# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![blokeychap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@blokeychap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blokeychap)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/81 "2000-07-05T11:17:01Z")
Robert Jordan … heeheeheeheeheehee ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/82 "2000-07-05T14:17:53Z")
Anyone else read Harry Crews? The Gypsy’s Curse is probably my favorite, followed by A Feast of Snakes. And I feel I identify with many of Walker Percy’s protagonists. ---
**Author:** ![lunapark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/278dde/32.png) [@lunapark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lunapark)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/83 "2000-07-05T18:05:01Z")
I definitely have to put my 2cents it this one, as i love literature. Henry Miller Leo Tolstoy John Steinbeck Charles Bukowski J.R.R. Tolkien J.D. Salinger Not in any order, those are just my fav’s. ---
**Author:** ![ren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@ren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ren)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/84 "2000-07-05T19:38:03Z")
Fiction: Jonathan Lethem Don DeLillo Gabriel Garcia Marquez Heinrich Boll Jorge Luis Borges Haruki Murakami David Foster Wallace T C Boyle Lorrie Moore Mark Twain Kate Wilhelm Ursula LeGuin Harlan Ellison Sherwood Anderson William Faulkner George Orwell Arthur Miller Albert Camus Non-Fiction: Stephen J Gould Jared Diamond Richard Rhodes Todd Gitlin Barry Lopez Jon Krakauer E. B. White Lewis Lapham Poetry: W. S. Merwin Mark Strand Denise Levertov Dylan Thomas Rainer Maria Rilke Charles Bukowski Emily Dickinson James Dickey James Wright William Blake and that Shakespeare guy. ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/85 "2000-07-05T23:54:55Z")
Short List (in no particular order): Fiction: Kurt Vonnegut Mark Twain John Steinbeck Feodor Dostoevsky Thomas Pynchon Umberto Eco Harper Lee Non-Fiction: William Least Heat Moon H. L. Mencken P. J. O’Rourke Viktor Frankl Robert Pirsig ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/86 "2000-07-06T00:06:59Z")
I dunno about Harlan Ellison… Sure, he’s got edge, but it seems to me that he doesn’t have anything _but_ edge. The best sci-fi author currently alive (I don’t know what hemisphere he’s on) is probably Larry Niven, but I’m sure others would debate that. ---
**Author:** ![wolly36](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@wolly36](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolly36)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/87 "2000-07-06T02:57:40Z")
I’d have to go with Dave Barry. I guess he’s “officially” an author, not a columnist, since he put out Big Trouble. ---
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/88 "2000-07-06T03:06:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ren \* > \*\*Fiction: > > Jonathan Lethem > Don DeLillo > Gabriel Garcia Marquez > Heinrich Boll > Jorge Luis Borges > Haruki Murakami > David Foster Wallace > T C Boyle > Lorrie Moore > Mark Twain > Kate Wilhelm > Ursula LeGuin > Harlan Ellison > > \*\* Yay, another Harlan fan! ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/89 "2000-07-06T03:15:01Z")
Dostoevsky. He is the best author at getting a philosophical/existential point across while making it an entertaining story, rather then shoving the point in your face like most philosophical authors do. ---
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/90 "2000-07-06T03:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*I dunno about Harlan Ellison… Sure, he’s got edge, but it seems to me that he doesn’t have anything _but_ edge. The best sci-fi author currently alive (I don’t know what hemisphere he’s on) is probably Larry Niven, but I’m sure others would debate that. \*\* Okay, I’m going to try to be nice here. Sci-fi is a term invented by lazy editors. The term is “science-fiction”. Alternatively, you might use “speculative fiction.” As for Harlan Ellison, he has written in pretty much every style and genre one could imagine: mystery, science-fiction, romance, horror, etc. Larry Niven has been a fine author, but he seems to me to have lost an edge in the past few years. For some Ellison examples with a little more honed of an edge, try “Rowing Christopher Columbus Ashore” from Slippage or from the Best American Short Stories of 1994. Alternatively, try his audio readings. I highly recommend, though not written by him, Ellison’s reading of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” from Great American Speeches. ---
**Author:** ![bedhog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@bedhog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bedhog)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/91 "2000-07-06T04:04:34Z")
Since my husband and I agreed to give up TV for a year, I’ve read more in the last 10 months than I have in the last 10 years. Some favorites (in no particular order): E. Annie Proulx Anne Tyler John Irving F. Scott Fitzgerald Dominick Dunne Cecil Adams (naturally…) P.J. O’Rourke Noam Chomsky Patrick Susskind Jane Austen John Updike ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/92 "2000-07-06T12:40:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JosephFinn \* > Sci-fi is a term invented by lazy editors. The term is “science-fiction”. Alternatively, you might use “speculative fiction.” Actually, “Sci-fi” was coined by Forry Ackerman, noted fan figure and occasional editor/publisher (e.g. _Famous Monsters of Filmland_). Very very few people actually involved with SF professionally can stand the term “sci-fi” (and those few are exclusively of the younger generations – all of the old-timers hate it with a passion). The preferred abbreviation within the field is “SF” (see the spines of most paperbacks, the David Hartwell-edited _Year’s Best SF_ series, and so forth). Ellison was one of the writers who led the push for “SF” to stand for “Speculative friction” (on the grounds that the latter was more inclusive than “science fiction” and thus covered fantasy, horror, and the uncategorizable works that Ellison himself writes), but that fight was lost in the early '70s. Lazy editors have nothing to do with it. For myself, I’m still fighting a rear-guard effort for Hugo Gernsback’s preferred term, “Scientifiction.” Hard to spell, hard to pronounce; how can you not love it? It abbreviates to “stf,” which some old-time fans still use. Oh, and SF people generally pronounce “sci-fi” as “skiffy.” It’s meant as a term of contempt, as in “That last Star Wars movie was just skiffy; it didn’t have a single idea in its addle-pated head.” ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/93 "2000-07-06T16:39:57Z")
Tom Clancy Dale Brown Stephen Coonts Clive Cussler Mick Foley Nelson DeMille Stephen King And of course… Cecil Adams ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/94 "2000-07-06T19:27:52Z")
This isn’t easy–I read almost anything–but here goes: J.R.R. Tolkien (of course) P.C. Hodgell (\ best fantasy since Tolkien, and she has hell getting it printed!) Robert Heinlein (wrote the 1st novel I ever read) Larry Niven (physics is fun!) Anne McCaffrey (How can you not love SF with dragons?) Stephen King (if he’ll finish whatever the hell he’s up to and let us read it!) Barry Hughart (insanely funny ancient Chinese fantasy, sorta) Mercedes Lackey (Don’t start. I like her characterizations, and she’s prolific enough to help me keep the monkey on my back fed.) And, of course, what nonfiction section would be complete without Cecil? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/95 "2000-07-06T19:47:03Z")
David Foster Wallace Tom Wolfe Douglas Adams Douglas Hofstadter Stanislaw Lem Cecil Adams ---
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/96 "2000-07-07T01:33:12Z")
Piers Anothony (all) Asimov (all) Philip Jose Farmer (the dungeon series) Robert Jordan (the wheel of time series) Winston Groom (Better times than these and Forrest Gump) VC Andrews (all) Clive Barker (The great and secret show) Robert Adams (The horseclan series) And I adore the chronicles of Narnia but I can’t remember the author. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/97 "2000-07-07T04:19:11Z")
**Kricket** , I think the author of the chronicles of Narnia was C.S. Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Sledman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Sledman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sledman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/98 "2000-07-07T21:13:56Z")
Gordon MacQuarrie and his stories of the Old Duck Hunter’s Association… Perhaps never a finer outdoor’s writer has ever existed. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/99 "2000-07-07T21:39:32Z")
You mean besides me? Frederick Forsyth Mark Twain Dave Barry Robert Heinlein Lucian Fredric Brown I pick up anything by these guys and I’m hooked ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950/100 "2000-07-07T23:10:02Z")
Apologies on the use of the term “sci-fi”-- I probably do know better, but never realized that I do. I must say, though, that I’m not too keen on trying to squish science fiction and fantasy together, a’la “speculative fiction”. Don’t get me wrong, I love SF, and I love fantasy, but they’re two different genres. Oh, and I think I forgot to put C. S. Lewis on my list; him too. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/22950.md?page=6)