I've been an avid reader all my life, finding author's that I liked and then reading everything they'd written. Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Silverberg, John Steinbeck, Will Self and Charles Bukowski have been just a few of my favorites.
Being very visually oriented I've also been a huge fan of Walt Disney and Chuck Jones and animation in general ... including books for adult audiences that have illustrations. Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O has been very influential. In fact I used it many, many times in my practice to get across points about relationship dynamics to my clients. It was amazing how often it's simple but well chosen, words and pictures would really facilitate understanding.
My first book Two Legged Snakes: Understanding and Handling Manipulative People similarly uses both text and carefully chosen illustrations to help the reader not only have an enjoyable experience but also gain the ability to recognize manipulative people and their techniques and know how to handle them. Hopefully it will help the world become a bit less snaky.