Favorite Writers / Books ?

[jimnaseum]

Originally Posted by marlowe

"The Talented Mr Ripley", Patricia Highsmith. Great novel about identity. The Matt Damon film version is crap

I KNEW there was a great book behind that movie, Hollywood has to dumb it down for a bigger box office.

Honorable mention: LeCarre- Smiley's People
Book I've bought like 4 times: Hesse- Glass Bead Game
Nicest surprise in High School: Fitzgerald- Great Gatsby

In college I took a test and it had the weirdest question- "Who is the best writer in Western Civilization?" I shook my head and wrote William Shakespeare, and kept on working. A few minutes later, a student raised his hand in the middle of the test and said "What kind of stupid question is this, doesn't it depend on interpretation and personal taste who's the best writer?"
The Professor answered "There is one writer who is so head and shoulders above all the others that 10 out of 10 literary experts agree that he is the best writer"
At least I got one right.

[TheSkronkDonkey]

Fiction:
Contact - Carl Sagan
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Snow Falling On Cedars - David Guterson
A Passage To India - E M Forster

Some Non-Fiction:
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Moab Is My Washpot - Stephen Fry
Last Train To Memphis: The Rise Of Elvis Presley - Peter Guralnick

[CreativeMind]

One of my all-time favorite lines about books was from Steve Martin who said in a comedy routine (as I recall the line): "Oh yeah, I love to read! There's nothing like sitting down and enjoying a great book! And let me tell you, MOBY DICK was fantastic. At the end...when Ahab's rope gets tangled and he's tied to the whale...and the camera pans over to Gregory Peck as they sink into the sea...man, that's just great writing."

Personally, my all-time favorite would be Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars among other things or someone like E.E. "Doc" Smith and his intergalactic Lensmen series. I just have a soft spot for old school pulp adventures because back in the Thirties and Forties it was adventure on a more innocent and grand scale of exuberance, a time where anything seemed possible both then or for the future.

For horror, Clive Barker...For fantasy, like everyone else, Tolkien or Lewis or Rowling...I loved early Crichton when he blurred science more with a fantastical note (Jurassic Park seems to have been his high point). And then there are always case by case books -- like "A Tale of Two Cities" -- which are classic in nature and you just have to love or something silly like "Meg" about a 200 foot shark on the loose which just makes for fun, doofy reading plopped on the couch.