Favorite Authors

[Hantz]

I was just curious to see who everyone liked to read. I can't get the search function to work, so I'm sorry if this exists somewhere.

Personally, as a kid I loved Tolkien. It was imaginative and fantastical, and as a kid that stuff was appealing.

But I kind of grew out of that, surely by high school.

As an adult, my tastes in writing are different. I've read most of the standard "I'm a grown up now" authors (Camus, Huxley, Salinger, etc.). And a lot of my friends are really attached to those authors. The one that really stuck out to me was Voltaire. I couldn't believe how hilarious Candide was (sample: upon finding a beautiful woman who has been abused and lies nearly dead, a Eunich sees her and declares, in Latin, "What a shame it is to be without balls...") especially for how old it was. Voltaire also has many very hilarious quotes ("I've only ever made the same prayer; that God make my enemies rediculous. And he granted it.").

But above all, for whatever reason, the writings of Charles Bukowski affect me the most directly. My friends dismiss his work as too overtly offensive, and they believe it is all an act to seem perverse. I don't think that. He seems to pour out his feelings on the subject at hand, without altering them to seem acceptable by societal standards, no matter how wrong they seem.

The few movies I've seen based on his work were fair. "Barfly" I saw well before I read Buk, and I had no idea they were at all connected until I had already been exposed to both. The book he wrote based on the experience of having a movie made about his writings (Hollywood) was better than the film though.

Anyway, enough of all my stuff. It's easier just to actually read a bit of the authors than it is for me to try to explain it all.

So what are your favorites?

[Rain_Blade]

Re: Favorite Authors

When I was in elementary school, I was in love with the Boxcar Children series. The author of them is Gertrude Chandler Warner. In middle school, I loved a book called Inkheart. The author of that book is Cornelia Caroline Funke. Then...I came to a series that I couldn't stop reading (well, I stopped reading it when I couldn't find the next book of the series...). It's called Cirque Du Freak. The author is Darren Shan. Now, I haven't read a book in a long time.

Mandatory books I've read in school:

Great Expectations - In my opinion, it was boring to read. When we (the class) finished it, I thought it was an amazing book but boring to read.

The Dun Cow - I have a faunt memory of this, but I remember how it was a little funny, but it was a great book.

The Prince and the Pauper - I loved that book. Boring to read, but I loved it.

The Phantom Tollbooth - Creative book. All I can say.

Some books by William Shapespeare - He's clearly a genius in stories. I read them the hard way though. I didn't read the fully understoodable version, but here's a amazing storymaker.

Lord of the Flies - I love that book. I could picture so many of what was happening. It was so realistic.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Outstanding. No other words I can say better.

Speak - That was a fun book to read because the whole class liked it and we had our laughs every now and then.

[Feba]

Re: Favorite Authors

I used to like the Artemis Fowl series, but the last few books have been total crap. Even the third book was really freaking stretching it.

I've never really liked most fiction reading, it just bores me. I can stand most graphic novels/comics/manga, but I generally don't have the money to spend on them (When you read through a fifteen dollar book in two hours, you'd feel kinda ripped off too), and Shonen Jump only ever had two or three good series at a time, which wasn't worth my time. Mainly, when I do read from a book and not the internet, it's non-fiction, mainly things like instructions on doing something or teaching about something.

Right now, my bookshelf looks like:

Top shelf: Half filled with magazines. Mostly video game magazines, with a few PopScis and PopMechs, entrepreneur, that sort of thing.

Second shelf, a couple science magazines (SEED I believe, can't see them from here), a book on mars, about a quarter of a shelf of PC books (with such classics as Running Office97 and Build Your Own Combat Robot), and some language books,

Third Shelf: A few DS games, a small stack of Mad Magazines, a dilbert book, and a "wacky nature" book.

Fourth shelf: A few books on star wars technology, a book on dog training, a few Uncle John's, a book on Nostradamus' prophecies, a dictionary, a few Reader's Digests, a copy of West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet, .hack manga, a Chronicles of Narnia boxset (I couldn't get past the first few chapters), my artemis fowl books, and azumanga.

Fifth and final shelf, a CD case, a few binders full of YGO CCG cards, a textbook on US history, an encyclopedia of basic questions, volume one of some library encyclopedia, and a book of world records.

[Murphie]

Re: Favorite Authors

I enjoyed Candide as well, Hantz. I read it sometime last year.

When I was a kid, I read sci-fi/fantasy to the exclusion of pretty much anything else. I was big into D&D, so I read the various Dragonlance/Forgotton Realms/etc. books, but I also read Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, Anne McCaffrey, and so on. Basically if the cover of the book had a wizard or a dragon on it, I was good to go.

As I got older, I grew out of that, and branched out a bit more in terms of reading. I went through a big Anne Rice phase for a while, although I did find a few of her books to be lacking in quality, and I feel that her more recent efforts haven't been nearly as good as her earlier stuff. Her son, Christopher Rice, also has some enjoyable thriller fiction, but I doubt it would appeal to many people here.

Some of Gregory Maguire's stuff is good. I loved Wicked, but thought Son of a Witch was merely ok. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke was one of the best books I read last year. I just read her collection of short stories a week or two ago, and loved it too. Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series is pretty good for kids books, and I enjoyed reading them after a re-read of CS Lewis's Narnia books (during which I nearly gave myself a headache from the eye rolling).

I love E.M. Forster, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, John Galsworthy, W. Sommerset Maugham, Ray Bradbury, Kazuo Ishiguro, Donna Tartt, and Christopher Moore. But really, I discover new authors that I love every week, so listing them all would take forever.

I find Chuck Pahlaniuk a bit full of himself, but I've enjoyed a couple of his books. I like Neil Gaiman well enough, I suppose. Um. Well, I'm sure I'm missing several people.

I've been trying to read 60 books a year, but last year I didn't succeed. The entry from my Livejournal:

2006's Book List, or: How I can neither count, nor keep a goal.

I didn't reach my goal of 60 Books. I didn't even get halfway there (although until I compiled this list, I thought I had). Pretty disappointing, but it was the first time I tried something like this, so perhaps I shouldn't beat myself up too much for not keeping up. To be fair, if I had kept the pace I'd started at, I would have had no problem reaching my goal by the end of the year. But by May, I got seriously distracted, and my reading became far more sporadic. Heck, I started Pride and Predjudice in October, by the looks of my entry announcing it, and I just managed to finish it on New Year's Eve afternoon.

So, The List, for those who are curious. Fun fact! Books 1-21 were read in the first five months of the year. It took me the remaining seven months to read seven more books.

1. - Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
2. - Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
3. - Howards End - E.M. Forster
4. - Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
5. - Emma - Jane Austen
6. - The Elephants of Style - Bill Walsh
7. - The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
8. - Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
9. - The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
10. - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
11. - The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
12. - The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
13. - The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
14. - Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
15. - Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
16. - Candide - Voltaire
17. - American Gods - Neil Gaiman
18. - The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio - Terry Ryan
19. - Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
20. - Wicked - Gregory Maguire
21. - Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire
22. - The Time Traveler's Wife -
23. - The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
24. - The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin/Nicola Kraus
25. - Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
26. - A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
27. - The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
28. - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin

I have started my reading for 2007 with Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. I started on the first, and I'm moving incredibly slowly through it. I'm just now at the part where Newland and his mother appeal to the van der Luydens for assistance in getting New York Society to accept Ellen Olenska. So, what - Chapter 5? Geez. I may need to put the book on hold while I read something more in tune with my current state of mind. But what that is, I couldn't tell you anyway.

And my current list for 2007:

2007

1. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
2. Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger
3. Silverthorn - Raymond E. Feist (reread)
4. A Darkness at Sethanon - Raymond E. Feist (reread)
5. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oliver Wilde
7. The Man of Property - John Galsworthy
8. In Chancery - John Galsworthy
9. To Let - John Galsworthy
10. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
11. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt - Anne Rice
12. The Silmarillion - Tolkien (reread - I just love it so much)
13. The Tolkien Companion - J.E.A. Tyler
14. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
15. Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (reread)
16. Dragons of Winter Night - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (reread)
17. Dragons of Spring Dawning - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (reread)
18. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories - Susanna Clarke
19. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling (reread)
20. Little Children - Tom Perotta
21. When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

[Mhurron]

Re: Favorite Authors

I like Green Eggs and Ham.

[Feba]

Re: Favorite Authors

I like Green Eggs and Ham.

I do not like them.

[Murphie]

Re: Favorite Authors

They are ok, actually. Well, I'm not a huge fan of eggs, but they are still ok.

[Hantz]

Re: Favorite Authors

find Chuck Pahlaniuk a bit full of himself, but I've enjoyed a couple of his books.

Thank you. I liked "Choke" enough, but that guy actually does seem like he's doing it all for effect.

I did a report on Oscar WIlde in high school. I really should read some of his books too, not just his plays.

I wish I could get myself reading as much as you; that's a pretty impressive list. The last book I was on ("the Tales of Genji") was such a mushmouth read that I got bogged down and didn't even finish it >.< I gotta get my crap together.

[Murphie]

Re: Favorite Authors

It's nowhere near my goal of 60 though. :/ It'll probably take me a couple of years to get up to that point.

On my LJ, I try and write a summary of my thoughts on the book, either when I'm reading it, or when I've finished it. I've kind of gotten away from that lately, but now that I've realized it, I guess I'll get back to it. Or something.

Re: Pahlaniuk, I have a friend who just loves everything the man says and does. He and I have had to agree to disagree on the subject. I read his books, and I'm thinking to myself "Yes, I GET IT. You're DARK. You're GRITTY. You're pointing out the TRUTHS hidden the SEEDY UNDERBELLY OF SOCIETY. Yawn."

Lullaby wasn't bad, by the way. It's worth checking out if you haven't.

[Hantz]

Re: Favorite Authors

Re: Pahlaniuk, I have a friend who just loves everything the man says and does. He and I have had to agree to disagree on the subject. I read his books, and I'm thinking to myself "Yes, I GET IT. You're DARK. You're GRITTY. You're pointing out the TRUTHS hidden the SEEDY UNDERBELLY OF SOCIETY. Yawn."

Exactly. This is what my friends think of Bukowski, but he walked the walk, staying in the underbelly without accepting success/money.

Granted, I'll still probably read Lullaby. But I won't pay for it. My step-brother eats that crap up, so I'll borrow it.

[Alshandra]

Re: Favorite Authors

I'm a big fan of the fantasy genre (what a shock) at the moment I'm reading Ian Irvine (Australian fantasy author) but love Katherine Kerr (borrowed my character name from her books) and Raymond E Feist and Robin Hobb.

Although I'll admit, I don't read as much as I used to since starting FFXI >.>