Favorite Author.

[Jack_Aubrey]

I'm sure that this being a literature forum, this thread has been done and done again, but I am going to ask anyway who your favorite author is. So, who is it?

My personal favorite: Patrick O'Brian. :smash:

[Shea]

I'm right there with Helena, but I would have to say currently Victor Hugo with Tolkien at a close second.

[EAP]

Okay, I'll try to do this by genres ,


Mystery & Dectective Stories: G. K. Chesterton, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dean Knootz, Ian Banks...

Thrillers: John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Sue Townsend, Robert Ludlum...

Mainstream of 1900's: Stephen King, Ernest Hemmingway, Graham Greene, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, Harper Lee, Sabastian Faulks, J. D. Salinger, Angela Carter, Erich Segal...

Mainstream of 1800's: Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Elliot, Victor Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Hardy, Herman Melville, Mark Twain et all.

Before 1800's: Miguel De Cervantus, Henry Fielding, Al-Saadi, Al-Roomi etc.

Fantasy: Professor Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, Tad Williams, Juliet Marillier, Jacqueline Carey, Steve Erickson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, Kate Elliot, Charles Finney, Fritz Lieber, Robert Jordan, Charles De Lint, Sean Russell, Jennifer Roberson, Tim Powers, Ursula Le Guin, John Crowley, Jeff VandeMeer among others.

Science Fiction: Robert Anson Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clark, George Steward, Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Roberson, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, James P. Tiptree, George Orwell, Clifford D. Simak, Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut Jr... etc.

Some others I might have ommited would include the author of '[I]We', Enid Blyton, Robert Adams, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson and many many others...

[Qwinto]

Some others I might have ommited would include the author of 'We', ...

Zamyatin is the author of "We". ;)

As for my favorites, I think...

Somerset Maugham
John Fowles
Fedor Dostoevsky
Ernest Hemingway
Victor Hugo
Herman Hesse
George Orwell
Boris Pasternak

Before I read "Of Human Bondage" by Maugham, Fowles was at the first place.

[Monica]

Umberto Eco. For evermore

[Nemerov]

Mihail Bulgakov

[nothingman87]

My Favorites?

1) Thomas Hardy
2) Graham Greene
3) J. D. Salinger
4) James Joyce
5) Franz Kafka
6) Anton Chekov
7) Charles Dickens
8) Ken Kesey
9) Saul Bellow
10) Jack London

[Taliesin]

My favourites (only now, it might change radically tomorrow) are:


1. Tolkien. The one and only.
2. Pratchett. The one ... and mostly only
3. Dan Simmons. Maybe you have already understood, which genres I like.
4. Le Guin. Do you understand now?
5. Christie. A variation of the main theme
6. Hobb. Back again!
7. Exupery. - I have read only one book by him and I already love it
8. Orwell. - Sad, but true
9. Lindgren. - Never forget the children's authors
10. Bulgakov. -Meister. Margarita.
11. Dumas. Maybe. I am not sure.
12. Hašek. Really, makes me wonder why I forgot him.
13. De Lint. Back to genre
et cetera

Please note, that this is quite a random order. There are certainly several of my favourites missing from here, but here are those who sprang to my mind at the moment.

[Diceman]

"Favourite author" is listed under everyone's profile - click on someone's username to find out what their favourite authors are.

I have two:
Douglas Adams
John Fowles (hello Qwinto :cool: )

[Mustardseed]

Well, that's a long list, but here are a few examples...

William Shakespeare
J R R Tolkien
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
George Orwell
Marge Piercy
Gabriel García Márquez
Margaret Atwood
Pär Lagerkvist (Swedish author)
George R R Martin
Rosa Montero
Mario Vargas Llosa
Karin Boye (another Swede)
Jane Austen
Isabel Allende
Iain Banks

[Kahrey]

To pick a favroite would be too hard, but here are my favorites:

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
David Gemmell
Terry Brooks
Stephen Crane

[ajoe]

My favorite author changes every other week depending on what book I currently read. And then when I continue to read the rest of his/her books until I grow tired of that author and swear never to read anything by them again.

My childhood favorite authors:
- R. L. Stine (I read every single book of Goosebumps and Fear Street until I recognized the pattern and grew sick of it)
- Ann M. Martin (I read almost every single book in the BSC series, even when I was past the age of the intended reader)
- Louisa May Alcott (the character Jo reminded me of myself it was scary)

My current favorite right now: Paulo Coelho ;)

Some other favorites which I haven't grown to hate yet:
- Meg Cabot (though not a classical writer, I can't seem to miss any of her books)
- Jack London (love those wolf stories)
- John Steinbeck
- George Orwell

[seeker]

I'm right there with Helena, but I would have to say currently Victor Hugo with Tolkien at a close second.


good thing i read these before i posted this time, this is exactly how i feel.

[Jester]

one of my all time favorites, like everybody i dont have favorites and I rarely remember their names (yes i know thats pretty bad) is the writer of calvin and Hobbes I can't remember his name off the top of my head but that guy is a genius

[Deep Space Bass]

I really don't know how you can pick just one.

I mean there are so many different but good ones! Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Checkhov and the Russians! Shakespeare, Bacon, Burgess, Conrad and the Brits. Poe, Irving, and all the great sci-fi writers of the 50s were American. Dumas, Hugo, Voltaire and the French. Joyce and...um...All those other Irish writers. >_>

And it seems no one's really mentioned philosophy! What about Camus, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and the eloquent existentialists of yore! And the metaphysicists! I mean, Kant and Descartes! <3 <3 <3

And science fiction! My God! RA Heinlein, Dick, Asimov, Clarke, Leiber, Pohl, Baxter, Brin, Benford, Bear, Lovecraft, Zelany, Disch, Niven, Sterling, Serling, Vonnegut (And I guess Kilgore Trout too. >_>;;), Reynolds, Robinson, Burroughs, Wells, Dunsany, and Adams!

I don't know how anyone could pick just one, but if I absolutely had to, I'd say Adams was my favorite.

[Icarus]

Hemingway. Then Dickens. Then Mr. Shakespear. Each had utter and unique mastery of the language.

[rocksea]

Herman Hesse
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Richard Bach
Robin Cook
Gerald Durrell
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (he used to write in malayalam, so many got translated to english as well)
and such.. :)

[Scheherazade]

I love Oscar Wilde. Admire his humour and sharp wit.

[BSturdy]

Rocksea - hope you don't mind me asking: Are you Japanese? I can't quite tell from your picture. Your taste in literature is not very Japanese at all

[rocksea]

Rocksea - hope you don't mind me asking: Are you Japanese? I can't quite tell from your picture. Your taste in literature is not very Japanese at all

hehe. right, am not japanese.. am here in sapporo for PhD. watashi wa indo-jin des (am from india - in japanese) to be specific, kerala :angel: ,,

[Jester]

john steinbeck.... right now i just really want to read him.... favorite author, none

[Jock Gestapo]

Vonnegut, Kerouac, Camus, Auster and all the others I'm yet to discover.

[Don Quijote]

Oscar Wilde...

[simon]

hehe. right, am not japanese.. am here in sapporo for PhD. watashi wa indo-jin des (am from india - in japanese) to be specific, kerala :angel: ,,

Interesting, what are you studying for your PhD? And why in Japan? As for your taste in literature: impecable.

[rocksea]

Interesting, what are you studying for your PhD? And why in Japan? As for your taste in literature: impecable.

wide area of research is physical oceanography. subseasonal variability of air sea interaction over the indian ocean to be precise :D

ohhh!! this is my hundredth post!! :banana:

[subterranean]

Thomas Hardy is now in my list of my fav authours of all time

[caspian]

1.Mikayil Mushfiq
2.M.Y.Lermontov
3.Antuan de Sent Exupery
4.Jack London
5.Salinger
6.Archibald Joseph Cronin
7.Nizami Ganjavi
8.Mark Twain

Rocksea, Just 100 posts? I supposed to see more than 100. Actually you've been here quite often, not so rare. Right?

[subterranean]

I am reading the Grapes of Wrath at the moment. It is beautifully written and very rich in context.

Have you read Steinbeck's men and mice story. though it's only a short novel, the essence is great.

[Scheherazade]

Have you read Steinbeck's men and mice story. though it's only a short novel, the essence is great.

I have read Of Mice and Men... Although in another language. Along with some other books of Steinbeck. However I have found 'The Grapes' richer in depth and appealing.

[subterranean]

Well I havent read the grapes of wrath yet. I'll try to sometime in the future..

[Émilie]

Mine would have to be Orwell .... for now anyways

[subterranean]

Hi Emilie welcome...Now we have 2 Ems in da Forum ;)
I love Orwell also..he's a darn genious

[Émilie]

Thank you, I appreciate the welcome

[Sancho]

Welcome Emilie!

Hey Scheherezade, (your screen-name is oddly similar to Russian tune that I really really like)

I’ve always loved reading Steinbeck. In fact, it was while reading The Grapes of Wrath for a school project, that I first became truly interested in literature. I like to read Steinbeck slowly and deliberately: I think that he wrote some of the most beautifully rendered sentences in American literature. I like his optimism, I like his humanism, but mostly I like his writing because it is experiential.

I get a little fed-up reading some of this critically acclaimed, abstract stuff, written by some dude, sitting alone in a room (probably on something), and thinking up some weird and highfalutin thoughts. With Steinbeck, I think, you can dig deeper, if you want to, and find many layers of thought in his writing. But at the same time, you know that he had walked through Hooverville’s, and been in beer-brawls, and knew whores and hobos, and collected sea-critters from tidal pools; what I’m trying to say is: with Steinbeck, you know that he’d lived a life.

Oh yeah, I dig Hemingway too.

[Scheherazade]

Welcome Emilie!

Hey Scheherezade, (your screen-name is oddly similar to Russian tune that I really really like)



Well, the nick comes from there, kind of... from 1001 Arabian Nights...

With 'The Grapes' I feel like I have rediscovered Steinbeck... It is not only the Hooverville's he depicted expertly but so many other issues which we might find ourselves discussing even today... His understanding of human nature and ability to see into future is amazing... He seems so ahead of his time while dealing with social and political issues...

*sighs*

I adore him...

[Sancho]

Sultana Scheherazade, I should probably read the Arabian Nights stories one of these days. Nikolai never really gave too many details about his thinking when he wrote the symphony. I wonder about his fascination with pre-Mohammed Arabia. I suppose it was just mysterious to him. I’ve got a 1960ish vinyl LP (Long Player) recording of the London Philharmonic performing Scheherazade. Even with all if its ‘pops’ and ‘cracks,’ it is by far my favorite recording of that tune, and it seems to find its way on to my turn-table regularly about once a year or so.

I have no arguments whatsoever with your assessment of John Steinbeck’s opus. Whenever I read him, I am taken with a tremendous sense of well-being. He seems to embrace the reader like no other author I’ve ever read. By contrast, when I read Hemingway, and I’m reading Islands in the Stream now, I get a sense of uneasiness.

[Scheherazade]

1001 Arabian Nights is a collection well worth reading as it offers everything you can expect from a good read: adventure, romance, action, moral dilemmas and all presented in a wonderfully imaginative way.

Start reading and, promise, you won't regret! :nod:

[BSturdy]

Hope you don't mind me commenting -
Scheherazade - You don't give much away do you! : )

Sancho - Hemingway was reputedly a bit of a lad and liked hunting big game. Not necessarilly an evil guy in the context of the times, but maybe that is what you are picking up on

You have good taste in music. Vinyl is king. Some contemporary electronic music is made up almost entirely of accidental vinyl sounds. Check out 'Martes' by 'Murcof' from Mexico city - lots of the sounds are clicks and scratches plus recordings of classical instruments

Of course, the Russians make the best music by far!

[Scheherazade]

Hope you don't mind me commenting -
Scheherazade - You don't give much away do you! : )

Of course, the Russians make the best music by far!

There isn't much to give away, I guess :p

And as for Russian music, I hope you mean Classicals... Not the recent stuff like TATU and what not...

[snapplepeaches]

Herman Hesse
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Richard Bach
Robin Cook
Gerald Durrell
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (he used to write in malayalam, so many got translated to english as well)
and such.. :)

I really like Robin Cook. The last book that I read by him was called Vector. Well, actually, I did not read it, but I listened to it on audiobook. Many serious issues were presented such as biological warfare, terrorism, and racism. Also, personal issues such facing demons in your life came up, too.

~Snapplepeaches

[Sancho]

Hey Sturdy, I suppose I shouldn’t be too priggish about Hemingway’s fondness for big game hunting and bull fighting and other such manly-man adventures. As you said, it was a different time and place; yet my 21st century sensibilities have me abhorrent of those kinds of pursuits. I think what makes me uneasy while reading E.H. is that, sort of, dark and depressing human philosophy he seems to have. Islands in the Stream is a particularly dark novel and I’m thinking specifically of Thomas Hudson’s reaction to the telegram that informed him of the vehicular death of his two sons and their mother.

Well, anyway, while we were all discussing this on this forum, I got one of those chain E-Mails that made me laugh out loud when I got to the part about Hemingway. Here it is:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

GEORGE W BUSH
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

HANS BLIX
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it!

RALPH NADER
The chicken's habitat on the other side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet that somebody out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this?!? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build a road for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
To die in the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together---in peace.

ARISTOTLE
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX
It was an historic inevitability.

CAPTAIN KIRK
To boldly go where no chicken has ever gone before.

SIGMUND FREUD
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES
I have just witnessed eChicken2003, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet explorer is an integral part of eChicken.

ALBERT EINSTEIN
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS
Did I miss one?

[JA Prufrock]

this will not be popular, but what the heck: W. Somerset Maugham

[Jester]

never heard of him, and welcome... :wave:

[simon]

JA Prufrock: Well I'm one for the unpopular, The Razor's Edge, though hardly a favorite, is on my list of novels worth reading. I didn't find Of Human Bondage to be as interesting.