# What author do you try to turn people on to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626 "2001-11-10T13:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/41 "2001-11-11T03:18:33Z")
[Paul Quarrington](http://www.quarrington.org/). (He wrote _Whale Music_.) Not his best work, IMHO, but most of his stuff is fantastic, especially [_Civilization: It’s Part In My Downfall._](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394224450/qid=1005448372/sr=1-15/ref=sr_1_0_15/107-1341720-0858919) I like him so much I even read what superficially appear to be _sports novels._ Also [Will Self.](http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,5917,-164,00.html) Dark stuff. ---
**Author:** ![ozonebaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ozonebaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozonebaby)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/42 "2001-11-11T16:30:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bobkitty \* > \*\*Guy Gavriel Kay. I want to have this man’s babies. And that says a LOT. > > Michael Crichton… most people have only seen the movies, but the books are SO MUCH BETTER. _Case of Need_ had me literally at the edge of my seat. > > Edgar Rice Burrough’s Martian books. I quoted him in my undergrad thesis. \*\* Oh yeah I love him! The book Jurassic Park was so much better than the movie!! ---
**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/43 "2001-11-11T19:35:37Z")
I agree with xanadu. James Merrill is an alum from our school, and his family is a big contributor, so we have periodic poetry readings by his son and other people who knew him. Absolutely incredible. I also have to recommend Robert Frost. As much as you think you know him, a second look always clarifies for the better. ---
**Author:** ![xanadu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c4cdca/32.png) [@xanadu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanadu)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/44 "2001-11-11T20:23:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NightRabbit \* > \*\*I agree with xanadu. James Merrill is an alum from our school, and his family is a big contributor, so we have periodic poetry readings by his son and other people who knew him. Absolutely incredible. > > \*\* slight hijack- Does James Merrill really have a son? I’m doing a report on him, and all of my research says that his regret of not having children was one of the themes of his poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/45 "2001-11-11T21:17:53Z")
Second on Will Self, **Larry**. Great Apes is fantastic. Donna Tartt, John Irving, and Tom Robbins are also authors I habitually recommend to my friends. Let me add Philip K. Dick. And Joseph Heller, just because of Catch-22. And the playwright Christopher Hampton. And John Fowles. (Damn, so many recommendations!) Diana Wynne Jones, as far as children’s books go. Jean Anouilh, mostly for his version of Antigone. Richard Hofstadter, Lewis Lapham, Thomas Frank, and Walter Lippmann, non-fiction. Louis de Bernieres, author of Corelli’s Mandolin (and his better works, the Don Emmanuel trilogy)–a latter-day Borges. Daniel Handler and Adam Cadre, both of whom have written wonderfully acerbic and intelligent novels about high school–The Basic Eight and Ready, Okay, respectively. More fun to read than any other books I’ve ever found. ---
**Author:** ![bagkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bagkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bagkitty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/47 "2001-11-11T21:41:40Z")
**IAIN BANKS** - especially _The Wasp Factory_ and _The Crowroad_. I have bought about 15 copies of the first and given them as gifts. The man is a bloody genius, and I feel sorry for those of you who live in the U.S. where it is difficult to get his books. ---
**Author:** ![Mercutio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mercutio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercutio)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/48 "2001-11-11T22:00:33Z")
**Cecil Adams** The Straight Dope 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/49 "2001-11-12T05:38:03Z")
Barbara Kingsolver here also, particularly _The Bean Trees_. Neil Gaiman, anything Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, any of their Liaden Universe works. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/50 "2001-11-12T06:16:29Z")
Currently: Michael Connelly James Lee Burke Carl Hiassen Hemingway John Fowles David Eggers “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” Hannah Nyala “Point Last Seen A Woman Tracker’s Story” ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/51 "2001-11-12T10:47:07Z")
**Richard Brautigan** _Sombrero Fallout, The Hawkline Monster, The Abortion, Trout Fishing in America, In Watermelon Sugar_ …sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecb155/32.png) [@Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Dead_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/52 "2001-11-12T12:15:51Z")
**Chuck Palahnuik**. _Invisible Monsters_, especially. ---
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/53 "2001-11-12T13:46:47Z")
I’m a pusher of Iain Banks - in either of his styles. I’d put in further recommendations for Will Self and Louis De Bernieres - again i feel that the Don Emmanuel trilogy are better than Capitain Corelli’s mandolin. I’m surprised no-one’s mentioned JG Ballard. A superb writer who can tell us a great deal about society. Cocaine Nights is a blinder, Crash is - well you’ve heard about it and its not nice, but it is brilliant. In fact, if he’s written a duff book, i’ve n ot read it. He also does a nice line in thoughtful short sci-fi stories. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/54 "2001-11-12T14:05:29Z")
VS Naipaul, both his fiction and non-fiction are good reads. A Bend In The River was big about 10 years ago and quite good for the fiction side. Beyond Belief, Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples is non-ficiton and full of people and stories. Guaranteed you won’t look at Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia nor Malaysia in the same light. By the way, he also won the Nobel Prize for literature this year. [http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/2001/press.html](http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/2001/press.html) Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite authors. I always give a copy of Women to buddies of mine who go through are real rough breakup. Post Office is amusing, and Ham on Rye details a really rough early life. John Fante was one of Bukowski’s big influences and a great writer. Wait Until Spring Bandini, and Dago Red. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/55 "2001-11-12T14:25:43Z")
**Alasdair Gray** , a very idiosyncratic (and extremely entertaining) Scottish writer who illustrates his own books. His best books are _Poor things_ and _1982, Janine_. He has also written my all-time favourite short story, _Five letters from an Eastern Empire_, about two poets, one comical and one tragical, who are given the task of writing the ultimate poem in a highly original, dystopian version of ancient China. It’s hilarious and very sad at the same time. It has been published in a little book of its own, or you may found it in the short story collection _Unlikely stories, mostly_. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/56 "2001-11-12T14:26:10Z")
William Kennedy Cormack McCarthy Loren Eisley ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/57 "2001-11-12T17:05:29Z")
[ul] [li] **Donald Harington.** Anything up to and including _The Choiring of the Trees_, especially _The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks_ (a novel, despite the non-fiction sound of the title), and _Let Us Build Us a City_, which _is_ non-fiction. The last several novels (_Ekaterina_, _Butterfly Weed_, _Where Angels Rest_) haven’t been up to the standard of the earlier work.[/li][li] **Matt Ridley.** _Genome_ was quite popular, but I think that _The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation_] and _The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature_ are, if anything, even better. In the same vein, I used to push Jared Diamond’s _The Third Chimpanzee_ on people, but since the success of _Guns, Germs, and Steel_, I don’t fell like it’s as necessary.[/li][li] **John Banville.** In particular, his novels about important figures from the early history of science, like _Doctor Copernicus_, _Kepler_, _Newton’s Letter_, etc.[/li][li] **Thomas Lynch.** He finally achieved some renown for his book of essays, _The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade_, but I’ve been a fan of his poetry since finding a remaindered copy of his first book, _Skating with Heather Grace_, years ago.[/li][li] **Dana Gioia.** Another poet who’s become better known for his prose writing, in this case his essays arguing for a return to form in poetry. He won me over in his first appearance in _Poetry_ (the magazine) in the early eighties.[/li][li] **Derek Mahon.** An Irish poet who hasn’t quite achieved the fame of Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, or even of Eavan Boland or Paul Muldoon, but one of my favorites nonetheless.[/li][li] **Mikhail Bulgakov.** Primarily for _The Master and Margarita_, though I do like the other novels, short stories, and plays.[/li][li] **Dawn Powell.** Everyone who’s ever lived, or thought of living, in New York for its intellectual life should read _The Wicked Pavilion_, _The Locusts Have No King_, and _Angels on Toast_.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/58 "2001-11-12T18:22:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mogwei22 \* > **KneadToKnow** have you read _Fermatta_? I read it while travelling via T in Boston…very strange. I read that when it first came out, and I remember enjoying it tremendously. I re-read it several months ago and it had held up pretty well. I still think I enjoyed _Vox_ more, but _The Fermatta_ definitely wins the award for **Nicholson Baker Novel I Would Most Like to See Made into a Movie**. 😃 Especially the bathroom scene. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/59 "2001-11-12T19:12:54Z")
For the classics or at least more well-known: - Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis - the first American to win the Nobel (back when the literature prize still matters) - this book still resonates with the plight of the career man - Autobiography of Malcolm X, with Alex Haley - a truly amazing life - The Red and the Black - Stendhal - amazing, accessible book about the inner life of someone trying to rise above their beginnings Less well known - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami - he is the biggest selling author in Japan, but Americans are less familiar (I don’t know about other parts of the world) - if you like adventure, noir and incredibly good, accessible writing - this is your guy - The Deptford Trilogy (starts with Fifth Business) or the Cornish Trilogy (starts the Rebel Angels) by Robertson Davies - super-entertaining, thoughtful books, rich with wisdom - Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner - another wise, incredibly easy book about friendships over time. ---
**Author:** ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/60 "2001-11-12T19:17:45Z")
**Neil Gaiman.** Genius upon genius upon genius. Particularly appreciated by classics fiends like me. ---
**Author:** ![Sweet\_Sota\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Sweet\_Sota\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Sota_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626/61 "2001-11-12T19:58:07Z")
Jean M. Auel’s _Earth’s Children Series_. Each one is better than the last. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-author-do-you-try-to-turn-people-on-to/92626.md?page=4)