# Who is your favorite author? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2000, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671 "2000-12-08T19:24:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/21 "2000-12-09T00:03:06Z")
**Welfy!** My new best friend! I love ALL of those authors, especially Adams and Jacques – I have all of the _Redwall_ series (except Lord Brocktree, which I’ll be getting for Christmas). But my very favorite author, by far, is John Irving. His newer stuff is better, IMO – less talk of Vienna and wrestling. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/22 "2000-12-09T00:52:30Z")
John Steinbeck Jane Austen Charles Dickens William Makepeace Thackeray Gerald Durrell Gene Shepherd Larry Niven Lewis Carroll ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc8723/32.png) [@Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Lord_Davidson)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/23 "2000-12-09T01:04:24Z")
John Irving Robert Jordan Terry Brooks Tom Clancy ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/24 "2000-12-09T01:57:09Z")
If “favorite” means that I buy and read all his books as soon as they’re published, I guess mine must be **Stephen King**. Followed closely by **George R. R. Martin** and **Joe R. Lansdale**. If “favorite” can also include a less-prolific writer who is now dead but everything they’ve written has blown me away, then it’d be **Harriett Simpson Arnow**. ---
**Author:** ![tomas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tomas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomas)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/25 "2000-12-09T04:02:53Z")
John Steinbeck Cormac McArthy ---
**Author:** ![hypergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/49beb7/32.png) [@hypergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hypergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/26 "2000-12-09T04:20:29Z")
William Shakespeare Douglas Adams Norton Juster Dr. Seuss ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/27 "2000-12-09T19:08:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*I like the cheesy pulp paperback thriller stuff. While identification of my favorite author changes on a whim, right now I’d go with Nelson DeMille. > Although I found out in a previous thread, I’m just about his only fan. \*\* DeMille’s not bad – didn’t he write “Gold Coast”? I think Stephen King likes him too. (He plugged a lot of writers in “On Writing”.) Who else does “cheesy pulp paperback thrillers” these days? Would you put Ken Follett in that category? Wilbur Smith? How about David Martin? ---
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/28 "2000-12-09T19:21:35Z")
Easy. Harlan Ellison. Loved by both fans and his peers (witness his multiples of Hugos (voted on by fans) and Nebulas (voted upon by fellow members of the SFWA)), even if he is a bit cantankerous. No-one can appreciate 20th-century literature without picking up a copy of “Strange Wine,” “Deathbird Stories” or Voices from the Edge. Great fiction writer and possible an even better non-fiction writer (he says his most cherished award is his Faulkner/PEN Silver Pen award for his “Voice from the Edge” columns. Brilliantly disturbing work that makes you think. He is an elitist of the best stripe - he demands so much more from his readers. There is no free ride in his writing - you must think about what you’re reading. That, and he has a talent for titles that will make you weep. A sampling: “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Cried the Tick-Tock Man” “The Beast Who Cried Love at the Heart of the World” The rest of my favorites pretty much go through Shakespeare, Raymond Carver, Amy Tan, Jorge Luis Borges, Robert Bloch, Mark Helprin, Steven Gould and Diana Gabaldon. ---
**Author:** ![Melpomene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Melpomene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melpomene)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/29 "2000-12-09T19:57:21Z")
This is easy: **Margaret Atwood** Far and away my favorite author. **William Shakespeare** and **Tom Stoppard** are faves as far as play authors go… There is a _long_ list of other authors I enjoy, but wouldn’t necessarily consider them favorites, here are a smattering of the ones at the top: Sheri Reynolds Barbara Kingsolver Amy Tan Shirley Jackson Ayn Rand Piers Anthony Isaac Asimov John Grisham Aldous Huxley Jane Austen although author name recognition isn’t usually a factor in whether or not I read a book. Although, I will read anything by Atwood. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/30 "2000-12-09T20:23:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AuntiePam \* > **DeMille’s not bad – didn’t he write "Gold Coast"** Yup, that’s the one. And “Plum Island” and “Lions Game” among others. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/31 "2000-12-10T00:16:34Z")
**Thomas Bernhard,** author of _The Voice Imitator._ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/32 "2000-12-10T00:32:54Z")
**purd, tomas,** I like the cut of your jibs. But let me mention (not for the first time) **Harry Crews.** And _PLEASE_, someone else say you have read and enjoyed him! ---
**Author:** ![afireinside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@afireinside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/afireinside)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/33 "2000-12-10T02:45:14Z")
Chuck Palahiniuk. He wrote Invisible Monsters, Survivor: A Novel, and Fight Club. Very twisted stuff. He’s great. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/34 "2000-12-10T02:53:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*And _PLEASE_, someone else say you have read and enjoyed him! \*\* Read, enjoyed, and own an autographed first edition of _The Knockout Artist,_ which is currently out of print, and doesn’t THAT say volumes about the current state of both the publishing industry and U.S. literacy in general? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/35 "2000-12-10T03:22:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*I like the cheesy pulp paperback thriller stuff. While identification of my favorite author changes on a whim, right now I’d go with Nelson DeMille. > Although I found out in a previous thread, I’m just about his only fan. \*\* Hey, count me in! I just started re-reading “The Charm School.” I love his books. Also, I enjoy: Barbara Kingsolver Wally Lamb Amy Tan Ken Follett ---
**Author:** ![beergeek279](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@beergeek279](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beergeek279)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/36 "2000-12-10T03:53:51Z")
Well, I’ll probably surprise noone by saying this, but I would have to say Ayn Rand 🙂 …although if someone hands me a good book and it doesn’t nauseate me in the first 10 pages, I’ll read it! ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/37 "2000-12-10T04:52:00Z")
Diana Gabaldon Robert Jordan ---
**Author:** ![Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/38 "2000-12-10T17:50:24Z")
Robert Heinlein Margaret Wise & Tradcy Hickman Bobby Salvatore and Gherbod Flemming ---
**Author:** ![Davidbw1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@Davidbw1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davidbw1)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/39 "2000-12-10T18:54:49Z")
Asaac Asimov and James L. Halperin ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/40 "2000-12-11T01:29:16Z")
Hypergirl stole mine - Dr. Seuss. Besides him… Raymond Chandler Jim Thompson Stephen Wright Albert Camus Roald Dahl Carl Sagan Nick Hornby Mark Twain J.D. Salinger Katherine Dunn (only rad “Geek Love” but it was excellent) Kurt Vonnegut Franz Kafka [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671.md?page=3)