I've been rereading zarla's Vargas, a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fic I first read when I was fifteen. I have never read so much as a page of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac itself. But I read this fic, and I loved it intensely.

Ooh, I read that! It's a good fic! I didn't realize it was started that long ago!

I'm curious now: what are the works of fiction you'd consider particularly influential in forming your tastes? In my case, apart from Vargas, the biggest ones are probably Animorphs, Life on Mars and Silent Hill 2. Animorphs also had a heavy impact on my writing style.

The Lord of the Rings and Aeon Flux. Probably also Twin Peaks. I read a lot of Harlan Ellison short stories when I was in high school, and that gave me a whole new understanding of what written fiction could do.