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Favourite Writers?

posted 4 years ago by Ace_Spade (9659)
35 replies | jump to latest

Who are your favourite masters (and mistresses) of the quill? Let's confine this to fiction, but leave it open amongst genre and medium. Of course, it's often impossible to pick one favourite (it is for me), so go ahead and list several if you wish, and rank them (or not) at your options!

My sheaf of writers:
J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, Graham Greene, John Milton, Neil Gaiman, Fyodor Dostoyevski, Warren Zevon, and Woody Allen.

Those are in no particular order, and I've definitely forgotten many, many names. Of course, there are other names that I love dearly but I'm not quite sure I would put to the list. Douglas Adams, for instance, has been responsible for a good many guffaws and thoughtful moments in my history of reading (and viewing, and listening), but I'm not sure I'd put him to the top with those others. There are many, like Adams, who I would consider to be giants, even if they are not the giant-est of them.

[–] beantown23 (1438) 4 years ago

C S Forester, James Clavell, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Lee Child, Robert Parker, Larry McMurtry, Stuart Woods

[–] nyctc7 (44116) 4 years ago

I like James Clavell and W.E.B. Griffin very much. Fantastic story tellers, they know how to create a page-turner.

[–] beantown23 (1438) 4 years ago

and very easy to read multiple times.

[–] CKid (3842) 4 years ago

J.R.R. Tolkien
Isaac Asimov
Stephen King
Tom Robbins
John Grisham
Tom Clancy
Carl Hiaasen

[–] nyctc7 (44116) 4 years ago

Tom Clancy was a master of mixing fiction with real-world accuracy.

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

Didn't the CIA or the NSA or somebody come knocking at his door wondering how the heck he predicted certain terrorist attacks in a book only to hire him later as a consultant once they found out it was basically because he grasped these sorts of actions so well that he could think like those people?

[–] mikethemartian (7003) 4 years ago

Harper Lee
Truman Capote
John Steinbeck

[–] Eric56 (4580) 4 years ago

...

[–] bellington83 (3293) 4 years ago

J.R.R Tolkien
Douglas Adams
Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

I thought about tossing Pratchett onto my list as well. He was a terrific writer.

One of my big brags is that I have read the full (main) Discworld series, although I haven't gone through all the Tiffany Aching books or peripherals like The Science of the Discworld Part II and III (I've read Part I; it's great).

[–] bellington83 (3293) 4 years ago

Wow!! That's good going. I have another 13/14 to read I think.

Good Omens is one of my all time favourites. Top 3 along with Hitchhiker's Guide and The Lord of the Rings.
I just love the humour and wit Pratchett and Adams wrote with. You can feel the love and enthusiasm they put into their characters.

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

Keep at it! I haven's disliked any of 'em yet. Do you have a favourite thusfar? It becomes harder and harder to pick, but I think I'll always have a soft spot for Mort. All the Death series are great, but Mort was my first Discworld I read, so, that one stays with me. I appreciate Thief of Time for its intellectual philosophizing as much as for its humour. Eric has the most jokes-per-pages, I think (it's short), but Sourcery is my favourite Rincewind (a brilliant character).

Good Omens is terrific, too. I read an interview where Gaiman talked about writing the book, and apparently after mapping it all out, he and Pratchett would basically try to race each other to "the good bits" so they got to write the best stuff. It sounded like great fun just writing it (I'm sure it was tremendously hard work, too).

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Tim Winton
Neil Gaiman
Poppy Z. Brite
Colin Bateman
Stephen King

[–] Thaisticks (3295) 4 years ago

Shakespeare
P.G. Wodehouse
Joseph Conrad
Thomas Hardy
Proust
Jane Austen
George Eliot
James Joyce
Chekhov

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

Wodehouse, of course!

I've only read one Eliot (The Mill and the Floss), but it was terrific.

[–] nyctc7 (44116) 4 years ago

Shelby Foote showing how he read Remembrance of Things Past (Proust) nine times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Wganu0nZs&t=800s

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

thomas sowell
peter singer
martin amis
milton friedman
philip k dick

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

Philip K. Dick is responsible for so many great stories. Not just his own, but the adaptations they've spawned. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an excellent sci-fi novella, but it also gave us Blade Runner and the sequel. Great choice.

[–] Eric56 (4580) 4 years ago

...

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

...?

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

Neal Stephenson
Bruce Sterling
Douglas Adams
Michael Swanwick
H.P. Lovecraft

[–] Ace_Spade (9659) 4 years ago

Lovecraft is a great choice. I mean, they all are, but Lovecraft struck me because his creations created adjectives because up until he wrote them down, we didn't know what they were. That level of originality is surely worth some points.