I bought a selection of short, romantic fiction novels, studied them, decided that I had found a formula and then wrote a book that I figured was the perfect story. Thank goodness it was rejected.
It took a brave editor in the U.S. to sign a contract for Dancing Girls, and without her belief in the book, I'm not sure it would ever have found its way into print.
The importance and influence of books on me has been cumulative: the result of hearing and reading lots of stories about interesting people and places.
I have a good collection of cookery books. This is not so much because I like cooking, but because I like eating.
I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.
Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.
I'm working on a nonfiction book on Nepal and a novel about diasporas.
Books on travel are also good: the best being the kind of writing and pictures to inspire an escape or, at the very least, a flight of fancy.