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Who are your favourite authors, and what are your favourite books?

 

What is your all time most re-read book?

 

Simple really!

 

:D

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I don't do 'books' I do Series!

 

my 2 faves atm are The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger which is AU Victorian London, with werewolves and vampires and steampunk and the Nightrunner series by Lyn Flewelling which has a fae thief and his half-fae (and male) lover as the main protagonists.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I can read that a 100 times more. And a dutch book called: De Koning van Katoren - Jan Terlouw (translation: The King of Katoren, written by Jan Terlouw)

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Favorite series: Discworld (Terry Pratchett), Tales form the Wyrd Museum (Robin Jarvis), Narnia (C.S. Lewis) and the Desperate Duchesses series (Eloisa James)

 

Favorite authors: Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen, Marian Keyes, Eloisa James & C.S. Lewis

 

Favorite standalone book: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

 

Honorable mention: the Harry Potter series., specifically books 1 to 3. I loved the first book so much it's what made me start liking to read. Sadly, it's not a favorite series because I didn't enjoy the last books so much...

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series:

* Night World Series by LJ Smith (praying they don't destroy this When they decide to turn it into a TV show)

* Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher

* The parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger

* Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

* most of the Sherlock Holmes Cases by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

* Torchwood Series by various writers, but only up to pre the end of the REAL series. though Suzies return was good in the post americanisation

* The infernal devices series by Cassandra Clare

* True Blood Series by Charlaine harris

 

I am a Manga girl as well so

Bleach and Vampire Knights have to be on this list.

 

most read is probably Daughters of Darkness from the Night World Series

 

my favorite stand alone books....

At the moment is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and I call it a stand alone because thats how she originally intended it. the rest were just brain diharea and that's what they were IMO.

 

overall Favorite Stand Alone and another one of my most reads is Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

 

Honorable Mention - Isobelle Bird.

they stopped releasing her books over here so i'm only up to like book 8. but I adore her work

 

Reccomandation:

I seem, directly or indirectly to be the cause of people reading the Parasol Protectorate, which is probably because i don't shut up about it. I would rec this series as it is a-mazing.

Edited by EvigMidnat
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I'm bad and need to actually read more often. I find setting aside the time to read to be challenging.

 

I'm slowly making my way through Dance of Dragons, the fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Another author I enjoy reading is Douglas Coupland. He has a way with humor and dry wit that I find amusing. Honourable mention goes to the late Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series that I used to love reading as a kid. One day I'll need to read through the last few books of the series that I hadn't gotten. Many an hour would I spend reading and re-reading those books. *sigh*

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I don't read as much as used to - lack of time as much as anything else - but I have a lot of books. I'm not a terribly critical reader either and there is only 1 author who I've never been able to like, despite owning a number of his books - Stephen Donaldson. He's a good writer, because I actually *hate* a lot of his characters (his intention, they aren't nice people), which is why I can't read a lot of his stuff.

 

other authors (apart from Lyn Flewelling and Gail Carriger) that you will find in significant numbers on my shelves:-

 

Mercedes Lackey

Marion Bradley

Mary Stewart

Jim Butcher

Ursula Le Guin

Anne McCaffrey

Katherine Kurtz

Katharine Kerr

Stephen Lawhead

Tad Williams

JRR Tolkien

Terry Pratchett

Neil Gaiman

Terry Goodkind,

Raymond E Feist

Douglas Adams

Storm Constantine

Freda Warrington

Anne Bishop

 

Oh and a certain Richard Castle is on my shelf too, but I only have one book so far!

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I do like Stephen Donaldson; I know what you mean about some of his characters though, even some of his "sympathetic" characters are pretty self serving.

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I love Mordant's Need but even that is pretty nasty at times. Same with the other story I love - Daughter of Regals. I have never been able to get through and entire book of the Thomas Covenant series, despite owning 7 of them (thanks to jumble sales, ex-library copies and charity shops) and I gave up on the Gap Series after 3 books. At least I can say I've given his stuff a chance!

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In defence of the Thomas Covenant character he does start off being pretty vile but in many ways he improves over the course of the books, in other ways maybe not so much.

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AHA! Knew I'd find one of these...

 

I love Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, the original Sherlock Holmes stories, anything by Lewis Carroll, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. :)

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So, my vastly incomplete list of favourite authors and books begins thus:

 

J.K. Rowling

Stephen Donaldson. (Mainly for Mordant's Need and The First and second Thomas Covenant trilogies)

Stephen King (No really! favourites include The Stand, The Shining, Christine [ignore the cringeworthy John Carpenter movie] The Dark Tower [still haven't read them all])

Arthur C. Clarke (The Space Odyssey novels)

Iain Banks ("The Crow Road" and "The Wasp Factory")

Clive Barker (Particularly "The Thief of Always")

 

These are just the tip of my literary iceberg!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 5 weeks later...

I'm sure you don't know my favorite book . It's Splitterherz by Bettina Belitz. Other favorite books:

Starcrossed - by Josephine Angelini

House of night series - by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Das Doppelspiel - by Heinz Konsalik

the Sign - by Julia Karr

the barcode tattoo - by Suzanne Weyn

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Hello, sheepfriend, and welcome to Sherlock Forum! You're absolutely correct -- in fact, I've never heard of any of your favorite books! There are an awful lot of books in the world, so maybe you've never heard of mine, either.

 

Mysteries:

Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers (my introduction to the genre)

Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout (my all-time favorite)

Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith (what I'm currently reading)

 

Speculative Fiction:

Alice series by Lewis Carroll (my introduction to the genre)

Middle Earth series by J. R. R. Tolkien (an early favorite, resurrected by the movies)

various novels by James P. Hogan (my favorite science-fiction author)

Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

 

Humor:

various books by Dave Barry (I especially recommend Dave Barry Does Japan)

this and that by James Thurber

 

I tend to prefer writers who have a unique way with words (Dave Barry can really blindside me with a phrase, which I love!). In a novel, the plot doesn't have to be really great (though I do hate gaping holes) as long as the characters are well-drawn and some of them are likable. On the other hand, if the plot is really great, I can forgive less-then-memorable characters.

 

My husband and I enjoy reading aloud to each other, so we can discuss the book as we go along. Part of the enjoyment is the occasional "editorial modification" by the reader (e.g., when my husband was partway through the interminable Tom Bombadill chapter in Lord of the Rings, Frodo suddenly pulled out his submachine gun).

 

Come November, we'll be re-reading The Hobbit, of course!

Edited by Carol the Dabbler
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And now I have images of Martin Freeman as Bilbo, talking like Al Capone with a Tommy-Gun and a white trilby... :lol2:

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  • 1 year later...

 

sorry to be obvious but the Harry Potter books by J K Rowling are amongst my favourite reads from child and adulthood and the books I've re-read the most

 

David Eddings The Belgariad and The Mallorean the only fantasy series of books I've ever really got into, I just love the characters. Also another favourite of mine is The Redemption of Athalus by the same author

 

Cassandre Clare, read her books earlier in the year and loved them.

 

also read a lot of books from the following authors..

Jodi Picoult

Stephen King

Anne Rice

L.J.Smith although more from my childhood than recently.

 

I must confess I have never actually read any Sherlock Holmes books but they are on my to be read list.

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I have recently been given my first Cassandra Clare book, but I haven't read it yet.

I also have a fair number of David Eddings books, including the ones you mentioned and all the Harry Potter novels.

 

Currently I'm reading the Inkheart books by Cornelia Funke, which were picked out for me by my niece!

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Oh god; where do I start?! And how on earth did I miss this thread?

(Btw I'd just like to hop off topic for a second here and ask everyone to give Toni Lianne a warm welcome to the forum; she's one of my real-life best friends)

Okay then, here's my rather long list....

 

Fantasy:

The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium and The Tamuli, all by David Eddings (Like Toni, David Eddings is one of my all-time favourite authors. The Redemption of Althalus is probably my favourite of his stand-alone books too. He's not a faultless writer; many of his characters are very similar across all of his books, and sometimes his plots are a little predictable, but there's just something about his writing that I love. His books are easy to follow even though they're of the fantasy genre, which is sometimes a difficult genre to get into, and he has a brilliant sense of humour. I really reccomend giving them a read)

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin (This series just blew me away; the richness of the plot and the hundreds of characters, each so well-developed and thought-out even if they're not major characters, got me hooked on the series after just a few chapters. It really is unlike anything I've ever read before, and the TV series has only increased my love for it)

The Song of the Lioness and The Immortals by Tamora Pierce (I haven't read these in a long while, but I first read them when I was younger and really liked them)

Historical:

The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance from The Tudor Series and The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter from The Wars of the Roses series, all by Phillipa Gregory (I love English and Russian history; in particular, the Tudors, where English history is concerned, so Phillipa Gregory's books are perfect for me. I really like how uncomplicated she makes it all; I mean, I love learning about it, but sometimes it can be a bit difficult to follow when you're reading a reference book, so to have an author write about people like Elizabeth I and Richard III like they're just normal people rather than imposing historical figures helps you to really understand them a lot more. I still haven't read all of her books, but I fully intend to)

 

Sci-Fi:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I picked this up in a bookshop one day because I was hungry for something new to read, despite the fact that I knew nothing about it and sci-fi wasn't really my thing. But boy, am I glad I did pick it up! It's one of my all-time favourites; I just love the wild insanity of it, and its humour, and the characters... pretty much everything about it, really :D )

Classics:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I haven't read Jane Eyre in a long while, but it will always have a special place on my list of favourites because it's the first classic novel I ever read and it got me into a lot of other classic authors. And Wuthering Heights is a simply beautiful book, once you take the time to get to know it well enough. I stil think Heathcliff is one of the best literary characters ever invented.)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Quite simply my all-time favourite book. I adore it, and I'll still be reading it when I'm 90 :D I've tried reading other Austen books, and I do like them, but none of them even come close to Pride and Prejudice.)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Okay... I've changed my mind. Can I have two all-time favourites please? :D I first read this when I was about 10 years old; my mother gave me a beautiful old copy she had; it was huge and falling apart, but it had the most beautiful illustrations inside, and the text was like calligraphy; it was a work of art. Even though I've seen the film, I still think of the characters as looking like the illustrations in that book my mum gave me. I wish I still had that copy, but my mum took it back when she and my dad got divorced; I was heartbroken :( )

Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare (Yes; I like Shakespeare... I aplogise :D I've read a few more of his plays, but these are my favourites.)

Miscellaneous: 

 

Greek Mythology (People always seem to roll their eyes when I say I like reading Greek Mythology, but I really don't see how anyone couldn't like it; it's like a soap opera, but better! :D )

Anything by Bill Bryson (if people don't know who he is, he's an American author who spent a lot of his life in Britain, and he's a travel writer. He's been pretty much all over the world, and he has a really brilliant humour. He writes the kind of books that make you laugh out loud on the bus :D )

 

Wicked by Gregory Maguire (A friend reccomended this to me, and when she said it was about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, I really wasn't keen. I don't really like The Wizard of Oz at all, so I wasn't looking forward to reading it, but I gave it a go, and then promptly spent the rest of the evening reading non-stop; I think I'd finished it by the afternoon of the next day :D I love the character of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch; I found I could relate to her a lot and although her story isn't comfortable to read sometimes, it's well worth giving it a try.)

I think I should stop now, before I go on forever and bore you all to death :D I really could add another hundred books to this list, I think...

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Greek Mythology (People always seem to roll their eyes when I say I like reading Greek Mythology, but I really don't see how anyone couldn't like it; it's like a soap opera, but better!

 

When I was a kid, we learned to read using scheme books - which I didn't finish because I found them boring. When my teacher asked me what I would choose if I could read anything I wanted, I picked up a book of Greek mythology for more 'advanced' kids. She left me to it...

 

I'm a bit of a Grecophile - I toured 'classical' Greece some years back on my honeymoon, still the best holiday ever.

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That's awesome, aely; I've been to the Greek isles a lot but never mainland Greece; I'd love to go to Athens one day :) Sounds like an amazing idea for a honeymoon to me! :D

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We spent 4 days in Athens. We also went to Mycenae, Delphi, Olympia, Sparta, Marathon and even drove around Mount Olympus! We had 3 weeks, but we could have done with a lot more.

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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I picked this up in a bookshop one day because I was hungry for something new to read, despite the fact that I knew nothing about it and sci-fi wasn't really my thing. But boy, am I glad I did pick it up! It's one of my all-time favourites; I just love the wild insanity of it, and its humour, and the characters... pretty much everything about it, really :D )

 

Oh Lordy, how did I forget that one?  It has some of my all-time favorite sentences, among other things.  Add it to my list, please!

 

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