# What is your favorite author and book? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 4, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121 "2000-08-04T14:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/21 "2000-08-04T18:13:04Z")
Mine are pretty common, Catch-22, Joe Heller, and A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole… Oooh maybe The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Cason McCullers Damn, too many choices ---
**Author:** ![enilorac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@enilorac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enilorac)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/22 "2000-08-04T18:19:00Z")
if i were limited to only being able to name one book it would have to be Dune by Frank Herbert. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/23 "2000-08-04T18:26:41Z")
Without a doubt, a gentleman named Jack Whyte. He is still working on “The Camulod Chronicles,” a look at the rise of King Arthur from about three generations back. Here’s the neat part: there’s no fantasy in it. the entire series is historical fiction, and a very believable account of a familiar theme. Art’s great-grandparents are Roman citizens, retired commander and his Primus Pilus, living in England and witnessing the begining of the fall of the Roman Empire. It explains every part of the mythos including the Lady of the Lake, Excalibur, The Sword in the Stone, Merlyn’s reputation, etc. and all in a way that makes you say, “Well, it really could’ve happened like that.” Very entertaining, very educational, and I recommend it to anyone I can. Any dopers who have read it, please let me know what you think; it’s an enjoyable conversation piece. Book 1: The Skystone Book 2: The Singing Sword Book 3: The Eagle’s Brood Book 4: The Saxon Shore Book 5: The Fort at River’s Bend Book 6: Metamorphosis ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/24 "2000-08-04T18:30:17Z")
This is a perfect topic for the IMHO forum. As it says on the Message Board front page, “‘What’s your favorite …?’ For frank exchanges of views on less-than-cosmic topics.” ---
**Author:** ![Endora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Endora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Endora)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/25 "2000-08-04T18:49:44Z")
_The Great Gatsby_, by the great F. Scott Fitzgerald ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/26 "2000-08-04T18:51:59Z")
Goboy, if I weren’t already married, I might propose based on your choice of authors. There can’t be too many people in the world who have even _heard_ of both Pratchett and Trollope, let alone love them both. Have you read any Connie Willis? If not, you have an enormous treat ahead of you. _Bellwether_ is a wonderful comedy that I would describe as Jane Austen meets Dilbert, and _The Doomsday Book_ manages to be funny, tragic, and uplifting all at once. The latter is probably my single favorite book, although it’s an awfully tough choice. ---
**Author:** ![Zaphod\_Beeblebrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/0ea827/32.png) [@Zaphod\_Beeblebrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zaphod_Beeblebrox)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/27 "2000-08-04T18:52:23Z")
I would love to look really cool and name some really high-brow stuff like Joyce, Umberto Eco, Baudelaire, or Kafka. Then I could go buy myself a pipe and a beret and become a bona fide card-carrying intellectual. However, upon trying to narrow it down to one book/author, I got a different result. Since this book qualifies as a candidate for the “Best Book I’ve Ever Read” award, then it follows that the author automatically receives the “Favourite Writer” award. Anyway, the winner is… _drumroll_ Philip K. Dick; _VALIS_. Oh… considering my nickname and all that, I should give a mention to Douglas Adams’ _The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy._ ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/28 "2000-08-04T18:53:32Z")
Tom Clancy is my favorite author…it’s kinda hard for me to pinpoint my favorite book, but right now I would have to say the entire Lord of the Rings set by J.R.R. Tolkien. I mean, they’re all the same story, closely tied together, so I guess they can count as one book… ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/29 "2000-08-04T19:11:17Z")
I can’t narrow it down like that. Well Ill give you my top ten authors and top five books Stephen King Tom Clany Robert Ludlum John Sanford James Patterson Robin Cook Steve Martini\* John Grisham Dean Koontz Patricia Cornwell In pretty much that order Books The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Struab The Runaway Jury - John Grisham The Empress File - John Sandford Rainbow 6 - Tom Clancy The Dark Tower (series) - Stephe King - though I didn’t list any of his books, I believe Steve Martini is a superior legal suspense writer than Grisham. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/30 "2000-08-04T19:13:56Z")
Two (well, three) books: _Hyperion_ and _Fall of Hyperion_ by Dan Simmons - The ultimate Science Fiction novels. Virtually every sub-genre is seamlessly incorporated into the story, and so much more: Chaucer, Catholicism, Zen, the Bible, sub-atomic physics and Keats. Especially Keats. _Tigana_ by Guy Gavriel Kay… but you already know that. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/31 "2000-08-04T19:31:04Z")
The Stand, by Stephen King. A close second would be Swan Song, by Robert McCammon. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/32 "2000-08-04T19:35:17Z")
my favourite author is **kurt vonnegut**. my favourite book is **a clockwork orange** by **anthony burgess**. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/33 "2000-08-04T19:44:41Z")
hijack coming: Delores: I loved that book Swan Song, I can’t believe I left it out. Me and my mother used to srgue about which was better The Stand or Swan Song. You’re the only person I’ve met whose read both, so what made you choose The Stand over Swan Song end hijack ---
**Author:** ![Curate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Curate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curate)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/34 "2000-08-04T20:30:07Z")
Patrick O’Brian is my favorite author, but narrowing down to one book is hard. I think I have to treat his Aubrey-Maturin series as one big novel in 20 volumes. ---
**Author:** ![fredicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@fredicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fredicus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/35 "2000-08-04T21:22:53Z")
I’m very much in agreement with Oicu812 🙂 ( Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” ) ---
**Author:** ![Boots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@Boots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boots)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/36 "2000-08-04T22:19:23Z")
East of Eden by John Steinbeck I have read this book over and over and over and, yes, over. Every time I read it my heart pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/37 "2000-08-04T22:20:49Z")
I’ve posted this in answer to this question so often that it’s not funny anymore. **“Ancient Lights”** by Davis Grubb. Has no one else ever read this book? ---
**Author:** ![Hunsecker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d78d45/32.png) [@Hunsecker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunsecker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/38 "2000-08-04T22:44:53Z")
Favorite author (5 years running now!): Kurt Vonnegut Favorite book: aargh, can’t decide. Heres my top 5: Godel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter) Animal Farm (Orwell) Cats Cradle (Vonnegut) Infinite Jest (Wallace) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig) Also, since no one has mentioned it yet, theres this really great author named Cecil Adams who writes this series called “The Straight Dope”. You should totally check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/39 "2000-08-04T23:04:16Z")
Really, really hard choices here. The ones I name below does not even come close to comprising a complete list. Authors that I currently really like and anticipate their next book: John Irving Neal Stephenson Orson Scott Card Terry Pratchett A few fiction books that I totally admire: A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien) The Ender series (Orson Scott Card) The OP never mentioned non-fiction, which is too bad, because some great books exist in that category. Non-fiction books I loved: One L (Scott Turow) Undaunted Courage (Stephen Ambrose) The Cuckoo’s Egg (Cliff Stoll) A Civil Action (can’t remember author’s name) ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121/40 "2000-08-04T23:12:52Z")
Favorite Books: 1. Catch-22 2. Animal Farm 3. Catcher in the Rye 4. A Confederacy of Dunces 5. 1984 6. Tied for about eight Stephen King books Favorite Authors: 7. Stephen King 8. George Orwell [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-author-and-book/28121.md?page=3)