Favourite Writers

Let's have a roundup of everyone's favourite writers then, please.

I think if I had to pick one mine'd probably be Norman Mailer, his versatility was staggering when you look at his body of work. An American Dream is me favourite fictional work by him, a man with complete control of the English language, right on top of his game. Amazing stuff. He was a great journalist too, The Fight deals with the Ali-Foreman fight and it wonderful, as is Executioner's Song, a massive book about Gary Gilmore, a convicted murdered in the States who campaigned for his own execution. He covers it from every conceivable angle, it's exhausting to read but utterly, utterly brilliant (fans of In Cold Blood should investigate, it's similar but far, far superior). Armies of the Night (about the march on the Pentagon) is a f*cking great book as well.

There's plenty of others for me to blether on about, some of whom you'll probably be able to guess, but I'll wait and see what everyone else has got to bring to the table first.

Charles Bukowski
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jack Kerouac

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(though more his earlier stuff like Inconceivable and Dead Famous- I wasn't a fan of Chart Throb and haven't read his latest)

It's sh*te.

Angela Carter.

I'd give anything to be able to write so beautifully.

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Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita is the best written book ever. Try and find a major flaw in how he wrote it because you can't. Its perfectly written.)

Not my favourite book ever, but it really is a magnificent piece of work.

It's a kinda predictable one, this is, but I've always absolutely loved George Orwell. 1984 was the first example of 'serious' literature I ever read, i was thirteen at the time, I think. And ever since that I've been mad on the guy, I've read more of his work than any other English writer (and most American ones as well, come to think of it, except possibly Mailer). It's often forgotten that he can be funny as hell when he wants to be (see Keep the Aspidistra Flying or Coming Up For Air). His reportage was always excellent two, I've always been a huge fan of The Road to Wigan Pier. It has its detractors, but it paints a pretty good picture of the kind of life that my grandparents led back in the thirties so maybe that explains my affinity with it. Down and Out in Paris and London's me favourite though.

Been a bit of a disappointing response to this thread. Does no one else have anything to bring to the table?

As Doc says, both Mailer and Orwell are tremendous, and showcase why journalists make better writers, focusing on tight narrative and the necessary details that make up their wonderfully portrayed characters, and lacking the needless metaphors and tedious descriptive parts that ruin many works.

Saying that, when such description is done well (and I mean flawlessly beautiful), it can turn the author's creation into a part of your life, as can be seen in the magnificent works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The former telling tales that combine the simplicities of life, with the most epic adventure, all intertwined with a complex, yet well thought out, philosophy of God, sex and death and underpins everything involved in his novels.

Pratchett is good for lighter entertainment, as well as Adams, natch.

Also recently got into Garcia Marquez several years after a friends remarked on Love in the Time of Cholera being the best book he has ever read.

Wilde has the most wonderful way with words that demonstrate the genius of his troubled mind.

I also enjoy the cynicism of Fitzgerald, and the eccentricity of Joyce.

In terms of fantasy/sci-fi, Iain M. Banks and China Mieville are sh*t hot. Banks' Culture series is so bursting with ideas that I find them impossible to put down. His non sci-fi stuff is pretty good, too; I loved Whit, about a girl from a small cult who has to go out into the big bad world.

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Also recently got into Garcia Marquez several years after a friends remarked on Love in the Time of Cholera being the best book he has ever read.

Oooh he's awesome. Love's been made into a film I think, or maybe it's 100 years of Solitude... Either way, looking forward to that

(IMDB says it's Love, released 21st March...)

I'm reading Love at the moment, but I put it down to read some ethnographies (and more importantly, Middlesex) and am finding it hard to get back into.

It's interesting, I'll give it that definitely, but not one of my favourites.

Somewhat childishly, but I DID read these when I was in my teens, I love Garth Nix's books. The review: "Fantasy that reads like realism" is so apt, and even after numerous re-readings they still grip me.

Audrey Niffenegger too, is an author I loved after Time Traveller;s Wife- does she have any more stuff does anyone know?

Diana Wynne Jones is someone I read a lot in my youth, and whilst she is excellent for stories about magic, she could do with working on her endings a little.

Joseph Heller. People often don't rate his other novels because their no Catch-22, but then how many novels are so utterly hilarious, so anarchic, but so dark, laughing in the face of death, laughing in the face of life, humanity, and all our flaws and graces? His other novels are good, but if Heller had only written that novel about the Fighting 2 to the 8th power, he'd still be my favourite novelist.

Remembering Heller, though, always leads me on to a similar yet different writer, Kurt Vonnegut. Now there's a man who can write sci-fi anyone can enjoy, because the sci-fi is not the focus, it's more the trope that allows that man's dizzying imagination to run riot and make trenchant criticisms about us and the world we live in. Slaughterhouse Five, The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle are fantastic, although non sci-fi works like Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions are also class.

Quote: fsc

Joseph Heller. People often don't rate his other novels because their no Catch-22, but then how many novels are so utterly hilarious, so anarchic, but so dark, laughing in the face of death, laughing in the face of life, humanity, and all our flaws and graces?

Sorry, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Quote: Lemony_Zester

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Joseph Heller. People often don't rate his other novels because their no Catch-22, but then how many novels are so utterly hilarious, so anarchic, but so dark, laughing in the face of death, laughing in the face of life, humanity, and all our flaws and graces?

Sorry, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!

I resisted it, Alice... and you just stole it away

By Moore, you mean Alan Moore right?

Just checking

Quote: fsc

Joseph Heller. People often don't rate his other novels because their no Catch-22, but then how many novels are so utterly hilarious, so anarchic, but so dark, laughing in the face of death, laughing in the face of life, humanity, and all our flaws and graces? His other novels are good, but if Heller had only written that novel about the Fighting 2 to the 8th power, he'd still be my favourite novelist.

Remembering Heller, though, always leads me on to a similar yet different writer, Kurt Vonnegut. Now there's a man who can write sci-fi anyone can enjoy, because the sci-fi is not the focus, it's more the trope that allows that man's dizzying imagination to run riot and make trenchant criticisms about us and the world we live in. Slaughterhouse Five, The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle are fantastic, although non sci-fi works like Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions are also class.

I know I seem to make a hiabit of agreeing with our resident cynic, but Joseph Heller is a f*cking god. Scandalously, for a man of my interests, I'm not overly familiar with Vonnegut, BUT Slaughterhouse-5 is one of the best books you could ever wish to read. I'm always meaning to check out more of his stuff, but I never seem to get around to it :-[

I thought it was sad when he died last year and it kinda went unnoticed. There was a thread on here and it got about three responses.......I know this is just a forum so you wouldn't expect a huge response, but I didn't see anything on the news and stuff like that. Shame, cos he was an important writer in the scheme of the last fifty years. That's why it's scandalous in a sense that i've not read more, I did me degree in American Lit, you see, but there's so f*cking much of it it's hard to read everything. I'm still working on it though, although gainful employment may scupper that