Who are your 3 favorite authors

[Randy Parker]

I'm looking for current authors of fiction, but if you want to include all-time, go ahead and let us know.

 

1. Dean Koontz...I like his humor and the genre (thrillers and horrors). His Odd Thomas series is my favorite series.

 

2. Harlan Coben...Hadn't read a book of his until this year. His Myron Bolitar series is fantastic. He's the Tony Gwynn of authors for me.

 

3. Michael Koryta...A bit lesser-known than the other two, but his genre mirrors that of Koontz. A lot of his books are set in his home state of Indiana, but he has one set in a fictional EKY town that I really liked. The first book of his that I read, The Prophet, would be a terrific read with high school football season fast approaching.

 

 

So who are your favorites?

[CincySportsFan]

Robert B. Parker

David Baldacci

Lee Child

 

Also, going old school, Agatha Christie up there as well.

[Getslow]

Current Writers:

Neal Stephenson - Anathem and Snow Crash alone put this guy easily on an all-time Top Ten list for me and he probably tops a straight list I'd do of current writers. Speculative fiction is one of my favorite things and he combines it with world creation in a way no other author can.

 

Umberto Eco - Again just two works -- The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum -- could get him on this list but his others are also great. A professor of semiotics, he writes more non-fiction than fiction, but his novels are pure gold to me. His books take the form of mysteries that involve the interpretation of symbols, his expertise. They're amazing.

 

Tim O'Brien - I don't know if he's really writing anymore so maybe he doesn't belong here. Hasn't published in about a decade but is still alive so there's hope. Great stuff from him, much of it drawn from his time serving in Vietnam. The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato are especially brilliant.

 

All-Time:

Ernest Hemingway

J.R.R. Tolkien

Isaac Asimov

[Jumper_Dad]

I love the geopolitical thrillers of Tom Clancy

David Baldacci

and going back to middle/high school S.E. Hinton

[hoops5]

1. Harlan Coben

2. Lee Child

3. David Baldacci

 

then

4. James Patterson

5. Andrew Gross

[Habib]

Tough question to answer. I don't read enough modern fiction to contribute. And when I do it's rare I read the same author more than once unless they were beyond remarkable.

 

Jeffrey Eugenides is one of those people. Middlesex was outstanding. I bought The Marriage Plot when it came out and I'll buy his next book too.

 

David Mitchell is mindbogglingly good. Cloud Atlas is one most have heard of because of the movie, but the book is amazing and he has a catalog of similarly brilliant works.

 

If you're looking for a serial writer, I really enjoy Penny Louise's "Inspector Gamache" series. She's sort of a modern Agathe Christie. I really enjoy those books.

 

I know he's dead, but I think David Foster Wallace was the greatest writer who lived during my lifetime. Some of his work is impenetrable and almost impossible to read and makes you wonder what kind of mind he could have possibly had to produce something beyond the grasp of mere mortals. But what makes him brilliant is when his writing connects and describes something about life that you know in your head but never had the combination of words to even think about it before or articulates some basic truth from it that you're convinced he's described the world so perfectly that there's nothing left to be said about it. It's like the definitive narration. I don't know. I'm an idiot. But his writing is otherworldly.

[Habib]

Umberto Eco - Again just two works -- The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum -- could get him on this list but his others are also great. A professor of semiotics, he writes more non-fiction than fiction, but his novels are pure gold to me. His books take the form of mysteries that involve the interpretation of symbols, his expertise. They're amazing.

 

Might have to check this out. I assume the title in the second book refers to the philosopher?

[MJAlltheWay24]

David Baldacci

John Grisham

Dan Brown

[75center]

James Lee Burke

James Michener

John Grisham

[mcpapa]

Current Writers:

Neal Stephenson - Anathem and Snow Crash alone put this guy easily on an all-time Top Ten list for me and he probably tops a straight list I'd do of current writers. Speculative fiction is one of my favorite things and he combines it with world creation in a way no other author can.

 

Umberto Eco - Again just two works -- The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum -- could get him on this list but his others are also great. A professor of semiotics, he writes more non-fiction than fiction, but his novels are pure gold to me. His books take the form of mysteries that involve the interpretation of symbols, his expertise. They're amazing.

 

Tim O'Brien - I don't know if he's really writing anymore so maybe he doesn't belong here. Hasn't published in about a decade but is still alive so there's hope. Great stuff from him, much of it drawn from his time serving in Vietnam. The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato are especially brilliant.

 

All-Time:

Ernest Hemingway

J.R.R. Tolkien

Isaac Asimov

 

I've read the Baroque Cycle twice. Fascinating stuff.

[mcpapa]

James Lee Burke

James Michener

John Grisham

 

Don't care for Grisham. The other two are top-notch.

[mcpapa]

Might have to check this out. I assume the title in the second book refers to the philosopher?

 

Too deep for me. Light reading for you.

[mcpapa]

Tough question to answer. I don't read enough modern fiction to contribute. And when I do it's rare I read the same author more than once unless they were beyond remarkable.

 

Jeffrey Eugenides is one of those people. Middlesex was outstanding. I bought The Marriage Plot when it came out and I'll buy his next book too.

 

David Mitchell is mindbogglingly good. Cloud Atlas is one most have heard of because of the movie, but the book is amazing and he has a catalog of similarly brilliant works.

 

If you're looking for a serial writer, I really enjoy Penny Louise's "Inspector Gamache" series. She's sort of a modern Agathe Christie. I really enjoy those books.

 

I know he's dead, but I think David Foster Wallace was the greatest writer who lived during my lifetime. Some of his work is impenetrable and almost impossible to read and makes you wonder what kind of mind he could have possibly had to produce something beyond the grasp of mere mortals. But what makes him brilliant is when his writing connects and describes something about life that you know in your head but never had the combination of words to even think about it before or articulates some basic truth from it that you're convinced he's described the world so perfectly that there's nothing left to be said about it. It's like the definitive narration. I don't know. I'm an idiot. But his writing is otherworldly.

 

Fascinating subject and book.

[mcpapa]

Hard for me to narrow it down to just three - even if narrowed down to something like crime fiction. The top three off my head:

 

Lawrence Block

Dennis Lehane

Jeffery Deaver

[mcpapa]

Hard for me to narrow it down to just three - even if narrowed down to something like crime fiction. The top three off my head:

 

Lawrence Block

Dennis Lehane

Jeffery Deaver

 

Closely followed by a WHOLE SLEW of folks. I've listed them in other threads.

 

My favorite genre.