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Favorite writers?

metaphours

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Lemony Snicket - Grew up with this guys books. He was the guy who taught me how to write.

J.K. Rowling - I'm a Harry Potter fan, so what, can't help it ;)

George Orwell - Writes amazing books, basically the guy who introduced me to the idea of postmodernism.

Shel Silverstein - First poetry I ever read, and damn, was it wonderful. Big big big influence on my poetry now.

Thom Yorke - Isn't really much of a writer, but his lyrics are downright amazing.

Kevin Smith - Fantastic screenwriter. Clerks is one of my favorite movies ever.

Etc, etc. Might add more later, but for this'll have to do for now.

Who are your favorite writers?
 

Gloriana

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David Sedaris - He just has this wonderful dark, subversive sense of humor but he's just gifted at getting to the heart of human motivations and weakness to find the absolute hilarity in it.

Neil Gaiman - Not only can the guy write in just about any genre, he does it with such skill that it almost makes me hate him. He also creates such vivid characters and writes such natural but brilliant dialogue.

James Joyce - I haven't even attempted "Finnegan's Wake" yet but I love how he wrote from somewhere very personal inside him while still being able to touch so poignantly on joys and sorrows shared by most everyone. "The Dead" is one of my favorite short stories ever.

Susanna Clarke - "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" is just utterly astounding for a first novel. It's so intricate with so many characters but I never once lost track or became bored or confused.

Philip Pullman - Another writer who I think has a knack for honing right into human motivations, conflicts with desires, love and hate, and all of it and can weave it into such a dazzling story.

Christopher Fowler - Really, really dark examinations of the human condition and society, but not an outright condemnation. He's good at writing unflinchingly but never gratuitously violent or provocative.

Stephen Fry - Just one of the funniest men alive.

Tom Stoppard - Amazing playwright, so brilliant at word play, wit, and intelligent comedy.

That's all I can think of right off the bat but I could probably go on and on. And Metaphours I agree with you on the Orwell, Silverstein, and Smith fronts :)
 

kelric

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Hmm, too many to list, but I'll try... keep in mind that I primarily read science fiction and fantasy when it comes to fiction. These are authors that pretty much anything they publish is on my "very likely to buy on name alone" list - here they are in no particular order:

Guy Gavriel Kay: Pretty much everything he writes is good, but Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors and Tigana are fantastic.

Neal Stephenson: I don't like all of his books, and he's not a perfect writer (books tend to just drift off at the end), but Snow Crash and Anathem are both among my favorites. Very good at establishing colorful and vivid settings (and tends to write about protagonists I easily identify with).

Jared Diamond (nonfiction): It's a little different with nonfiction... in Diamond's case, he writes about topics that interest me, and is both clear, reasonably fun to read, and not too "dumbed down".

Steven Pinker (nonfiction): Pinker's books I enjoy for most of the same reasons I like Diamond's - interesting topic, well covered, and well written.

JK Rowling: I'm a bit older than her intended audience, but I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books. Writes about characters I like to care about... I cared more about Harry after a page than I did about any of Tolkien's characters after 500 (why Tolkien's not on this list).

Joan Vinge / Vernor Vinge: Going to include them together, although they're really not. An ex-married couple, each of whom separately writes/wrote (they both are *very* slow to pubish new stuff *sigh*) very different yet very good science fiction novels. I believe Joan won one Hugo (maybe two?), and Vernor won two (or did he win another a few years back?).

Patrick Rothfuss: A pretty young author... to my knowledge he's only written one widely-published book (Name of the Wind). Wow. I really, really enjoyed it. Too bad it's taken him so much longer than he thought to write the second part of the story :steam:. One presumes that it will be worth the wait.

George RR Martin: Writes very good medieval-era fantasy... I'd almost characterize it as political, but it's all about his large cast of characters, some of which are fantastic (others are the "love to hate them" kind).

Robin Hobb: One of the few more serious fantasy authors I've liked who writes from a first-person perspective (in some series). Her books are pretty typical in large-scale consideration, but very, very well done, and don't come across as "just another fantasy book".

Robert Jordan: I *almost* didn't include him on this list. He writes *long* books, in an almost unbelievably long series (it's 11 books, averaging perhaps 750+ pages, over the course of almost 20 years now). There's legitimate criticism that he was just stretching the story out for a buck (the story would likely be better if each of the latter books was half as long as they are), and that some of his characters are one-dimensional. But I'm re-reading the first few books now, and they still grab me the way they did in the early 90's - and without a doubt, the scale and detail of his story is epic. He passed away a year ago or so after a hard-fought illness, and another author has been commissioned to finish the story using RJ's notes. He's also the only author on this list I've met (book signing a number of years ago). RIP, RJ.

I know I'm missing a few worthies (oh, oops, have to go fill in one more I forgot and can't omit), but this is a pretty good list for me :).
 

Thalassa

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Henry Miller, Goethe, Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evelyn Waugh, Agatha Christie, John Kennedy Toole, Stephen King
 

speculative

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Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Jeff Noon, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne...
 

Thalassa

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Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Jeff Noon, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne...

Oh! Jeff Noon! I went through a huge Jeff Noon phase. I knew I was forgetting someone.;)
 

Polaris

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JK Rowling -- Whereas most writers specialize only in a couple of areas, she manages to write drama, humor, and plot all with equal skill. What she lacks in focus (Book 6 read like a tangle of subplots) and insight (You mean love conquers all and there's a life after death? Really?) she more than compensates for with her knack for doing many things and doing them well.

Fyodor Dostoevsky -- I've only read two of his books, and already I count him as one of the greats. He wrote of the moral and spiritual realms with an insight almost unmatched by any other novelist. He knew how to spin a tale, too.

Franz Kafka -- He transforms the mundane into the surreal and the surreal into the mundane until I can't tell the difference. Some say he's disturbing, but I'm amused by every little flourish that turns life into something absurd.

Friedrich Nietzsche -- A poet, a philosopher, and a psychologist, all in one.

Ayn Rand -- Not a consistent writer and an even worse philosopher, but when she wrote well, she wrote well.

Lewis Carroll -- There's a reason the Alice books keep getting made into films.

Anne Rice -- A beautiful, beautiful writer when she sticks to writing of vampires who lived in days long past. Her books are written with a passion and human depth that is almost unheard of in speculative fiction.
 

Mole

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Simone Weil

My favourite writer is Simone Weil (pronounced 'vey').

Simone Weil (1909-1943) is the first woman graduate of the Sorbonne and a mystic.

And I simply love her.
 
B

brainheart

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E.M. Forster, Dante, Hemingway, Rivka Galchen, Steinbeck, Kerouac (I love listening to him read his work, especially), Thomas Hardy, Daniel Handler, John Kennedy Toole, Anthony Lane, Woody Allen, Roald Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, many many more I can't think of right now.
 

Gewitter27

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Piers Anthony. For fiction, but it'd be extremely hard to find one I like better in NON-FICTION.
 

Synthetic Darkness

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Edgar Allan Poe
Jk Rowling
Stephan King
George Orwell
The Bronte Sisters
Anne Rice
Lemony Snicket (I grew up on this guy!)
JD Salinger


thats all I can think right now
 

Sarcasticus

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Cormac McCarthy. "The Road" is great, but "Blood Meridian" is a masterpiece.
 

Kanamori

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Robert Jordan - WoT epically kicks @$$.

Roger Zelazny - Chronicles of Amber!

Faulkner - Dude's got steez.

Also, I will somewhat shamefully admit that I liked Wuthering Heights a lot.

Edit: Also, I really liked Louis Menand's Metaphysical Club, partly because I have an amateur fascination with the court system, and Asimov... and William Gibson
 
Last edited:

r.a

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off the top of my head

kurt vonnegut
william s burroughs
katherine dunn
alfred bester
chuck palahniuk
charles bukowski
robert mccammon
william gibson
 

Happyman

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Neil Gaiman - Not only can the guy write in just about any genre, he does it with such skill that it almost makes me hate him. He also creates such vivid characters and writes such natural but brilliant dialogue.

James Joyce - I haven't even attempted "Finnegan's Wake" yet but I love how he wrote from somewhere very personal inside him while still being able to touch so poignantly on joys and sorrows shared by most everyone. "The Dead" is one of my favorite short stories ever.

I totally dig these two guys. The latter, the better. ;) Ulysses is just amazing. :)

Steinbeck, Hemingway, Ray Carver, Joseph Conrad, Bukowski

Oh, man! You didn't let me down. ;) I love all of them. Very strong writers, very simple, laconic style. Did you know Carver and Bukowski became close friends? (I found this out very recently).


Henry Miller, Goethe, Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evelyn Waugh, Agatha Christie, John Kennedy Toole, Stephen King

Very cool set of writers. I love Henry Miller! Tropic of Cancer my book number one! The first page is my favourite piece of literature! :yes:
I have to read something by Atwood. And Stephen King is the most unappreciated writer - he creates amazing characters.

E.M. Forster, Dante, Hemingway, Rivka Galchen, Steinbeck, Kerouac (I love listening to him read his work, especially), Thomas Hardy, Daniel Handler, John Kennedy Toole, Anthony Lane, Woody Allen, Roald Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, many many more I can't think of right now.

Awesome!
Have you read the ENTIRE 'God's comedy'? That would be pretty impressive. ;)

kurt vonnegut
william s burroughs

chuck palahniuk
charles bukowski

Oh, yeah! :)


I'd add: Thomas Pynchon, Paul Auster, Saul Below and Philip Roth.
Oh, literature.. ;)
 

Metamorphosis

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I would have to say Robert Jordan is by the far the best I've read.

George R.R. Martin is pretty good, too.
 
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