Who's your favorite Author?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Fiction or non

Mine is St John of the Cross, Coleridge, or Poe. That is currently.

And always Lewis Carrol

I am currently reading the Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois - wonderful style, but in the beginning it helps to be up on your civil war and reconstruction history - but I highly recommend it!

[Southsideirish]

1. St. John of the Cross? Wow - you are deep! Is he the one that

wrote "The Cloud of Unknowing?" I have that on my "must read" list.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

I thought that was Saint Denis

John of the Cross wrote Dark Night of the Soul, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Sipritual Canticle amongst others

Also check Theresa of Avila

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

21. The Cloud of Unknowing was written by Anonymous.

Who was this Anonymous person? Man, he or she wrote so many things. And lived a long time too.

[jayavarman]

2. Robert Kaplan

But then again, I pretty much only read nonfiction these days.

I've been on a Hopkirk tear recently as well, reading about central asia

[cosmokramer]

3. Iain Pears, Umberto Eco

No one does historical fiction better--The Instance of the Fingerpost, The Dream of Scipio, and The Name of the Rose, and Bardolino.

AWESOME reads!

[liberalitch]

4. Faulkner, philip k. dick, rumi

[burythehatchet]

5. Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

Rushdie especially. Unique style.

[Amaya]

6. Alice Walker

An overlooked writer. I adore her!

[cosmokramer]

7. She is fabulous! Tremendous talent--I admire her greatly!

[NMDemDist2]

18. ok she's not light, but I love her too

[CharlesGroce]

8. Gabrial Garcia-Marquez

absolutely, my favorites:

1)One Hundred Years of Solitude
2)Love in the Time of Cholera
Somewhere down the list) The Autumn of the Patriarch (with the first sentence that lasts four pages)

He's the best I've read.

[gonefishing]

9. John Kennedy Toole

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0802130208/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-4908928-6520918#reader-link

[cosmokramer]

14. A Confederacy of Dunces is the funniest book I have ever read...

...and The Neon Bible was a remarkable feat for a 15-year-old kid. What a shame the talent lost...

[Az]

10. Various

Terry Pratchett is my ole standbye currently. Douglas Adams when he would occaisionally publish.

In serious SciFi I am currently reading the latest by my fave Larry Niven (Ringworld's Children). Larry has created the most complete universe in SciFi. Has even managed to work himself into some serious corners with the complexity of his universe.

Nonfiction... Carl Sagan. Quite simply the closest thing I have to a hero.

Older literature.. Mark Twain. Can't say enough about Mr Clemens.

[Dropkick]

16. Get out of my brain!!!

Those are all favs of mine too!! :wow:

[Thistle42]

11. George Eliot, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Charles Frazier....

for "Cold Mountain"...what happened to his muse? I loved the book. He must truly have writer's block.

[Zomby Woof]

12. start with Cervantes

Twain, London, McMurtry, Kesey, Orwell, and Baldwin.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

13. Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, Camus, and the most prolific author of all

Anonymous.

[Pithlet]

15. Currently, China Miaville

I recently finished The Scar, in his New Crobuzon series. I can't wait for the next one, The Iron Council, which I think is out next month. Perdido Street Station is just amazing.

[Moriarty]

71. I'm in the middle of _The Scar_ right now.

An amazing piece of work! I hope to finish it before _Iron Council_ gets released.

[NMDemDist2]

17. you guys need to lighten up, I like Mark Twain and Douglas Adams

Robt. Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress esp.)

real life is hard enough, I read to escape :)

[Zomby Woof]

23. just because you live in hell

No need to be bitter with the rest of us. :P

[NMDemDist2]

24. what Cheney said back at ya ZW

bwahahahahahahahahaha

and I like the weather here, my pool is the best :)

[Zomby Woof]

26. Phoenix is HELL

Republicans and excessive heat. Bad drivers, lousy traffic, rampant crime, and overbearing heat. A soulless downtown and endless sprawl. Did I mention the hellish heat?

And your newspaper sucks. The letters to the editor kill me though. Poor Pimentel, being the token liberal in a room with Robert Robb and those other pinheads...yow! :P

Phoenix sucks!

[NMDemDist2]

27. i beg to differ

Republicans (are everywhere) and excessive (define excessive)heat. Bad drivers (ok you got me on that one), lousy traffic (not if you pick your times and roads), rampant crime (really? never had in trouble in 7 years and don't know anyone else who has either--esp for a metro area of our size), and overbearing (define overbearing)heat. A soulless downtown(ok i'll give you that one too) and endless sprawl (i like to think of it as "village merging). Did I mention the hellish(define hellish) heat? BTW have I mentioned I like the weather here?

And your newspaper sucks (i read DU not the paper). The letters to the editor kill me though. Poor Pimentel (who? see response above), being the token liberal in a room with Robert Robb and those other pinheads...yow!

but you gotta admit Steve Benson has his days heheeh I even take time to check him out online, still have the one from 9/01 with the two lil boys (one dressed as uncle sam and one as a muslim) and Sam says "My GOD can beat up your GOD with his tongue stuck out

love ya Woofie, nitey nite time for me :-)

[indigobusiness]

36. Wait til the electricity goes and the AC goes with it in August.

Will you live in your pool?

By the way, is your electricity generated at Hoover dam?

[NMDemDist2]

52. been there done that

and yes we all but live in the pool then :O

[indigobusiness]

77. You're going to be all

pruny.

[Zomby Woof]

43. David Horsey kicks Benson's ass

David Horsey of the Seattle P-I (which did NOT endorse Chimpy in 2000 either) is better than 10,000 Bensons. This is not an exaggeration.

And sure Republicans are everywhere, but not very many in ultra-liberal cities like Seattle, to pick another random example. They have Jim McDermott, you all have, what? Jake Flake? LOL

I mean, Phoenix is just so bad on so many levels. And although you may be lucky to have not experienced crime in 7 years, I am amazed at the sheer venality and density of it when I look at your rag. All those gun nuts in an oppressively hot town.

I am completely amazed at how anybody willfully CHOOSES to live in a place where the asphalt can cause 2nd degree burns, but to each their own.

[NMDemDist2]

51. hubby is from Wash

and I couldn't live in Seattle

but Flag looks better as I get older, how bout we compromise and say that Cornville is a perfect alternative :)

[No2W2004]

19. Mine are

Hunter S Thompson
H.L. Mencken
Douglass Adams
Benjamin Franklin

[mitchum]

20. Gustave Flaubert, Mark Twain, Wm. Faulkner, Richard Price

[bicentennial_baby]

22. Neil Gaiman

He da man...

[Pithlet]

25. I love Neil Gaiman

Also near the top of my list.

[realisticphish]

28. orwell

and douglas adams spring to mind, but right now I'm in a Dan Brown mood, so I'll say him

[peekaloo]

29. Flannery O'Connor

[Anarcho-Socialist]

30. The Venerable Bede n/t

[boobooday]

31. I like Vonnegut -- he grabbed me when I was very young

And now that he is still out there kicking at the Bushies, I have rediscovered my crush. :-)

But I've also ALWAYS loved the Russians, and especially Dostoevsky.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[indigobusiness]

39. ...you could've had him arrested...

ya know.

[ericmaxy]

32. Ayn Rand

just started reading Atlas Shrugged. Don't really agree with her opinions, but still very interesting. I think its important to spend as much time reading material that you disagree with as much as you agree, so long as its written intelligibly.

Its good to always keep an open mind

[indigobusiness]

33. Cormac McCarthy, Madison Smartt Bell, DeLillo, Eco,BreeceDJ Pancake

Peter Mathiessen- At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Snow Leopard
Camus- The Artist
John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces
John Fowles- The Magus. The Collector, A Maggot
Pinckney Benedict- The Dogs of God http://webpages.marshall.edu/~porter9/
===

above all- Cormac McCarthy

Read 'Blood Meridian'..but buckle in first.


on edit--- I forgot Dr. Seuss, Joseph Conrad, Robert Heinlein, William Gibson, Herman Melville, Rudyard Kipling, E.A. Poe, H.G.Wells, BigMcLargehuge.

[2cents]

34. Pat McManus n/t

[BigMcLargehuge]

35. Favorites

Non-fiction... it's kind of hard to say really. I read so much non-fiction about so many different topics... but the author who most impacted me is Iris Chang. Her book "The Rape of Nanking: The forgotten holocaust of WW2" inspired me.

Other non-fiction writers I read often, and manage to enjoy include:

Harry Newton, Newton's Telecom Dictionary. Surprisingly funny and packed with interesting information.

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. Chilling and very readable expose on the fast food industry.

Noam Chomsky, pretty much all of his political and foreign policy books.

W.F. Abooshi, he wrote a great book on the history of the Arab Israeli conflict.

Fiction, it's not so hard to say.

My favorite fiction writer is me, Big McLargehuge.

Other fiction authors I like:

Joseph Conrad, Robert Heinlein, William Gibson, Herman Melville, Rudyard Kipling, E.A. Poe, H.G. Wells

[indigobusiness]

38. Nobody cares...

Athol

[Veggie Meathead]

37. The author I have been recommending to my friends lately is

British writer, V.S.Naipaul, the Nobel prize winner in Literature a few years ago.He is considered by many the greatest living writer in the English language and in my opinion rightly so. Because of the turmoil in the Middle East, I have been reading his work AMONG THE BELIEVERS-AN ISLAMIC JOURNEY which describes his encounters with a wide segment of people in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan,the Emirates and other Islamic countries.Naiupaul's great forte is his keen eye for detail,his ability to pierce through official cant and, of course, his elegant prose that is unmatched by any writer that I know of.Although the book I am reading was published in 1975, it seems almost timeless in its insights into the minds of people under the sway of Islam and is very prescient about the events unfolding there.

What sets Naipaul apart from the others is his totally unromantic view of these countries and their people.That combined with his fidelity to truth makes for very compelling reading.Just as a contrast I have also been reading Thomas Friedman's essays on his journeys through many of the same countries.Where Friedman is clearly pushing an agenda and so is unable to speak the truth, Naipaul has no such inhibitions and lets the chips fall where they may. The result is an extraordinary experience in reading a powerful and truthful writer at his best.

The rest of the summer I plan to read many more of Naipaul's works.

[Burma Jones]

40. Shakespere, Vonnegut, Hemingway, Robertson Davies, Tolkien

A Confederacy of Dunces is the funniest book I've ever read though. Now, that novel could be made into a trilogy, or at least two flicks.

[givemebackmycountry]

41. Only One

Richard Brautigan

[Forkboy]

42. Vonnegut (easily),Hunter Thompson,Kim Stanley Robinson

I'm also very impressed lately by Jeff Long (The Descent,Year Zero).

Greg Bear also deserves mention.Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children are fantastic books!

[Pithlet]

44. I have something by Kim Stanley Robinson

that I haven't read, yet. Hubby got it for me. Hmmm, I'll have to move it to the head of the queue.

[Forkboy]

45. His Mars trilogy is fantastic

(Red Mars,Green Mars,Blue Mars).Deep,political and fascinating stuff.His other works,especially The Years of Rice and Salt,are even better! A great,great writer! He will give you plenty to think about when you're done :)

[Brahma Bull]

46. Edgar Allan Poe and Anne Rice.

[Fight_n_back]

47. R.A.W.!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml

[The Magistrate]

48. Several, In Various Fields, Sir

Mr. Jonathan Spence is an excellent guide to China.

Mr. Orwell is indispensible, as is Ms. Doris Lessing, in political matters.

Mr. C. S. Forrester was an early, and still sturdy favorite.

In more classic direstions, Mr. G. B. Shaw, Mr. Twain, the speeeches of Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. Adam Smith, are steady favorites.

No one is more enjoyable than Mr. H. H. Munro, better known as Saki.

Knut Hamsen, for Hunger, and B. Traven, for The Death Ship, are each in a class all his own.

For sheer art of the language, Ms. Djuna Barnes, in Nightwood, cannot be equalled.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

49. My favorite author will be the one who pens the indictment of *

but, until then... and most likely for a long time --sigh--

Bukowski
Hunter Thompson
Ken Kesey
and many more

[dudeness]

50. thanks for this thread CST

If I might add my humble offerings..

Martin Amis..his "Koba the Dread" is a brilliant dissection of Stalins USSR..

Tariq Ali..the veteran Pakistani born brit continues to the foremost expert on middle east affairs and "bush in babylon" gives a great overview of Iraqi political history..

George Orwell..merely for a reminder of current events as they occur around us all..

jean Rhys..wide sargasso sea..a wonderful short novel

Doris Lessing..imho the worlds greatest female author

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

53. My Pleasure El Duderino (I'm not into the whole brevity thing!)

:)

[peacefreak]

54. Currently--Christopher Moore

(I have a reader's copy of "The Stupidest Angel"--due out for Christmas) that had me laughing out loud at 5a.m.
Alice Hoffman--Blackbird House--due out in September, I think.
Donald Harington--With (I wish people would read him. Magical!)
Then--Alice Walker, Stuart O'Nan, Vonnegut, Heinlein, Sheri Tepper, Erica Jong's Fanny is enough to make me forgive her for the rest of the crap she wrote...

[He loved Big Brother]

55. Tom Robbins most of the time

[noonwitch]

56. Shakespeare, Dickens, 80s Anne Rice, Steinbeck

There's nobody that compares to Shakespeare, however, and probably there never will be.

[King Of Paperboys]

57. John Irving

Everything he writes is gold, but A Prayer For Owen Meany is beautiful beyond description.

[MissMillie]

62. AGREED!!!!

I love that book. In fact, I think I'll start it again next week.

[cleofus1]

58. different authors for different reasons

when i was a young lad i loved Hermann Hesse (“The Glass Bead Game”, “Beneath the Wheel” etc) and Ernest Hemingway (for the most part his short stories). Later in life the works of Charles Bukowski (whom I modeled my life after when i lived in LA.) and Mervyn Peake (the Ghormenghast trilogy). His modern Gothic flight o fantasy inflamed my passion. I presently enjoys the more popular form of literature commonly described as “comic books”. Alan Moore is God...

[democratreformed]

59. I'm almost ashamed to post mine:

Stephen King, Nicholas Sparks... that's really all in the fiction dept. right now

I like Poe and Shakespeare but wouldn't call them my favorites.

[historian]

80. hey dont be ashamed

at least you read!!!!!

[MissMillie]

60. John Irving and

Dr. Seuss.

[sus]

61. Michael Cunningham. I also like David Adams Richards lately.

and Margaret Atwood. and Flannery O'Connor!

[Kid_A]

63. Chuck Palahniuk,

William Gibson, and Garth Ennis (even though he writes comics, they're still better than a lot of novels I've read).

[RandomKoolzip]

64. David Foster Wallace, Philip K. Dick, Wyndham Lewis, Alfred Jarry

L. Frank Baum, and Thomas Pynchon for Fiction


Pauline Kael, Chuck Eddy, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer for criticism

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

65. You love L. Frank as well?

Ever read The Emerald City of OZ!

Stellar!

[RandomKoolzip]

68. I LOVE the OZ books.

That's some incredible psychedelic literature right there. 'Ozma of Oz" is my favorite.


When I was in kindergarten in Short Beach, my teacher read us 'The Wizard of Oz," then "Emerald City of Oz," Then "Ozma of Oz," like a serial. It was awesome. The illustrations are so wacked-out.


Normally I'm not a fan of science fiction, fantasy, or childlike whimsy. But the Oz books are something special.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

69. Agreed

It was so easy to get absorbed in them.

Hey - did you ever read the TinTin comics?

[RandomKoolzip]

73. No...but I did have all the "Little Nemo in Slumberland" books for a time.

Again, I lost a lot of stuff in the infamous New Orleans flood of may 95.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

74. NOW THAT IS A TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS!!!!

Winsor McCay - the finest of the fine

[King Of Paperboys]

72. If you liked the Oz books

I highly recommend Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. It tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, and how they got that way. It was the basis for the current Tony-winning musical. It's very much a feminist-liberal book, and it is NOT for kids.

[Quahog]

66. Probably Faulkner, but...

I also love Flan O'Connor.

And my single favorite work of fiction is probably Lanark: A Life In Four Books by Scottish author Alasdair Gray. It's one of the most difficult books I've ever read (well, aside from Finnegan's Wake), but an amazingly satisfying read whenever I return to it... and I've read it four or five times.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

67. Today's favourite is Philip Pullman.

It'll change tomorrow, no doubt.

[Moriarty]

70. Michael Shermer

I don't know if he's my favorite, but I will pick up anything by him.

[Commendatori]

75. Nelson DeMille

[Bridget Burke]

76. R. A. Lafferty comes to mind

It's hard to describe his work. Fantasy? Science fiction? A Catholic salesman from Tulsa with an odd sense of humor, he studied many languages & started writing in his late 40's, supposedly after giving up drinking. His death in 2002 led to many of his works being reprinted after years of being out of print. There are excellent collections of short stories, plus novels:

Fourth Mansions could be described as allegory; is there such a thing as a good allegory? It opens with this quotation: "For there are all these obstacles for us to meet and there is also the danger of serpents." Interior Castle: Teresa of Avila

Past Master is the story of the rulers of the Golden Planet, Astrobe. Their world is sick & they decide to search Earth's history for a figurehead to rule their world. They select Thomas More. Will he remain a puppet? Lots of the Lafferty black humor here. (Did I mention he was Irish-American?)

I love many more writers, but Rafael Aloysius has a special place in my heart.

[indigobusiness]

78. David Rhodes

Last Fair Deal Going Down

Rock Island Line

[Reciprocity]

79. JRR Tolkien / JK Rowling n/t

[Dying Eagle]

81. AL FRANKEN!!!!!

[jmowreader]

82. Oh, it's a list...

Classical authors: Poe, Coleridge, Kipling.

More modern writers: Hunter S. Thompson and Molly Ivins are long-time favorites.

My favorite tech writer is Craig Anderton.

Connor Freff Cochran is great. http://www.freff.com/html/this_months.html. Most of his stuff isn't this heavy-duty.

Another good read is Neil Peart's Ghost Rider.

[dolo amber]

83. W. Somerset Maugham

is my all-time fave... :loveya:

Other faves include Chuck Palahniuk, Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby, Jr.,...oh, Tolstoy, Fitzgeraly, and yes, I actually like James Joyce and have read Ulysses almost twice. :D

edit: Like...DUH! Forget Douglas Adams much?...:silly:

[kodi]

84. vonnegut, sturgeon, fitzgerald, twain

.