# Who is your favorite author? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2000, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950 "2000-06-20T05:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/21 "2000-06-20T17:29:41Z")
I’m gonna go with Tom Clancy as well. Some of Michael Crichton’s works I enjoy too. That’s as far as novels go. On the humourous side, I’ll read anything by David Sedaris or Connie Willis. Absolutely fuckin’ hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/22 "2000-06-20T18:23:25Z")
Stephen King P.J. O’Roarke Ben Stein Ray Bradbury ---
**Author:** ![lablonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@lablonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lablonde)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/23 "2000-06-20T18:30:48Z")
Ghost Story - Peter Straub Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/24 "2000-06-20T18:32:11Z")
I’ll promote Eve’s book for her! (That link didn’t work for me, Eve) [Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld’s Broadway by Eve](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813121531/qid=961525225/sr=1-1/102-0588842-5780144) (Hey Eve I notice you’re published by the University Press of Kentucky. Small world! [a recent book review by me](http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/091999/bookdocs/0919ballard-book.htm) My favorite author? I can’t name just one! John Irving has been a perennial favorite and I _think_ I’ve read all of Gail Godwin’s novels. But then again, I’ve also read all Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, so that’s not really a qualifier. Irving always makes me laugh and gave me an incurable weakness for the semicolon. I’ve always enjoyed Anne Rice, too, even before she became the mega popular Goth priestess, or whatever she is. Memnoch the Devil is a fascinating exploration of the meaning of religion and just who God is. And of course, her books are always seething with barely repressed sexuality. In the vampire books, she lets a bit of it out with The Tale of the Body Thief. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/25 "2000-06-20T18:43:51Z")
Wow, Eve. I am definitely going to buy your book when I get some $$, sounds delicious. Okay, my fave authors are: Dean Koontx Betty Smith Barbara Kingsolver Steven King Tolstoy Dickens Kurt Vonnegut Happy reading, folks! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/26 "2000-06-20T19:03:49Z")
Wow, Ellen—how’s about you review MY book? I can get my publisher to send you a FREE COPY! Remember, gang, I’ll sign and send back any you send to my work address . . . Try and get Dave Barry or Frank McCourt t’ do THAT! ---
**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:** [June 20, 2000, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/27 "2000-06-20T19:10:04Z")
**kurt vonnegut**. ---
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/28 "2000-06-20T19:23:49Z")
I’ll throw in another Roger Zelazny vote. ---
**Author:** ![Kiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d78d45/32.png) [@Kiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiva)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/29 "2000-06-20T19:28:04Z")
Hmm… Annie Dillard Carl Sagan James Lileks Dorothy L. Sayers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Michael Crichton Preston/Child Elizabeth Peters Tolkein Lloyd Alexander Herge Stephen Jay Gould Er, was I only supposed to pick _one_? ---
**Author:** ![KimKatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@KimKatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KimKatt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/30 "2000-06-20T20:50:29Z")
Jane Austen. and Cecil Adams. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/31 "2000-06-20T20:57:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Wow, Ellen—how’s about you review MY book? I can get my publisher to send you a FREE COPY! > > Remember, gang, I’ll sign and send back any you send to my work address . . . Try and get Dave Barry or Frank McCourt t’ do THAT! Yeah, I’m still grumpy that Frank McCourt hasn’t come to town. He promised he’d be here in October … then cancelled. I’d love a copy of your book to review! I’d have to clear it with the paper since I just do it freelance. And how do you think I stock my library?? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/32 "2000-06-20T21:18:38Z")
My favorite author is a close tie between Stephen King or Dean Koontz. My favorite King book is “Eye of the Dragon”: favorite movie, “The Langoliers”. My favorite Dean Koontz book is “Dragon Tears” or “The Eyes of Darkness”. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/33 "2000-06-20T22:08:03Z")
1. David Foster Wallace 2. Henry Miller 3. Franklin W. Dixon 4. Rick Bass 5. Tim O’Brian 6. Fyodor Dostoevsky 7. Charles Bukowski ---
**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/34 "2000-06-20T22:31:17Z")
My favorite author changes every week. It just depends on what book I am currently reading. However, my current favorites are (in no particular order) Larry McMurtry Charles Dickens Stephen King Harriet Beecher Stowe And, of course Lilian Jackson Braun. Silver Fire - My favorite King book is “Eye of the Dragon” too. I have talked to so many so called King fans who have never even heard of that book! ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/35 "2000-06-20T23:02:18Z")
Kurt Vonnegut Douglass Coupland TC Boyle Scott Fitzgerald Dorothy Allison Tobias Wolfe ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/36 "2000-06-20T23:04:10Z")
Ooh Ooh! Totally forgot Tim O’Brien! ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/37 "2000-06-21T00:35:17Z")
It depends on what I’m currently reading, what I’ve just finished reading, what sort of mood I’m in, etc. Right now, I’m reading _Hunter’s Death_ by Michelle West and _Kim_ by Rudyard Kipling, so they’re both on the list. Who else…Steven Brust. Robin McKinley. Dickens. Perhaps Barbara Kingsolver. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/38 "2000-06-21T00:35:56Z")
Joe Lansdale, King, George R. R. Martin, Eudora Welty, Larry McMurtry, early Toni Morrison, Willa Cather, Alice Hoffman, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Thomas Disch – oh screw it! Too many. And **Harriett Simpson Arnow**! I know some of you appreciate stories with an Appalachian setting. Forgot about her for years, then unpacked some books over the weekend and there she was. “The Dollmaker” is back in print. I don’t know about “Hunter’s Horn” and “The Weedkiller’s Daughter”, but find them if you can. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/39 "2000-06-21T01:53:40Z")
I’ll second Dan Simmons. My favorite of his is “The Hollow Man”. (No relation to the upcoming movie, as far as I know) But my favorite author is currently Greg Egan. He writes science fiction of the sort that really makes you think. The question reality sort of book. And to top it off, he’s an awesome programmer. Check out his home page which has some short stories and some sample java applets. [http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/](http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/40 "2000-06-21T02:09:11Z")
John Ralston Saul and Dorothy Parker [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950.md?page=3)