Favourite authors
 

For bahtatboy ;)

So who are your favourite authors? Which writers' books do you return to and will read anything they've published?

George Orwell
Laurie Lee
Terry Pratchett
Marian Keyes
Anita Shreeve
Bill Bryson


I've enjoyed so many books, but these are the writers who, for me, are consistently enjoyable.

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Richard Dawkins
Christopher Hitchens
Stephen Fry
Jeremy Clarkson
Irvine Welsh

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Bill Bryson
Eric Van Lustbader
George R.R. Martin
Tom Sharpe

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I'll go along with Bill Bryson, I like his observational stance, and can I add John Steinbeck. I'd also add Harper Lee but as she only wrote one book it's a bit tricky.

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But what a book! :)

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R.L. Stine

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Stephen Leather
Micheal Connelly
David Baldacci
Chris Ryan
Andy McNab
Howard Marks
Rusty someone or other (wrote Marching Powder)

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George R.R. Martin
Stephen Leather
Micheal Connelly
David Baldacci
Robert Crais
Raymond E Feist
David Eddings

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Daniel Goleman
Thich Nhat Hanh
Dr. Wayne Dyer
Dalai Lama
Ken Follet ( when I want to read something light)
Tara Bennet
Dale Carnegie

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I read quite alot and there are too many to list, but recently I have enjoyed:

Robert Ludlum
George RR Martin
Kafka
Dumas
David Wong
Tom Clancy

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Terry Pratchett (what a great universe)
Jasper Fforde (totally mad but very entertaining, everyone must read The Fourth Bear)
Jo Jo Moyes (chic lit, no apologies)
Bill Bryson
Jane Austen
Kevin Ashman
Oscar Wilde
Emily Bronte
William Thackeray
Some Dickens not all
Gena Showalter (pure filth)
Noam Chomsky
Richard Dawkins

and probably a lot more if i think about it long enough

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Enid Blyton

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For me some of the ones not named already are:
Iain Banks,
Michael Lewis (especially Liar's Poker)
Roddy Doyle; though I imagine he can be considered a bit local.

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Agree with Iain Banks. I also like Ian Rankin books, too, especially the ones he wrote under the pen-name Jack Harvey.

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Totally! The Rebus ones are good but the JH ones are awesome! Very very readable!

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Haruki Murakami
Jo Nesbo
John Niven
Will Self
Douglas Coupland

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Roddy Doyle
Harry Pearson
Mark Billingham
Peter Robinson
Simon Armitage

Actually just realised, hardly any novels on my shelves, all books about music and football :D

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Long time ago friends suggested Patrick O'Brien. I did not take their advice. Now loss of central vision means that I cannot read books but I am getting them as audiobooks (CDs) from my local library. Great stuff !

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Bernard Cornwall
John Grisham
Scott Mariani
Conn Iggulden
Ken Follett
Stephen Hunter
Thomas Harris
Jack Higgins
Tom Clancy
W.E.B Griffin - lately has been shit, as the above two.

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Rusty Young - Marching Powder - Brilliant book - it set me off on a jail story reading frenzy! If you enjoyed this get Hotel K by Kathryn Bonella and No More Tomorrows again by Kathryn Bonella and Schapelle Corby

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Favourite authors - Ian Rankin - Rebus books outstanding
Iain Banks - Still love love love Espedair Street
Nick Hornby - books far superior than the films

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I'm a big Ian Rankin fan as well, and Stuart Macbride who writes in a similar vein has become a favourite more recently.

Other favourites include Stephen Fry, Douglas Coupland, Stephen E Ambrose, David Simon, Hunter S Thompson and Robert Harris.

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For me the litmus test is 'would I pay full price for the new book', so on that basis my favourite authors are:
Lee Child ( just re read the killing floor)
Ian Rankin (Rebus and his Jack Harvey novels)
Marian Keyes
Robert Crais
Michael Connelly
David baldacci
Kate Atkinson - like the Jackson Brodie novels, but life after life was good too
Jojo moyes
Dorothy koomson

I'll also read these too
Robert Craig
Stewart mac bride (although the cannibalism one was too gory for me, I like the aberdeen setting -home city)
Peter May
Lisa gardener
Jane Austen
Georgette Heyer
George rr Martin game of thrones series
Victoria hislop

I love reading and used to take ten books on holiday for a week -e books are a godsend, when they work!!

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I find many authors very inconsistent........... I loved Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (in some ways, I can honestly say it changed my life, or my perspective of it) but I couldn't get into most of his other stuff.

Ditto: Ray Bradbury and many sci-fi authors (a genre I tend to enjoy, however). Isaac Asimov's work is brilliantly constructed (I think that is the right word for the Foundation series) but it takes a bit of effort............

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Forgot about him and I agree. Anyone that likes Rankin should look him up.

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Have a look on audiable.co.uk / com depending where you are.

You can download 2 audiobooks a month for £7.

Saves a lot of messing about downloading them off torrent site as they have all the chapter breaks etc.

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Will do, thanks.

I take it you have read Mr Nice by Howard Marks?

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Agreed squared. Halfhead is very weird but enjoyable. His others are pretty good too.

I also forgot about Lee Child, I've read all of the Reacher ones although his last two have been average at best.

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Quite agree. Birdsong is a good example too. Incredible book, but the others haven't grabbed me in the same way.

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Yep, read that and enjoyed it. Another book on the same lines is Smokescreen, by Robert Sebag.

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Cheers, will have a looksee!

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Yup! Another great read and in my opinion rotten film - but I always say that about books that have been made into films! Rhys Ifans also put me off.

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For returning time and time again to any and all output:

Jane Austen
Terry Pratchett
Christopher Brookmyre

Doing an English degree atm - there's a lot of dross out there - I'm sure some stuff only gets into the Canon because it's unintelligible. I wouldn't trust anyone who said they liked several authors - though the pretensions are amusing

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Kurt Vonnegut

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Agreed, it never really got going and seemed to miss out vast swaths of the best bits of the book.

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So you don't trust yourself?

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That seems a very odd thing, even prentious, thing to say. It's perfectly normal to like different writers and read lots of different types of book. In the same way that no one only ever listens to one band or singer.

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I thought the same thing earlier. Then i felt like maybe i was pretentious, lol

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Agree completely who wants to be one dimensional? I tend to read things that I am interested in. That varies from astro-physics down to football and easy read thrillers etc.

Just because I read it something it doesn't mean I undertsand it all either ;). I read Thus Spoke Zarathustra a few weeks ago.........whoosh!

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when I say several authors I have them in mind but would not name them as am not out to try and insult anyone who may have decided they do like them.

It sounds like some people may suspect they do like such work but I guess any sensitivity says more about them than me. By the way I haven't read every post in depth but I haven't spotted any yet here and anyone who I have met who claimed such things has only backed up my notions (often because despite claiming a preference they are then unable to discuss the work in any interesting detail).

I fully agree that many people like different books - a very intelligent and witty friend of mine told me to give catch 22 a miss cos it was boring and hard to get into - as I'd already bought it I read it anyway and thought it was brilliant. All I was saying is that there are a few novels that only seem to exist to make student life hell. Frankly I'm sure most people who read a lot have a similar list. And I'm certainly not going to get started on anything that's massively popular that a teenager would have done a better job of writing as I'm sure that would be endlessly controversial.