, genre-straddling, time-flipping adventure that eventually came to define my books. The three books are Katherine Neville's "The Eight", Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and John Fowles' "The Magus". As we enter spring-break season, I think it's worthwhile to remember that not everything we set out to read needs to be brand-new; some classics are just SO fabulous that they deserve to be remembered, re-read, and heartily recommended to the next generation of readers.