Authors

[NathanKnight]

I've noticed a few threads popping up regarding literature and was wondering who everyones favourite author and book by said author are. My personal favourites are Irvine Welsh, (Glue) and Brett Easton Ellis, (American Psycho.)

[Lee909]

Most books i read are biographies.When i do read fiction though it is normaly David Gemmell

[TheResonator]

I couldn't honestly say that I have a favourite author, but my favourite novels are Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), the Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) and a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce). I couldn't pick any of those authors above the others, in honesty, although Joyce was probably the most exceptional.

[Trumo]

Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, Robert Ludlum and Frederick Forsyth are all a great read. And Stieg Larsson for his Millennium trilogy.

 

Favourite book? It's hard to say but I loved American Tabloid and The Day Of The Jackal.

[zigackly]

Iris Murdoch possibly. Ishiguro in with a shout? Lessing. Le Guin. Shakespeare.

 

I also like Stephen Donaldson and Banks, with or without an M. And Clive Barker. All with a delicious darkness to them.

 

China Mieville is my newest squeeze. His stuff is exquisite.

 

I don't really go in for favourites though. I could spend all day putting up a list of authors I like, but on different days different ones would be top of the list.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Clive Cussler is my favourite author, I have got every one of his books.

[Captain Turdseye]

Martina Cole was excellent before her books started to become repetitive. My favourite author would have to be Koontz or Grisham, based on the amount of thier books I've read.

[brucespanner]

Micheal Houellebecq is a retardedly good tale teller.

 

If you've not read Atomised hunt the fucker down as it's one of the best books ever published. It's so full of ideas that resonate throughout humanity, without giving in to solipsism, that it takes your breath away in it's scope........It's also filth!!

 

He gets compared to De Sade, if that's a good indicator.

[silverlining]

Micheal Houellebecq is a retardedly good tale teller.

 

If you've not read Atomised hunt the fucker down as it's one of the best books ever published. It's so full of ideas that resonate throughout humanity, without giving in to solipsism, that it takes your breath away in it's scope........It's also filth!!

 

He gets compared to De Sade, if that's a good indicator.

 

It isn't really.

 

I've read most of his stuff, and he isn't very good at "tale telling".

 

His books are just all about ideas - some of which are very interesting - but the actual narrative comes a distant second. And he is one of the most solipsistic novelits alive.

[silverlining]

This is very difficult.

 

But if pushed I would say "Blood Meridian" by Cormac Macarthy is my favourite book. Closely followed by "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson.

 

Other favourites:

 

Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club)

Stephen King (It)

Denis Johnson (Already Dead)

James Ellroy (American Tabloid)

JG Ballard (High Rise)

Niall Griffiths (Sheepshagger)

Michal Faber (Under The Skin)

Ryu Murakami (In The Miso Soup)

Iain Banks (The Wasp Factory)

Peter Straub (The Throat)

Bret Easton Ellis (Glamorama)

[PestiRed]

Joseph Heller - Catch 22 is my favourite book

[Jim MM]

I've never been disappointed with anything by;

Ken Kesey

Jorge Luis Borges

Flann O'Brien

Charles Dickens

Charles Buckowski

Frank Herbert

John Steinbeck

[PestiRed]

Kesey, Bukowski & Steinbeck are great shouts. And while we're on Americans, don't forgot Hunter S Thompson

[brucespanner]

It isn't really.

 

I've read most of his stuff, and he isn't very good at "tale telling".

 

His books are just all about ideas - some of which are very interesting - but the actual narrative comes a distant second. And he is one of the most solipsistic novelits alive.

 

If you mean he writes form his on innate position maybe so, but the themes he tries to convey are those we all share and feel. You might want to check your definition.

 

As for being able to spin a yarn the original French are much more lucid and little nuances get lost in translation to English.

 

Huxley is considered a great British writer but his work is some of the most stodgy, stuttered and patchy, yet some are still considered great for the ideas contained therein.

 

Horses for courses I suppose x

[silverlining]

 

If you mean he writes form his on innate position maybe so, but the themes he tries to convey are those we all share and feel. You might want to check your definition.

 

 

I don't know about that.

 

There's an awful lot of ugly, middle-aged men having meaningless sex with young women and having a pop at Muslims.

 

Which would appear to be pretty much the author himself.

[brucespanner]

I don't know about that.

 

There's an awful lot of ugly, middle-aged men having meaningless sex with young women and having a pop at Muslims.

 

Which would appear to be pretty much the author himself.

 

Fear, pleasure and reproduction? Pretty consistent themes throughout humanity.

 

I agree he goes for easy targets but he uses these to unpack the sordid, and automaton's, nature of living with the knowledge that life is, essentially, nasty, brutish and short

[Dan]

mark.brandon.read

 

 

he's 'semi-fucking-illiterate' you know!

[VladimirIlyich]

Grisham,Coben,Leonard,Pellecanos,Hiassen,Finder are all good.

 

I fuckin hate Jeffrey Deaver though,pure shite.

[piscinin]

It was this:

 

 

And then I got a job and couldn't do useless things for fun anymore. So, I escaped to:

 

 

But still work got too much and I couldn't help but experience a perpetual state of:

 

 

Finally, with help, I reconciled with my inner:

 

 

 

And now I'm all kind of:

 

[robbiefowler9]

Orwell, Dostoevsky, F.S Fitzgerald, Camus, Graham Greene.

 

Orwell is my all time favourite though.

[Faustus]

Orwell, Dostoevsky, F.S Fitzgerald, Camus, Graham Greene.

 

Orwell is my all time favourite though.

 

Same here.

 

Honourable mentions to Hemingway, Kerouac, Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy.

[Sugar Ape]

Arthur Conan Doyle. I've read the complete works of Sherlock Holmes at least 10 times.

[Guest The Chimp]

Andy McNab, Bravo Two Zero. * kiss my face *

[Duff Man]

I've not read any of his other books but I enjoyed Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I've not come across many other authors who capture human emotions as well as he does. Very talented writer.

 

In the same vein I really liked A Prayer For Owen Meaney by John Irving and have been meaning to read some more of his stuff.

[Chairman Meow]

Kyril Bonfiglioli, criminally under recognised and sadly no longer with us. Like a 70s version of P.G. Wodehouse and absolutely brilliant.