# Novels by Famous Non-Writers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839 "2009-01-31T05:20:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/1 "2009-01-31T05:20:45Z")
I’ve read “Sock” by Penn Jillette and it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either. Ex-WWE wrestler Mick Foley wrote his autobiographies without a ghost and they were bestsellers. This gave him the idea that he could write, so he wrote a novel. I’ve read his bios, which were OK, again, but I haven’t yet tried his novel. I scanned the first few pages of Hugh Laurie’s book at the bookstore and it was really funny and cool. OTOH, I read the first page of one(he has more) of Ethan Hawke’s novels and it gave me a headache. I laughed when he played a writer in “Before Sunset.” I’ve heard good things about Steve Martin’s novel “Shopgirl,” but I haven’t read it or seen the movie, either. He has more, too. Which novels by people famous for something other than writing are good? Which are great? Which are godawful horrible? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/2 "2009-01-31T05:27:37Z")
I’ve heard that Professor Tolkien has tried his hand at fiction! ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/3 "2009-01-31T05:32:36Z")
I enjoyed _Shopgirl_, but it’s a very odd book. I would almost want to say it’s chick lit (but it’s not quite. If you liked Janet Ivanovich’s Stephanie Plum detective series), it’s like that but without the action and drama. It’s got quirky humor, but it’s pretty much a romantic novel and a “what am i doing with my life” sort of theme. I’ve read another one of his books, and enjoyed that one too, but I cannot recall ANYTHING about the plot, other than it read like Shopgirl, but the plot was completely different except with the same theme of the “what am i doing with my life” vibe pervading it. I love The Autobiographies of Mick Foley. But really only the first one would be remotely appealing to those who aren’t big fans of the wrestling world. The first one is just a GREAT look at his life, and just feels like he’s sitting you down and talking straight to you. The other ones get kind of redundant and less exciting, and really just offer nitty gritty details that unless you follow wrestling aren’t that great. But the Original Novel by him… I always love reading it, as I find it inspirational in a weird sorta way. I think i should pick up the Hugh Laurie book, he seems like he’d be able to write a good book. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/4 "2009-01-31T06:01:07Z")
Bill O’Reilly wrote a hilariously lurid crime novel called _Those Who Trespass_. It’s a testament to O’Reilly’s ego that the novel features not one, but two Mary Sues. A good one and a bad one. The bad one is a egotistical TV journalist who goes around killing industry people who piss off Bill O’Reilly. The good Mary Sue is a no-nonsense, Irish detective named O’Malley. The battling Sues are also both studs who women find irresistable, and they vie over the affections of a beautiful sex object. O’Reilly includes some cringe-inducing sex scenes in the book, some of which Al Franken quoted for PALATR value in his book _Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_. There’s also ascene where the bad Sue chokes a woman named Hillary with her own panties and throws her off a balcony. It’s an atrocious book, exactly the kind of amateur fiction you can find on people’s blogs, but it’s entertaining in how revealing it is about the author. I own a copy of the Laurie book, by the way. It’s pretty good. It’s got a slightly absurdist, Douglas Adams-ish kind of humor to it. Definitely more readable than you’d expect from the average TV actor. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/5 "2009-01-31T06:07:16Z")
About 20 years back, U.S. Senators Gary Hart and William Cohen teamed up to write a lame spy novel called “The Double Man.” ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/6 "2009-01-31T06:11:41Z")
Haven’t read it but Nicole Richie wrote a book (don’t know if it qualifies as a novel) called _The Truth About Diamonds_. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/7 "2009-01-31T06:17:49Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Haven’t read it but Nicole Richie wrote a book (don’t know if it qualifies as a novel) called _The Truth About Diamonds_. I haven’t read it, but from what I understand they’re hot. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/8 "2009-01-31T06:18:47Z")
😃 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/9 "2009-01-31T06:27:49Z")
f gordon liddy of watergate fame wrote a real stinker of a novel. michael Palin of monty python fame wrote ‘hemingways chair.’ it was decent but no humor and was a pretty depessing read. all of andt mcnabb’s books might be considered fiction. there’s a doper that is a Regiment veteran that could weigh in on this. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/10 "2009-01-31T15:27:29Z")
Didn’t both Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton “write” novels? Lynn Cheney wrote one, with lesbian sex on the pioneer trail, or sumpin’. Steve Martin’s Shopgirl was surprisingly good, I thought. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/11 "2009-01-31T15:36:28Z")
I believe G. Gordon’s actually written several novels. Chuck Colson wrote one - GIDEON’S TORCH, I didn’t care for it. Sociologist & Catholic priest Andrew Greeley started writing novels in the 1970s & that pretty much became a major career for him. I was into them for a while and I do still like some of them but when a new Fr/Msgr Blackie mystery comes out now, I usually pass on it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/12 "2009-01-31T15:54:29Z")
Kinky Friedman is first and foremost a country western singer/songwriter, who later wrote mysteries. Attorney Andrew Vachss wrote several mysteries about a vigilante named Burke. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/13 "2009-01-31T15:56:09Z")
Former second lady Marilyn Quayle wrote a novel ‘Embrace the Serpent,’ which, despite the promising title, is tragically not about a sex-filled voodoo rite. British PM Winston S. Churchill won a Nobel Prize in Literature mainly for his non-fiction, but he did write one novel, Savronola. (Oddly, at the time he wrote it, there was a best-selling American novelist also named Winston Churchill. Lists of best-sellers from the early 20th century now need a footnote explaining, ‘No, it’s not _that_ Winston Churchill.’) Dick Francis was well-known as a jockey before becoming a successful author. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/14 "2009-01-31T16:00:56Z")
Supposedly, William Shatner wrote some novels (I say “supposedly” because he pretty much hints in each of them who his ghostwriter was). The same for Leonard Nimoy, Newt Gingrich, and [Richard Dreyfuss](http://www.amazon.ca/Two-Georges-Dreyfuss-Turtledove/dp/0812544595), but both had other writers to do the heavy lifting. Fannie Flagg was famous as an actress and TV game show regular before writing some very well-received novels. Barry Sadler became famous as a singer/songwriter (“Ballad of the Green Berets”), but when his music career flagged, he became a successful writer of thriller novels (the later ones were ghosted, but he wrote the first few himself). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/15 "2009-01-31T16:01:20Z")
Both James Brady and Michael Walsh are well known non-fiction writers who have penned novels. Walsh’s “As Time Goes By” is a good expansion of the story of Casablanca. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/16 "2009-01-31T16:14:15Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > Lynn Cheney wrote one, with lesbian sex on the pioneer trail, or sumpin’. Cheney’s written several novels, I believe. Scooter Libby wrote a historical fiction novel about imperial Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/17 "2009-01-31T16:23:15Z")
Carrie Fisher and Ben Elton have both written very well received novels. The most successful person on this list was definitely B-movie actress Jacqueline Susann. ---
**Author:** ![Albrecht\_Durer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@Albrecht\_Durer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Durer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/18 "2009-01-31T16:49:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > About 20 years back, U.S. Senators Gary Hart and William Cohen teamed up to write a lame spy novel called “The Double Man.” If this is the William Cohen who was Secretary of Defense under Clinton, he’s also an accomplished poet. I’ve read Hugh Laurie’s novel, and thought it was great. His long-time comedy partner, Stephen Fry, has written quite a few novels, none of which I’ve been fortunate enough to read. ---
**Author:** ![Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hook)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/19 "2009-01-31T17:33:16Z")
Jimmy Buffet of Margaritaville and Parrothead fame has a number of books under his name. The only one I’ve read is “Where is Joe Merchant?” - it was surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839/20 "2009-01-31T17:35:46Z")
Jim Webb famously wrote a novel set in Vietnam where a dad pops his boy’s penis in his mouth. I think George Allen somebody may have mentioned it during his senate campaign. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-by-famous-non-writers/483839.md?page=2)