Who is your favorite author?

[Maj. Bloodnok]

You had to make this hard, didn't you Spezzy? I wrote a huge treatise sorted by genre, but it went into TL;DR territory real fast.

Favorite novel: ‘The Club Dumas’ by Arturo Perez Reverte (brilliant mystery involving a cursed book, rabid Alexandre Dumas fans, and a woman who just might be the Devil)

Favorite Short Story: ‘The Minions of Midas’ by Jack London (I swear this story predicts Anonymous)

Favorite poem (short): ‘To A Nose’ by Francisco de Quevedo (A sonnet written to insult Luis de Gongora)

Favorite poem (long): Cantar del mio Cid, Beowulf (tie; I love long epic knuckledraggers), with ‘The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill McKie’ by Robert Service as a close second

Favorite autobiography: ‘Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall’ et seq. by Spike Milligan. Possibly the funniest man ever, talking about some very unfunny things (war, death, shellshock).

[ellisd012]

Though it's been awhile since I've read anything by him, Stephen King was my fav for some time, mainly due to the short story 'The Boogeyman'. When I read it, I had to get out of bed, turn on the bright light (already had a reading light on), and close the closet door before I could continue. I slept with the light on that night. This was when I was like 22 or so. Nearly 20 years later, I still close the closet door before I go to sleep if it's open. Now that's getting in my head!

Current favorites are:

Thom Hartmann for non-fiction 'Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight'

Edward Abbey for regular fiction esp. 'Monkey Wrench Gang'

Kim Stanley Robinson for sci-fi for the Mars Trilogy

[livingroovy]

I got really stressed reading this because I never know how to answer this question!!! I have over 1000 books!!

BUT:

Carlos Ruiz Zafón is amazing, probably because his books are about books and take place in Barcelona, which I love.

Also, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Kostova, William Gibson....oh geez there are so many!

[shortstuff]

This one is a hard one

If I had to pick I would have to say either John Flanagan becuase he wrote my all time favorite series or Tamora Pierce becuase of the way she writes and what she writes about

[StarCaptainAllen]

Timothy Zahn.

I love this man because he takes one, single, off-the-wall concept and actually builds a good story around it, like it's not a gimmick at all.

One of my many favorites by him is entitled A Coming of Age. There is some planet where humanity has settled that allows humans to develop telekinetic abilities. However, these abilities disappear at the onset of puberty. Thus you have a society where the preteen children are physically far more powerful than the adults. He describes how education must be limited to them and how creepy child stealing gangs arise to commit criminal acts.

Timothy Zahn is famous for Heir to the Empire, which touched off the major explosion in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but he has lots of original work, too.

[Oogiem]

I got really stressed reading this because I never know how to answer this question!!! I have over 1000 books!!

It's even worse when you have over 1500 different authors represented in your library, and for many of them you have many or all of their books

[Barmacral]

Guy Gavriel Kay, and my favourite books from him are a tie between Tigana and Under Heaven.

[Mitch S]

Not an easy question. I just finished Steven King's The Dark Tower series, and it was an adventure. Like nothing I've read before, to the point of topping LotR in my eyes. The Hobbit is magnificent. Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy was a big one for me when I was in high school. I'm a big fan of Robert Jordan's wheel of time series, though I don't think they stack up to some other authors. Ursula Le Guin writes some very cool fantasy as well. That being said, I find Matthew Reilly books to be heaps of fun, even if they are a little silly.

I just love reading!

[DangerDave]

Neal Stephenson by far.

Cryptonomicon was amazing, as is most of his other work.

Snow Crash is generally accused of popularizing the term avatar for interactions online.

If you like epic historical fiction that can't be fit into a genre, it's hard to beat The Baroque Cycle.

[JasontheKiwi]

I don't really have a fave author, they are so many greats. One of my fave books though is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - He's so great.

[german]

My favorite author is definitely Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and topping the list of books is of course One Hundred Years Of Solitude, absolutely fantastic read, no idea how good the english version is, but the original one is superb.

I also enjoy Isabel Allende, Milan Kundera and Salman Rushdie.

[Tocho]

Uhhhh, I don't know. Haven't read enough classic literature either to know for sure. But for now, I would have to say J.R.R. Tolkien.

If there is an author I'd have to recommend, however, it would be Ildefonso Falcones, a Spanish (former?) attorney who's written two books so far, about medieval Spain. They're both brilliant.

Oh and Coelho's pretty good... And Orwell. And. And and and and! It's so difficult. Will return when I've read more famous books. (And more less famous books, too)

Scratch that. Reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy right now and Douglas Adams is ALSO my favourite author.

[Laureleye]

My favorite authors are three, HP Lovecraft (Has been and always will be #1 slot), Philip K Dick and William Gibson. I've always enjoyed the very dark genres like lovecraft's mythos series, Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy. These three authors are what inspired me to become an author myself and are a main source of inspiration as I am trying to get published

Lovecraft and Dick? I'm officially impressed, or else really, really scared. I'll have to find something by William Gibson.

[Laureleye]

Guy Gavriel Kay, and my favourite books from him are a tie between Tigana and Under Heaven.

Mine are Tigana and the Sarantine Mosaic.

[Laureleye]

I really can't narrow this down to 1 author, but my favorites are

Terry Pratchett

Laurie R. King

Guy Gavriel Kay

Thomas B. Costain

Patricia McKillip

Reginald Hill

Eleanor Lipman

Bernard Cornwell

For pure SciFi - I think Asimov is head & shoulders above Heinlein...but I don't read that much hard SciFi.

(Yeah, long list, I know...but I've had a lot more time to read than most of you).

[bgvanbur]

While my favorite book is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (it is the only novel I read more than once and I lost count but it is somewhere around six times), my favorite author is definitely Jane Green (I have read each of her books once, and plan to start rereading them eventually). I would love to see one of her books turned into a movie.

[Maj. Bloodnok]

Gibson is definitely worth checking out. 'Neuromancer', 'Count Zero' and 'Mona Lisa Overdrive' are the three books of the Sprawl trilogy, and introduced the concept of cyberspace. Classic noir cyberpunk.

[Wirilome]

I have so many favorites that I now have sub-categories to favoritism.

But... James Joyce is always a favorite. Tolkien too but in terms of Chicanismo then Michele Serros (Chicana Falsa <3).

[IRISHodabred]

I'm late to this thread but gotta throw down some names/books. This question is so hard because I like so many but in no particular order:

Terry Goodkind (SoT/Mistborn Series)

Jim Butcher (cuz Dresden is the man)

Dan Brown (love historical fiction)

Mitch Albom (tuggin at your heartstrings)

One of the books that has had a huge impact on me would be The Shack by William Young.

Can't leave out Martin (A Song of I&F), Tolkein, and Clive Cussler since his books are fun, quick reads.

♣IRISHodabred's 2 cents

[guest439437484421]

I can't pick just one, so I'll put my top favorite authors:

Jim Btucher (cuz Dresden, and Codex Alera was pretty good too)

Terry Pratchett (just awesome stuff, even with Alzheimer's he can still spit out an awesome story)

Douglas Adams (lurf me some Guide)

Sergey Laukyanenko (Night Watch series is awesome, and OMFG THERE'S A NEW ONE AND WILL BE IN ENGLISH NEXT YEAR!!!)

[liljehult]

Niel Gaiman

H.P. Lovecraft

Robert Anton Wilson

Hunter S. Thomson

Christopher Hitchens

Isaac Asimov

Timothy Zahn

Dan Simmons

Phillip K. Dick (its not his wrinting, but the brilliant ideas - you never know quite where the story is going)

Phillip Pullmann

Grant Morrison and Allan Moore (comic books are also books)

Dan Turell (danish poet, properly not known outside Denmark)

Jan Guillou (swedish writer, hardly known outside Scandinavia)

And properly a whole lot I havent forgotten right now

[Porkchop]

Hey Nerds!

Who is your favorite author? Why? And what's your favorite book by them?

Mine is Kurt Vonnegut (which, you would already know if you're friends with me on FB or Twitter, because I quote him constantly).

I love his sense of humor, and how realistic he is about everything.

My favorite book of his is probably Hocus Pocus, or Slapstick, though I have a tattoo from Slaughterhouse Five.

Here's a great article on "15 things KV said better than anyone else": http://www.avclub.com/articles/15-things-kurt-vonnegut-said-better-than-anyone-el,1858/

Slaughterhouse 5 is a classic. I just read it over the summer and thought it was awesome. What does your tat say if you dont mind me asking? I just got done reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I don't usually dig on post apocalyptic stories but this one really drew me in. Lois Lowry's The Giver was also a surprisingly good read as far as my usual tastes go. Id recommend them both. Right now Im reading a Charles Cross book called Kicking & Dreaming. Its a biography about the band Heart (from the 70's and 80's) and the crazieness that ensues from being one of the first bands with female front women with creative control of their music. I had no idea they were that bad-ass, fun read so far. Also check out Heavier Than Heaven and Room Full of Mirrors (biographies of Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix). #adaywithoutmusicislikeadaywithoutsunshine

[obax]

I'm gonna go with a top 3 authors: China Mieville, Nick Harkaway, William Gibson (in no particular order, other than reverse alphabetical by last name). Favourite books by each are The City & the City, The Gone Away World, and Neuromancer, respectively.

My favourite book of all time (so far), however, is Tex and Molly in the Afterlife by Richard Grant. I've reread it at least 5 or 6 times, and I get something new out of it every time. I may have to go dig it out sometime soon and go for another wander through its pages...

[Katariana]

I'm so glad nearly everyone has listed SF/Fantasy novels  

 

I love books and I feel like I have love affairs with authors (then get bored and jump to the next...what can I say, I'm fickle) 

 

I love George R.R. Martin, Tolkein, Roger Zelanzy, Stephen King, plus many classics (seriously love Jane Austen too, she's freakin hilarious) . Have to say my fav. author is one I haven't even seen listed though...

 

Orson Scott Card!  I love him. Not just Ender's Game (and the Bean series afterwards), but the Homecoming Series, the Seventh Son Series, and Enchantment (my fav. book ever). He's such a versatile author.... of course I read alot of teen fiction too so I like the City of Bones series as well as Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, and all that hyped up stuff which is a little like crack. Whatever

[c0dege3k_freerun]

I'd have to say either Neal Stephenson or Robert Ludlum is my favorite author. I love the Bourne trilogy, and Stephenson's cyberpunk writing. Snow Crash is absolutely amazing, and Cryptonomicon is a book I find fascinating, but never can seem to finish it.

 

That said, none of those books are in my top 2. My favorite book ever is 1984, with Shutter Island coming in a close second. Shutter Island is a seriously disturbing book. Like so many books, it's a million times better than the movie. The movie didn't leave out anything huge, but there were a lot of small things in the book that made everything more intense.