Greatest and Favourite Author(s)

[Mase]

Lynn Okamoto. Author of the drama, horror, and psychological manga series, Elfen Lied.

 

[Meirionnydd]

George Orwell would have to be my favourite author. With greatest i'd probably say Shakesphere... Hamlet FTW

 

[Leather N Lace]

I don't know who I would pick as the greatest writer -- but these are some of my favorites:

Truman Capote
Carson McCullers
Sue Monk Kidd
Billie Letts
Keith Ablow
Michael Crichton

 

[Peter Parka]

Good bump, Batman, I would also like to add James Joyce to my list, Dubliners in fucking awesome!:nod: Also Australias biggest selling author, Mark chopper Reid!

 

[BlackCherry]

The greatest writer in my opinion has to be Dante Alighieri.
The world is said to be divided between Dante and Shakespeare, and I fall in the Dante camp.

As for my favourite writer, I am very fond of John Steinbeck, William Blake, T.S Elliot, Edgar Allen Poe, Philip Larkin, Albert Camus... I could go on and on and not be able to choose.

Very very good taste indeed!

I would probably lean toward the Shakespear camp, but Dante is also amazing.

John Steinbeck is my favorite writer of all time. The way he writes just absolutely puts in you inside the head of the characters...Grapes of Wrath is BRILLIANT!! But even his novellas are just stunning. T.S. Elliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock made me fall in love with poetry. I also am a huge fan of Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, and one of my favorite books of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

 

[Leather N Lace]

........ and one of my favorite books of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

:thumbup

Excellent book. Did you know that she was friends with Truman Capote? The character "Dill" was based on him as a child.

 

[Tyler Durden]

I don't read anywhere near enough to state a greatest author, but my own favourite is John Steinbeck, particularly for the story telling and imagery of East of Eden

 

[BlackCherry]

:thumbup

Excellent book. Did you know that she was friends with Truman Capote? The character "Dill" was based on him as a child.

I did! I just love that story...the characters are so rich...even though her style is a bit different, I put that in the same sort of class as Steinbeck who is my favorite. I think that's why I like it so much.

 

[Doveshit]

I don't read anywhere near enough to state a greatest author, but my own favourite is John Steinbeck, particularly for the story telling and imagery of East of Eden

What, no Palahniuk? Steinbeck's up there for me too.

 

[BadBoy@TheWheel]

Robert Frost

Thoreau

Whitman

Emerson

Carl Hiassen

Elmore Leonard

Tim Dorsey
and a few others

 

[lusira2bisai2]

1)Greatest of uh ALL time..................STEPHENIE MEYER.(yes i am objectively speaking.If you would like to argue with me kindly argue on my public msg board thing pls.and don't make it a long term one either.)So because:- Contrary to 'popular beliefs' she is a great author!And not just all about the big tinge on the romance in there.She is arguably the best author i have come across so far.My aunt actually gave it to me and all I did first was jst stare at the cover and wonder.And,I did start reading d first bk before I knew it's all famous n b4 a lot of my fren right n left started reading it.It's sufficiently long and desciptive..b:Meyer has a way with metaphors.Ultimately able to use eg supernatural elements to get her points direct to the v centre of our hearts.n saying things like beautiful is more intense than pretty.
1b:her wy of writing(first i thought no one is ever able to copy it,bt then i read the midnighters by scott westerfeld.bt still i find KIND of stupid and did not really grab me.Plus it's too short)..wat do i mean?well read it yourselves.I believe it's being able to be brave and let things happen happen.I feel like most writers(in my almost 18yr old experience now) feels a bit afraid to let the climax peak,or at least make it less climactic than it could.like..well i haven't read it for awhile actually(reminded of an author's style of writing always needs you to re-read their stuff) but-yes.it's so different.
c:there may be other reasons bt...i guess i'll just get back to that some day...
-------Other authors style of writing!1-Billy Hopkins.wrote our kid(thou i despised the gay parts).you said objectively but for one thing i like the language they speak(a bit like to kill a mockingbird but i don't know,i guess i like this better as it's longer.If Lee wrote it longer mayb i will like it so much better!Plus it's a kids perspective and all their pursuits!).b:it's long.And a comfortably and surprisingly easy read..and it's themes.yes that's d main reasons.it's long(a k a sufficiently descriptive) and the character's dialect!i think.A riview said it's similar to roddy doyle's paddy clarke ha ha ha.On my to read list
2-Jodi Picoult:well.sufficiently descriptive.and-i'm not sure she has this v original style of writing.like me being as philosophical as i wanted to be o paper,except that she does it well.and also on the metaphorical thing.like....well read it!i guess it's a bit ike in my sis keeper she keeps using this space imagery to get her point across?Like saying the earth's axis tilted a bit so u noe that's big.Love her style of writing.(Thou i guess i've just read 2/3 of her bks.plan to read more of her bks)
-C.S. Lewis?(Mayb J.k.Rowling too,esp as its long.but i haven't read one in awhile...hmm.n ser of unf events mayb,on my to read list)Timeless.Just like what you'd expect frm someone writing fantasy,so vivid and v imaginative!wow...eg:"this ia a story abt sumthing that happened long ago when your father was a child.It is a v impt story as it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the and of Narnia first began......In those days Sherlock Holmes was still living in.."
get it?

And there are actually more bks that i really love.but i cannot really pinpoint out their style of writing yet,from wat i remmber i dunt think its really out of d ordinary.and u said obectively so....ok maybe i will get back and type more in this thread maybe after...10/8yrs?(whoa.where oh where will i be then).To get more reading experience.........XOXOXO=)

 

[Roxi]

Shakespeare has always got to be up there. Other than that

JRR Tolkien - The guy created a language and history as well as some of the most amazing books!:clap

Terry Pratchett - Think Monty Python crossed with Tolkien...on speed! Awesome!

Peter I knew there was a bloody reason I liked you.. Terry Pratchett is a GOD when it comes to writing, Good Omens is my fav book of all time!!!!

 

[dkwrtw]

Peter I knew there was a bloody reason I liked you.. Terry Pratchett is a GOD when it comes to writing, Good Omens is my fav book of all time!!!!

I LOVED Good Omens!

To answer the question from the OP

I don't know who I would say is the "best" writer ever because there are millions of writers out there and I would have to read each and every one of them to determine a "best"


My top 10 personal favorite authors in no particular order are

Dean Koontz
Stephen King
Clive Barker
JRR Tolkien
Terry Pratchett
Luo Guanzhong
Shi Naian
R.L. Stein
Roald Dahl
Dr. Seuss

 

[Springsteen]

Ian Rankin has always been a favourite of mine, ditto Stephen King. I also in the last couple of years have been getting into David Baldacci's work, always a fine read.

 

[USF Sam]

Terry Pratchett
Christopher Moore
Tom Clancy
WEB Griffin
Nelson DeMille
Thich Nhat Hanh
HH Dalai Lama
http://www.amazon.com/Thich-Nhat-Hanh/e/B000AP5YRY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4?qid=1293757583&sr=8-4

Some of my favorite books are by people that never wrote anything else that really did it for me:

Dracula- Stoker
Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand (Fountainhead was good, but her non-fiction is BRUTAL)

 

[PoopaSwoof]

Robert Heinlein

 

[porterjack]

Thich Nhat Hanh
HH Dalai Lama

I have read teachings of these gentle souls and been moved


i would add

Steinbeck and Updike

 

[boombala]

Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian) All of his novels & plays my #1
William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying)*
Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure)*
Any Tan (The Hundred Secret Senses)*
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Thomas Wolfe (You Can't Go Home Again)*
Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible)*
Carlos Castanada (The Don Juan series)
Katherine Kurtz (The Deryni Chronicles series)
Charles Bukowski (Notes of a Dirty Old Man)*
Philip K. Dick (The Divine Invasion)*
Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City series)
Allen Gingberg (Kaddish)*
Jack Kerouac (On the Road)*
Alan W. Watts (The Wisdon of Insecurity)*
Algernon Blackwood (The Willows -- available on line & will scare you)*
H. P. Lovecraft (The Mountains of Madness)*
John Updike (Rabbit Run series)*
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)*
Harlan Ellison (short speculative fiction stories; especially Bleeding Stones)*

* indicates that I have read and enjoyed other works by the authors.

 

[Grimousetie]

I would have to agree that Shakespeare is the greatest for the aforementioned reasons.

As for my favorite author, beyond a doubt it is Michael Crichton. I love how he writes and I also really enjoy how he gets into detail about the science of things.

Next would be Stephen King, because he is just awesome. "It" and "Misery" are my favorites.

And third would be James Patterson. He knows how to weave a good story and he keeps it simple.

 

[JoeCool10]

Poe, Koontz, Grisham