Terry Pratchett, for the entire Discworld series. He writes brilliant satire as well as interesting plots and characters. William Goldman - The Princess Bride is pretty much my favorite book of all time.
I noticed a lot of people put Stephen King. He used to be mine, cos of the way he drew you into a story. I didnt like fantasy, but he gradually built it up so that the supernatural was fine by the time it was fiull on. Well, recently i read 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and it changed my life (so far anyway). I was also reading 'Visions of Cody' by Jack Kerouac. I hugely, massively recommend both books, and both authors. Especially GGM. As it says on the back of one book 'of all the living authors i know, only one is undoubtedly touched by genius: Gabriel Garcia Marquez' (written by a professional reviewer, not me!) Also: James Joyce Aldous Huxley George Orwell JG Ballard Primo Levi Yann Martel (Life of Pi) Ernest Hemingway Anthony Burgess Charles Bukowski Khaled Hosseini
For many reasons mine is Dean Koontz. I love Christopher Snow, and I really wish he would finished the third book in that series already.
Probably Richard Matheson simply because his writing got me into SF. Wish he'd written more lmao Or Poe if its a short story discussion, his detail and understanding of darker personality traits is amazing
Jacqueline Carey are definitely on my list of favourites. I just started reading Jeff Lindsay, the guy responsible for the Dexter series. His writing style is beautiful and I love reading it.
My favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut Jr., because his books are funny but still end with a sense that you actually learned something new. He is hilariously demented, in my opinion. My favorite novel of his id Slaughter- house Five.
What a question... Garth Nix- Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen (Trilogy) C.S. Lewis- Chronicles of Narnia (he's just awesome) Mercedes Lackey- Dragon Jousters series Stephenie Meyers- Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn There's so many. I love a lot of authors. I'm having trouble remembering the ones I really enjoyed reading...
Raymond E. Feist is the ultimate fiction writer. i love his books, although the do go a little to far in depth occasionally, they are an experience.... magician was his first and best
HI: I thought i'd say hi and join in the conversation. For me the best writers are Jose Saramago, Orson Scott Card, George Owell, Mario Puzo, Umberto Eco and Stephen King.
I've just had a read of House of Leaves... What an interesting book. I will try and find it for myself, the writer (I forget his name) is very very good.
I don't have a single favorite author. However, I do tend to gravitate towards the Russian and Latin American fiction writers for some reason.
Fab question! I'll try to put these in order but it's not easy... Tolkien Guy Gavriel Kay (no-one seems to have mentioned him???!) George RR Martin Robin Hobb Arthur C Clarke Robert Jordan Anne Rice Stephen King (The Stand)
Philip K. Dick. I love the dark, depressing settings and the, more often than not, tragic main characters. in partticular A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Also Terry Pratchet, i can't read depressing stuff all the time
Wow. I can't believe not a single one of my all-time favourites are on here yet. Oscar Wilde, Charles De Lint and Isabel Allende. Eva Luna is one of the most rich (in terms of description/emotional depth) works of literature I've ever read. Allende is often considered the 'mother of modern magical realism'. I also loved the warped mind of Paul Jennings, and the insane creativity of Gillian Rubinstein/Lewis Carroll when I was a kid. This thread makes me awfully curious to check out this 'Vonnegut' guy, who appears to top a lot of lists And I’m ashamed to say I’ve yet to pick up a single Stephen King book I’m on it, I swear!
Isabel Allende ... I picked up a copy of "La Casa de los Espiritus" to work on my spanish, and it is very good so far.
I absolutely love the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and George Orwell. However, 1984 wasn't my favorite work of Orwell, Animal Farm was. I just love the political aspects and the pictures he paints, "No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I like Robin Hobb, Kristain Britain, and Juliette Marillier. Those are all the names coming to mind as my faves at the moment. Oh yeah, Robert Jordan too. Dry in places, but I'm amazed at the scope of his imagination. If nothing else, you have to give him credit for being able to keep track of such a sprawling world and storyline.
Oh, also - just adding a quick side Has anyone ever read anything by a certain 'Stanley Donwood'? He's the artist who does all of Radiohead's (who happen to my favourite band) cover art, and a month or so ago I discovered a link on their site to a collection of tales I thought had been written by Thom Yorke - Donwood's style is reminiscent of Yorke's lyrics. {You can google that name, and the first link that appears (entitled 'S L O W L Y D O W N W A R D') will lead you to a site on which you can read this collection of short stories online for free. (Go to 'the library') } It's a very interesting read, let me tell you. Kind of...'arty farty', if you will, but some of them really moved me. I wouldn't call him a favourite, but the writing got me thinking, and I was curious if anyone had ever read anything by him and what their various opinions were.
My top favourites will always be Wally Lamb and Arundhati Roy. Both Lamb's novels are astounding and never fail to move me. I've read She's Come Undone and the God of Small Things numerous times and every time I read them, I find one more thing to love about the way they both write. Back in college, I did a comparison between these two authors and I was amazed at the similarities I found, considering the fact that one is from the West and the other from the East. Lamb's second novel: I Know This Much Is True was compared to Roy's novel so if you've read both books, dig a little deeper and you'll see what I mean. Just for starters, both books are about twins and both revolve around the life and childhood of said twins.
