Favorite Author?

[AmorRoark]

Joan Didion here.

 

[alasdairm]

i really like the books of john irving and iain banks.

my favourite book is and the ass saw the angel by nick cave so i guess that make him my favourite author.

alasdair

 

[Arnold]

Jack Higgins

 

[steinanwine]

i really like the books of john irving and iain banks.

my favourite book is and the ass saw the angel by nick cave so i guess that make him my favourite author.

alasdair

I LOVE Irving, I have to ask what books of his are your favorites alasdairm??

My favorites, hmm, this is hard, probably James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, John Irving definitely fits in there somewhere ... and ... I'm not sure what others right now.

 

[ikkyu]

Irving is good! I loved Garp and am in the middle of A Prayer for Owen Meany at the moment.

My vote goes to James Joyce.

 

[johanneschimpo]

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I've read just about everything by him, but since I have today off, I think I'll spend it rereading one of his books of short stories. He's so damn cynical you just have to love it. And every once in a while I buy a pack of Pall Malls in honor of him (the cigarettes he smoked all his life).

 

[AmorRoark]

Haha seems like authors sure like black and white photographs of themselves.

 

[whoa im so awesome]

Stephen King for sure.
Virginia Woolf.
Jane Austen.

 

[Belisarius]

Robert Silverberg, with Stephen King a very close second. Both have influenced my own writing style.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

Alex Garland.
Anne Rice.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Paul Bowles. Although my favorite book is written by a different person! :D

 

[LoveAlways]

Herman Hesse

and

"Seedless" http://www.junkylife.com/seedless/

 

[alasdairm]

I LOVE Irving, I have to ask what books of his are your favorites alasdairm??

my favourite is a prayer for own meany. i also loved garp and hotel new hampshire.

i'm going to add tom robbins. i've read about half his books and i really loved skinny legs and all among others.

alasdair

 

[ebola?]

Ayn Rand
....
...
..
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Okay, fine. Tie between Foucault and Marx, and not by virtue of clear, fluent prose for either.

ebola

 

[Mariposa]

Sigmund Freud and Erica Jong.

 

[Pander Bear]

are foucault and joyce really comparable? I don't like the idea of having to chose between criticism and "writing". I doubt foucault could do what joyce did, while joyce could probably have had a go at criticism/historiography/non-fiction.

 

[pennywise]

I can't choose just one.

But all my favorites are American men. Sorry, Rest Of Humanity.

Stephen King is the best storyteller imo...

but in terms of "prose"...wow...

Hemingway, Philip Roth, John Updike, Charles Bukowski

J.D. Salinger writes the best dialog.

Kerouac can be great but at other times he writes garbage. I think it depends on how good the speed was and how many drinks he had had.

 

[LoveAlways]

Sorry, Rest Of Humanity

lol

Kerouac can be great but at other times he writes garbage. I think it depends on how good the speed was and how many drinks he had had.

so true

Sigmund Freud

quite the comedian

I'll add Edgar Allen Poe simply because I'll soon be related to him (by marriage)

 

[spork]

Here's just a few that I like:

• Chuck Palahniuk
• Douglas Coupland
• William S. Burroughs
• Augusten Burroughs
• James Frey (phony or not, I like his style of writing)

Even though I probably should, I usually don't really pay attention to who the author is of a book. I'll read a book if it sounds like something that I'd like. If it's exceptionally good, I'll take note of the author and go back for more. It's a satisfying feeling to read different books by the same writer and to enjoy each piece.

 

[steinanwine]

Alex Garland.

^ I use to be super into Alex Garland, hardcore style. I am really not sure what it was in particular but I was really captivated by his writing. I still find him to be quite brilliant. I loved The Beach and The Tesseract and the man is simply brilliant for having written the screenplays for 28 Days Later and Sunshine (two of my favorite films, both directed by the brilliant Danny Boyle, both starring the phenomenal Cillian Murphy!).

I read some of his third novel, The Coma in a book store once but obviously did not sit down and read the entire thing (although I remember it being quite short). I am going to request it from my local library now in fact, I miss having Garland in my life. He is a great modern writer. I wish he would write more!! He does psychological fiction so well!



Spork, please, can you recommend a Chuck P book? I have been judging this author (negatively) for so long now without ever having read a single page of his work and I have decided it is time I step off my high horse and read his work so I can judge him properly! I have a feeling I will like him a lot, I just have irrationally disliked and judged him for a while. Since he is one of your favorite authors I trust you would be able to recommend something of his for a first read, thanks!!