Favorite Books/Authors

If a thread for this already exists, I couldn't find it. (And yes...I always do research first for everything BUT those darned News Flashes...)

Seeing there are quite a few readers here (which makes sense to those of us who grew up with Sesame Street; I could read before kindergarten -- thanks Bert & Ernie et al!), I thought a favorite books or authors thread might be interesting.

So, to start it off:

Favorite Authors: Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Ambrose Bierce, E.A. Poe, Jasper Fforde, Christopher Fowler, Stephen King (on his GOOD days), Don Marquis, Jim Lehrer, Robin MacNeil, Richard Brautigan, T S Eliot, Robert Frost, Ursula K LeGuin...

Favorite Books Top Five:
1. Archy & Mehitabel -- Don Marquis
2. Drood -- Dan Simmons
3. The October Country -- Ray Bradbury
4. the entire Sandman series -- Neil Gaiman
5. Lost in a Good Book -- Jasper Fforde

Favorite Short Stories:
many, but "The Cask of Amontillado" still tops the list

Favorite Poem:
currently, "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" by T S Eliot

I used to read quite a bit but have been busy of late with work (60 hrs a week!)

Favourite novels are: The Silmarillion, The NeverEnding Story, The Beach, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Stand

favourite graphic novels: BoNe by Jeff Smith, Sin City, Hellboy, The Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, Usagi Yojimbo, V For Vendetta, Watchmen, Loki, Black Hole

I LOVE reading and I could probably list a ton, but I'll try to limit myself- lol.

As to favorite short stories and poems- O. Henry's classic "The Gift of the Magi" is one of my all time favorites! (Mainly because I LOVE Christmas!) And "The Night The Bed Fell on My Father" by James Thurber is hilarious too- I like his stories, definitely.
I don't know if this counts here, but I also love Robert McCloskey's "Homer Price" stories.
I can't forget Edgar Allan Poe's short stories of course, and all the various short stories of Sherlock Holmes' adventures from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Although those are technically all contained in different books, I know.)
"A Strange Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce is also classic and then there's "To Build A Fire" by Jack London and "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane and a number of others.
James Joyce's "Araby" is another favorite. And I can't forget Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and Victor Borge's "Labyrinth" and Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find".
Poetry- Pablo Neruda, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis (they've both done some poetry - mainly love Tolkien's "Not all who wander are lost" line.), William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Byron, T.S. Eliot ("The Hollow Men"- absolute classic!), e.e. cummings, V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, William Cowper ("God Moves In A Mysterious Way"- absolute classic! I memorized this poem as a kid in school and love to sing the hymn at church.), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning ("Such ever love's way- to rise, it stoops." LOVE it!), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (author of one of my favorite Christmas carols ever- "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day"), Alfred Tennyson, William Shakespeare (he's got some pretty good sonnets ;-)), and two of my top favorites among others- Robert Frost ("Fire and Ice", "Birches" and most certainly- "The Road Not Taken"- LOVE it!) and definitely John Donne (one of my all time favorites- absolutely LOVE this poem- "Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God")

As to favorite books and authors- mainly a lot of the classics. Mark Twain ("The Prince and the Pauper", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "A Tramp Abroad", "Life on the Mississippi", "Tom Sawyer, Detective", "Tom Sawyer Abroad", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"), H.G. Wells ("The Invisible Man", "The Time Machine"), Jules Verne ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "From the Earth to the Moon", "Master of the Universe", "Around the World in 80 Days"), Robert Louis Stevenson ("Treasure Island", "Kidnapped", "The Black Arrow", "A Child's Garden of Verses", "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"), Johanna Spyri ("Heidi"), Johann Wyss ("Swiss Family Robinson"), Charles Dickens ("A Christmas Carol"- LOVE it!), Rudyard Kipling ("The Jungle Book", "Kim", "Captains Courageous"), Lewis Carroll ("Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", "Through The Looking Glass"), L. Frank Baum ("The Wizard of Oz"), Mary Mapes Dodge ("Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates"), Anna Sewell ("Black Beauty"), Louisa May Alcott ("Little Women", "Little Men", "Jo's Boys"), T.H. White ("The Once and Future King"), Stephen Crane ("The Red Badge of Courage"), Jack London ("The Call of the Wild", "White Fang"), Charles Kingsley ("The Water Babies"), Kenneth Grahame ("The Wind in the Willows") and still others I could name.
And of course- J.R.R. Tolkien- "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy ("The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King") and "The Silmarillion".
And C.S. Lewis- the Space trilogy ("Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", "That Hideous Strength"), and certainly The Chronicles of Narnia ("The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", "Prince Caspian", "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", "The Silver Chair", "The Horse and His Boy", "The Magician's Nephew" and "The Last Battle").
And there are still more I could name.
I would also have to list all other books by C.S. Lewis- particularly his non-fiction books like "Mere Christianity", "The Four Loves", "The Problem of Pain", and tons others.
"The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning and "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.
And The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W. Dixon and Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene. And Robert Arthur's series- The Three Investigators. And tons of Enid Blyton books- particularly The Famous Five and The Secret Seven series. And Donald Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series.
And of course- though I could keep naming others because I love reading so many books...
The Best One ever is still The Holy Bible - God's Holy Word- still the number 1 best seller of all time!
I LOVE reading The Bible- (not saying this to brag, but I am happy to say I've read it in its entirety and keep rereading it all the time.)
It never gets old because The Holy Spirit keeps bringing new things to life all the time! And He speaks exactly to what I need to hear for each day's situation. Yes, nothing can beat Jesus Christ and His Word- BEST Book ever!

BoomerangFish...you mentioned Bone. Now I have "Stupid, stupid rat-creatures!" jokes going through my head.

GonzoLeaper: I like some classics. Dickens' "Mystery of Edwin Drood" is wonderful, even though he never finished it. I prefer Bierce to Twain; far more acidic and realistic, but I respect Twain's contribution to American culture (and yes, I plan to read the autobio soon).

I left off a few: China Mieville (his "Perdido Street Station" had my jaw on the floor several times in sheer admiration), Harlan Ellison (still a pioneer of dark fantasy in my book, no matter what HE wishes to categorize himself as), and the poet Billy Collins (esp. his collection, "Picnic, Lightning").

I bought a hardcover collecting the first 6 issues of Bone sometime in 1994 or 1995... I instantly fell in love with that series! Brilliant writing and superb art! I hope one day they make a movie out of it.

Cool! The only Ambrose Bierce work I've really read is "A Strange Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" which is classic! But I think both he and Mark Twain are great writers. I haven't heard of this unfinished book by Dickens- nice. I didn't know he did mysteries.

Bierce is unfortunately only known for "Owl Creek", which was the first "Twilight Zone ending" story in American lit that I know of, but it ISN'T his best. Suggest you check out "Chickamuaga", "One of the Missing", "A Tough Tussle" (dumb name for such an amazingly fun tale), or "The D__d Thing" (which predates/inspired Lovecraft).

Dickens not do mysteries? I'd argue there's an element of mystery in every one of his works.

Favorite authors are: Cherie Currie, Stephen King, Ozzy Osborne eh thats all

Favorite Books from them:
1. Neon Angel: A Memoir Of The Runaways- Cherie Currie
2. Christine- Stephen King
3. I Am Ozzy- Ozzy Osbourne

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Interesting choices EM1! So you like rock/celebrity bios in general, or only those ones? The only personal tale of excess I've ever been able to stomach is Hunter Thompson's (supposedly fictional) "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas"...looking forward to seeing "The Rum Diaries" too.

Lately I have to add the "Censored" series to my list. Read "Censored 2011" this past weekend...scary stuff. Especially the chapters on there never having been a full and thorough investigation of WTC and the fall of building 7, which worldwide experts (demolitions, architects, engineers. physicists) agree could NOT have been brought down the way it was in the way that the 9-11 commission claims. Not conspiracy theory...scientific fact, never delved into...so why NOT? Yeesh... But the whole series of censored, underreported or ignored news items throughout the years is fascinating. This year's book has chapters on spin and "junk news" which I thought were wonderful. Recommended for anyone, not just a news junkie like me!
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eh i like more rock/celebrity stories but they celebrity's don't wright them
oh and OZZY OSBOURNE SINGED MY BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was book singing near where i live and i went woo *waves flag*

I'd love to write a whole list but for now - my favorite book of all time is If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. Followed closely by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers.

My favorite author is probably John Updike, especially his "Rabbit" series of books. I'm also a big fan of Flannery O'Connor (especially "Revelation") and Woody Allen's essays (as weird as he may be now, he was pretty funny a long time ago).

As for less traditional stuff, I recently read "The Golden Compass" for a young adult literature class and it completely destroyed my mind. I can't believe that it's a young adult book with all its dense religious symbolism and layering. Has anybody else on here read that book?

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The whole Philip Pullman series is on my "should read" list but I haven't reached it yet. I have newish China Mieville, Harlan Ellison, and Jasper Fforde in the wings first!

Hey! someone else who knows who Walter Moers is! Bravo! Have you read "The City of Lost Books"?

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I love Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Timothy Zahn in the way of authors. As for books I like the Lord of the Ring Series, the Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and lately my dad has turned me on to the Star Wars novels.

Oh yes! Big, big fan!

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All the fiction you guys are listing is good solid stuff, I think...but what about nonfiction? Other than celeb bios, does anyone read serious nonfic?

My reading jag lately has been all press/journalism/censorship works. There's another thread on here discussing those in particular. But I'm curious whether anyone else prefers nonfic reading.

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I enjoy reading reference books if that counts. Right now I've got a zoology textbook that I'm making my way through.

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Of course reference counts! Heck, most of my NF reads are for my own research. I've learned a great deal about the American Revolution, 19th-century classical music, Eastern European myth and folklore, the Rom, and journalism. MUCH more enjoyable than any class!

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Favorite Authors:
Stephen King
Dean Koontz
James Patterson
Ray Bradbury
Edgar Allen Poe

Favorite Fiction Books:
The Catcher in the Rye *top favorite*
Fahrenheit 451
Lord of the Flies
Odd Thomas
Maximum Ride (the 4th book was kinda meh...)
Pet Sematary (Truly a book for Ramones fans if there ever was one)

Favorite Auto Bios:
Punk Rock Dad-Jim Lindburg (its funny because my dad is an ex-punk, and both he and Jim Lindburg have the same, dry sense of humor that I inherited)
Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones-Dee Dee Ramone (he is a surprisingly coherent writer, even if it is a tad disjointed)

Favorite Short Story:
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Yellow Wallpaper

Favorite Poem:
The Road Not Taken

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EXCELLENT choices (IMHO)! Sgt Floyd, have you read Ambrose Bierce (whom Bradbury loves, and who was more succinct and dry-witted than Poe) or Dan Simmons? You would probably like them.

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