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Are there authors that you love so much that you would (and do) seek out and read absolutely everything they've ever written? Authors whose voices speak to you more deeply than others, and you just can't get enough of them?

For me it's Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, and L.M. Montgomery. I read everything by these authors that I can get my hands on, including short stories, essays... everything. As for more modern authors, I'm slowly making my way through Wayne Johnston's body of work and loving every minute of it.

What about you?

I've always been partial to Bryce Courtenay and now, I try to get everything from John Grisham.

For me, it is John Grisham as well.

Ugh it is not a short list and many of them are new so the list of books to read is so long. Most recently Jojo Moyes, Sarah Addison Allen and Kristin Hannah. The ones who I cant keep up with Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult and Michael Baron. The boys who make me want to read big books Stephen King and John Jakes. I am just never going to catch up!

Vladimir Nabokov, Kafka, Martin Amis, Hermann Hesse, David Foster Wallace, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. :)

Sherrilyn kenyon is my fave author so every time she has a dark hunter, league, dream hunter or chronicles of nick book out I go borrow it from the library or buy it. I get excited for books I'm reading series by an author by like ridley pearson's kingdom keepers series I get excited for that. I'm a fan of stephenking too but haven't read much by him but joyland was pretty good. :-)

I tend to read all of series(like James Patterson-Alex Cross or Michael Bennett) but I don't read his other series. Steve Berry - Cotton Malone, Sophie Kinsella-shopaholic, Gemma Townley, Chelsea Cain-Gretchen Lowell, Gemma Townley and certain Nora Robert(not JD Robb...lol)
So many authors so little time!

All of the Bronte sisters and Margaret Atwood for me :)

Woohoo, another Margaret Atwood lover! I admit, I haven't read many of her books (she's just written too many), but I'm getting there!

She's the only one I actively try to read a lot of. I really need to get obsessed with more authors...

Nicholas Sparks!!!!! Top of the list.....:):)!!! I love him....I mean, his writing:P:P I read everything by him....even if his books disappoint, there's nothing which can stop me from reading him!!! Then there's John Green....who's another amazing author....I haven't read all his books, but that's because I never got them. And Khaled Hosseini would be the last in the list...:) (LOVE his books...!!)

Bryce Courtenay, Lee Child, Mitch Albom & Fannie Flagg. My must have authors & ones I will always recommend to friends!

oh I recently discovered Fannie Flagg. I guess I am reading hers too!

Debbie Macomber
Robert P Parker

I started reading Terry Pratchett many moons ago and have followed the discworld novels along with him. I even used to be in 'The Guild of Fans and Disciples'- his fan club! Have met him 3 times now and have a few books autographed.

Neil Gaiman - I read every thing he releases, he pretty much got me into comics, and I adore his novels. Highlight of last year was finally meeting him and going to his talk and his street naming ceremony. I have a photo I took of him standing by the roadsign for the new road in his old hometown called 'The Ocean at the end of the Lane' holding his book 'The Ocean at the end of the Lane' - fab memories.

Guy Gavriel Kay is responsible for a few of my favourite books when I was a young adult - a trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry, and a stand-alone called Tigana - and so whenever anything by him is released, it's an insta-purchase.

I'd imagine there's more too, but I keep getting an over-capacity page so I want to post this before it vanishes!

Sandy, definitely check out Adichie's Americanah!! It's amazing and I found it to be an easy read.

I think my list changes. What I had 10 years ago would be different from today. Today, it's:

Anthony Ryan
Patrick Rothfuss
D.Z.C.
Thaddeus White

Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, Jo Nesbo, and Hilary Mantel.

Stephen King - everything he's written is great although I just never got into the Gunslinger series. His later works show a depth that I think will stand the test of time. These are novels that people will be reading a hundred years from now because they speak of universal truths.

Jim Butcher - another author whose works seems timeless to me - both of his major series - the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera series are superb. The themes are so much more than much of the fantasy genre.

Robert A. Heinlein - my first love in science fiction. My 5th grade teacher read "Between Two Worlds" after lunch one month and I was hooked. I have read everything he's done. One of the giants of SciFi.

Other authors I tend to dive into series (Cussler, Patterson, Roberts, Evanovich, etc) but they are not quite as all-consuming as my passion for the 3 above.

Cindy wrote: "Stephen King - everything he's written is great although I just never got into the Gunslinger series. His later works show a depth that I think will stand the test of time. These are novels that people will be reading a hundred years from now because they speak of universal truths."

Really, Cindy? As a teenager, I loved Stephen King. I was creeped out by the pre-teen gangbang in It, but I otherwise think it's an amazing novel. He took a modernist literature concept (city as a character, as seen in Ulysses!!!) and brought it to a genre novel, a horror novel that has been read by millions. He was a high school English teacher, and you can tell by how he makes high lit concepts accessible to all audiences. I have a lot of respect for him.

However, I read Insomnia and I was terribly disappointed. Now, I have just wikied it and seen he wrote it in 1994, instead of after the car accident as I'd been assuming. Maybe he had a ban run in the 90s? But then, I watched Dreamcatcher (didn't read it), and it just seemed like a lesser It.

What recent books of his have you liked?

I have to add my two cents, after all this is Mr. the King! I completely stopped reading his stuff in the 90s but last year read 11/22/63 and UR. Now I am wondering why I ever stopped.

Stephen king is a good writer. I've enjoyed some of his books so far.

Aitziber wrote: "Cindy wrote: "Stephen King - everything he's written is great although I just never got into the Gunslinger series. His later works show a depth that I think will stand the test of t..."


I know that he had a period where some of his novels were not as good as either his earlier or later works. But I have found most of his recent works have been amazing. (And personally, with very few exceptions, almost none of his works translates well to the screen. I think it's because you cannot convey the mental terror that you get from reading a passage into a visual experience. Thus, Dreamcatchers.)

So recent SK books that I've liked:

11/22/63 - although this came out in late 2011, I read it in early 2012 and felt it was one of the 5 best books I read in 2012. It is a HUGE what-if/time travel novel, but even more than that it is an epic love story. The themes that SK interweaves in this period piece include the ripples of our actions in time and the timelessness of love. The ending is heart-rending and thought-provoking. SK even connects this to "It" and some may find it reminds them of "The Dead Zone". But where DZ deals with the main character trying to prevent a future (horrible) event, 11/22/63 has the character returning back in time to stop a past (equally horrible) event. Can you tell I like it? It is definitely worth the investment of time.

Joyland - a very recent novel and another one with little horror and just a bit of the supernatural. A story of a time (the early 70s) and a young man's coming of age.

Lisey's Story - a book from the mid-2000s but I still consider it one of his more recent works. I love this novel and consider it one of the best of SK.

I know many people consider The Stand as King's greatest work, but I am not so sure. I think it's his later works that will be considered his best in the years to come.

Lisey's Story is one I really want to read.

I enjoyed cycle of the werewolf, eyes of the dragon, joyland, night shift, pet sematary, salems lot, and blockade billy. The stand is good too.

Mark Batterson, a Christian non-fiction writer.

I used to feel that way about Jodi Picoult, but then it began to feel like every book was the same. Yep, this teenage main character was secretly pregnant too!

I could make a list, but at the top of it would be Joan Slonczewski. (I tracked down a paperback of hers even though I knew the print would be really small.) She hasn't written as many books as I want her to, so I'm sort of "saving" them.
I'll still read anything Sheri S. Tepper writes, but her recent books have started seeming familiar.

Roseanne wrote: "oh I recently discovered Fannie Flagg. I guess I am reading hers too!"

As a recently discovered Fannie Flagg reader, what are you thinking?

so far I have read A Redbird Christmas Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. I have to say the one I like the least was fried green tomatoes. I love her characters.

Over the years, there have been several obsessions including:

Ruth Chew
Jim Kjelgard
Phyllis Whitney
Barbara Cartland (Yes, I know. But, she published for, like, 50 years before her stuff got really crappy)
Stephen King
Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers
C. S. Lewis
Arthur Conan Doyle
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens (on-going)
Dorothy Dunnett
J. K. Rawling
Lauren Willig
Jennifer Crusie
Haruki Murakami

I know there are more... I'll probably have to use the edit function later to add. ;)

Cindy wrote: "Aitziber wrote: "Cindy wrote: "Stephen King - everything he's written is great although I just never got into the Gunslinger series. His later works show a depth that I think will st..."

Thank you all for your comments about SK. Especially you, Cindy, your comment was so detailed! :D I've added Joyland to my to-read list as it's the shortest book, and I'll work from there.

The Stand is definitely my favorite Stephen King book, to the point I looked down my nose at Lost because it seemed like the poor man's The Stand, haha. I even named Nick Andros as one of my favorite characters in one of the other questions in this group. I can't imagine a book of his being better, so I have that to look forward to!

Stephen King. I discovered him about twenty years ago. I saw The Dead Zone on telly and thought it was great so I went to the library to find the book. I think I ended up with The Tommyknockers or maybe Salem's Lot (can't really recall) but since then I have collected all novels and those written under his other name.

Also Anne Rice, Terry Pratchett, James Herbert and Diana Gabaldon. And at the moment I'm looking around for Robin Hobb stuff.

For me those would be Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Neil Gaiman and J.D. Salinger. And lately I've been wanting to read everything F. Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote.

The beauty about books and authors is that your favorites keep increasing over the years and often (although very rarely) go off your favorite list for some time. My all time favorites include

William Shakespeare
P G Wodehouse
Nevil Shute
Alistair Maclean
Erle Stanley Gardner
Agatha Christie
Arthur Hailey
Robin Cook
Jeffrey Archer
Robert Ludlum
Sidney Sheldon
Michael Crichton
Diana Gabaldon
Debbie Macomber
Nora Roberts (as well as her J D Robb series)
and whole lot of others that I cant remember off hand but may add later using the edit function :) :)

*Judy Blume, although I really only like forever
*Terry Pratchett, between me and hubby we have most of his books
*Katie price, i have nearly all of her chick-lit

Jean M. Auel, Dean Koontz, Sidney Sheldon, Ken Follett, Steve Berry

Sandy wrote: "Aitziber, have you heard about Americanah having won the N..."

I have in fact! I posted about it elsewhere. Americanah was one of my favorite books last year, and when I finished, I urged everyone I know to read it. I ache to discuss it with someone, anyone!! :D It's not perfect (the Obama subplot I was so-so on), but it was amazing nonetheless.

Sandy wrote: Aitziber, I'm on the hold list for it at the public library, so maybe we can chat about it whenever it gets to me?"

I'd love to!

None that come to mind as "speaking" to me, but I do love Jonathan Kellerman's books.

Stephen king, for me. I've already read most of his stuff.

When I read Pigeon Feathers in seventh grade, I felt as if John Updike had snuck in and stolen my thoughts. Also, I remember reading Rabbit Run in my dorm room and thinking the novel was revealing my parents to me, although Rabbit and his wife are nothing like my parents. So Updike.

I would like to read as many Stephen King books as possible.

And the child side of me says David Walliams- so far I have read all of his.
Roald Dahl - even as an adult I still love his kids books and have a few adult books that I need to read.

I also own about 30 Virginia Andrews books I read when I was younger, but they have been in the loft about 15 years.

Faye wrote: "Are there authors that you love so much that you would (and do) seek out and read absolutely everything they've ever written? Authors whose voices speak to you more deeply than others, and you just..."

Not for a Long time. I WILL read all Diana Gabaldon. Last time, I loved Karyn Monk, romance novels.

I can't think of an author about whom I feel this strongly. However, I have been reading books published by Twelve (which is part of the Hachette Book Group), and I haven't read a disappointing book yet. I'm not affiliated with them in any way.

The topics covered are interesting, thought-provoking and cover a broad range. I particularly liked Columbine and Apologize, Apologize!.

Brandon Sanderson fangirl (fantasy) here, although I don't like his ya novels as much

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They're amazing!

JK Rowling, for me. She's an amazing author.

I love so many authors and genres, that I'm just going to post my candy for enjoyment:

Jane Austen
Vince Flynn
Elizabeth George
Martha Grimes
Lee Child

I know there are more authors and from different genres, especially after this year!

F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, Jane Austen. And as for living writers, I'll buy anything that Belinda Alexandra publishes. I'm never disappointed.

I think I've read 55 books by SK and am trying to read the rest. Don't know if I'll finish the gunslinger series though.

jane Austen, kate mosse and phillipa gregory