# What is your favorite pulp fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960 "2010-10-22T00:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/1 "2010-10-22T00:22:14Z")
C’mon. You know you read it. You may parade around in public with your copies of Umberto Eco and Harlan Ellison, but on the shelves at home lurk volumes by Jacqueline Susann and complete runs of Harlequin romances. What are your guilty pleasures when it comes to “pulp fiction?” You can tell us. Personally, I will cop to owning a fairly complete run of Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy’s [Destroyer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destroyer_%28fiction%29) series, as well as just about every book [W.E.B. Griffin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E.B._Griffin) (William Butterworth III) has written. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/2 "2010-10-22T00:27:07Z")
I have a pretty good collection of books illustrated by [Rudolph Belarski](http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=rudolph+belarski&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1293&bih=568). They’re all terribly-written, but fun reading nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/3 "2010-10-22T00:40:21Z")
John Ringo. My go-to junk reads are all from Baen Books, and if the cover has a chick with a BFG, so much the better. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/4 "2010-10-22T00:45:29Z")
True Crime. Oooh, how I love it. I particularly like Ann Rule, who has perfected the art of knocking off “In Cold Blood,” but to be truthful, I’m not picky. Sometimes the bad ones are oh so good. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/5 "2010-10-22T01:13:04Z")
Preston and Child, Nelson DeMille, Daniel Silva, Michael Connolly. Also, if you throw in a real or fictional expedition to a Himalayan mountain, I’ll read it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/6 "2010-10-22T01:20:09Z")
Nowhere near complete(thrift store purchases mostly) collection of[Mack Bolan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Bolan), [Phoenix Force](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Force) and [Able Team](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Team) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/7 "2010-10-22T01:23:30Z")
When I was a teen, I’d read _anything_ written by that all-time great, Sidney Sheldon. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/8 "2010-10-22T01:27:06Z")
Any cheap paperback collection of science fiction stories. Date doesn’t matter, authors don’t matter, editors don’t matter\*… Used bookstore clerks sigh with relief when I buy the books they’ve had on the shelf for years, wondering if it would ever sell. \*OK, so I’m a sucker for anything edited by Isaac Asimov, but I’ll still buy anything. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/9 "2010-10-22T01:56:53Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > \*OK, so I’m a sucker for anything edited by Isaac Asimov, but I’ll still buy anything. Mild pet peeve here. Asimov never edited anything. He wrote a quickie introduction for collections of stories that the listed co-editors actually did all the work for. His name sold the books, so they were happy to let him do this 100+ times. However, I’ve actually edited collections and I know the difference in the amount of work involved. (About 1,000,000%.) Such is reality, however. I can’t read garbage fiction anymore, so I don’t have any current examples, but I’ve read thousands of old mysteries. There are many names who really aren’t awful but aren’t all that good either, but who are easy to digest and have series characters that I’ve read to the end. One of the weirder examples is Elliott Roosevelt, FDR’s son. He hired a writer to do a series of mysteries starring his mother, Eleanor, solving mysteries in the White House. His ghostwriter was so prolific that they came out for more than ten years after Roosevelt died. And he had a second, worse, ghostwriter turn out even more. Margaret Truman, Truman’s daughter, also has a series of Washington mysteries almost certainly ghostwritten, almost certainly by Donald Bain, though he must by contract deny it. Bain is a slightly better ghost than Roosevelt’s, William Harrington. Steve Allen, who has written dozens of books legitimately, had two ghosts write a series of mysteries under his name, starring Steve Allen as the detective. They’re pretty rotten, although some of the show biz insider stuff sounds real enough. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/10 "2010-10-22T02:08:17Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Mild pet peeve here. Asimov never edited anything. He wrote a quickie introduction for collections of stories that the listed co-editors actually did all the work for. His name sold the books, so they were happy to let him do this 100+ times. However, I’ve actually edited collections and I know the difference in the amount of work involved. (About 1,000,000%.) Such is reality, however. Sure, but it’s those quickie introductions and anecdotes about the authors that I love. There are so many people editing those collections that only a very few are actually recognizable to me, but I can usually count on Asimov to tell a funny story about singing karaoke with Anne McCaffrey or trading insults with Harlan Ellison. It _is_ pulp fiction; my expectations are low. ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/11 "2010-10-22T02:26:45Z")
As far as what I consider true pulp fiction goes, easily [Jim Thompson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_%28writer%29). ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/12 "2010-10-22T02:29:53Z")
The Pendergast series by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Although the last one I read (_Wheel of Darkness_) was weak. If we’re talking old school pulp fiction, then _Doc Savage_. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/13 "2010-10-22T03:26:44Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > John Ringo. My go-to junk reads are all from Baen Books, and if the cover has a chick with a BFG, so much the better. Yup. All [Hail](http://i39.tinypic.com/30t49dg.jpg) the God King, Baby! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/14 "2010-10-22T03:33:16Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I can’t read garbage fiction anymore, so I don’t have any current examples, but I’ve read thousands of old mysteries. There are many names who really aren’t awful but aren’t all that good either, but who are easy to digest and have series characters that I’ve read to the end. One of the weirder examples is Elliott Roosevelt, FDR’s son. He hired a writer to do a series of mysteries starring his mother, Eleanor, solving mysteries in the White House. His ghostwriter was so prolific that they came out for more than ten years after Roosevelt died. And he had a second, worse, ghostwriter turn out even more. Margaret Truman, Truman’s daughter, also has a series of Washington mysteries almost certainly ghostwritten, almost certainly by Donald Bain, though he must by contract deny it. Bain is a slightly better ghost than Roosevelt’s, William Harrington. > > Steve Allen, who has written dozens of books legitimately, had two ghosts write a series of mysteries under his name, starring Steve Allen as the detective. They’re pretty rotten, although some of the show biz insider stuff sounds real enough. Is there any online site where you can find out who the actual authors were that wrote books under somebody else’s name? Either ghost writing for a celebrity or writing under a house name? ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/15 "2010-10-22T19:14:41Z")
I’ve read everything by Judith Krantz, Maeve Binchy, Rosamund Pilcher, John Grisham, and (forgive me) Dan Brown. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/16 "2010-10-22T19:18:48Z")
Robert E. [Howard.](http://www.killerreviews.com/images/news/conan_the_barbarian.jpg) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/17 "2010-10-22T19:21:55Z")
David Weber & the Honor Harrington series. David Sherman/dan Cragg & the Starfist series. David Drake & the RCN (Lt. Leary) series. I like a little cheese with my space opera. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/18 "2010-10-22T19:23:03Z")
When I read the OP my first thought was Doc Savage. But it looks like my Clive Cussler collection may qualify as well. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/19 "2010-10-22T19:29:13Z")
Clive Cussler definitely qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960/20 "2010-10-22T19:49:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Is there any online site where you can find out who the actual authors were that wrote books under somebody else’s name? Either ghost writing for a celebrity or writing under a house name? I don’t know of any single site. You can find some specialized sites for mystery writers or sf writers, and there are similar resources in print form, but most of it comes down to doing the research name by name. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-pulp-fiction/557960.md?page=2)