What Author's Books Do You Collect?

[Hippiepoet]

Ya know, I was thinking as I have been perusing the New York Times Best Sellers list, that there are so many good books out there. A lot of the time I read what I am familiar with, who I really enjoying reading. I'm sure you know what I mean. Who do you read, that you feel you must collect and read all they've written? Who makes you turn page after page and won't allow you to put them down? Who makes you long for the next book of their's to read? What book if any, have you read over and over because it is THAT damn good?

One author I love, Dean Koontz. I collect him and I am not sure how many I have or what I've read. (thinks I should compile list)

One book I can think of, that I've read several times and will read again; The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Oh, I have more. Many more.
How about you folks. Give it to me peoples. What rocks your literary boat?

*must put in load of laundry and I shall update with more*;)

[swivel]

Richard Dawkins
Jasper Fforde
Timothy Ferris
Peter F. Hamilton
Barbara Tuckman
Judith Harris
Steven Pinker
Mark Twain
Charles Dickens

[impqueen]

Rex Stout (the Nero Wolfe novels are my favorite)
Christopher Moore
Peter Kurth
Don Marquis
Georges Simonen
Kazuo Ishiguro
Gregory Maguire
David Maine
Steve Berry, sometimes
I like Koontz, especially the Odd Thomases
Stephen King (yes, I read fluff. so?)
Jonathan Kellerman, sometimes
James Patterson, again sometimes - i'm a harsh critic
Edward Gorey, which is more art than anything

there are more, lots more, but i'm scatterbrained right now.

[Pirelli Jones]

Contemporaries

Chuck Palahniuk
David Sedaris
Tim Dorsey
Carl Hiaasen
Elmore Leonard
Chuck Klosterman
M. T. Anderson

Classics when I can find a good one;
Hemmingway, Kerouac, Fitzgerald, Stein, Pound, Ginsberg, Hunter Thompson, Poe, Marx, London, Vidal, Haldeman,

various poetry compilations I stumble across

[apocalypticdreamer]

Chuch Palahniuk
Jeff Lindsay

I usually just wander the bookstore and buy novels based on the cover artwork. :)

[swivel]

Contemporaries

Chuck Palahniuk
David Sedaris
Tim Dorsey
Carl Hiaasen
Elmore Leonard
Chuck Klosterman
M. T. Anderson

Classics when I can find a good one;
Hemmingway, Kerouac, Fitzgerald, Stein, Pound, Ginsberg, Hunter Thompson, Poe, Marx, London, Vidal, Haldeman,

various poetry compilations I stumble across

Great. Fucking. List.

I love Sedaris and Hiaasen. And Hemmingway was such a stud.

[skeptical]

I read:

Nora Roberts
Dean Koontz
Stephen King
Patricia Cornwell
Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter series
Any mystery that intrigues me,or has physic or supernatural elements, there are lots of others but their names elude me for the moment.
And occasionally a good non fiction work if I am interested in the person it's about. :p

[gprime]

Richard Dawkins

Really? I like him, but his books can be very dense at times. Not all that friendly to the average reader. From what I have read, I think that Hitchens is the superior attack dog in the fight against theological idiocy. Outside of that area he has a habit of being wrong, but when bashing religion, he does it very well.

Anyway, since I'm much more partial to non-fiction than anything else, the authors I love and have either read most of, or have read some of with plans to keep on reading their work, I would say:

Friedman
Von Mises
Rothbard
Smith
Spencer (Robert)
Forbes
Mencken
Machiavelli
Sowell
Williams (Walter)
Rand
Steyn
Levant
Goldberg (Jonah)
Pipes
Myers
O'rourke
Glick (Caroline)
Kahane

I grant you that some of the above are more columnists than book authors. But all are exceptionally gifted in what they do, and deserve far more credit than we ever give most of them.

As for fiction, the author I read the most of, largely because he was so prolific when I was a little kid, was RL Stein. But as for the fiction writers I like most, it would be Shakespeare and Wilde. The only other writer that could match their brilliance was Mencken, and he never did fiction.

[ells9824]

I tend to keep books by these authors. I read A LOT, probably 5 books or so a week, I would have to move if I were to keep them all.

Stephen King
Dean Koontz
Nora Roberts (not JD Robb)
Tami Hoag
Patricia Cornwell (Scarpetta,not the other,stupid ones)
Jonathon Kellerman
Faye Kellerman
Jesse Kellerman
Left Behind series
Jonathan Nasaw
Lisa Gardner
Richard Patterson

There is one called Geek Love, author escapes me. I've bought that book three times because I want to have a copy and have lent mine out. Also, a book by Ken Grimwood called Replay. I've bought that a few times.

I'll read just about anything, but I would read any of the above authors would be my first choice.

[swivel]

Really? I like him, but his books can be very dense at times. Not all that friendly to the average reader.

I like him more for his work on evolution. Even though his atheistic stuff is fine as well.

[So Jaded]

I do love my entire collection...but here is just a few of my favorites:

Stephen King
Christopher Moore
Anne Rice
Dean Koontz
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Pendergast kicks ASS!)
Wally Lamb
Jeffrey Deaver
Jonathan Kellerman
Patricia Cornwell
Vonnegut
Steinbeck
I also have a great selection of true crime books...my favorite author of that genre is Ann Rule.

[Morbid]

My favorite types of books to read are horror, true-crime, crime and courtroom. I can get in to a little sci-fi and fantasy, if the mood is light (hence the Adams and Asprin).

Dean Koontz
Micheal Slade
Stephen King
Robert Asprin
John Grisham
Chuck Palahniuk
Jack Ketchum
C.S. Lewis
John Sandford
Clive Barker
Douglas Adams

[gprime]

One name I'd forgotten from my list, but who I think deserves special mention, is Paul Eidelberg. He's a Professor of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. And he's also fairly active politically, with his affiliation often in flux, as Israel's right wing is so divided. At the moment I believe he's with the Yamin Israel party that split from Moledet in the mid-90's. Anyway, he's particularly interesting because, aside from his views on the Arab-Israeli conflict, he is a major advocate of constitutional democracy. He's written three books on the subject, and is the leading political voice in Israel (http://www.foundation1.org/) fighting for the implementation of it. I think that anybody interested in contemporary Middle Eastern affairs, or political theory, would be well served picking up some of his books. Or, for those with less time, his column may suffice.

[ells9824]

Love old Grisham, not so crazy about the Bleachers or Painted House.

I am just getting into Sanford's Prey series,so I don't have a strong opinion either way yet.

[Hippiepoet]

Damn, there are some good authors mentioned. Here are a few more I like to read.

I already mentioned Koontz
JRR Tolkien
Margaret Truman
Jeffrey Deaver
Sue Grafton (I love that Kinsey Millhone)
John Grisham
Sharyn McCrumb
Jan Karon (Yes, I am into reading the Mitford Series)
Carlos Castaneda
Nicholas Sparks (I read him, when I am in the mood)
Pearl Buck
Henry Thoreau
Mark Twain
Mary Summer Rain
Brian Jacques
Tami Hoag
Perri O'Shaughnessy
L. Ron Hubbard (Mission Earth Series)
Don Miguel Ruiz


(I'm done for now:D )

[Morbid]

Love old Grisham, not so crazy about the Bleachers or Painted House.

I am just getting into Sanford's Prey series,so I don't have a strong opinion either way yet.

Yeah, I have not read any of his newer stuff. Like Koontz and King, They were some of my authors I used to couldn't wait to read.

Sandford's Prey series...I have been reading them since the day I stole the very first paperback in the series from a book rack in a convenience store back in '89 (How's that for odd, a kid who shoplifts books to read). But I have read so many Lucas Davenport stories, I almost feel like he exists. :)

[ells9824]

Yeah, I have not read any of his newer stuff. Like Koontz and King, They were some of my authors I used to couldn't wait to read.

I will always count them among my favorites, but I think the last Koontz book I recommended was Corner of his Eye. I have started The Taking several times and I can't get through the first few pages. King hasn't disappointed me AS much, but he had a few there that I had to force myself to finish about 10-15 years ago with his dual stories.

[taintfutcha]

excellent list-gprime. for some reason i thought you would have frank herbert as well.

any decent shelf should have joyce, byron, milton, homer
the bard, mailer, j. irving as well as many above mentioned of course.

i have a wonderful library built up with (finally) excellently bound editions of my favorites-too many to list. every wall is filled. i'm quite proud to say my children have
their own massive shelves full.

btw-anniversary of hunter s.'s shot heard round the world.

modern authors are few and far between in my taste dept.

[gprime]

excellent list-gprime. for some reason i thought you would have frank herbert as well.

He wrote Dune, right? If so, then I don't believe I've read any of his books. But mention of his name reminds me of another excellent author: Herbert Spencer. He was an English philosopher/political scientist, who is famous as the first leading thinker of the Social Darwinist movement. I used a phrase of his for my senior quote in my high school yearbook; they made a brilliance-ruining typo.

[CPL CHUD]

Chuck Palahniuk
Steve Pinker
Richard Dawkins
Carl Sagan
Stephen King


That's it.

[swivel]

Steve Pinker

HELL, FUCKIN', YEAH!

[Morbid]

I am pleased to see more Chuck Palahniuk fans.

[taintfutcha]

He wrote Dune, right? If so, then I don't believe I've read any of his books. But mention of his name reminds me of another excellent author: Herbert Spencer. He was an English philosopher/political scientist, who is famous as the first leading thinker of the Social Darwinist movement. I used a phrase of his for my senior quote in my high school yearbook; they made a brilliance-ruining typo.

indeed-your handle led me to think of herbert.

[CPL CHUD]

HELL, FUCKIN', YEAH!
I still think it should be mandatory for everyone in highschool to read The Blank Slate.

I love Chuck P's style too. He turned authors into rock stars.

[swivel]

I still think it should be mandatory for everyone in highschool to read The Blank Slate

If I could only make a single book mandatory, it would be that one. Almost every error made in the fields of sociology, psychology, political science, economics, and history are made because of a complete ignorance of the facts contained in that sole book.

Have you read Judith Harris' two books?

[WryBread]

Betty McDonald
Jane Austen
Annie Fellows Johnston
Subjects: books on dance, and books on mountain climbing disasters.

[LadyValkyrie37]

Stephen King
Clive Barker
Thomas Harris
Dean Koontz
Sue Grafton
Patricia Cornwell
Michelle Belanger
Anton LaVey
Gerald Gardner
Raymond Buckland
Margaret Murray
Starhawk
Margot Adler

[CPL CHUD]

Have you read Judith Harris' two books?Nope. I've been meaning to though. She really turned psychology on its head.

[swivel]

Nope. I've been meaning to though. She really turned psychology on its head.

Yeah, that's what happens when someone comes along and proves that almost everything before her was completely wrong.

My wife recently framed her Psychology License and I couldn't help but marvel to think that 90% of what she learned, in order to obtain that license, is complete bunk. To her credit, she has been doing her own studies on the side for at least the last 6 years, and is ahead of the rest of her peers on understanding evolutionary psychology.

It's just amazing that you can get your doctorate and know almost nothing in the field. She has worked with people in the past, who have their PhD in psychology, and think that evolution has very little to do with human behavior, if evolution happened at all!!

To me, it would be like a physicist who isn't quite sure if the Earth goes around the Sun.

Get her two books on your reading list. You will kick yourself for not reading them earlier.

[TXChris]

Authors I specifically choose to seek out:

Louis L'Amour (I've read over 100 of his books)
Elmer Kelton
Baxter Black
Ludwig Von Mises
Murray Rothbard
Ron Paul
Milton Friedman
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Mark Skousen
F.A. Hayek
Andrew P. Napolitano
Llewellyn H. Rockwell
Frederick Bastiat
Charles Murray

The first three are western writers while the remaining are, of course, writers of politics and economics.

[CPL CHUD]

To me, it would be like a physicist who isn't quite sure if the Earth goes around the Sun.

Get her two books on your reading list. You will kick yourself for not reading them earlier.Yeah it's pretty obscene how far mote rememorization can take people. I'm already kicking myself with a steel toed boot crusted with cow manure.

[mrbishop77]

Herman Hesse
Chuck Palahniuk
Harlan Ellison
Philip K Dick
Charles Bukowski
Kurt Vonnegut
Frank Miller (cut me some slack...comics are books too dammit! lol)

There are more, but I am brain farting at the moment....

[What Would Satan Do]

I read a fair amount but I don't really collect many authors.

I do have Frank Miller's Sin City
and I highly recommend Garth Ennis' Preacher series
and of course Bill Watterson :D

Stephen King I've been collecting since I read Christine when I was just a tiny little evil Deity.
If I'd been smart I'd have bought the hardcovers back then, but I was young, buying them myself, and softcovers have the same words in them soo... I've gone back and bought hardcovers of them all. Most of his more recent stuff I haven't liked as much but I still buy them.

I love Clive Barker's stuff!
Similarly, for a while I was really into Brian Lumley

More recently I've gotten into buying
Christopher Moore
F. Paul Wilson (Repairman Jack series)
Kim Harrison

But I get plenty of books from my Sister, Mother, & Grandmother to keep me busy, we read 'em and pass 'em on.

I also like:
Patricia Cornwall
Chuck Palahnuik
Douglas Adams
Jeff Lindsay (based on what I've seen of Showtime's Dexter series)
and more I can't think of because I've got this whole short term/long term memory thing.

[CPL CHUD]

I read a fair amount but I don't really collect many authors.

I do have Frank Miller's Sin City
and I highly recommend Garth Ennis' Preacher series
and of course Bill Watterson :D


Do you have The Watchmen. It elevates comic book form to fine art. I'm in absolute awe of Alant Moore's prose everytime I read it. If there was one comic I'd bring to a desert island, it'd be that.

[What Would Satan Do]

Do you have The Watchmen. It elevates comic book form to fine art. I'm in absolute awe of Alant Moore's prose everytime I read it. If there was one comic I'd bring to a desert island, it'd be that.

I don't own that one, but I've read it.
Very cool story and not your average caped hero fare, so I liked it!

Another one I like but forgot to mention is Neil Gaiman.
His books and the Sandman series.
But whatever you do don't watch the BBC TV adaptation of Neverwhere. It was tiny budget horrible.

[mrbishop77]

and I highly recommend Garth Ennis' Preacher series


One of the greatest series ever. Read the whole fucking thing and loved every page of it. I love Ennis's work.

[Lizard]

I read like a sonofabitch, but as for books I keep--that's a whole other matter--I'm hella picky. I tend less toward authors and more toward books I love. Authors for whom I have more than one book are Stephen King (earlier stuff), Sherri Tepper, Robert Crais, Andrew Vacchs, Robert Charles Wilson, and John Irving.

[petrina]

lists make me nervous bc i know i am gonna forget lots and lots and i want it to be perfect but here goes

margaret atwood
augusten burroughs
poet wendell berry
john irving til 1987 then his poetry
new yorker magazines – I just parted with 18 years of them
flannery o'connor
kurt vonnegut
virginia woolf
charles dickens
ken wells – who writes a kick ass contemporary cajun huck finn-ish series
the georgia nicholson series (angus thongs and full frontal snogging, etc)
i always buy something wicked this way comes for everyone’s birthday
my favorite book is out of print it is called Benjamin the true by claudia paley – buy an old library copy it is a kids book sort of. i like to read it out loud to people.
any absurdist script or tragic ones ala who's afraid of virginia woolf

i sound like a dork

[Lizard]

john irving til 1987 then his poetry

i sound like a dork

Fine, we shall be happy dorks together!

My hubby bought me a first edition of A Prayer for Owen Meany because it's my favorite book ever. I even named a pair of foster kittens Owen and Irving.

[petrina]

yayyy. and i may have been too harsh on john bc you r right i did like meany and ciderhouse rules bunches. AND i am a foster kitten mom too. so we ARE dorks together. haha.

[Lizard]

yayyy. and i may have been too harsh on john bc you r right i did like meany and ciderhouse rules bunches. AND i am a foster kitten mom too. so we ARE dorks together. haha.

OMG, are you really me? I thought I was only posting under one name....

[crimenthusiast]

I have several books by James Patteson...I have all of his Women's Murder Club series. I think I may have gave some of them to my mom though. I also have some Stephen King.

Other than that I have a lot of self help books, and boy do I need them.....LOL

[Kitty]

I have a twice a week library habit--my favorite genre is Historical fiction-or anything in a series-but my father-in-law also keeps me well supplied with mysteries (he's a huge Nora Roberts/JD Robb fan)

Authors I like to read are
Diana Gabaldon -Outlander series
Nora Roberts as JD Robb
Patricia Cornwell -Scarpetta
Lisa Scottoline
James Patterson
John Grisham
Nicholas Sparks -for those days when you are just too happy and need to cry
Jacqueline Carey- Kushiel series
Phillipa Gregory
Kathleen Koen
Charlotte Bronte
And a ton more.. :lever:

[Nerdzilla]

Jeff Long (someone mentioned books about climbing-- these are good, most of his books are about climbing)
Dean Koontz
Alice Sebold (Lucky, the memoir of her rape was brutal)
Khaled Hosseini
Phillipa Gregory
Sandra Brown (one of my good friends is her daughter)
I've also been introduced to the world of comic books, thanks to having two boys enthralled with superheroes and supervillians.
Got a good collection of trashy romances as well :P
I read a lot of different books about a lot of different things, but only collect authors once I've loved two or three of their books, or the first one really hits me (like Khaled Hosseini and Alice Sebold).

[Dr. Salvador]

Cormac McCarthy

the rest is fluff.

[Pete Bondurant]

James Ellroy...and Nietzsche.

[brokenandtwisted]

Tim Dorsey

Amen to that...The Stingray Shuffle is hilarious. I can't help but think of ZB every time I read it, such a funny novel...

I don't really collect the novels of authors, just books I like...but I own all these author's books:

William Faulkner
Hebert Selby Jr
Anne Frasier (who is on this very board!)
Will Christopher Baer
H.P. Lovecraft

EDIT: I missed Mo Hayder. Likely some more too. heh

[tjangel]

I'm sure I'll miss some but...

Jeff Lindsay (Dexter series - dark humor)
Stephen King (not so much anymore)
Dean Koontz
Bentley Little
JRR Tolkien
Ann Rule
Robert Ludlam
Dan Brown
Ann Rice
Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry)
Karen Marie Moning (love those highlanders)
J.R. Ward
Christine Feehan
Suzanne Elizabeth Phillips - Romance, but the football players are hilarious
JK Rowling - Harry Potter series (my kid got me started and I liked them)
Patricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta series)

[celtic friend]

James Ellroy...and Nietzsche.
I love On the Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche. I like everything for the most part, but that one really made me so interested in reading more of him. I have to admit I really did not get into Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I also have tried to understand what he meant by eternal recurrence.
Believe is or not I read Dobson, I am far from religious but I did kind a like his Bringing up Boys. My Aunt gets me his books or should I say used to. I used to read Michael Gurian.
I will think of more, basically alot of child rearing books and medical books now. I know I have alot more i just am drawing a blank.

[polis]

Barthes
Friedman
Ginsburg
Burroughs
Vonnegut
Joyce
Myerson
Anaya
Cisneros
B.A Saenz
Coronado
Staudt
bukowski


There is a bunch more but eh, you get the jist. I read koontz when I was in middle school. There are poets, chicano writers, political scientists and a rhetorician (also did philosophy)

[cheez1e]

I will always count them among my favorites, but I think the last Koontz book I recommended was Corner of his Eye. I have started The Taking several times and I can't get through the first few pages. King hasn't disappointed me AS much, but he had a few there that I had to force myself to finish about 10-15 years ago with his dual stories.

You're kidding right? The Taking is one of my favorite books! If you're having trouble push through the first bit and you'll find it so worth the read. It was one I couldn't put down until it was done! The only one I've found so far of his that I don't think was worth reading was The Face. And I've read a huge chunk of what he's written, been an avid fan since reading The Bad Place in eighth grade.

That said, I see I'm in great company with all the fans of Koontz. Good to know! I also enjoy Jonathon Kellerman and romance novels! Personally, stopped reading Stephen King in high school. I think I've picked up one by him since then and just couldn't get into it.

[Owd Scrat]

Hmmm. I'm a certified bibliophile so this will be a tough cookie!

Ann Radcliffe, Susanna Clarke, Sheridan Le Fanu, William Ainsworth, Anya Seton, Francis Lathom, Richard Marsh, Wilkie Colllins, M.R. James, John Crowley, Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens, HP Lovecraft and others I'm sure I'm forgetting!

The authors above are ones I "collect", meaning I hunt fown all editions and printings I can find. I never was able to afford the 4 volume 1st edition set of Ann Radcliffe's "Mysteries of Udolpho", it was 1st published in 1794 and they cost $18,000. *sigh* God I wanted those!

There are certainly many authors I love where I get many of their books, but I'm not obsessed with collecting all their works or editions! About 60% of my book collection is non-fiction, I'm extremely particular about my fiction! :)

[Just my luck sucks]

One of Satan's many colorful nicknames. This particular one originates from the Danish "skratte," meaning some kind of monster or wizard. From there, it became "scrat" in middle English, which meant hemaphrodite or goblin. Then it ultimately became "owd scrat," and then "old scratch."

just a google.

Owd, Is this the meaning of your handle? Personally, I think it a fine handle for chucking stones.

I'm not sure I've caught your introduction--at any rate, welcome!

[Owd Scrat]

One of Satan's many colorful nicknames. This particular one originates from the Danish "skratte," meaning some kind of monster or wizard. From there, it became "scrat" in middle English, which meant hemaphrodite or goblin. Then it ultimately became "owd scrat," and then "old scratch."

just a google.

Owd, Is this the meaning of your handle? Personally, I think it a fine handle for chucking stones.

I'm not sure I've caught your introduction--at any rate, welcome!

Yep you gots it!! Pretty damn close! = ) I wouldn't say satan though, that's a more modern definition thing. I'm a traditional witch, hence the name. I've always loved it.

My intro is in there somewhere! ; )

[silvahalo68]

KING-All especially the Dark Tower Series
KONTZ-Most
ANNE RICE-Most
AYN RAND-Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Romantic Manifesto
RICHARD MATHESON-I am Legend
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ-One Hundred Years of Solitude
CHARLES DICKENS-Tale Of Two Cities
ELLIOT/FROST/YEATS-Poems

So many more...I love to read.