Greatest writer ever (besides Shakespeare)

[Smoot4Prez]

Kurt Vonnegut! Can't believe he hasn't gotten any love this far into the thread....

The rest of my favs have already been covered.

[Peeping Wizard]

William Faukner.... any writer who can have a 5 page sentence in one of his stories ( The Bear )... and got get critisized for it; He's get's the prize as greatest writer.

Faulkner and Joyce had incredibly arrogant writing styles.

[Rudechain]

I don't mean this to sound combative, but you found value in Dekker?

He started with more than the benefit of the doubt with me. If he'd even been decent, I would have been thrilled. I wanted so badly for him to be good...

And I was bored to tears. Thr3e or whatever that atrocity is called made me want those three hours of my life back. I wanted to tear down walls and punch babies. Not because the ending was so bad (it was), but because the entire book was futile.

What did I miss?

I started with Red, Black and White by him and those were not bad. At times they could be tiresome, but I powered through it.

And the reason he's probably on the list now is I just finished reading Boneman's daughter. There are some dry spots in it, and the ending was not what I would have done, but it was entertaining.

After reading dry technical novels, I need a little brain candy. My mother picks up a lot of books and gives them to me when she finishes. She gave me Dekker's Adam also and it looks entertaining.

What Dekker book did you read? Red Black and White all go together as a trilogy and if you only read one, it will dissapoint you. But all three together brings the story together.

[Rudechain]

I guess that was my point. She may not be the best actual writer in terms of very deep meanings and subplots but she got a whole range of audience to read her books from 6-to 40 if not older.

She got a lot of children to start liking to read and for many adults to get back into it.

If the point of writing/read books is for entertainment (which I believe it is) then surely she needs to be up there.

Will her books stand the test of time though is hard to gauge.

Rowling has an interesting style, but it was something I just could not get into myself. (to each his own, but her writing style is very good)

As a kid, CS Lewis was probably the author that really helped to develop my love for reading. Reading the tales of Narnia as a kid were something.

[hockeysc23]

Yea, J.K. rowling is not a great writer, she is a great story teller. There is a big distinction there.

Dan Brown's books are fun to read but do they have realy literary value? Hell ****ing No. His metaphors are so transparent and obvious and it really seems as if he is trying to hard. However, ANgels and Demons was fun as **** to read.

Very good point there and that's something I didn't distinquish I tend to always think one in the same with them.

Because unless someone is a great story teller (aka the book is interesting) I won't read it. I don't know how one can be a great writer and a poor story teller.

[Pick6]

Kurt Vonnegut! Can't believe he hasn't gotten any love this far into the thread....

The rest of my favs have already been covered.

Did you miss my post? He is my favorite author and Hocus Pocus is a book everyone should read.

[Sikbug]

Hunter S Thompson will forever be in my top 3

[Mufumonk]

Cormac McCarthy is a bad *** and so is Philip Roth

I love McCarthy. The Road is one of the most powerful stories I have ever read. A modern day Faulkner.

I'm a Neal Stephenson fan.

Stephenson is a phenomenal story-teller (and a local!). If only he could figure out how to write an ending........Snow Crash was great till you realized there were only 10 pages left to tie up every plot line. The way he was able to meld fantasy and sci-fi in The Diamond Age was beautifully done. But, it suffered from the same problems as Snow Crash. I've been reluctant to touch anything else by him because of this.........though Mjah suggested I read the Baroque Cycle in another thread.

[81+83+84=Posse]

I cannot choose one. Gun to my head, I'd say Patrick Rothfuss right now. But that's right now.

Wow, pretty impressive considering he only has one book. The Name of The Wind was AWESOME though!

They just announced The Wise Man's Fear would be published on March 1, 2011.

[drtdrums]

I started with Red, Black and White by him and those were not bad. At times they could be tiresome, but I powered through it.

And the reason he's probably on the list now is I just finished reading Boneman's daughter. There are some dry spots in it, and the ending was not what I would have done, but it was entertaining.

After reading dry technical novels, I need a little brain candy. My mother picks up a lot of books and gives them to me when she finishes. She gave me Dekker's Adam also and it looks entertaining.

What Dekker book did you read? Red Black and White all go together as a trilogy and if you only read one, it will dissapoint you. But all three together brings the story together.

Thr3e was, I think, the only thing I've tried.

If you want a good cheap thrill, James' Rollins' sigma force novels are a blast. Mostly. Lol.

[Smoot4Prez]

Did you miss my post? He is my favorite author and Hocus Pocus is a book everyone should read.

Ah skimmed through the thread, must have missed it.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

John Donne

John Keats

Percy Bysshe Shelly

William Faulkner

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Truman Capote

Sylvia Plath

David Foster Wallace

Donna Tartt

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

My Mom and Dad gave me a Autographed 1st Addition of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee on my 40th Birthday. It is probably my most prized possession.

That is possibly a $30,000 gift.

[GibbsFactor]

No love for Orson Scott Card?

:saber:

[MassSkinsFan]

Stephenson is a phenomenal story-teller (and a local!). If only he could figure out how to write an ending........Snow Crash was great till you realized there were only 10 pages left to tie up every plot line. The way he was able to meld fantasy and sci-fi in The Diamond Age was beautifully done. But, it suffered from the same problems as Snow Crash. I've been reluctant to touch anything else by him because of this.........though Mjah suggested I read the Baroque Cycle in another thread.

I'll second Mjah on that. You're right that he does tend to wrap up his stories very quickly at the last minute. I like the ride tremendously though, so it's OK by me.

Check out Cryptonomicon before the Baroque Cycle for sure since the characters relate between the two.

[Rudechain]

Thr3e was, I think, the only thing I've tried.

If you want a good cheap thrill, James' Rollins' sigma force novels are a blast. Mostly. Lol.

Never read thr3e so I can't comment on that particular one, but the other Dekker novels were entertaining or as I said "brain candy".

I have read some Rollins, the last ones were Judas Strain and The Last Oracle. I really did enjoy them and liked the way he added complexities to the charecter's personalities throughout both books. But I can't say I read any of the others.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

You know what? Ignore my list.

The greatest writer in English at least for the past century is John McPhee.

You read McPhee and you want to become a merchant marine or an itinerant fruit picker. You want your own cranberry bog.

In all seriousness, pick up a McPhee book and you will spend three pages asking, "Why the hell am I reading something on this subject?" At page ten, you will be so hooked that you probably won't sleep until you finish.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Also, I always forget to mention that the best novel of the 20th century is Lolita. There are stories of undergraduates at Cornell, bowing down to Nabokov when he passed them.

I also highly recommend the novel of A Clockwork Orange. You basically get to learn a new language as you read it, which is fascinating. I still have a song he wrote following the novel fascinating. I would be curious if anyone is a Chapter 21 advocate.

I am not a major Orwell fan. I think he overwrote a lot.

I appreciate Keroauc, but I aslo appreciate the criticism of "This is not writing, it is typing." The only Beat who I feel is a truly great writer is Burroughs.

I wrote a really good 25-page paper on Jane Austen as an undergrad about the sexual imagery in her work. As a result, I now think Jane Austen is kind of hot.

I wrote a really terrible 100 page paper on Slyvia Plath. She wrote one truly great, but very thin volume of poetry. All in all, I think I prefer Ted Hughes.

Speaking of suicidal 1950s poets, the only thing of Anne Sexton's that I recommend are her fairy tale poems. Those are kind of great.

I've given every woman I ever dated Marilyn Hacker's complete poems as a gift. I rock.

As for pulpy stuff, I think Agatha Christie is a masterful storyteller but a so-so writer. I am growing increasingly convinced that Ian Fleming was a brilliant writer. I like Mickey Spillane quite a bit. I simply cannot get through a fantasy novel. Douglas Adams is as close as I can get.

[drtdrums]

Never read thr3e so I can't comment on that particular one, but the other Dekker novels were entertaining or as I said "brain candy".

I have read some Rollins, the last ones were Judas Strain and The Last Oracle. I really did enjoy them and liked the way he added complexities to the charecter's personalities throughout both books. But I can't say I read any of the others.

He suffers from the same disease as Dan Brown, but I find his stuff infinitely more readable. Brown reads like Baigent on hallucinogens.

[RedskinFeathers]

I've been in this thread a couple different times and I will pick an author or two and then change my mind. I just can't pick. It depends on what kind of reading I'm in the mood for. American Lit and British Lit were two of my favorite classes I've taken in college.

Mark Twain may get my vote.

Jane Austen is one of my favorites hands down. I love her.

And maybe not the greatest writer ever, but I'm absolutely addicted to James Patterson...

[mbws]

I don't think you could choose a greatest ever. So much of it just comes down to taste.

However, I will throw in a vote for Mark Twain. Huck Finn was simply a masterpiece. Also Ernest Hemingway has to be up there. Incredible style points for him.

The three greatest American novels, imo:

Huck Finn

Moby Dick

To Kill a Mockingbird

As for international authors, I don't give a ****. English lit sucks ass. I still have nightmares about Paradise Lost, among others. What a steaming turd that was.

Sadly "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the only novel that Harper Lee wrote.

I would like to add Irwin Shaw.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Sadly "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the only novel that Harper Lee wrote.

Or was it the only book that Truman Capote helped her write?

[visionary]

One author who I've been getting into lately is Jasper Fforde.

He does some pretty amusing mystery stories.

He has a lot of parodies and literary references in his books too.

[Chopper Dave]

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

I read Animal Farm for the first time in 5th grade and that line still gives me chills to this day. I don't read all that much, especially all that much fiction, but in complete disagreement with LKB, I've gotta go with Orwell, for Animal Farm alone. The greatest novel ever written.

[Rudechain]

He suffers from the same disease as Dan Brown, but I find his stuff infinitely more readable. Brown reads like Baigent on hallucinogens.

Yea Dan Brown takes a certain kind of mood. Although I did like Angels and Demons better than Da Vinci Code.