Who is your favorite author and why?

Heinlein. Yes, he has his faults but I still love his work.

I like Brett Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt's first book, Jan Wolkers, Umberto Eco....

Dr. Seuss

I don't read books anymore. Too hard to see little print, but when I did my favorites were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Robert Ludlum.

I like John Grisham and Jonathan Kellerman about equally.

That's my 3rd favorite

Alice Walker. There are no words to describe her work. It's incredible.

It used to be Alice Walker - just because she can make me cry with pain and cry with joy. And she is a womanist author.

But I think it has to be now, Philip Pullman - author of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. I was hooked on the three books. Wonderful.

Give me a year to get over it though and I may go back to Alice as my No.1.

Snap! She really is a brilliant author.

I have yet to read a novel by Don DeLillo that didn't astound me.

Snap!

I have more than one favorite: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Ann Rule, Ridley Pearson, John Sanford, Jeffrey Deaver, P.N. Elrod and Bentley Little are all favorites of mine. I couldn't just pick one.

I would have to say Jane & Michael Stern, because they write a lot about pop culture--one of my favorite subjects.

I can't say that I have a single favorite author. A lot depends upon the medium, too.

For books, a few of my favorites are Ursula K. LeGuin, Robert Anton Wilson, Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, Greg Egan, Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman and Neil Gaiman.

In comics, some of my favorites are Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Peter Milligan, Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman.

They all open new worlds to me.

I don't really have a favorite at the moment. I'm in a period of change, I think. Some of the authors I loved have disappointed me in their recent work (e.g Iain Banks and Neal Stephenson). I'm reading Jonathan Lethem now and liking it, but I haven't read enough to save favorite. Also, I've enjoyed a couple Aleister Reynolds books, though they haven't been as great as Banks and Stephenson's best stuff.

I personally like alot of authors, but right now I'm into a lot of James Patterson and Max Allan Collins. James Patterson has a few Genetic Engineering thrillers out, which I'm into, and MAC writes the CSI series, along with a few other novels I like, such as The Titanic Murders, because it has my blood relative, Jacques Futrelle, in it. Jacques Futrelle was a famous french author who died on the titanic.

Ellen Hart, Patricia Cornwell, Stephen King, Sue Grafton, Dean Koontz, Franz Kafka, Katherine Forrest, J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)...and many others.

Speaking of Stephen King.. hes documenting the 2004 Boston Red Sox in a book, hes gonna release the book soon after the season ends... novemberish... :D Now.. he just doesnt seem like the type to do that... I wonder if hes gonna comment on the curse?

Go BoSox! :D

Geez..

David Brin
Stephen King
Daniel Quinn
JK Rowling
etc.

Good one!

somebody named scotty-wotty-doodle...just because he rocks

Favorite authors include James Thurber, W.T. Quick, Zylpha Keatley Snyder, Annie Dillard, Guy Gavriel Kay, and John Crowley (no relation to Aleister). And I love them because it is a joy to read their work.

I.
:: does her fair share of evil laughter ::
Okay, beside myself, I like Shakespeare (because he kicks ass), Dickens (his freaky characters are what make his books so unique), Rowling (Harry Potter rulz!), Douglas Adams (because he made me read a 800-page Sci-Fi book... I still haven't read that Dostoyevski that's sitting on my shelf and Dostoyevski is far, far, far from Sci-Fi), and Terry Pretchet (I haven't actually read anything by him yet, and as the things are progressing it will be a while before I do... I've been reading Ivanhoe for last four weeks... but when I do I know I'll love it). Other mentionable fiction authors: Irwin Welsh, Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Mann, Remarque, and Helen Fielding.

From poets, I like Yeats the best. His poems are just so flowing and the language and metaphores are so beautiful that they intensify the picturesque imaginery (oh fudge, that sentence makes my 'things to say when you're bullcrapting in English'). Other ones I like: Blake, Keats, Frost, Ovid, nameless Mediaeval poets, and Sappho.

From non-fiction authors, I enjoy works by Suetonius, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Asimov.

1. Earnest Hemmingway because "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is a masterwork
2. Jean Auel, because I'm currently on the 3rd of the "Earth's Children" series
3. Barbara Kingsolver, of whose books I haven't read a poorly written one yet
4. Dorothy Bryant
5. Paulo Cohelo

Kerouac and Baudelaire. Both for the same reasons, a perfect balance between style and (mostly negative but not only) emotions. Kerouac is indeed very formal, even if he invented or used new forms.

I guess I'd have to say Philip K. Dick, because I've read more of his books than anyone else. There are lots of reasons why I like reading his books. My friends like him too, so we can talk about them. His attitudes and beliefs seem to be fairly similar to mine. Most of his books are pretty easy to read and entertaining. They often have surprises. Sometimes there is a little humour in there. I enjoy vintage Sci-Fi in general and his books are very much that. There's lots of them, he was a very prolific author for someone who only wrote for 27 years.

I have their "Encyclopedia of Bad Taste"!

I have a couple of their books: Sixties People and The Encyclopedia of Pop Culture.

They also wrote a definitive book on Elvis that I borrowed from my local library some time ago, called Elvis World. They go into great detail describing Elvis' life and career. One passage I remember from the book is how they definitively describe how girls would scream, faint, and cry at his early concerts. They go on to say how some girls scream to the point of wetting their pants!!

Yes, apparently the wet seats thing was a problem at early Beatles concerts as well...

That guy, you know... the one wrote that book, the author guy. You know the one.
Kidding. Asimov, Bradbury, all the original Science fiction greats from the 30's through the 50's who set all the standards that everyone basterdizes and takes for granted today.
Great Question!

Ben Elton

I like the humour

...and so there are too many for me to list!
I'm not fussy - I read everything (almost).

What I don't read is a shorter list;
Harlequin type romances
Self-help/improvement books

Oh, no doubt.

What did you think of The Old Man and the Sea?

I personally thought it was a pile of crap.

I thought that Old Man and the Sea was realllllllllllllllllllllllly depressing.
The Hemingway that I thought was a pile of crap was Green Hills of Africa...and Farewell to Arms was not too good, too.
So, you must be thinking, why did she list Hemingway first? Because, you see, they, For Whom the Bell Tolls is so good, it gave me pause. The book is rich, with it's some 500 odd pages, and it takes place over the course of I think about 3½ days. Just amazing.

Hmm.. maybe I'll have to put it on my list.. I've always sort of hated Hemingway for putting me through the hell that is called The Old Man and the Sea.

Yeah, I understand...it's perrrrtyyyy bad. You will probably be surprised, though, if you read For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Anyone else here agree or disagree???

JRR Tolkien - he had a brilliant mind and yet lived a normal day to day life.

Stephen King. I have read almost all of his books and I can say I have never been loyal to any authors in the past with the exception of him.

Ken Wilber, because he is enlightening.

Nicholas Sparks

J.K. Rowling-- because she can be way out there and still be considered normal.

I have a few... I love Terry Pratchett, I haven't read a single one of his books that I haven't loved, One of my favourite books of all time, is Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray - I love Oscar Wilde, and a lot of his poetry too.

Poe because i'm a depressed fudgeer

Me because I never know what I'll write next

my favorite author is John Steinbeck...I just love the way he writes...hes GREAT!

Have you read The Grapes of Wrath? It's next on my list and I'm really looking forward to it!

> What did you think of The Old Man and the Sea?
>
> I personally thought it was a pile of crap.
That's one of those under-150-pages books I could not finish because it was so boring.

ayn rand because she started with a great story and went from there on the human condition.

I don't really have one. David Foster Wallace wrote my favorite book, but I'm not sure he's really my overall favorite.

Toni Morrison. I love Song of Solomon. It was so creative and brilliant. It touched into a whole new world for me. I also like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Cade Bambara.
Victor Hugo. I completely and utterly fell in love with Les Miserables. It is the greatest book ever written. It combines almost every literary element.

I don't have a favorite.

I couldn't possibly pick just one! There are too many that I turn to for different things, and new ones that I am discovering every day.

Have you read Coraline by Neil Gaiman? It's a children's book, but I still thought that it was amazing. Plus, it has scary buttons in it The only other book of his that I've read is Neverwhere and that was great.

I love Thurber! I don't think that's something many people of my generation are likely to say - I've never even heard anyone else mention his name (although one of his creations, Walter Mitty came up during the enquiry into the death of the British intelligence expert David Kelley). My mother recommended his books to me, and my mother's recommendations are well worth following.

I gave a copy of Coraline to my partner as a present a while back and I still haven't read it myself!

Gaiman had a major impact on the comics industry with his work on "The Sandman" for DC. It's a great story, very adult storytelling... and it helped open up the mainstream comics industry to storytelling aimed at adults rather than kids.

He's also really cute!

I keep picking up The Sandman and wanting to buy it, but never quite wanting to spend that much money on something that I might not like. I wonder if my local library might have it? I have enjoyed certain comics very much, though I've never read more than about one or two of a series - usually ones by JMS.

I don't think that I've ever seen a picture of Neil Gaiman though - perhaps I should find one!

He has a good website up at http://www.neilgaiman.com

It seems possible that the library might have The Sandman... there are a lot of them in the trade paperback collections and it would be pretty expensive to buy them all.

JMS has recently been writing a series called Supreme Power for Marvel... it seems to be a retelling of the basic stories behind some of DC's (Marvel's distinguished competition) main heroes - Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, The Flash... ironic, as there's a very popular British writer, Warren Ellis, who's doing what's essentially a reframing of Marvel's Fantastic Four as evil people who squash all unearthly happenings as potential threats to them, for comics line that DC publishes (this story's called "Planetary" and is the big payoff for being a comics nerdboy for 30 years...)

I really should try to read more comics - an entire art form out there, virtually unknown to me!

Given the quality of a lot of them, it's best you haven't wasted your time on them... and they're expensive now, too!

I noticed that when I was looking at Midnight Nation. I could get a book for the price of a single comic that only tells a tiny part of the story

Rex Stout, because he just has a very distinct style that's funny and intriguing. Plus, I love his characters!

Did you ever see the live musical of Les Miserables?

I did, but not professional. High school version. Twas awsome.

I just love the songs from it, especially Castle on a Cloud.

Edith Wharton. Just when you thought it could not possibly get any worse, it does. It is her gift.

Beverly Cleary

Dean Koontz, One of the many reasons is .. I don't have to re-read a sentence or paragraph to capture what he says. I get it the first time. Even in all the other authors I read (fiction and non-fiction), I have to re-read sentences and paragraphs. Koontz also has the best usage of little known words and I always expand my vocabulary and literary sense. I literally get on the edge of my chair or bed or lawnchair when I read his books due to his prolific descriptions and induced emotions.