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Your Top 10 Authors!


Athena

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In honour of celebrating our 10th anniversary, I thought I'd make a topic where we can list our top 10 authors (at least, as it would currently stand). I'm personally only counting an author towards this list, if I have read at least two books by them.

 

Here are mine:

 

Robert Jordan

Brandon Sanderson

Terry Pratchett

Peter F. Hamilton

Sophie Kinsella

Jodi Picoult

Diane Chamberlain

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Ann M. Martin

Geronimo Stilton

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Here's mine (as it stands right now - ask me again in five minutes, it will have changed!)

 

Stephen King

Dean Koontz

Jeffery Deaver

JRR Tolkein

Jane Austen

Ian Rankin

Robert Crais

Charles Dickens

Julian May

Michael Connelly

 

George RR Martin would have made the list, but seeing as he can't seem to be bothered to write anything, or at least get it published, he will have to stay off it!

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My top five are pretty much set in stone, the other five are more changeable  :smile:

 

Patrick O'Brian

Alastair Reynolds

Bernard Cornwell

Vernor Vinge

David Gemmell

Joe Abercrombie

Steven Erikson

Guy Gavriel Kay

Ray Bradbury

H G Wells

 

 

Honourable mentions for Richard Matheson and Hilary Mantel - I've only read two books by each but they've been among my favourite reads of the last few years, and for Lois McMaster Bujold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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This was harder than my top 10 books!

 

Pearl S.. Buck

Stephen King

Ken Follett

Lee Child

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

John Steinbeck

Elie Wiesel

Phillip K. Dick

Allison Weir

Anne Applebaum

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Darn, how could I forget Cormac McCarthy, I must add him to my list.

 

My first thought:

John Steinbeck

Charles Dickens

Ernest Hemingway

Louis L’Amour

Stephen King

Tony Hillerman

J.R.R. Tolkien (deserves my list because of The Hobitt and Lord of the Ring)

Robert Ludlum

David Baldacci

James Lee Burke

Cormac McCarthy

Edited by muggle not
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This is hard.....  I can't even put them in order.

 

Mary Renault

Thomas Hardy

Jane Austen

Lindsey Davis 

C. S. Sansom

Hilary Mantel

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Robin Hobb

George Eliot

Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

There's a mixed bag for you :)

 

ETA: Honourable mention to Sir Terry Pratchett

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A really hard one!!

 

Sebastian Faulks

Kristin Hannah

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Jojo Moyes

Markus Zusak

Audrey Niffenegger

Charlaine Harris (for her earlier Sookie Stackhouse books)

 

Thomas Harris

Victoria Hislop

Daphne Du Maurier

 

Notable mentions to Ransom Riggs, Deborah Harkness and Vanessa Diffenbaugh

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J.R.R. Tolkien

Jane Austen

Charlotte Bronte

Haruki Murakami

Neil Gaiman

John Connolly

Marianne Fredriksson

Charles Dickens

Agatha Christie

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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My top ten favourite authors, in no particutlar order, are:

  1. Terry Pratchett
  2. Simon Scarrow
  3. Christopher Brookmyre
  4. Philippa Gregory
  5. Brom
  6. Stuart MacBride
  7. Jane Austen
  8. Richard Castle
  9. Charlotte Bronte
  10. C S Lewis
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Great lists everyone. :) I've decided to follow Athena and only list authors if I've read at least two books by them. That makes it considerably easier, as it turns out!

 

Jane Austen

Charles Dickens

Vladimir Nabokov

John Marsden

Bill Bryson

John Steinbeck

George Orwell

Walter Moers

Mark Twain

Roald Dahl

JK Rowling

 

*hopes no one notices that I listed 11*

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Kylie, which book(s) by Walter Moers have you read? I recently borrowed Walter Moers - Zamonië 3: Rumo & De Wonderen in het Donker (Rumo & die Wunder im Dunkeln) and Walter Moers - Zamonië 4: De Stad van de Dromende Boeken (Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher) (I think these would be called Rumo & de Miracles in the Dark and The City of the Dreaming Books, in English?), from the library. I'm glad to hear you recommend this author! The style of books looks familiar, I might have read something by the author before.

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I've tried to go with my first instinct on this one rather than over-thinking it, and have come up with:

 

Steven Erikson

Mark Lawrence

Joe Abercrombie

Terry Pratchett

Patrick Rothfuss

J.R.R. Tolkien

J.K. Rowling

Charles Dickens

William Shakespeare

Susanna Clarke

 

George RR Martin would have made the list, but seeing as he can't seem to be bothered to write anything, or at least get it published, he will have to stay off it!

 

Amen! :lol:

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These have been mine for quite some time now:

 

Vladimir Nabokov

Virginia Woolf

William Faulkner

John Banville

John LeCarré

George Eliot

Charles McCarry

Marguerite Duras

Marcel Proust

 

and the most astoundingly wonderful of all, the equal of any, even if not well known:

 

James Salter

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Oh, yeah!  I can certainly agree James Salter deserves large and bold print.  He is fabulous!   Def on my list. :D

 

Ok, for my list....only 10, eh?  /sigh/ :)

 

Vladimir Nabokov (always my top pick)

John Banville

William Faulkner

James Salter

James Sallis

Paul Auster

Julian Barnes

Marguerite Duras

Patricia Highsmith

Henning Mankell

Lawrence Block

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Kylie, which book(s) by Walter Moers have you read? I recently borrowed Walter Moers - Zamonië 3: Rumo & De Wonderen in het Donker (Rumo & die Wunder im Dunkeln) and Walter Moers - Zamonië 4: De Stad van de Dromende Boeken (Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher) (I think these would be called Rumo & de Miracles in the Dark and The City of the Dreaming Books, in English?), from the library. I'm glad to hear you recommend this author! The style of books looks familiar, I might have read something by the author before.

 

I've read The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures and A Wild Ride through the Night. I enjoyed them in that order. Bluebear is by far the best so far. :) I plan to read The City of Dreaming Books next. I have high hopes for it. :)

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I don't have any :o

 

There are authors I revisit every time they release something new (Anna McPartlin), authors I will always try something new by even though I didn't always like their previous stuff (Holly Black, Patrick Ness), but I rarely revisit an author enough to classify them as a favourite.

 

I guess Anna McPartlin would count as one, but she's the only one I can think of!

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I've read The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures and A Wild Ride through the Night. I enjoyed them in that order. Bluebear is by far the best so far. :) I plan to read The City of Dreaming Books next. I have high hopes for it. :)

Sounds good :)! I would read Bluebear but only the library in Deurne has it. I can request it to be delivered to my library but it costs money. I hope to enjoy the two I borrowed though, if I do I could still ask for it some time. I hope you enjoy The City of Dreaming Books :)!

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Hmmm... tricky stuff!

 

In no particular order:

 

1. Stephen King

2. Donna Tartt

3. Matthew Pearl

4. Iain Pears

5. Alexandre Dumas

6. Jasper Fforde

7. Alan Bradley

8. Kate Ross

9. Tracy Chevalier

10. Elizabeth Kostova

 

B-squad would have to include Deborah Harkness, Ransom Riggs, Rick Yancey, LM Montgomery, Charles Dickens... Yeah this is just too hard to choose only 10 :lol:

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B-squad would have to include Deborah Harkness, Ransom Riggs, Rick Yancey, LM Montgomery, Charles Dickens... Yeah this is just too hard to choose only 10 :lol:

 

B-squad ... :lol: :lol: Kinda like A-list celebrities, B-list celebrities... :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a difficult task for me, as there are authors I haven't read much of, but from the few books I have read, I have a feeling they will be in my top 10. But I will pick authors I have widely read already, with the disclaimer that my list may change in the future. :D

 

Here is my top 10, in alphabetical order.

 

1. Ray Bradbury

2. Stephen R. Donaldson

3. Fyodor Dostoevsky

4. Philippa Gregory

5. Robert Heinlein

6. Mark Helprin

7. Robert McCammon

8. Patricia McKillip

9. Gene Wolfe

10. Vladimir Nabokov (yeah, I've only read two books so far, but that's all I need to know how much I love his writing)

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  • 8 months later...

Don't know how I missed this first time round, but I'll join you in joining late!

Using Athena's original criteria of at least two books (and how can one choose an author, as opposed to an individual book, on less?) my list is:

Fiction top 10 (alphabetical order)

Jane Austen
JL Carr
Charles Dickens

Sarah Dunant

George Eliot

Margaret Elphinstone
Patrick O'Brian
Georges Simenon
John Steinbeck

Virginia Woolf

Bubbling under
Penelope Fitzgerald

Elizabeth Gaskell

Thomas Hardy
Muriel Spark

Non-fiction top 5
Tim Clayton

Lisa Jardine

Jonathan Raban
Claire Tomalin
Jenny Uglow

 

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