Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I am inspired by several of the recent boglehead threads on reading to ask, who is your favorite fiction author and what is their best work in your opinion and why. Please narrow it down to 1 author, 1 book. I'll start:
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
First off, Chandler is my favorite author as I've read every one of his novels and short stories multiple times which I can't say about any other author. The High Window is not one of his better known works like the ones made into movies such as The Long Goodbye or Farewell, My Lovely but it has all the Chandleresque metaphors* and snappy banter you could want while also including memorable characters and maybe his most plausible and coherent plot.
* After a moment I pushed my chair back and went over to the french windows. I opened the screens and stepped out on to the porch. The night was all around, soft and quiet. The white moonlight was cold and clear, like the justice we dream of but don't find.
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
First off, Chandler is my favorite author as I've read every one of his novels and short stories multiple times which I can't say about any other author. The High Window is not one of his better known works like the ones made into movies such as The Long Goodbye or Farewell, My Lovely but it has all the Chandleresque metaphors* and snappy banter you could want while also including memorable characters and maybe his most plausible and coherent plot.
* After a moment I pushed my chair back and went over to the french windows. I opened the screens and stepped out on to the porch. The night was all around, soft and quiet. The white moonlight was cold and clear, like the justice we dream of but don't find.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Confessions of a Yakuza - Junichi Saga
Close runner-up would be Platform - Michel Houellebacq
For favorite author (gonzo journalism) - Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It is why I'm here.
Close runner-up would be Platform - Michel Houellebacq
For favorite author (gonzo journalism) - Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It is why I'm here.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
In the Raymond Chandler line, I’d have to add Jim Thompson The Killer Inside Me and Dashiell Hammett.
I don’t read much fiction, but I guess favorite would be Milan Kundera’s Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
I don’t read much fiction, but I guess favorite would be Milan Kundera’s Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Below is the famous opening of Raymond Chandler's short story Red Wind:
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Never look at a bunny rabbit the same again
Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals
Never look at a bunny rabbit the same again
Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
If I had to narrow it down, it would either be William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying or Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. I think the two books are actually very similar in how they both tell horrific and repugnant stories in such a way that the reader doesn't really catch on, and so becomes complicit.
- DigitalJanitor
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Patrick O'Brian, his Aubrey/Maturin series (starting with Master and Commander). Doesn't get much better. Great characters, great stories, great story arc.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Marques, A century of solitude. Extraordinary.
Last edited by Starfish on Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (since I have to pick one Sherlock Holmes story).
The Hound of the Baskervilles (since I have to pick one Sherlock Holmes story).
One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not. - Alexandre Dumas, fils
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I enjoy his books as well. I do think the earlier ones are better, though all are an enjoyable read.DigitalJanitor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:00 pm Patrick O'Brian, his Aubrey/Maturin series (starting with Master and Commander). Doesn't get much better. Great characters, great stories, great story arc.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I have a lot of favorite authors, and am glad I branched out a few years ago to read more serious works and classics.
The book I keep going back to is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I think I’ve read it eight or nine times since I first came upon it in jr high school.
The book I keep going back to is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I think I’ve read it eight or nine times since I first came upon it in jr high school.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Salman Rushdie...Midnight's Children
William Burroughs...Naked Lunch
Thomas Pynchon...V
Donna Tartt...The Goldfinch
Vladimir Nabokov...Pale Fire
Mervlyn Peake...Gormanghast Trilogy (first 2 books)
William Burroughs...Naked Lunch
Thomas Pynchon...V
Donna Tartt...The Goldfinch
Vladimir Nabokov...Pale Fire
Mervlyn Peake...Gormanghast Trilogy (first 2 books)
In broken mathematics, We estimate our prize, --Emily Dickinson
- DigitalJanitor
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Many, many years ago I read Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Modern technology will make big brother come alive . Prescient author.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine. It's NOT science fiction, it's a wonderful depiction of life in small town america.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Cormac McCarthy, border trilogy
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
His son James McMurtry, is an awesome singer-songwriter as well. I’ve seen him in concert a few times....
His son James McMurtry, is an awesome singer-songwriter as well. I’ve seen him in concert a few times....
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Preston and Child. The Ice Limit.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Mark Twain — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I realize this isn't the topic, but I rarely read fiction. Instead, I thought I'd add my favorite non-fiction author. It is Eric Larson. He has written several excellent books: The Devil In the White City, Dead Wake, The Splendid and the Vile (newest). I've read them all.
The one I liked the most is In The Garden of Beasts, an amazing story about America's Ambassador to Germany in the early 1930s and his promiscuous daughter.
The one I liked the most is In The Garden of Beasts, an amazing story about America's Ambassador to Germany in the early 1930s and his promiscuous daughter.
No matter how long the hill, if you keep pedaling you'll eventually get up to the top.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
It has been a long while since I've had a chance to really sit down and enjoy a book of fiction, but back when I did, my two favorite authors were Tom Clancy and Harry Turtledove. My favorite Clancy novel was probably Clear and Present Danger and with Turtledove, the WorldWar series. The latter is an interesting "aliens invade Earth" story, but the aliens show up in June of 1942.
I remember really enjoying Kim Robinson's trilogy about Mars colonization, but I haven't read any of his other works, so I don't know.
I remember really enjoying Kim Robinson's trilogy about Mars colonization, but I haven't read any of his other works, so I don't know.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
My favorite book, depending on my mood when you ask me, is either William Goldman's The Princess Bride (also my favorite movie), or Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.
However my favorite AUTHOR (AKA considering their whole body of work) would be Terry Pratchett. And my favorite of his is Night Watch.
However my favorite AUTHOR (AKA considering their whole body of work) would be Terry Pratchett. And my favorite of his is Night Watch.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
+1 My favorites as well.BogleTaxPro wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:44 pm Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine. It's NOT science fiction, it's a wonderful depiction of life in small town america.
The closest helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I re-read this early last summer. In my re-read queue is Gulliver's Travels by Swift. edit: also "The Machine Stops" - a novella by EM Forster.
Stay hydrated; don't sweat the small stuff
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I read a lot of books by Jonathan Kellerman, and his wife Fay Kellerman.
They each have a series of books of their own.
Broken Man 1999
They each have a series of books of their own.
Broken Man 1999
“If I cannot drink Bourbon and smoke cigars in Heaven then I shall not go." - Mark Twain
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
The Collected Stories of Breece DJ Pancake - short stories and his only publication - or for a repeat writer -
Killing Commendatore - Haruki Murakami
Killing Commendatore - Haruki Murakami
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Frederick Forsyth - Day of the Jackal
close second - Elmore Leonard - Unknown Man No. 89
close second - Elmore Leonard - Unknown Man No. 89
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Yes, yes, yes to both of them!
In broken mathematics, We estimate our prize, --Emily Dickinson
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Louis L'Amour, Guns of the Timberlands
no longer in the weeds and thorns
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
+1DigitalJanitor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:00 pm Patrick O'Brian, his Aubrey/Maturin series (starting with Master and Commander). Doesn't get much better. Great characters, great stories, great story arc.
Also Maurice Druon‘s “The Accursed Kings” series
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I have to admit to a decades old addiction to anything by John D. Mcdonald. His Travis McGee series in particular.
“I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension. Astrology, health food, flag waving, bible thumping, Zen, nudism, nihilism—all of these are grotesque simplifications which small dreary people adopt in the hope of thereby finding The Answer, because the very concept that maybe there is no answer, never has been, never will be, terrifies them.”
― John D. MacDonald, A Deadly Shade of Gold: A Travis McGee Novel
“If there was one sunset every twenty years, how would people react to them? If there were ten seashells in all the world, what would they be worth? If people could make love just once a year, how carefully would they pick their mates?”
― John D. MacDonald, One Fearful Yellow Eye: A Travis McGee Novel
"Bugs would eat the wax. Chaw the old canvas. And one day there will be a mutation, and we will have new ones that can digest concrete, dissolve steel and suck up the acid puddles, fatten on magic plastics, lick their slow way through glass. Then the cities will tumble and man will be chased back into the sea from which he came...”
― John D. MacDonald, The Deep Blue Good-By
“I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension. Astrology, health food, flag waving, bible thumping, Zen, nudism, nihilism—all of these are grotesque simplifications which small dreary people adopt in the hope of thereby finding The Answer, because the very concept that maybe there is no answer, never has been, never will be, terrifies them.”
― John D. MacDonald, A Deadly Shade of Gold: A Travis McGee Novel
“If there was one sunset every twenty years, how would people react to them? If there were ten seashells in all the world, what would they be worth? If people could make love just once a year, how carefully would they pick their mates?”
― John D. MacDonald, One Fearful Yellow Eye: A Travis McGee Novel
"Bugs would eat the wax. Chaw the old canvas. And one day there will be a mutation, and we will have new ones that can digest concrete, dissolve steel and suck up the acid puddles, fatten on magic plastics, lick their slow way through glass. Then the cities will tumble and man will be chased back into the sea from which he came...”
― John D. MacDonald, The Deep Blue Good-By
Last edited by Woodshark on Fri Jul 10, 2020 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- nisiprius
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
I have too many "favorites." My secret guilty pleasure is Lee Child's Jack Reacher series.
Among thriller, spy, and detective writers: John D. MacDonald, and not just the Travis McGee series. Maybe my favorite among all of them is Please Write for Details.
I would have to say Nevil Shute is high on my list of favorites. Oddly enough, in my opinion his most famous book, On the Beach isn't even close to being his best. I much prefer The Trustee from the Toolroom, A Town like Alice, An Old Captivity, The Chequer-Board, and Round the Bend.
Jack London is one of my favorites, but I don't think any of his novels is really first-rate, not even The Call of the Wild. He's at his best in his short stories, so I guess my "favorite book" of his would be any good short-story anthology, as long as it includes "Samuel," "The Apostate," "The Mexican," "All Gold Canyon," "Love of Life," and "To Build a Fire." It's not a great short story but I am very fond of his science-fiction story, "The Shadow and the Flash," particularly because it plays on the mistaken idea that something that is perfectly black, and thus reflects no light, must be invisible. It is quite a nice little intellectual puzzle to explain clearly why that is not true. (In the story, a character says "But we see black objects in daylight," and another one insists "Very true, and that is because they are not perfectly black." I thought of this constantly when I was listening to a recent podcast about Vantablack and other extremely black nanotube pigments.
Among thriller, spy, and detective writers: John D. MacDonald, and not just the Travis McGee series. Maybe my favorite among all of them is Please Write for Details.
I would have to say Nevil Shute is high on my list of favorites. Oddly enough, in my opinion his most famous book, On the Beach isn't even close to being his best. I much prefer The Trustee from the Toolroom, A Town like Alice, An Old Captivity, The Chequer-Board, and Round the Bend.
Jack London is one of my favorites, but I don't think any of his novels is really first-rate, not even The Call of the Wild. He's at his best in his short stories, so I guess my "favorite book" of his would be any good short-story anthology, as long as it includes "Samuel," "The Apostate," "The Mexican," "All Gold Canyon," "Love of Life," and "To Build a Fire." It's not a great short story but I am very fond of his science-fiction story, "The Shadow and the Flash," particularly because it plays on the mistaken idea that something that is perfectly black, and thus reflects no light, must be invisible. It is quite a nice little intellectual puzzle to explain clearly why that is not true. (In the story, a character says "But we see black objects in daylight," and another one insists "Very true, and that is because they are not perfectly black." I thought of this constantly when I was listening to a recent podcast about Vantablack and other extremely black nanotube pigments.
Last edited by nisiprius on Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Kurt Vonnegut. Hard to pick a favorite since I have devoured them all but perhaps Slaughterhouse-Five.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels, Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, and Robert Parker's Spenser novels, great as they are, all suffer from a common fault, which is that the central character has the verbal skills, and the interest in words and language, of a writer, and sees things from what is too-obviously a writer's point of view. In Parker, of course, this is explicit in the very name Spenser and the titles of all the earlier novels, all literary references.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Howdy
Rex Stout, and just about any of his Nero Wolfe stories. I love hanging out at the brownstone with Archie Goodwin and Nero.
I like Travis McGee and John MacDonald also, but Archie is much less pretentious as a narrator and a lot more fun.
W B
Rex Stout, and just about any of his Nero Wolfe stories. I love hanging out at the brownstone with Archie Goodwin and Nero.
I like Travis McGee and John MacDonald also, but Archie is much less pretentious as a narrator and a lot more fun.
W B
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
There are so many. A few of my favorites..
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The World According To Garp by John Irving
Because it is Bitter and Because it is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The World According To Garp by John Irving
Because it is Bitter and Because it is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Mary Renault. All her books are good, but if I had to choose one it would be The King Must Die, because it has the Bull Court in it. It's also the epitome of how historical fiction should be written: a realistic novel set in the 17th century B.C., told from the viewpoint of someone of that period. We now can find different explanations for many of the events described, but those are not the explanations that would have occurred to anyone at the time.
Also great: any of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books. There's so much history they don't teach in school.
Also great: any of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books. There's so much history they don't teach in school.
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Philip Roth, American Pastoral. Roth joined the club of wonderful writers ignored by the Nobel Prize committee (e.g., Marcel Proust, Henry James). I might choose differently some other day, but I'm happy with this.
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Mother Night by Vonnegut and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Number One: Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven (runners up - most of his short stories)
The rest in no particular order:
Louis L'Amour - Everything he wrote, and especially the Sackett series
Frederick Forsythe - Day of the Jackal (runners up - most everything else he wrote)
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
John D. McDonald - The Green Ripper (runners up - the rest of the Travis McGee series)
Michael Crichton - The Andromeda Strain (runners up - the rest of his books)
Tom Clancy - Everything he wrote, especially The Hunt for Red October
The rest in no particular order:
Louis L'Amour - Everything he wrote, and especially the Sackett series
Frederick Forsythe - Day of the Jackal (runners up - most everything else he wrote)
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
John D. McDonald - The Green Ripper (runners up - the rest of the Travis McGee series)
Michael Crichton - The Andromeda Strain (runners up - the rest of his books)
Tom Clancy - Everything he wrote, especially The Hunt for Red October
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
The last fiction book I read was from Mario Puzo “The Last Don”
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Fitzgerald -----The Great Gatsby!
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
John D. Macdonald’s Travis McGee series.
John Bogle: "It's amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he's paid a small fortune not to understand it."
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
Franzen - The Corrections
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Re: Who is your favorite fiction author and what is your favorite book of theirs?
That is my pick as well!
Last edited by stuper1 on Fri Jul 10, 2020 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A 10-20% allocation to gold has helped with the sequence of returns problem. Some gold held physically is also good insurance against the all-digital-assets problem.