Who is your favorite author ever?

[vinnievin777]

For me it would have to be Aldous Huxley.

Vinnie Vin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932852344/qid=1086103239/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2852423-2023849?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.vinnievin.com

[WindRavenX]

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The Great Gatsby" aside, his short fiction is brilliant and yes, I think he's better than Hemmingway.

[Zomby Woof]

73. From that era

Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos are better than either.

[mikh]

103. Jayne Anne Philips

...her book "Machine Dreams" is a gut wrenching masterpiece.
Ditto Evelyn Waugh for "Brideshead Revisited" and Jonathan Franzen for "The Corrections" and "Strong Forces".
....without omitting the prescient George Orwell for "1984" and "Animal Farm" - the living reminders that utopian socialism spawns totalitarianism.

[mark414]

2. vonnegut

need i say more?

[Forkboy]

27. yep,same here

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Kurt Vonnegut.

[gulogulo]

52. Definitely Vonnegut

[NNadir]

63. Vonnegut is the greatest.

For my money, "Slaughterhouse Five" is the greatest book of the late twentieth century. It's so brilliant that one can never really know how brilliant it is.

[Erika]

4. It's got to be Emile Zola

Followed by Victor Hugo. For balance, Ayn Rand.

[DeepGreen]

5. William Blake

[vinnievin777]

121. Check out

Doors of Perception
by Aldous Huxley

Vinnie Vin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932852344/qid=1086103239/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2852423-2023849?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.vinnievin.com

[wtmusic]

6. Gabriel Garcia Marquez n/t

[progmom]

16. He's definitely on my top 5

some of my faves in no order

Patricia Highsmith
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Michael Chabon
Langston Hughes
Dawn Powell
Walter Mosley
Madeleine L'Engle (holdout from my youth)
Ursula Hegi
Ian Rankin
George Pelacanos
Mark Twain
Nick Hornby
Tom Perotta
Jim Thompson
Raymond Chandler
Michael Ondaatje
Chester Himes
James Baldwin
Zora Neale Hurston
Zadie Smith

[enigmatic]

7. Bukowski

Bukowski (who is far and away my favorite).......and a friend:



Harry Crews:



Kerouac:



Sherwood Anderson:

[RagingInMiami]

8. Henry Miller was definitely the most inspirational author

He inspired me to move to Europe and live for two years.

[EstimatedProphet]

9. Philip K. Dick

[TransitJohn]

42. Ditto

Dr. Bloodmoney is fantastic. I've always felt that I dwell in a Dickian universe. Didn't we talk about Dick before, Prophet?

[EstimatedProphet]

69. Oh, I'm sure we probably did

There's also a lot of PKD fans on this board.
PKD was a rare talent...

[Lex]

10. Willa Cather.

She makes words do what they are supposed to do.

[SarahB]

60. She's very good.

:thumbsup:

[Zomby Woof]

74. yes

"My Antonia" was one of the best discoveries I made in high school.

[meganmonkey]

11. Tom Robbins

okay, I was gonna say Vonnegut but 2 people already did.

[LDS Jock]

12. God.. the Bible

[JohnKleeb]

13. well you obviously have a better bible then the fundie protestants

Whose bible is by a King James fellow and his scribes. I thought the bible though was many writings by many authors.

[LDS Jock]

19. God was the inspiration behind those authors

They wrote through the influence of the spirit, which ultimately comes from God.

[JohnKleeb]

22. true

I am being a wiseass man you know that. I liked the bible where you got a free action figure with it. You know what I heard about James I of England though is that he was gay, of course nothing wrong with it but it's strange to me because he was a key person pushing the King James Bible which a lot of homophobia has been used on the basis for.

[LDS Jock]

25. I know.. and yes I've heard and read about King James as well

Its kinda funny in a warped way.

[leftofthedial]

75. and you know this how?

because some Roman politician paid a bunch of other politicians to announce that this particular excerpt of a couple of millenia-worth of Middle-Eastern writings were "inspired."

Horseshit.

[LDS Jock]

79. I have not asked you to believe this

I only stated my own beliefs. Why the hostility?

[leftofthedial]

110. sorry! happy holidays!

praise god!

hand me a viper!

[LDS Jock]

124. I wish I could hand you a viper

Why can't you just let others believe as they wish? Why the jabs? I can handle it, but just wondering why you are intolerant?

[leftofthedial]

125. how am I intolerant

you confuse disagreement with intolerance

they are not the same thing

why can't you just let me disagree and believe as I wish?

why do you have to turn a literary thread into a religious debate.

your dogma is running over our karma (to twist the old joke)

[LDS Jock]

130. I didn't start the religious debate

everyone else did. I did my post, and everyone had to get their jabs in. Where am I trying to convince you of my beliefs? Nowhere. I have made no statements about yours, only your attitude. You started with the barbs and when I respond cry foul.

[pres2032]

28. mine has the Apocrapha and Deutacannonical

they definitely don't have mine.

I love the Books of Wisdom, Sirach, and Maccabees 1 & 2!

[LDS Jock]

29. I've never understood the phobia some have with it

Those books were accepted as scripture for over a thousand years before the protestants purged them.

[pres2032]

31. right

i heard they only wanted the books originally written in Hebrew, ignoring the fact that in all likelyhood Jesus and His Apostles read from those books!

I really don't understand it either, especially since Wisdom and Sirach are such wonderful books.

[laheina]

55. The book of Wisdom

is my favorite book from the Bible.

[Erika]

17. The Bible....But the LDS only Believe in it as far as it is....

translated correctly. Who makes that determination? How about the Book of Mormon or the Pearl of Great Price?

I saw how you guys are trying to start a Mormon charter school where you say the core book will be the Bible.

[Erika]

18. Oh I forgot another Mormon Book

The Doctrine of Covenants.

[LDS Jock]

20. its Doctrine AND Covenants

[LDS Jock]

24. Yes, you are correct in that statement.

The church does believe the Bible must be translated correctly. How is this really different from any church who interprets it one way and declares everyone else's interpretation to be wrong?

The Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price came about through a different process from the Bible and are accepted as being without error, although still must be interpreted correctly.

I don't know what you mean by "you guys" but I know nothing of a charter school. If it is a private school I don't see the problem with having the Bible as the core book. Its a private religious school. They can focus on that if they want.

[Erika]

37. The interpretation of the Bible to fit groups needs is common

Many people believe in a strict interpretation of Leveticus to justify their rebuttal and discrimination of gays.

The charter school was to be tax-payer funded. Now, which version of the Bible do you agree with?

[LDS Jock]

39. the church uses the KJV

what are you really trying to get at?

[Erika]

43. Ah, what are you getting at?

Since you are here, will you choose to answer the following?

Are women dependent on men calling them up to heaven?
Do Mormons believe that men will become Gods of their own planets?
Why are shower caps placed on dead bodies?
How much of the Masonic rites became church doctrine?

Thanks for your answers.

[Nordic]

34. you seriously think God wrote the Bible?

just wondering.

I find that notion to be a little bit ..... fantastic?

[LDS Jock]

38. I do believe God was the force behind the Bible

Yes, it was written by many different people over many years, but God was the source behind it all. That is why I said God wrote the Bible.

[Nordic]

44. that's like saying "Evolution" wrote most modern biology books

But hey, that's cool. Whatever floats your boat.

:)

[Bzzzz]

56. You've got my nod on that...

written by man and interpreted by man...contradictions galore.

[Erika]

40. Which Bible?

Both the Koran and the Old Testament are the histories of the same family. One, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, the other the descendants of Abraham and the concubine.

Abraham was definitely not a one woman man. The Jews and Muslims have fought since that time.

[LDS Jock]

41. what is your problem?

all I said is what I believe. I'm not trying to force it on anyone else.

[Erika]

46. You also might reply as to why Mormons vote almost 99% GOP

Out of curiosity.

[Erika]

47. I should be honest.

My grandmother was a child of a polygamous union. Her father had 3 wives, and she had 21 siblings.

[LDS Jock]

48. then you can answer your own questions and stop attacking me

all I did was state what I believe about the bible. why you hijacked this thread for your own jihad against the mormon church is beyond me.

[mikh]

104. ...like your attitude...

...not sure about your convictions, but believe in a divine (uninterested) force....

[LDS Jock]

49. attitudes like yours might be responsible

why would they want to be part of a group which is hostile toward them

[mairceridwen]

120. wow.

Look at all the big tent liberals being tolerant of Christians.

I know it's only a few who started picking on you but it saddens me.

I am sorry people are giving you such a hard time.

[LDS Jock]

123. thanks.. I know the majority here are tolerant

a few seem to have some personal beef and just can't handle letting someone else believe as they want.

[bicentennial_baby]

14. Neil Gaiman

[skygazer]

77. All over that

I was wondering if anyone would say him. I can't pick one particular favorite author but if I had to, right now it would be Gaiman. The man is brilliant, with a great mind and a lyrical writing style. The entire Sandman series is great, I absolutely love Good Omens with Terry Pratchett but I think American Gods is a masterpiece. Gaiman rocks.

[NervousRex]

15. The trucker that inked...

Here I sit
sphincter a-flexin'
Just gave birth
to another Texan.

in a Texarkana Stuckeys' mensroom.


sorry, I am a bit tipsyyyyy.y.y..

[lpbk2713]

21. Thomas Wolfe

A shame he had to die young.

[Bzzzz]

92. Black Shiny Shoes...

One of my first Tom Wolfe books. I'd still like to take a ride on that old bus if it wasn't rotting away. I miss you 'Further'.

[Historic NY]

23. Ernest Hemingway......he liked to have a few or so like me....n/t

[Nordic]

26. Margaret Atwood is up there

[Dirk39]

30. Kafka

A Beckett without the burden of memory and education, a Proust undergone the razor-blade of Bauhaus. The most human human being ever.

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[FreedomFry]

32. Just about any British writer of the 19th century...

from Jane Austen to Arthur Conan Doyle. That's where I escape to when the present gets too much to bear. Which is just about every night.

[timtom]

33. Vonnegut and Booth Tarkington

Vonnegut goes without saying.

Tarkington choice is based solely on the "Penrod" trilogy. He created the most amazing fictive voice in American literature I've ever read. There is nothing "timeless" about it. The language is quaint and dated. But it is some of the most satisfying reading ever.

[fleabert]

35. Oscar Wilde n/t

[ReadTomPaine]

36. Not mentioned yet - Rainer Maria Rilke. n/t

[LeighAnn]

45. P. G. Wodehouse

He wrote the "Jeeves" stories (LOL funny)

[mulsh]

82. he did so much more than Jeeves

he's my fav also.
this morning I picked up a biography of P.G Wodehouse,Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern,of how they invented the american musical. they're the team who started basing musicals on stories. wodehouse and bolton wrote the book for the original Show Boat, based on Edna Farber's novel.
Wodehouse's Emsworth and Mulliner stories are some of the finest short stories ever written. As are the Psmith and Mike series.
And of course one shouldn't ever miss a Jeeves story.

[tcfrogs]

50. Bill James

The baseball writer, not the other Bill James dudes...

[TyeDye75]

51. George Orwell and Homer (technically a poet but you know...)

[laheina]

53. It's almost impossible for me to pick just one!

So many have had impacts on various stages of my life, but on the whole I might pick Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gotta love him;)

[huellewig]

54. Fydor Dostoyevsky

Hands fucking down..

[antigone382]

87. Ooh, seconded

Some other biggies would be Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Bronte sisters, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Robeson]

57. Gore Vidal

[Rhiannon12866]

58. If I had to choose, probably Jane Austen

:shrug:

Though Will Pitt's a close second.:evilgrin:

[newyawker99]

59. Dickens n/t

[SarahB]

61. John Irving.

Kind of depends on my mood though.

[fluffernutter]

71. i like him too.

[NewHampshireDem]

62. William Shakespeare

Does he count?

I'm not trying to make anyone believe that I sit in my wingchair before the fireplace with a brandy reading Shakespeare. However, I've taught many of his works, and I've taught Romeo and Juliet in particular at least twice a year (sometimes four or five times a day!) and his are the only works I can read, read, read again and again and again and not only enjoy, but actually learn something new about, each and every time.

[rasputin1952]

64. O. Henry, then Dickens...both looked at Social problems and brought

them to the forefront.

I find that O. Henry never fails to amaze me, no matter how many times I read those short stories. This time of year, Gift of the Magi is a keeper; so bittersweet and filled with love...:) The Onion is another that springs to mind. Not bad for someone who couldn't say no to a drink, and wrote most of his stuff in a state the rest of us would barely be able to pick up a pen...:D

[kittycat1164]

65. Lawrence Sanders

Great murder mystery writer

[vinnievin777]

66. Good ones

Keep them coming.

Vinnie Vin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932852344/qid=1086103239/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2852423-2023849?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.vinnievin.com

[peekaloo]

67. Flannery O'Connor

[immoderate]

68. Isaac Asimov

Enjoyed his fiction, learned so much from his non-fiction.

Also Orwell, Sagan, John D. McDonald.

--IMM

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

117. Asimov and Sagan are sorely needed today.

Both died of freak diseases. (Asimov got AIDS in a transfusion for a bypass, Sagan had a sudden cancer that killed him from being healthy a year or so before)

Tempts you to go :tinfoilhat:

[immoderate]

127. Yeah, CPD. What happened to people with brains?

--IMM

[Zomby Woof]

70. Cervantes

Jack London, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Tom Robbins, Ken Kesey, Larry McMurtry, William Shakespeare, Joyce Carol Oates, Willa Cather, Gore Vidal, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, James Baldwin, Edgar Allen Poe, Sinclair Lewis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Annie Proulx, John Steinbeck, and Robert Penn Warren, to name some favorites off the top of my head...

[arwalden]

72. Armistead Maupin

[annonymous]

76. I have many favorites because I love to read.

Though I must go with Carl Hiaasson because his books always make me laugh.

[Chalco]

78. Marguerite Duras--The Lover--Mesmerizing

[Longgrain]

80. Dostoevsky I've probably read more than any other author...

The Brothers Karamazov and the Idiot are two of my favorite, most read books...

My runners-ups are Herman Hesse, George Elliot, Sartre, and Kafka...

I like the existential stuff...

[48pan]

81. Asimov

The Foundation series was the best piece of fiction ever written.

CM Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons" was an interesting short story as well.

[Sgent]

83. I will second

Shakespeare is one of the most brilliant minds I've ever come in contact with (through his writings). He had a gift for seeing human nature that has lasted 500 years, and is still going strong.

[Bzzzz]

84. Do you know who he is???

William M. Gaines:crazy:

[Cuban_Liberal]

85. James Michener.

If you can get through the first 50 pages, you''ll have one helluva read in your hands.

:)

[mikh]

105. ...yes but...

...which book?

[Cuban_Liberal]

118. My favorite would be 'Texas'

A true epic tale.

:)

[yellowdogintexas]

129. Centennial and the Source are my Michener faves

[Theres-a]

86. thoreau and tolstoy (couldn't pick one)

[TN al]

88. Fitzgerald...

...But at other times in my life I would have answered Jack London, Alexander Dumas, James Michener, Robert Louis Stevenson, Franklin W. Dixon, and Dr. Seuss. And while you didn't ask I will tell you anyway that my favorite books from each were On Beyond Zebra, The Secret of the Caves, Kidnapped, Texas, The Three Musketeers, The Call of the Wild, and The Great Gasby.

[Lizzie Borden]

89. Dostoyevsky.

[bobthedrummer]

90. Philip K. Dick

[hatredisnotavalue]

91. John Irving nt

[Catchawave]

93. Authors Du Jour....I love non-fiction n/t

[RebelOne]

94. The author everyone has been bashing since F-911

Ray Bradbury. I have always been a Sci-Fi fan. And his stories are poetry in my opinion.

[warrens]

95. Mark Twain

Every word he wrote was great. I like more modern authors, particularly Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Flan O'Brien and pop stuff like Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiasson, but Twain is the master.

[pink-o]

96. Not one of you mentioned...

Hermann Hesse?

Steppenwolf, Siddartha, Beneath the Wheel. All brilliant.


Also love Oscar Wilde. We read his fairy tales (no pun intended, it's a real book) to my friend's son when he was little. They're very visual and evocative!

[auntAgonist]

97. I like Patricia Cornwell.

The Kay Scarpetta novels.

[Baja Margie]

98. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

without a doubt.

[Paleocon]

99. J Heller, K. Vonnegut, G. Orwell, F.A. Hayek....

They are all so good, don't make me choose...

[TroubleMan]

100. George Orwell

nt.

[Shadowen]

101. George R.R. Martin.

If you're a major character, your life is not assured...but at least you'll get a cool death scene.

Those poor minor and nameless characters die by the bucketful.

[vixengrl]

102. Robert Anton WIlson, Tom Robbins, Robert Heinlein--

Odd story--I picked up "Schrodinger's Hat Trilogy" "Jitterbug Perfume" and "The Cat who Walked Through Walls" all at the same time--first time I read any of those authors--not bad choices for me, eh?

[enigmatic]

108. Robert Anton Wilson!

Have you heard his spoken word stuff? I've got a number of clips of his stuff on my overnight show; he's great...

[vixengrl]

116. I just got "Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything"

for an early Christmas present (after a couple yrs coveting it) and in a curious coincidance, am listening to it right where I'm sitting now.

[vinnievin777]

106. Don't Forget

Jimmy Jubes and everything.

Vinnie Vin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932852344/qid=1086103239/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2852423-2023849?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.vinnievin.com

[mitchum]

107. Gustave Flaubert

[yellowdogintexas]

109. Dorothy Dunnett, George R R Martin, Twain , James Clavell,

James A Michener, for my favorite authors of meaty complex stuff

my list of second tier writers is long and varies according to whomever I may have just discovered!!!
and the genre I happen to be grooving on at the time.

[WCGreen]

111. Right now, Michael Chibon and Philip Roth...

Been reading them lately but am also reading

Sinclair Lewis...

Also, sommerset Maugham

[robbedvoter]

112. Garcia Marquez. Romain Rolland, Maurice Druon, Asimov

[PittPoliSci]

113. Edmund Spenser.

The Faerie Queene was just too damn good to actually exist. I know as an Irish-American I should probably hate all the shit he did to my ancestors, but I'll ignore that for literature's sake.

[Hatalles]

114. Orwell or Richard Wright n/t

[happyasaclam]

115. J. R. R. Tolkien

The hobbit would still be my favourite ever book :silly:

I read a wide variety of books, and would choose Tolkien as my favourite ever author, just in front of;

H Rider Haggard
James Joyce
J K Rowling
David Eddings
Stephen King

[mairceridwen]

119. Vladimir Nabokov

Read *Pale Fire*

Also Saul Bellow

And Zora Neale Hurston

And Kurt Vonnegut

And Milan Kundera

And William Faulkner

[bobweaver]

122. Jack Kerouac

[masaka___]

126. Arundhati Roy is my hero!

I love her political essays. She rips new assholes into people with so much FINESSE. I love it, and I hope that I may be as skillful as her some day.

[buddhamama]

128. Camus, Vonnegut, Sagan and Loren Eiseley

in that order.