Terry Pratchett (because I’m trying to collect the whole Discworld series)
Piers Anthony (because I was into his stuff when I was younger and haven’t gotten rid of it yet)
Scott Cunningham (because every Pagan should have some Cunningham)
Isaac Asimov (mostly non-fiction)
White Wolf (because you can never have enough RPG books)
Oh, and my bookshelf USED to be a lot more interesting, but my mom put all but three of my books in storage when i moved away to college, and what i have now is ONE SHELF worth of books i acquired while at school.
Stephen King, not even because he’s my favorite (although I certainly like his stuff), but because his books are so damn long. I swear he must be personally responsible for clearing out several rain-forests.
Martin Amis
Kingsley Amis
Robert B. Parker
Carl Hiaasen
Michael Malone
James Ellroy
Geoff Nicholson
Don De Lillo
Paul Theroux
Henry Miller
Norman Mailer
No one novelist or biographer takes up that much room . . . Footage-wise, most space is taken up with history series: Time/Life’s This Fabulous Century, Mark Sullivan’s Our Times, the Dover Then and Now books.
Interesting question… most of my favourite authors aren’t terribly prolific, so actual shelf inches don’t reflect their importance to me… so, when I actually think about this one, the results are quite surprising.
Ed McBain
Terry Pratchett
Arthur C. Clarke
Patrick O’Brian
Isaac Asimov
“Doc” Smith
Lindsay Davis
Ellis Peters
E. C. Tubb
Brian Aldiss
Michael Moorcock
Stanislaw Lem
The Heinlein Shelf-and-a-Half is definitely the dominating territory-holder. There’s a tie for a close second place by Roger Zelazny (mostly because my husband’s policy is: one copy of an out-of-print Zelazny novel, good, so three copies, better) and Robert Jordan (because when he was reading the series, he insisted on getting the big honkin’ hard-cover as each book came out.)
My list:
Charles de Lint
Ray Bradbury
Kurt Vonnegut
Madeleine L’Engle
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (editors of the “Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror” annual—those suckers are THICK, so they have two shelves of their own)
Winnie the Pooh (many variations thereof, but only classic, non-Disneyfied Pooh).
Also, there are two categories that take up lots of space: gymnastics and the bubonic plague (hey, I’m a woman of varied interests).
In no particular order:
1.) Sir Richard Francis Burton (1001 nights, Pilgrimage, First Footsteps, etc.)
2.) Robert Heinlein
3.) Fredric Brown
4.) Robert H. Von Gulik
5.) Ian Fleming
6.) Jack L. Chalker
7.) H.P. Lovecraft (with a little August Derleth et al)
8.) Robert E. Howard
9.) Edgar Rice Burroughs
This doesn’t necessarily represent my favorites – some writers (Stanley G. Weinbaum) didn’t write much.