Who Are Your Auto-Buys?
 

Are there any authors, or even genre subplots that you'll buy, even if it's completely blind? I'm talking about the author(s) or subject(s) you love so much you'll buy whatever they come out with, either brand new hardcover or when it hits paperback.

I don't have too many, and I always wait for paperback since I can't stand hardback (and I'm cheap). They are Meg Cabot, Jan Burke and recently Bentley Little.

Another question I'm curious about is, if you read one or two books you really enjoy from a particular author- will you go out and buy their backlist? I tend to do this because I get so excited when I find a fiction book I love that I want to see if the authors other works are as good.

I will buy any book from the following authors even if I have no idea what the story is about.

Stephen King
Pat Conroy
Thomas Harris
Neal Stephenson
Dan Simmons
William Gibson
John Grisham

Usually pick up any new novels from the above in hardcover because I can't wait for the paperback.

And if I find an author that I love, I start reading their past work and start looking forward to new stuff from them.

Robert Anton Wilson - the man is a genius. One of his long-out-of-print trilogies is making its way back into circulation: the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, with part one, The Earth Will Shake coming out anytime now.

Same answer to your second question. By sheer luck I found Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy at the local Barnes and Noble. I was browsing the science fiction section and noticed this book was way out of proportion (size-wise) to the rest of the books on the shelf. I picked it up and read the back cover, and a voice in my head said "Get it, and get it now!" So I did, and I have been slowly but surely snatching up any book that RAW has written. After I read Illuminatus, I picked up Schrodinger's Cat, and then I delved into his non-fiction stuff, which is just amazing.

SCSIMan

I'm pretty much in the category of if I like the first book I read by an author ( and if its a series I'll usually research to see what book is first and start there) then I must have all the books they have done.

Nelson DeMille

Tom Clancy

Patricia Cornwell

John Sanford

Jeff Deaver

Harlan Coben

Michael Connelly

Robert Crais

Thomas Perry

Steve Martini

Robert K Tannenbaum

That's good to hear about The Illuminatus! Trilogy since I bought it awhile ago because of what I read about it (much like you). I haven't read it yet, but I'm glad you liked it.

I have Dan Brown's four books based upon how much I liked Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. I haven't read his first two books yet, but I will most definitely buy all of his future books.

I have a rather large collection of books that I have yet to read, some of them are from the same authors. If I like those books, I'll most likely try to read and/or buy the author's other books.

One author who I will hesitate to read in the future is Dennis Lehane. I've read three of his books so far (A Drink Before the War, Mystic River, and Shutter Island) and I haven't really been too impressed with any of them. I know I'm in the minority, though.

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Re: Who Are Your Auto-Buys?
 

I still am catching up on the books that I purchased while in college, but there seems to be only two (2) authors that I will buy their books without so much as thinking about what it is:

John Grisham
George Carlin

Yes Carlin is not necessarily an author, but I bought both of his books blind, minus the fact that Im a huge fan of his comedic work. Unfortunately if you really enjoy his work youll be punished for buying his books, because they are his routines in written form.

Grisham, Im a huge fan of but we (all Grisham fans) have to admit there has been a significant drop off in the quality of his writing.

Yes, Im one of those readers that if I like one (1) of author's works Ill go back and read their others. Thomas Harris is the best example for me, I read Silence of the Lambs and then read Red Dragon.

With Grisham, I started with A Time to Kill when The Firm was published, so I was aware of his back-titles, and I didnt want to start in the "middle" so I simply began reading his work from the begining.

I have a rather long list of authors who I read no matter what:

Stephen King
John Sandford
Dan Brown
Richard Laymon (deceased, though OOP books are often rereleased)
John Grisham
Michael Connelly
Robert Crais
James Swain
T. Jefferson Parker
Laurence Shames
Harlan Coben
Tim Cockney
Thomas Perry

Only Stephen King for me. I used to buy new books from Anne Rice, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and James Patterson in hardcover until their new novels started to suck. I will almost always wait for a paperback of a new novel if I want to read it. It's rare when I buy a hardcover nowadays. I've been burned too many times by some of the above-mentioned authors to spend $30 on a new release.

William Gibson
Harlan Ellison
Clive Barker
John Shirley

Clive Cussler (!)
Michael Crichton

Dan Brown
Michael Connelly
Terry Brooks
Al Franken
Bill Bryson
Dave Barry
John Sandford

These guys are automatic buys for me. I've never been let down by any of their books.

Jeffrey Archer
John Grisham
Michael Crichton
and more recently Dan Brown

James Grippando
John Grisham
James Patterson (Alex Cross series only)

and I'm starting to get into the John Sanford (Prey series).

Stephen King
Richard Laymon
Jack Ketchum
Anne Tyler
John Sandford (Prey series)
James Patterson (Alex Cross series)
James Ellroy
Robert McCammon

(used to buy Koontz automatically, no more)

Terry Pratchett
David Gemmell
Stephen Lawhead
Janny Wurts
Charles de Lint

Chuck Palahnuik, Douglas Coupland and Nick Bantock.

John Le Carre. I own every book he's ever written. I started buying his novels with The Honourable Schoolboy, in 1978 (or so), and I've been buying them ever since.

I would also buy anything and everything by Nick Hornby and Robert Caro.

Ed McBain

James Lee Burke

Jack Ketchum

Edward Lee

Elizabeth George

Greg Iles

Steven Erikson

Joe Lansdale

Graham Masterton

Michael Slade

John Sanford

James Ellroy

Haruki Murakami
Harlan Ellison
Jasper Fforde (only two books so far, but hey)
Neil Gaiman
Phil Rickman
David McCullough

I'll also pick up most any Revolutionary War historical novel that isn't a romance novel.

Not a big list for me anymore, but I'd say these are always MUSTs --

Paul Auster
Stephen King
Kurt Vonnegut

"near-MUSTS" (I might skip a book or read a library copy first if it hasn't gotten great reviews)
Haruki Murakami
John Irving
Richard Ford
Nick Hornby (didn't like "How To Be Good" very much but have everything else)
Harlan Ellison (if he wrote anything new lately, it's been a while)
John Updike
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
non-fiction -
Tony Horwitz
Bill Bryson

Tom Clancy
Robert Ludlum
Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt series)
Michael Chabon
Elmore Leonard

and Bill Bryson

WWII books

I will buy anything by...

Bill Bryson
Michael Chabon
Tom Robbins
Don DeLillo
Elmore Leonard

...without hesitation.

Heinlein [obviously not writing any more, but if I happen to find one I don't have, i'm getting it]
Asimov [ditto]
John Sandford
Orson Scott Card
Walter Jon Williams
Philip Margolin
Piers Anthony [except books 12 and up of the Xanth series, I'll still check them out, but they got old.]
any 'SciFi anthology' especially pre-80's.

I don't buy new hardbacks unless I get a deal on them, I usually buy paperbacks--and I buy a lot of my books at the annual county book sale--5 bucks gets you a box of books, you fill it. After I get 100+, HB and PB, for 20 bucks, it makes it hard to spend 7.95 on a PB or 22.95 on a HB.

Octavia Butler
Robin Cook
Sidney Sheldon

Stephen King
Dean Koontz
John Grisham
Tom Clancy
James Patterson (Cross books)
James Mitchner (till he died)
Dan Brown
Patricia Cornwell (Scarpetta Books)