Who are your favorite writers of fiction?

[walls1010 3]

Sidney Sheldon

Dean Koontz

James Patterson

Iris Johansen

Linda Howard

Sandra Brown

Mary Higgins Clark

John Grisham

Jayne Anne Krentz

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I threw Graham Swift's Waterland in the trash after being forced to read it on a lit course. Boring doesn't quite encapsulate how horribly uninteresting that book was.

I HATED that book...and yet for some reason I read Last Orders as well

[Chica Yeyé 41]

How could I possibly forget.....

Aldous Huxley.

George Orwell.

[Peikko 1,575]

Fairly easily - both are somewhat overrated authors.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Fairly easily - both are somewhat overrated authors.

How DARE you :angry: ---- can't you see (read) that's where mah folks got mah name from????

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Orwell and Huxley are a bit like Philip K ####### for me - in that their ideas are better than their writing.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Orwell and Huxley are a bit like Philip K ####### for me - in that their ideas are better than their writing.

I was wondering what everyone likes in a writer beyond writing style? For me, a writer can be talking just about anything if their style grabs me. Some writers I just can't read, no matter how entrigued I am by the story or subject matter.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Jabberwocky

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Orwell and Huxley are a bit like Philip K ####### for me - in that their ideas are better than their writing.

I was wondering what everyone likes in a writer beyond writing style? For me, a writer can be talking just about anything if their style grabs me. Some writers I just can't read, no matter how entrigued I am by the subject matter.

I think structure is more important than style. Pretty much anyone can write well - but you need to have a grasp of structure to tell a story. Neither Orwell, Huxley or ####### draw very defined characters and their style can strike people as rather cold and impersonal - because the purpose of the books is not to advance dramatic action but promote political ideas. It depends on what you want out of a book - if you want to identify with characters, those guys are not for you.

They're not untypical of British writers from that period who were immersed in academia and can come across as a bit stodgy and staid. I find Tolkien and C.S Lewis similar in that regard - and that there are writers out there (Michael Moorcock and Fritz Leiber, for example) who have done far more in a shorter amount of time with far less.

####### is a bit more whimsical and he has a lot of humor which Orwell and Huxley don't, though he went off the deep-end towards the end - and his later books make little sense.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Number 6

[KiKi 0]

I like how a writer develops character. They have to make me really care about the characters.

We should start a list of our top 5 favorite books ever. I could use some ideas....

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I like how a writer develops character. They have to make me really care about the characters.

We should start a list of our top 5 favorite books ever. I could use some ideas....

Excellent idea. I'd be great to build a list of recommended books to read.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Jabberwocky

[pnrmbr975 1]

fave writers:

Ken_y_Onelis

of fiction: Nighthawk

[Scott & Lai 12]

Has anyone here read or tried to read, Joyce's Ulysses?

No, but I have read Homer's The Odyssey, including some portions in the original Greek, does that count?

A far from complete list:

Douglas Adams

Piers Anthony

Robert Asprin

Ray Bradbury

Lewis Carroll

Geoffrey Chaucer

G.K. Chesterton

Arthur C. Clarke

Roald Dahl

Peter David

Umberto Eco

Dean Koontz

Stephen R. Lawhead

C.S. Lewis

Richard Matheson

George MacDonald

Anne McCaffrey

Edgar Allan Poe

Anne Rice

Christopher Stasheff

J.R.R. Tolkein

Harry Turtledove

Jules Verne

H.G. Wells

Charles Williams

[pedroh 21]

Joyce is booooring

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Beverly Lewis

Tim Lahaye

Tess Gerritsen (sp)

Clive Cussler

Carol Higgins Clark

Mary Higgins Clark

William Bernhardt (sp)

[SteveLaura 0]

I like Orwell. Always end on such a down note. That's what life is - a series of down endings.