Favorite Books or Authors
I was preparing answers to a questionnaire the other day on which it asked what was my favorite book. There was no way I could decide on only one book. At various times in my life certain books were more important than others but there has not been one that was absolutely the favorite. Maybe you have one book that is your absolute favorite but mine would be a ever changing (and growing) list.
In my college days I remember reading Dr. Strangelove (before I saw the movie- out loud with a rowdy group of friends) and Catch-22. I thought those books were something special by genius level authors. I had loved tons of sci-fi books during high school with Vonnegut being my favorite author. About that same time I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was amazed at the effort involved in writing those stories.
I have had a long term love of mysteries. Probably have read most of the best known mystery writers with a real attachment to the British understated style--such as Agatha Christie. Raymond Chandler help establish a whole genre of detective stories which I have enjoyed.
Current mystery authors on my list are: Mark Gimenez, Todd Borg, Michael Connelly (great Bosch fan), Sheldon Siegel, J.A. Jance, C.J. Box and Stuart Woods.
In my college days I remember reading Dr. Strangelove (before I saw the movie- out loud with a rowdy group of friends) and Catch-22. I thought those books were something special by genius level authors. I had loved tons of sci-fi books during high school with Vonnegut being my favorite author. About that same time I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was amazed at the effort involved in writing those stories.
I have had a long term love of mysteries. Probably have read most of the best known mystery writers with a real attachment to the British understated style--such as Agatha Christie. Raymond Chandler help establish a whole genre of detective stories which I have enjoyed.
Current mystery authors on my list are: Mark Gimenez, Todd Borg, Michael Connelly (great Bosch fan), Sheldon Siegel, J.A. Jance, C.J. Box and Stuart Woods.
OK, I don't mind putting in my (cheaper than) two cents' worth. I'll go with the desert-island analogy; if left on one, with only one author to read, who might it be? That's tough, too many to think about: Hawthorne, Turgenev, Plimpton, so on. My seventh-grade English teacher told me I was too young to be particular, and now I've grown too old to be picky. Give me a writer I haven't read before, a brave new one. Give me a risk to take. Is literature only about my preferences and comforts? I don't think so, but that's just me.
ReplyDeleteThat is a significant risk--using your desert-island analogy. Only one author and you would pick a new one you have never read? In many ways are biases reflect some inner knowledge of what makes us who we are--so I think you should go with your picky self (screw the seventh-grade English teacher) and select one of your secret pleasures--maybe a romance novel or a sports story or I guess even Hawthorne?
ReplyDeleteBut that is my "secret pleasure" - new writers, new writing. I've already read Hawthorne and Tolstoy and Heller and Dickens and McMurtry, et.al., and they inspired me, all of them. But literature is as much about the future as as the past. Its promise and premise is more writing, which begets more reading, which begins the cycle. I'm happy to be part of that cycle. Even on a desert island.
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