# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/61 "2000-12-15T05:33:44Z")
Note: Badtz here is writing about Harlan Ellison: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > \*\*I also mentioned that I find his writing style obnoxious. It would intrude on my ability to enjoy his work even if he wrote better stories, but I get sick of him rehashing his life’s guilt trips and injustices. He almost always writes himself into his stories, usually in a very obvious manner, and his writing style makes you very conscious that it’s Ellison telling you the story, and as a person I intensely dislike him - he’s very self-important and smug. Even though he frequently throws in the token bad things about the standard Harlan/Protagonist to make it introspective and hip, even then the accent is on how much the person suffers knowing how rotten they are. A few stories like this are OK, but when that keeps coming back again and again and it’s the same character always feeling the same thing, it gets old. It’s like he got fame mining his own life’s experiences for stories and then realized that’s all he’s got - and didn’t have the sense to quit before his work became self-parody. \*\* Anyone else want to help me explain why this applies to almost every bleeping author that’s ever lived? ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/62 "2000-12-15T05:58:42Z")
Someone who I love that hasn’t been mentioned… **Ann Patchett** I highly recommend all of her books. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/63 "2000-12-15T21:46:19Z")
Oohhh, Eve was TOO nice to me! I HAVE to say that the Grande Dame herself, Eve Golden, is my all time favorite biographer (or else). I’ve only read “Anna Held” so far, but it is good. My other favorites? Frederick Forsythe (especially Day of the Jackal) Robert Heinlein David McCulloch Colleen McCulloch Stephen Jay Gould Willy Ley L. Sprague deCamp Martin Gardner T.H. White Fredric Brown Mark Twain Lucian Martial Hans van Gulik Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur C. Clarke Isaac Asimov Cecil Scott Forester ---
**Author:** ![Claudia\_VonL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Claudia\_VonL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claudia_VonL)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/64 "2000-12-15T22:44:18Z")
Can one have a favorite author?I have many!Books are like potatoe chips,you can’t have just one. Tom Clancey(Without Remorse) J.R.R.Tolkien(Lord of the Rings) Frank Herbert(Dune) Fletcher Knebel(Night of CampDavid) Alan Dean Foster(Day of Dissonance) Terry Brooks(Vale of the Vole) THIS IS JUST A BEGINING!!!My head swims! READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ!READ! ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/65 "2000-12-15T22:53:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Claudia VonL \* > **Can one have a favorite author?I have many!Books are like potatoe chips,you can’t have just one.** How about favorite politicians, **Claudia**? I’m guessing, Dan Quayle? ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/66 "2000-12-15T23:05:24Z")
Depends on what I feel like reading. For humorous essays, nobody beats S. J. Perelman in my book. I’m very fond of Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle for mysteries. And for sports biographies and sports nonfiction, Robert Creamer is tops. In the children’s book category, while J. K. Rowling is wildly popular and I do like her style in the Harry Potter series, I think it’s a little premature to make her my favorite. Gloria Skurzynski and her daughter, Alane Ferguson, are both excellent writers of children’s fiction and nonfiction. I also like Stephen King. I think he’s been given a bad rap because he brought a resurgence to the horror genre. But I find his narrative gripping, his pacing superb, and his grasp and deployment of what makes people want to keep reading is excellent. You can’t ask for more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/67 "2000-12-16T02:53:16Z")
Non-fiction: Howard Zinn. Fiction: George Orwell, Joseph Heller (although I hate everything he did that wasn’t Catch-22…Catch-22 is my favorite book, and keeps him near the top), Douglas Adams, Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Sousa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@Chris\_Sousa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chris_Sousa)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/68 "2000-12-16T03:14:13Z")
Nick Hornby ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/69 "2000-12-16T19:01:49Z")
Harper Lee Margaret Atwood Jane Austen Alison Weir (she writes history) (Its a shame Harper Lee hasn’t really written anything besides To Kill A Mockingbird) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671/70 "2000-12-16T19:38:39Z")
**Dangerosa** - Alison Weir. The Children of Henry VIII is in my TBR pile. (Not Liz and the others, the book.) Think I’ll grab it and head for the recliner, turn on the heat and the massage, and wait for spring. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-author/44671.md?page=3)