Favorite author?

[Grutzvalt]

Who is your favorite author and why?

My favorite author is Mitch Albom, he wrote The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day, and Tuesdays With Morrie. I greatly enjoy his books because they really make you think about your own life and leaves you with a big "Wow..."

Who's your favorite author and why?

 

[Dawes]

Mitch Albom is a wonderful author. While some people may consider his books contrived and over-the-top, I believe the messages in The Five People You Meet In Heaven are undeniably beautiful. While I did not like Tuesdays with Morrie as much as Five People, I thought it had a lot to say and a lot to inspire with.

If you're interested in reading another great Mitch Albom piece, here's one from a few weeks ago. It's extremely touching and hopeful -- exactly what you can expect from Albom.

As for my favorite author, though, I couldn't exactly say -- probably Herman Melville, if I were to go with my overall favorite! Outside of Moby Dick, some of his short stories are absolutely breath-taking. The man piles on great deals of symbolism and allegory, and presents very compelling stories at the same time that, while they are dated, don't feel dated. Directly after him, I'd say that Charles Brockden Brown is probably my second favorite, having been the spiritual predecessor to Poe and even modern horror authors such as Stephen King. Brown wrote several books in a three or four year period that were not only the first pieces of popularized American literature, that dealt with and focused on American locations and scenarios, but were also of a completely different tone than previous American literature, which borrowed highly from English archetypes. Brown's writing was horrific at times, and even brutally violent -- not something you expect for the 1790s.

His epistolary novel, Edgar Huntly: Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker is an outstanding piece of mystery and suspense. Being that it's a book written supposedly by Edgar Huntly rather than Brown himself, Brown went so far as to incorporate spelling and grammatical mistakes that a simple farm-hand like Huntly might have made in rewriting his story.

If you can stomach the language, I'd suggest reading it.

 

[Aki]

I actually have three favorite authors.

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. The way she writes lines up with the way I write. I can appreciate her style because in essence, it's my style. This is because, well. She's my inspiration. She started writing at thirteen, and I drew my inspiration for my first stories from her. Not so much the plot as the style.

Diane Duane. She goes into some great detail about the way the universe is built, and the way magic would theoretically work, and she does it in a way that makes perfect sense. And she writes it for 11-13 year-olds. She's another inspiration.

Margaret Peterson Haddix. She writes about some crazy stuff, especially for the age group she's writing to. Societies that ban more than one child, and sentence the others to death (told in the viewpoint of the imprisoned children), aging in reverse, twins, etc. She's been one of my favorites almost as long as AAR has.

 

[Lowie]

Dale Jarvis - Because he is an awesome dude, (Have met him in person a few times), and writes about true ghost stories in Newfoundland and Labrador.. plus he is a guide on the haunted hike which rules.

 

[Hans]

Douglas Adams, and Dave Barry writes good stuff too.

 

[Charlie]

I liked The Five People You Meet in Heaven a lot! I still need to read some of his other books...

In fact there's not many books I've read that have had the same author... And I don't want to give favourite author based on one book by them.

I'll just give Bret Easton Ellis a mention since I've read both Less than Zero and The Rule Of Attraction and have a desire to continue reading his books... He manages to be funny, and a bit disturbing at the same time. And makes me wonder if I should be having more sex/drugs.

 

[mizzycub]

I would say, based on the shear amount of his stuff I like, Terry Pratchett. I have read a good amount of the Discworld Series, quite a few of his books for kids, both set on and off the Discworld, and apart from a few of the early Discworld books, I have loved them all. I find him incredibly clever and his comedy, especially in the later Discworld books, is brilliant. He can mix complete absurdism and surrealism with cutting satire that is beautifully barbed. He can and does make very serious points concealed in well crafted jokes.

I don't read as much as I like, and most of what I do read is comedic to some degree. I think I like Terry Pratchett because there is often a deep serious level to his work, but he still has me laughing his head off. I have to be in a very particular mood for just serious, and just comedy often doesn't appeal - there has to be more to it.

 

[h3g3l]

Douglas Adams, and Dave Barry writes good stuff too.

D.N.A. for me, too, as his writing is clear, concise, and has an undercurrent of wit that he allows to break the surface often. I wish I could have met him - or even read his books - when he was still alive. The Salmon of Doubt is very touching, and has spurred me to do something similar for a friend of mine who died in November.

I'll just give Bret Easton Ellis a mention since I've read both Less than Zero and The Rule Of Attraction and have a desire to continue reading his books... He manages to be funny, and a bit disturbing at the same time. And makes me wonder if I should be having more sex/drugs.

Ah. I just know him from American Psycho. As you said, he's funny, disturbing, and paints a vivid picture - usually in blood - in his book(s).

I have two three additions to this list: the first is in-line with who I am and who I appear to be, and the other two may surprise people.

1. James Burke: His Connections book and subsequent books paint a picture of history that is very compatible with how I view history, and he is fascinating to read. I didn't like his later stuff (Circles) as much, as he's just flaunting the fact that you can connect anything to anything else given enough research. I especially like the wit that sometimes peeks through the text - before I'd seen him on television, I wondered if I was reading too much into the text and finding bits of wit. Turns out that, no, that was intentional.
2. J. K. Rowling: The Harry Potter books are so simply written, yet convey so much information, that I should learn to write academically like this. Written for a simpleton with detail woven in, there's a lesson here.
3. E. B. White: Another vote for "ruthless simplicity." Evidenced by Charlotte's Web as well as a book now co-authored with his student, The Elements of Style.

 

[Ranger]

Reva (FTT) and Brian Jacques (Redwall Series).

 

[Crassi]

Well, I've always adored Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged took months for me to read, but it's the best piece of litterature I've ever read, all categories.

 

[Diapered Rabbit]

:bunny:

I'm mostly a sci-fi and horror fan...

Stephen King

Running Man, the (1982) by Stephen King
Bachman Books, the (1986) by Stephen King
Best Horror Stories From The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the (1988) by Stephen King
Crate, the (1979) by Stephen King
Night of the Tiger, the (1978) by Stephen King
Best Horror Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. I, the (1989) by Stephen King
Uncle Otto's Truck (1983) by Stephen King
Year's Best Horror Stories, the: Series XII (1984) by Stephen King
New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the (1999) by Stephen King
New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the (1987) by Stephen King
Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, the (2003) by Stephen King
Modern Masters of Horror (1981) by Stephen King
Monkey, the (1980) by Stephen King
Demons! (1987) by Stephen King
Breathing Method, the (1982) by Stephen King
Body, the (1982) by Stephen King
Harvey's Dream (2003) by Stephen King
Dark Tower VI: The Song of Susannah, the (2004) by Stephen King
Robert Bloch's Psychos (1997) by Stephen King
Apt Pupil (1982) by Stephen King
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (1982) by Stephen King
Year's Best Horror XVI, the (1988) by Stephen King
Masques II (1987) by Stephen King
Best of Masques, the (1988) by Stephen King
Langoliers, the (1990) by Stephen King
Secret Window, Secret Garden (1990) by Stephen King
Sun Dog, the (1990) by Stephen King
Library Policeman, the (1990) by Stephen King
Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, the (2000) by Stephen King
Master's Choice (1999) by Stephen King
1408 (1999) by Stephen King
That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French (1998) by Stephen King
Lunch at the Gotham Café (1995) by Stephen King
Riding the Bullet (2000) by Stephen King
Luckey Quarter (1995) by Stephen King
I Am the Doorway (1971) by Stephen King
Graveyard Shift (1970) by Stephen King
Road Virus Heads North, the (1999) by Stephen King
L.T.'s Theory of Pets (1997) by Stephen King
All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (2001) by Stephen King
Man in the Black Suit, the (1994) by Stephen King
Autopsy Room Four (1997) by Stephen King

Dean R. Koontz

Voice of the Night, the (1980) by Dean R. Koontz
Door to December, the (1985) by Dean R. Koontz
Face of Fear, the (1977) by Dean R. Koontz
Funhouse, the (1980) by Dean R. Koontz
Chase (1972) by Dean R. Koontz

Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Dandelion Wine (1957)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
Graveyard for Lunatics: Another Tale of Two Cities, a (1990)
From the Dust Returned (2001)
Let's All Kill Constance (2002)
Farewell Summer (2006)

Kurt Vonnegut

Player Piano (1952)
Sirens of Titan, the (1959)
Mother Night (1962)
Cat's Cradle (1963)
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1966)
Breakfast of Champions (1973)
Slapstick (1976)
Jailbird (1979)
Deadeye Dick (1982)
Galapagos (1985)
Bluebeard (1987)
Hocus Pocus (1990)
Fates Worse Than Death (1991)
Timequake (1997)
Man Without a Country, a (2005)

Arthur C. Clark

Sands of Mars, the (1951) by Arthur C. Clarke
Space Trilogy, the (2001) by Arthur C. Clarke
Islands in the Sky (1952) by Arthur C. Clarke
Earthlight (1955) by Arthur C. Clarke
Fires Within, the (1949) by Arthur C. Clarke
Awakening, the (1951) by Arthur C. Clarke
New Worlds for Old (1963) by Arthur C. Clarke
Time's Eye (2003) by Arthur C. Clarke
Young Oxford Book of Aliens, the (1998) by Arthur C. Clarke
Fantasia Mathematica (1958) by Arthur C. Clarke
Garden of Rama, the (1991) by Arthur C. Clarke
Rendezvous with Rama (1973) by Arthur C. Clarke
Rama Revealed (1993) by Arthur C. Clarke
Rama II (1989) by Arthur C. Clarke
Fountains of Paradise, the (1979) by Arthur C. Clarke
2061: Odyssey Three (1988) by Arthur C. Clarke
Songs of Distant Earth, the (1986) by Arthur C. Clarke
2010: Odyssey Two (1982) by Arthur C. Clarke
Expedition to Earth (1954) by Arthur C. Clarke
Hammer of God, the (1993) by Arthur C. Clarke
Wondrous Beginnings (2003) by Arthur C. Clarke
Cradle (1989) by Arthur C. Clarke

C. S. Lewis

Chronicles of Narnia
Perelandra (1944) by C. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet (1943) by C. Lewis
That Hideous Strength (1944) by C. Lewis
Great Divorce, the (1946) by C. Lewis
Dark Tower and Other Stories, the (1977) by C. Lewis
Spirits in Bondage (1984) by C. Lewis

J. R. R. Tolkien

Hobbit, the (1937)
Fellowship of the Ring, the (1954)
Two Towers, the (1954)
Lord of the Rings, the (1954)
Return of the King, the (1955)
Mr. Bliss (1982)
Roverandom (1998)
Children of Hurin, the (2007)

Richard Adams

Watership Down: Richard Adams
Shardik
The Plague Dogs

I'll check out other books in this thread - you've wet my whistle! :bunny:

 

[Raccoon]

Berkeley Breathed. Gary Trudeau. Frank Herbert. (Dune) Tove Jansson. (Moomins) Lovecraft.

 

[link]

My favorit author is R.A. Salvatore. He wrote "The Legend of Drizzt" which is the greatest story I've ever read. Anyone who likes fantacy would love it.

 

[Fire2box]

C.S Lewis.

 

[Takashi]

Anthoney Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series.

 

[Chillhouse]

DOn`t read as much as I did when I was a kid. Lost interest I guess. But I was into some pretty heavy stuff back in the day. I polished off Jurassic Park and just about every other Crichton book in grade five. Then read some Douglas Adams, and finaly finished it off with Stephen King.

But my favourite author of all time is CS Lewis because of Narnia. I remember reading that series when I was nine years old, and I`ve got some awesome memories of it.

 

[Valentine]

Hmmmm, this is tough. Earlier in my life I would have said Robert A. Heinlein or Larry Niven, but times have changed. Now I would say Mercedes Lackey, Steven Brust, or David Weber.

 

[RocketScientist]

Hmmmm, this is tough. Earlier in my life I would have said Robert A. Heinlein or Larry Niven, but times have changed. Now I would say Mercedes Lackey, Steven Brust, or David Weber.

Damm. That resonates. Earlier, I'd have said Heinlein or Harry Harrison, or maybe Poul Anderson. And I could probably think of some more if I tried. Let's hear it for hard SF!

These days, there doesn't seem to be as much of that. Now, my favorites are David Weber - who writes both SF and fantasy - and Elizabeth Moon, who writes some excellent military SF.

I like some of Bob Salvatore's stuff, but I have to admit that I never grokked Drizzt. His Demon Wars saga, OTOH, has great characters and a pretty compelling story line.

 

[spacemanBEN]

If I must pick one, then Douglas Coupland. He's great.

 

[PostTenebrasLux]

Surprised not to see mention of Patrick O'Brian or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (Two of my favorites.)