Five favourite authors

[Dave the OAP]

Terry pratchett
Cicero
Publius Ovidius Naso
Robert harris
Victoria hislop

 

[red star portslade]

Irvine welsh
Leslie Thomas
John Niven
Elmore Leonard
Carl Hiaasen

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Me too, but I wish he would stop spending so much time describing meals, if he did the book would be half as long.

Ha! Well said sir!

 

[desprateseagull]

Arthur Hailey - Hotel, Wheeels, etc
Janet Evanovitch - various stories along the same theme, a good laugh.
'Andy McNab' (SAS geezer). Quite gruesome in parts, but a great read.

 

[Braders]

Nick Hornby
Dan Brown
Bill Bryson
Alex Garland
George Orwell.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

I've only read up to American Psycho, what's wrong with any later stuff?

Edit, just relaised Glamorama was after Psycho, I thought that was alright.

I just thought he'd said everything he needed to say by the time he got to Psycho. The rest for me has been a triumph of (very good) style over content. Not as 'impactful'.

 

[highway61]

Dennis Wheatley
Dan Brown
John Masters
Patricia Cornwell
George Orwell

 

[red star portslade]

Audrey kurkov - if you like a bit surreal then I'd suggest either "death and the penguin" about a man living with a penguin he acquired and "a matter of death and life" - about a man who wants to end his life so hires a hit man to do it

Harlan coben
Jeffrey deaver
Terry pratchett
Tom sharpe

Death and the penguin really made me laugh! The sequel was awful.

 

[countryman]

Dick Francis.
Dick Francis.
Dick Francis.
Dick Francis.
Dick Francis.

I quite like Dick Francis.

 

[deenomeet]

Vince Flynn
Harry Sidebottom
David Baldacci
James Holland
Peter Benchley(purely for JAWS)

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Robert Harris
John Grisham
Kate Mosse
Bill Bryson
Maybe Jane Austen or Dickens.

 

[crookie]

Gerald Seymour
Wilbur Smith
JRR Tolkien
George Martin
Harry Sidebottom - only read the Warrrior of Rome series, but they are amazing

 

[jgmcdee]

I suspect that it changes from day to day, but right now and in no particular order:

Robertson Davies
David Gemmell
Anne Michaels
Italo Calvino
Randall Munroe

 

[Bakero]

By no means definitive but 5 that first sprang to mind:

Louis De Bernieres
Haruki Murakami
George Orwell
Graham Greene
Franz Kafka

I want to squeeze Hemingway and Laurie Lee in there too.

 

[tinycowboy]

As I recall, think at the start of the book the author reminds us to stop watching the telly and just enjoy the zany story, maybe you looked into it too deeply? This part of the message no? Who knows, I enjoyed it anyhow.
As for Woolf and some of the naval gazing in her novels...not to mention her elitist comments on the worthlessness of the Working Classes which are somewhat unsavoury, no matter how many literary types try to dress it up. We'll agree to differ, can't argue with Dickens however, he has got many votes, unsurprisingly. His humour and storytelling still put him as a justified favourite.

I think part of my problem with Calvino was that i was forced to study it at university and my Italian was not that good, so i associate him with difficulty. Re Woolf: well, i can't argue with your specific point, but i force myself to ignore those elements. I'm a big fan of modernism.

 

[Smirko]

Tolkien
Michael Connelly
Bernard Cornwell
Max Hastings
Anthony Beevor

 

[Seagull kimchi]

Dostoyevski
Vonnegut
Murakarmi
Conrad
Mailer
Oh and Hardy
Oh and Kundera

5 is not enuff!

 

[bernster]

Michel Houellebecq
Bernard Cornwell
Joseph Heller
Douglas Adams(just edged out Terry Pratchett.the dirk gently books swung it for me)
J.G.Ballard
an honourable mention to Robert Tressell.only the one novel but as i have blundered into some sort of career and acquired a mortgage,family etc i have become more conservative(with a small c)in outlook.this novel reminds me,that as an ordinary working man,we still have a long way to go to achieve a more equitable sharing of the wealth that this country generates.please read the ragged trousered philanthropists

 

[bernster]

Tolkien
Michael Connelly
Bernard Cornwell
Max Hastings
Anthony Beevor

give me back my books!!

 

[Icy Gull]

Does nobody else on NSC love Conn Iggulden's Caesar and Ghengis Khan books? Shame