Favorite Authors

[Shangas]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Brian Jacques.
Dan Brown.
Roald Dahl.
Enid Blyton.
Kenneth Graeme (sp?)

I have lots...I couldn't possibly name them all here.

 

[Harp]

John Boyd-author of the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop, arguably the most influential military theorist of the late 20th century.

There's a name from the past.
How did you first learn about Boyd?
Ever assigned Boyd to be read; or find him on your own?

 

[sixties.nut]

Theodor Geisel :eusa_clap

 

[PistolPete1969]

My favorite authors are as follows (in no particular order)

W.E.B. Griffin: No matter what series, they are intensely entertaining with just the right blend of blood & guts, back-story, and a pinch of romance. His knowledge of military weaponry, traditions, and color make his stories come alive

Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens): IMHO his works are timeless. His observations on human behavior are especially true today.

Edgar Allen Poe: The true father of horror & detective stories. I could read them all day, and not just because he is my ancestor.

Tom Clancy: As a military buff, I love his books because they are chocked full of detail and suspense.

Ernest Hemingway: I have been a fan for years after reading his biography. Then I started reading his works. Call him what you will; his works stand out as a testimony to the "lost Generation".


Pete

 

[Pilot99]

Jules Verne - 20,000 leagues under the sea is my favorite book, read it at least once a year.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Stephen King - for sheer entertainment value
Hugh Walpole - undeservedly forgotten writer of the 20's-30's, just beautiful in his use of language
Kathe Koja - her books for adults which speak of loss and emotional pain and sheer horror like no other authour I've read
Damon Runyon - no writer can make me laugh like him, and "runyonesque" doesn't exist for nothing. He's probably the one I'd have to take to the desert island with me.

There's a few others I like, but those are pretty much the tops with me.

 

[Big Man]

Thomas Wolfe

 

[HosManHatter]

Hard to make a list but here`s some of my perennial favorites:

Frank Herbert - for what he does`nt tell you in his writing...Herbert is the master at being obtuse,vauge,mysterious--his understated style only makes us think and wonder that much harder.

Harlan Ellison - for the fact that you can`t pigeon hole the man or his work.Ellison can literally write in any genre and about anything...or nothing and leave you upset,excited,laughing,introspective or pissed off.Not sci-fi,not fantasy,not occult,not adventure,but he does all of these well. Unlike any other writer before or after him.Don`t be put off by his blunt,gruff manner.

Philip K. Dick - for having such a truly dysfunctional adult life;battling paranoid schizophrenia AND managing to craft some of science fiction`s most profound,most human novels and stories.PKD can write about boring,mundane and pointelss people and situations yet...you`ll be thinking about them and their actions even after you finish the book. PKD is rather a acquired taste but well worth the effort.

John LeCarre - for being the flip side of the James Bond/Secret Agent coin.LeCarre shows us the boring,unglamorous,tedious and often dangerous landscape of the intelligence world.Many people find his work boring and slow.*sigh* His fans marvel at the complex layers of deception and "tradecraft" and realize that for most of us---reading a LeCarre novel is the closest any of us will ever get to the world of espionage.

H.P. Lovecraft - for scaring the heck out of me! HPL`s works can often read as stilted and antiquarian(product of his time) but they are some of our country`s finest gothic(?) work.Don`t compare him to Edgar Allen Poe,please,they are equally great(of course!)but very different indeed.Sustained reading of Lovecraft awakened in me an almost palpable sense of dread and anxiety.No other author I`ve experienced got inside my head and mind as HPL did.A slow and subtle uneasiness that you can`t explain or identify.Highly recommended!

Shakespeare - the greatest author the english language has ever known and probably ever will know.Like no other he understood and described the Human Condition.I learned in college just how much The Bard enriched our language.Must be watched as a play or a fine film(preferaby one of Olivier`s performances).

Gosh,I wrote t o o much...sorry,but great writers inspire me!

(more...Aldous Huxley,George Orwell,Bernard Wolfe,Vladimir Nabokov,John Steinbeck,Kurt Vonnegut,Mark Twain,H.G. Wells,C.S. Lewis,Leon Uris,James Clavel,Larry Niven,Roger Zelazny,Ursela K. LeGuin,Margaret Atwood,Alex Halley,Walter Mosby,Robert Silverberg,Jack London,Kingsley Amis...ad inf...)

READ A BOOK!
HMH

 

[Wash In Lux]

John Fante - They did a real nice job with the movie version of Ask The Dust.

Walter Mosely

Jack Kerouac - After reading Desolation Angels in my early 20's, I promptly left home to become a fire lookout in New Mexico on top of an 11,000 foot mountain. Who would have known such a job existed?

 

[Yeps]

J.R.R. Tolkien.
Asimov and Heinlein
Jasper Fforde
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
P.G. Wodehouse.

 

[John in Covina]

I usually enjoy John Steinbeck's style.
I have read the Hobbitt and the Lord of the Rings a number of times so Tolkein is on the list.
Fredrick Forsythe for (Day of the Jackel and Dogs of War
Higgans The Eagle Has Landed.
Mario Puzo for the godfather
Vonnegut for the collection of short stories in Welcome to the Monkey House.

That's a good start for me.

 

[Lady Jessica]

I only really have two, as most of the time I decide on a book-by-book basis.

Mark Twain- I can't describe why I love him. I just do.

Ray Bradbury- I really just love his stuff! I haven't read a story by him I don't like, actually. My sophomore class in high school had to read some of his short stories and Fahrenheit 451. I loved it!

 

[John in Covina]

Out this way one of my friends thru the pen club is a good friend and part time assitant to Ray Bradbury. My friend assists with events like book signings or conventions and I think he drives Ray to go out to eat fairly often.

 

[Scotus]

My favorite writers of fiction are Agatha Christie (her Poirot mysteries) and J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

[anon`]

Can I limit me to five? No! But maybe ten, presented here by order of surname...

Ray Bradbury - Timeless, and subtly terrifying.

Thomas Jefferson - And other Founders. I'll say no more here, lest I upset the delicate palates of our Bartenders and cause harm to come to this thread.

HP Lovecraft - Because who doesn't want to try to correlate the contents of their minds?

Jean Shepherd - You can't be serious about literature at all times! And who (in America, at least) doesn't relate to Ralphie on at least one level or another?

Snorri Sturluson - Here we have a man who provides a face and a name to a host of other authors, historians and monks, some known by name (such as Bede, Gregory of Tours or Saxo Grammaticus) and others lost to time. Those people who took what would otherwise be oral histories now lost and penned them to a permanent form, however mangled, leaving such rich histories by which we know of early Scandinavia.

JRR Tolkien - Most people know him for The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. But where it really gets interesting is when you start reading the stuff that he wrote, but that his son Christopher compiled and edited after his death: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and the multi-volume "History of Middle Earth". Utterly fascinating.

Mark Twain - The definitive American author.

---
Seven and change... that's closer to five than ten! Sort of...

 

[Clark Savage Jr]

Robert E. Howard

H.P. Lovecraft

Lester Dent

 

[Dave E]

Frank Herbert for Dune, although the light of that burns dimmer as that series progresses

Anton Chekhov's short stories

J.R.R. Tolkein for the glorious depth of his world and sagas

John Le Carre for his cold war novels

Iain Banks, both with and without the M

Raymond Chandler

Elmore Leanord

 

[Undertow]

Have to add Cormac McCarthy - new favorite.

 

[morgan]

Glen Cook- SCiFi/Fantasy, I will read anything he has written at least four times.
Bartle Bull- just discovered him but totally digging his style.
I'll read anything about Col Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his campaigns regardless of who writes them.


Morgan

 

[DNO]

Victor Gischler
Carl Hiaasen
Tom Sharpe
George MacDonald Fraser
James Clavell