Who's your favorite author?

[ScipioCowboy]

Vladimir Nabokov holds the top spot on my list of favorite authors.

Of all his works, I most enjoyed Lolita and Invitation to a Beheading.

Who's your favorite author and which works by that author do you find most enjoyable and engaging?

 

[PosterChild]

My all time favorite is Mark Twain-- short stories and all. Favorite work is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But I also love U.S. History and particularly enjoy David McCollugh's work. 1776 is his supreme novel. Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower was nearly its equal.

For fun, it's hard to beat Bill Bryson's travel books.

If we're talking current fiction it's hard to beat Cormac McCarthy. The Road was nothing short of phenomenal. He's the author of All The Pretty Horses and No Country For Old Men, btw, which I still haven't read even though I picked it up over a year ago!

 

[Dawgs0916]

John Grisham's law thrillers are amazing. I got hooked when I was an 8th grader, and I devoured all his books within a year. And I look forward to everyone of his new ones. "The Firm" got me hooked, and it went from there.

 

[bbgun]

E.L. Doctorow, though I loathe his politics.

 

[trickblue]

I love short stories with a twist, so I've always enjoyed O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain...

I also like court room dramas, so Scott Turrow, and John Gresham are two I really like...

There really are too many to name in reality...

 

[CATCH17]

R.L. Stein and the guy who wrote Rumple Stiltskin

 

[jksmith269]

R.A. Salvatore tops my list he's a fantasy author.

James Patterson

John Grisham

 

[Bob Sacamano]

My all time favorite is Mark Twain-- short stories and all. Favorite work is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But I also love U.S. History and particularly enjoy David McCollugh's work. 1776 is his supreme novel. Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower was nearly its equal.

For fun, it's hard to beat Bill Bryson's travel books.

If we're talking current fiction it's hard to beat Cormac McCarthy. The Road was nothing short of phenomenal. He's the author of All The Pretty Horses and No Country For Old Men, btw, which I still haven't read even though I picked it up over a year ago!

I read both 1776 and Mayflower, I finished Mayflower in one night, I just couldn't put it down

my favorite author is Stephen Ambrose

 

[Rampage]

Redball express

 

[ScipioCowboy]

My all time favorite is Mark Twain-- short stories and all. Favorite work is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But I also love U.S. History and particularly enjoy David McCollugh's work. 1776 is his supreme novel. Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower was nearly its equal.

This discussion certainly isn't limited to fiction authors.

In grad school, I developed a fondness for naturalist authors, specifically those who focused on the American Southwest--Roy Bedichick, Ed Abbey, etc.

For fun, it's hard to beat Bill Bryson's travel books.

If we're talking current fiction it's hard to beat Cormac McCarthy. The Road was nothing short of phenomenal. He's the author of All The Pretty Horses and No Country For Old Men, btw, which I still haven't read even though I picked it up over a year ago!

Cormac McCarthy is a great writer. In academic circles, he and Larry McMurtry are probably the most respected western authors because their works are more literary in nature.

All the Pretty Horses, which focuses on the character of John Grady Cole, is the first book in McCarthy's border trilogy. The second book, The Crossing, introduces a new character, Billy Parham. In the final book, Cities of the Plains, Billy Parham and John Grady Cole are united.

Another great work by McCarthy (though somewhat violent) is Blood Meridian.

 

[PosterChild]

This discussion certainly isn't limited to fiction authors.

In grad school, I developed a fondness for naturalist authors, specifically those who focused on the American Southwest--Roy Bedichick, Ed Abbey, etc.



Cormac McCarthy is a great writer. In academic circles, he and Larry McMurtry are probably the most respected western authors because their works are more literary in nature.

All the Pretty Horses, which focuses on the character of John Grady Cole, is the first book in McCarthy's border trilogy. The second book, The Crossing, introduces a new character, Billy Parham. In the final book, Cities of the Plains, Billy Parham and John Grady Cole are united.

Another great work by McCarthy (though somewhat violent) is Blood Meridian.

McCarthy really is uncommonly gifted isn't he? I should have been more clear above--I have read All The Pretty Horses but not No Country..yet.

Since you're a fan of the American SW you might be interested in Blood And Thunder (An Epic Of The American West) by Hampton Sides, which I'm currently reading.

Oh, the naturalists hold a special place in my heart too--Jack London, Thoreau, Crane...

 

[jimmy40]

Charles Monroe Schulz

 

[jem88]

Tim Parks. Simply genius. Check out Cara Massimina, Mimi's Ghost, Europa and Judge Savage.

 

[DallasFanSince86]

John Grisham. The Firm was the first book of his I read. I have read several other of his books: A Time to Kill, The Runaway Jury, The Last Juror, and The Broker.

I have several books of his that are laying around here, that I need to pick up and read.

Another author I like is Edgar Allen Poe. I really enjoyed The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Raven.

But one author I couldn't stand was Ayn Rand.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I really don't get into all of the classic books.

I am more of an average joe with the Likes of Stephen King. I know if I buy a King book that I have a 95% chance of at least enjoying the book if not loving it. Only been a complete stinker or two that I just did not like at all.

I also love one author but oddly enough it is only for one of his books as I tried to read others of his and just could not get into them. James Clavell and the book is Shogun. Just my favorite and I read it at least once a year for the last 5-7 years.

I also like Grisham as his books are entertaining.

Like Koontz, kind of a poor mans king in many ways but they are always a quick enjoyable read. Same for the few books I have read of Robert McCamon although swan song was the best one of his I have read.

 

[jterrell]

I read a lot and have read a lot of the authors above.

I actually really like Ayn Rand's work even if her philosophy at the end of the day leaves me wanting. Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead are very good.

Ralph Ellison's the invisible Man is probably the best overall novel I have read(even though almost every lit class in the country just excerpts it).

I took a few Great Works classes.

I particularly enjoy classics by Aristotle for content, Cicero, St. Thomas.

Shakespeare, Chaucer for entertainment.

I have read all of Grisham's works and his non-legal thrillers are the best imho.

I enjoyed Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and R. E. Howards Conan. Kull works.

I have read all of Kellerman and Patterson in the short reads novel area. Those usually last me two nights.

But if I only get one author it has to be James Joyce.

 

[Hostile]

Herman Melville. Moby Dick is my all time favorite book. I am currently reading ti for the 7th time.


Mark Twain. "Cannibalism on the Cars" is one of my favorite short stories. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are great books. I have never read anything by him that I didn't thoroughly enjoy.


Robert Ludlum. The Bourne Identity. The others in the series are good. That one if great. An underrated Ludlum book that is very funny IMO is Road to Gandolfo.


Louis L'Amour. I have read every book he ever wrote. That's right, all 180+ of them. My favorite is Down the Long Hills.


Shakespeare. In particular I like "Much Ado About Nothing" and "The Taming of the Shrew." "Othello" and MacBeth are also very good.


Joseph Conrad. "Heart of Darkness" is such a great read.


Rudyard Kipling. More for his poetry than his prose. In particular I like "If" and "Gunga Din."


Isaac Bashevis Singer. The Slave is a great book.


Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God is very good.


Ernest Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, and For Whom the Bell Tolls.


Edgar Allen Poe. Anything he wrote, poetry or prose.

 

[trickblue]

Louis L'Amour. I have read every book he ever wrote. That's right, all 180+ of them. My favorite is Down the Long Hills.

Zane Grey is really good as well...

 

[Hostile]

Zane Grey is really good as well...

I definitely liked Riders of the Purple Sage.

He wrote a fictionalized account of a story here in Arizona that I later did as a Documentary. Randolph Scott starred in a movie based on Grey's book. It was called "To The Last Man." He set the story in Kentucky. In reality it happened in Arizona. He really romanticized the story. It wasn't really romantic at all. In reality it was quite tragic.

A survivor of this story saw the movie in Tempe in 1933. When he came out of the theater he told his family, "that ain't the way it was."

 

[the kid 05]

Tom Clancy, love military/esponage tales, and hopefully soon our own Hostile (what ever his real name is)