Someone you follow, no matter what.

[salinqmind]

Ruth Rendell aka Barbara Vine. Most brilliantly creepy author ever, the old girl keeps cranking out books well into her 80’s. Also Sue Grafton, who better get a move on and finish her alphabet series or there might be a gap on many bookshelves someday…

[GuanoLad]

Paul F Tompkins
Terry Pratchett

[Son_of_a_Rich]

Chris Ware.

[Kelevra]

@WordMan

Yeah, I was a bit curious about that, too. I love David Foster Wallace, but wouldn’t consider his work in this category. Now, I gotta admit - I have been following his legacy - reading pieces by other authors, e.g., Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers/the McSweeney’s crowd (who considered DFW to be their standard-bearer), etc., and I read the biography by DT Max.

For living artists, I would go with Haruki Murakami - his most recent novel, 1Q84, was a letdown to me, but I went there. I would like to claim Neal Stephenson, but the Baroque Cycle was a slog and I threw Reamde aside after way too many pages - maybe 600 in.

…

Oh, and Joss Whedon…

So you have reacted the exact same way as I have over Neal Stephenson. And **Joss Whedon **is just…wow. But I have never read Haruki Murakami. Can you suggest a place to start?

In high school I started reading **Roger Zelazny **and ended up buying everything he ever published. Although he’s dead now so maybe he doesn’t count.

[WordMan]

@Kelevra

So you have reacted the exact same way as I have over Neal Stephenson. And **Joss Whedon **is just…wow. But I have never read Haruki Murakami. Can you suggest a place to start?

In high school I started reading **Roger Zelazny **and ended up buying everything he ever published. Although he’s dead now so maybe he doesn’t count.

Murakami has a few voices - some introspective Catcher in the Rye stuff (Norwegian Wood, the “CitR of Japan”), to Noir/Kafka-esque/pop-culture novels - I’d start there, with The Wild Sheep Chase, and go from there to Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and then to Kafka on the Shore. If you want to start with short stories, his collection The Elephant Vanishes is wonderful . His Nobel swing for the fences was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

[well_he_s_back]

after some more thought, I think my answer is Neil Young

[Prof.Pepperwinkle]

Neil Gaiman
Stephen Fry
Terry Pratchett
Tim Powers
David Tennant
Joss Whedon

[Ethilrist]

Joss Whedon.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

I’ll read anything and everything by James Surowiecki and Malcolm Gladwell

[Sauron]

Cecil Adams.

Why, yes, I AM a suckup. Why do you ask?

[Ponch8]

Ke$ha

[woodstockbirdybird]

Bob Mould
The Coen Brothers
Robyn Hitchcock
David Lynch

[zoog]

Louis CK
T. C. Boyle
The Coen Brothers
Jon Stewart

More musical artists than I could begin to list…

[Oedipus]

What about politically or philosophically? I dig the artist discussion but I wonder about this aspect. Simon and DFW fit both those categories for me, btw.

[zoogirl]

Alice Cooper, for about forty years…eek! Am I really that old?!

[It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery]

I hate to question another poster, but…

@AuntiePam

But I’m fickle. Disappoint me once and you’re off the list. Joe Lansdale, David L. Martin, Dan Simmons, Stephen King are no longer having an impact on my budget.

Isn’t this the opposite of "someone you follow, no matter what?

And, just to stay on topic:

Matt Groening
Joss Whedon
Ken Jennings (just because he turns up in a lot of unexpected places, likewoot!)
Rachel Maddow

[ThisSpaceForRent]

David Bromberg
Vince Herman
Tom Robbins

[MrDibble]

Terry Pratchett
China Miéville
Stephen Fry
Brendan Perry
Michael Gira
I would have said Neil Gaiman but Amanda Palmer killed that cold…