Your five favorite authors
01-26-02, 06:44 PM
#1
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Thread Starter
Your five favorite authors
Let's not let the other forums hog all the meaningless goofy but fun random lists...
Who are your five (or more if you wish) favorite authors?
Rules: no comic book writers (that's a separate thread, I'd think) or screenplay-only writers; fiction or nonfiction is OK.
My choices in no particular order
Paul Auster - I never know where his books are going to go next. "City Of Glass" and "Mr. Vertigo" are wonderful flights of fancy with a realistic touch.
Richard Ford - The best short story writer in America, bar none. Beautiful prose and a knack for novels/stories with a quick, unexpected punch of sudden action or violence that changes everything.
Stephen King - Guilty pleasure, I know, but I gulp the man's books down like popcorn. Even the weaker ones are still enjoyable, and King has never been shy about his goals - to scare you, and entertain you.
John Updike - Reading over the huge range of this man's books leaves with you the feeling that he knows something about everything. One of those cases where the acclaim measures up to reality - he's the best writer we've got going, I think. Start with the "Rabbit" series for a sweeping look at modern life in America, then try one of his short story collections.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Wry, witty and tragic all at the same time, his inventive, askew look at the world starts to make perfect sense after a while.
Honorable mention: Vladimir Nabokov, John Irving, Harlan Ellison, Lorrie Moore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, (nonfiction) John McPhee, Tim Cahill
Anyone else?
Who are your five (or more if you wish) favorite authors?
Rules: no comic book writers (that's a separate thread, I'd think) or screenplay-only writers; fiction or nonfiction is OK.
My choices in no particular order
Paul Auster - I never know where his books are going to go next. "City Of Glass" and "Mr. Vertigo" are wonderful flights of fancy with a realistic touch.
Richard Ford - The best short story writer in America, bar none. Beautiful prose and a knack for novels/stories with a quick, unexpected punch of sudden action or violence that changes everything.
Stephen King - Guilty pleasure, I know, but I gulp the man's books down like popcorn. Even the weaker ones are still enjoyable, and King has never been shy about his goals - to scare you, and entertain you.
John Updike - Reading over the huge range of this man's books leaves with you the feeling that he knows something about everything. One of those cases where the acclaim measures up to reality - he's the best writer we've got going, I think. Start with the "Rabbit" series for a sweeping look at modern life in America, then try one of his short story collections.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Wry, witty and tragic all at the same time, his inventive, askew look at the world starts to make perfect sense after a while.
Honorable mention: Vladimir Nabokov, John Irving, Harlan Ellison, Lorrie Moore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, (nonfiction) John McPhee, Tim Cahill
Anyone else?
01-27-02, 06:27 AM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Albany, OR, USA
Posts: 656
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Stephen King
John Irving
Edgar Allen Poe
James Michener
John Steinbeck
Honorable Mention:
Larry McMurtry
Been wanting to read some Vonnegut, particularly after seeing the abysmal Breakfast of Champions earlier this month on cable...I KNOW the book has to be better than this piece of tripe...
John Irving
Edgar Allen Poe
James Michener
John Steinbeck
Honorable Mention:
Larry McMurtry
Been wanting to read some Vonnegut, particularly after seeing the abysmal Breakfast of Champions earlier this month on cable...I KNOW the book has to be better than this piece of tripe...
Last edited by Stangman68; 02-21-02 at 05:45 AM.
01-27-02, 10:32 AM
#3
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Where the sky is always Carolina Blue! (Currently VA - again...)
Posts: 5,167
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Frank Herbert
C.S. Lewis
Joseph Conrad
Charles Williams
G.K. Chesterton
runners up: H.P. Lovecraft, George MacDonald, Flannery O'Connor, Ray Bradbury, Tolkein
I like a lot of classic literature as well, but for most authors, I haven't read more than one or two books, and I don't consider that enough to really know a writer by.
Tuan Jim
C.S. Lewis
Joseph Conrad
Charles Williams
G.K. Chesterton
runners up: H.P. Lovecraft, George MacDonald, Flannery O'Connor, Ray Bradbury, Tolkein
I like a lot of classic literature as well, but for most authors, I haven't read more than one or two books, and I don't consider that enough to really know a writer by.
Tuan Jim
Last edited by Tuan Jim; 01-27-02 at 10:35 AM.
01-27-02, 01:36 PM
#4
DVD Talk Legend
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 19,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Terry Brooks - I love the Shannara series and Word series.
Agatha Christie - Probably the best Mystery writer that ever lived.
Arthur Conan Doyle - I've read all the Sherlock Holmes stories and I even enjoyed the Lost World.
Piers Anthony - My favorite author when I was a teenager. Incarnations of Immortality and the Magic of Xanth are my favorites.
Stephen King - What needs to be said about King.
I'd like to add a sixth author, because I love John Sandford's Prey series.
Agatha Christie - Probably the best Mystery writer that ever lived.
Arthur Conan Doyle - I've read all the Sherlock Holmes stories and I even enjoyed the Lost World.
Piers Anthony - My favorite author when I was a teenager. Incarnations of Immortality and the Magic of Xanth are my favorites.
Stephen King - What needs to be said about King.
I'd like to add a sixth author, because I love John Sandford's Prey series.
01-27-02, 01:55 PM
#5
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: In my secret underground lair, plotting to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! Bwuaaahahahaha!!
Posts: 4,590
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
David Weber (Honor Harrington)
Anne McCaffrey (Pern, the Tower series, etc.)
Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
Christopher Stasheff (Warlock series, etc.)
Terry Brooks (Shannara)
Brian Jacques (Redwall)
Alan Dean Foster (Spellsinger, Pip and Flinx, etc.)
Robert Asprin (Myth, Phule, etc.)
Gordon R. Dickson (Dragon series, etc.)
Lillian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who...)
Carole Nelson Douglas (Midnight Louie, Irene Adler, etc.)
Piers Anthony (Xanth, Incarnations, Adept, etc., etc., etc.)
Spider Robinson (Callahan's)
Harry Harrison (Stainless Steel Rat)
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Oh... wait... five, you said???
Oh well, those are all competing for my top five, with David Weber probably leading the pack.
Anne McCaffrey (Pern, the Tower series, etc.)
Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
Christopher Stasheff (Warlock series, etc.)
Terry Brooks (Shannara)
Brian Jacques (Redwall)
Alan Dean Foster (Spellsinger, Pip and Flinx, etc.)
Robert Asprin (Myth, Phule, etc.)
Gordon R. Dickson (Dragon series, etc.)
Lillian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who...)
Carole Nelson Douglas (Midnight Louie, Irene Adler, etc.)
Piers Anthony (Xanth, Incarnations, Adept, etc., etc., etc.)
Spider Robinson (Callahan's)
Harry Harrison (Stainless Steel Rat)
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Oh... wait... five, you said???
Oh well, those are all competing for my top five, with David Weber probably leading the pack.
01-27-02, 11:18 PM
#6
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Off the top of my head, I can only come up with four. I guess I tend to like individual works better than the whole oeuvre of a particular artist. That being said, my top four are as follows:
Harlan Ellison - for hundreds of perfectly communicated short stories and for "Jeffty is Five," in particular, if for nothing else
John Crowley - "Little, Big," "Aegypt," "Love and Sleep," "Daemonomania" - any serious fantasy reader must read John Crowley
Scott Heim - "Mysterious Skin," "In Awe" - what a talented son-of-a-bitch; and damn him for writing the books I should have written
Clive Barker - because when he's cooking horror-wise, not even Stephen King can touch him; far more disturbing and violently poetic than even that pop-book market "king"
Harlan Ellison - for hundreds of perfectly communicated short stories and for "Jeffty is Five," in particular, if for nothing else
John Crowley - "Little, Big," "Aegypt," "Love and Sleep," "Daemonomania" - any serious fantasy reader must read John Crowley
Scott Heim - "Mysterious Skin," "In Awe" - what a talented son-of-a-bitch; and damn him for writing the books I should have written
Clive Barker - because when he's cooking horror-wise, not even Stephen King can touch him; far more disturbing and violently poetic than even that pop-book market "king"
01-27-02, 11:49 PM
#7
Needs to provide a working email
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Formerly known as Darrin Garrison
Posts: 3,321
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'd like to add in people such as Dan Simmons, Vernor Vinge, William Gibson, and now that I'm typing too many others to mention...
01-27-02, 11:58 PM
#8
Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 239
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
George Martin - This guy has changed my expectations of any book I pick up. All 3 of his books are of the highest quality.
Terry Goodkind - Currently my favourite standard fantasy writer.
Dean Koontz - say what you want about his writing, but I have never experienced a writer who can write from every POV like this guy. From the separate stories in strangers that he manages to weave into one story to Seize the Night and Fear Nothing written in the first person.
George Orwell - always wrote on multiple levels
JK Rowling - These children's books live up to the hype. I just had to read them and they were worth the weird looks I received while buying them(I even felt the need to mutter "these are for one of my little cousins" when I bought them).
These are just my current picks. After my favourite, there are any number of authors that could pop into my head to fill out the list at any point in time.
Terry Goodkind - Currently my favourite standard fantasy writer.
Dean Koontz - say what you want about his writing, but I have never experienced a writer who can write from every POV like this guy. From the separate stories in strangers that he manages to weave into one story to Seize the Night and Fear Nothing written in the first person.
George Orwell - always wrote on multiple levels
JK Rowling - These children's books live up to the hype. I just had to read them and they were worth the weird looks I received while buying them(I even felt the need to mutter "these are for one of my little cousins" when I bought them).
These are just my current picks. After my favourite, there are any number of authors that could pop into my head to fill out the list at any point in time.
01-28-02, 02:38 AM
#9
DVD Talk Hero
Clive Barker for blending magickal realism in with traditional horror and modern fantasy. Imagica is a modern masterpiece -- a meditation on the nature of art, religion, gender, human nature, and reality.
Lucius Shepard This guy just kills. Describes the third world and other cultures like nobody else. His imagery absolutely draws you into the story and refuses to let go. Check out Life During Wartime, a harrowing science fiction-political-surrealist-war story, The Golden, one of the finest vampire novels written, and his short story collections The Jaguar Hunter and The Ends of the Earth.
Thomas Pynchon Impeccable craftsmanship. He illustrates his obsessions with stunning clarity and vision.
Philip K. Dick for making science fiction cool and wonderfully mad.
John Shirley for crossing genres so easily. Whether it's extreme gore, high tech science fiction, hard boiled action, surrealism, philosophical rantings, or, most likely, a combination thereof, nobody does it better than Shirley.
And honorable mention goes to: William Gibson for Neuromancer, Dan Simmons,Elizabeth Hand, Kathe Koja, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Lucius Shepard This guy just kills. Describes the third world and other cultures like nobody else. His imagery absolutely draws you into the story and refuses to let go. Check out Life During Wartime, a harrowing science fiction-political-surrealist-war story, The Golden, one of the finest vampire novels written, and his short story collections The Jaguar Hunter and The Ends of the Earth.
Thomas Pynchon Impeccable craftsmanship. He illustrates his obsessions with stunning clarity and vision.
Philip K. Dick for making science fiction cool and wonderfully mad.
John Shirley for crossing genres so easily. Whether it's extreme gore, high tech science fiction, hard boiled action, surrealism, philosophical rantings, or, most likely, a combination thereof, nobody does it better than Shirley.
And honorable mention goes to: William Gibson for Neuromancer, Dan Simmons,Elizabeth Hand, Kathe Koja, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
01-28-02, 11:59 AM
#10
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Arch City
Posts: 8,210
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Graham Greene - 1st
then, in no order:
Flannery O'Conner
Douglas Adams
Ernest Hemingway
Kurt Vonnegut
HM: Thomas Mann, Tom Robbins, Ridley Pearson, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Harlan Ellison
then, in no order:
Flannery O'Conner
Douglas Adams
Ernest Hemingway
Kurt Vonnegut
HM: Thomas Mann, Tom Robbins, Ridley Pearson, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Harlan Ellison
01-28-02, 03:51 PM
#11
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: My apartment
Posts: 2,644
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
hmm...
King
Vonnegut
Ayn Rand
John Irving (right now anyway)
Heinlein (maybe - Just finished "Starship Troopers" I'm not sure about the philosophy that he is expounding but I liked it anyway)
Faulkner is good, but that's six...
King
Vonnegut
Ayn Rand
John Irving (right now anyway)
Heinlein (maybe - Just finished "Starship Troopers" I'm not sure about the philosophy that he is expounding but I liked it anyway)
Faulkner is good, but that's six...
01-28-02, 05:13 PM
#12
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 712
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I've really enjoyed multiple books by the following authors:
Russell Banks
Tom Wolfe
Salmon Rushdie
Tom Robbins
John Irving
Lately, I have really enjoyed the two books I read by Michael Chabon.
Russell Banks
Tom Wolfe
Salmon Rushdie
Tom Robbins
John Irving
Lately, I have really enjoyed the two books I read by Michael Chabon.
01-28-02, 10:01 PM
#14
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Where the sky is always Carolina Blue! (Currently VA - again...)
Posts: 5,167
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally posted by BoatDrinks
Graham Greene - 1st
then, in no order:
Flannery O'Conner
Douglas Adams
Ernest Hemingway
Kurt Vonnegut
HM: Thomas Mann, Tom Robbins, Ridley Pearson, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Harlan Ellison
Graham Greene - 1st
then, in no order:
Flannery O'Conner
Douglas Adams
Ernest Hemingway
Kurt Vonnegut
HM: Thomas Mann, Tom Robbins, Ridley Pearson, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Harlan Ellison
Tuan Jim
01-29-02, 12:01 PM
#15
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Paul Auster - not a big fan of Timbuktu but have liked pretty much every other title
Richard Russo - Nobody's Fool is one of my favorite books of all time and Straight Man is one of the funniest. His earlier books are also worth searching out.
David James Duncan - Brothers K is my favorite novel of all time. He loses me with the fishing references but I enjoy all of his writing.
John Irving - Liked everything except Son of the Circus and Fourth Hand. I hope Fourth Hand was an abberation.
John Updike - The Rabbit novels are essential - reread them every few years.
Top 5 but I missed: Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Lethem, Martin Amis, Stephen King, Walter Moseley, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut.
Richard Russo - Nobody's Fool is one of my favorite books of all time and Straight Man is one of the funniest. His earlier books are also worth searching out.
David James Duncan - Brothers K is my favorite novel of all time. He loses me with the fishing references but I enjoy all of his writing.
John Irving - Liked everything except Son of the Circus and Fourth Hand. I hope Fourth Hand was an abberation.
John Updike - The Rabbit novels are essential - reread them every few years.
Top 5 but I missed: Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Lethem, Martin Amis, Stephen King, Walter Moseley, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut.
02-17-02, 02:20 PM
#19
Mod Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Outside of the U.S.A.
Posts: 10,674
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I feel as if I should contribute but....
.... to my mind a favourite author is someone I've read a lot of. After naming
I've read many others but cannot single anyone else out in particular off the top of my head without going back to the old shelves!
I have a bit of re-shelving to do, as it happens, with my ongoing clear-out so perhaps I'll come back here and edit when that stage is complete! (Perhaps by that time I'll have been reminded of a few "one-offs" on my shelves that belong in the top five or top ten....)
- Gene Wolfe
- David Zindell
- Philip K Dick
I've read many others but cannot single anyone else out in particular off the top of my head without going back to the old shelves!
I have a bit of re-shelving to do, as it happens, with my ongoing clear-out so perhaps I'll come back here and edit when that stage is complete! (Perhaps by that time I'll have been reminded of a few "one-offs" on my shelves that belong in the top five or top ten....)
Last edited by benedict; 02-17-02 at 02:24 PM.
02-23-02, 07:03 PM
#21
DVD Talk Hero
Ayn Rand (virtually everything, esp. Atlas Shrugged)
F. Paul Wilson (esp. An Enemy of the State and The Keep)
Dean Koontz (esp. Dark Rivers of the Heart and Dragon Tears)
early John Fowles (esp. The French Lieutenant's Woman)
James Hogan (esp. Code of the Lifemaker and The Mirror Maze)
F. Paul Wilson (esp. An Enemy of the State and The Keep)
Dean Koontz (esp. Dark Rivers of the Heart and Dragon Tears)
early John Fowles (esp. The French Lieutenant's Woman)
James Hogan (esp. Code of the Lifemaker and The Mirror Maze)
02-25-02, 11:48 AM
#22
DVD Talk Reviewer Emeritus
My current favorites, all in the crime genre:
1) George P. Pelecanos (HELL TO PAY)
2) Dennis Lehane (DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND)
3) Daniel Woodrell (GIVE US A KISS)
4) Jim Thompson (50s noir)
5) Thomas Harris (except for HANNIBAL)
1) George P. Pelecanos (HELL TO PAY)
2) Dennis Lehane (DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND)
3) Daniel Woodrell (GIVE US A KISS)
4) Jim Thompson (50s noir)
5) Thomas Harris (except for HANNIBAL)
02-26-02, 09:42 PM
#23
Senior Member
Everyone has picks some good ones, I'll have to check some out...
My Favorite are:
1) Vonnegut
2) Crichton
3) Hemingway
4) Thomas Moore
5) Arturo Perez- Reverte ( Author of the last year and a half)
I go through phases ( My first three picks are constant the rest depending on what I'm reading)
My Favorite are:
1) Vonnegut
2) Crichton
3) Hemingway
4) Thomas Moore
5) Arturo Perez- Reverte ( Author of the last year and a half)
I go through phases ( My first three picks are constant the rest depending on what I'm reading)
03-02-02, 11:41 AM
#24
Member
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Iowa
Posts: 213
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1. NelsonDeMille
2. Tom Clancy
3. John Sanford
4. Patricia Cornwell
5. Jeff Deavers
Honorable mentions would be Steve Martini,Robert Tanenbaum,Dean Koontz,Michael Crichton,James Patterson,and Tom Savage.
2. Tom Clancy
3. John Sanford
4. Patricia Cornwell
5. Jeff Deavers
Honorable mentions would be Steve Martini,Robert Tanenbaum,Dean Koontz,Michael Crichton,James Patterson,and Tom Savage.
