Entertainment For Lively Minds
Which current authors do you buy/borrow/read ANY new book by?
Posted by Remote Control on 6 July 2010 - 2:24pm.
... whatever the reviews, even if some of their past efforts have disappointed?
My list's dwindling but'd include Don Winslow, Geoff Dyer and Jonathan Coe.
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Always
George Pelecanos & Iain Banks(but not his sci-fi stuff)
Not many
Don Winslow, Christopher Brookmyre are the two who jump to mind.
Also anything by Francis Wheen
Only a few
Christopher Priest
Geoff Nicholson
Alan Warner
Colin Bateman
Six of the best
Anne Tyler
Nick Hornby
Julian Barnes
Ian McEwan
David Nicholls
Jonathan Coe
I would have put John Irving on the list as well, but after reading ‘Last Night In Twisted River’ recently, I don’t think he qualifies as an essential read any more.
Oh bugger
I was going to post John Irving too but I haven't got round to "Last Night" yet. Luckily I still have Martina Cole to fall back on.
I've heard that that Tim Turner's books are quite good too ....
You’re too kind...
... but right, of course.
‘Last Night In Twisted River’ isn't a bad book, but it's a bit Irving by numbers - it’s even got bears in it. Like most of his recent books, it goes on much longer than it needs to, too.
It's a terrible book - one
It's a terrible book - one of the worst I have ever read. Every single scene in it is lifted from a previous Irving novel. When a character had a car accident while being given a blow job, I wanted to throw the thing out of the window. A great writer, once, but now...
Brookmyre, Coe, Mark Billingham
...and a further plug for Graham Hurley's series of Portsmouth-based gritty police procedurals.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/word-mouth-blogger-takeover-x#comm...
Me too.
Graham Hurley
Brookmyre
Pratchett
Carl Hiassen
Tim Moore
Ian Marchant
Ian Banks
Stuart Maconie
Dave Barry
P.J. O'Rourke
There's probably some others.
Quite a few
George Pelecanos
Arnaldur Indridason
James Ellroy
Reginald Hill
Henning Mankell
Christopher Brookmyre
Ian Rankin
Fred Vargas
Michael Connolly
They'll be more when I can remember them
Well........
It used to be Irvine Welsh, Ian Rankin, Jonathan Coe, Dennis Lehane & Tim Lott....
But out of that gaggle, only Rankin and Coe have remained consistent in delivering quality prose.
consistency
*EDIT*
How many bad books before you give up on a writer? Who's off your list now who used to be on it?
I'm not going to read any more Dexter novels
...by Jeff Lindsay. Good as the TV show is, the novels are badly written tripe.
My love affair with Patrick O'Brian dwindled with the last two books, and I didn't buy the barrel-scraped partial first draft that came out after his death, nor am I sure I would have got it had it been complete.
Terry Pratchett got old quickly for me
Stephen King...Much as I loved some of his early work, especially when he eased up on the horrors and focused on growing up in '50s America ("It" perhaps my favourite). I can't imagine reading anything by him now.
As for that Jane Austen. Persuasion and Mansfield Park were quite sufficient for me.
I have just received
what looks to be a complete set of Patrick O'Brien saved from a trip to the charity shop, never having read any of his before ... I'm guessing that's the summer sorted then.
Did they come
from a charity shop in Crouch End by any chance? If so they were probably once mine.
Sadly not
A friend decided to 'thin out' her husband's books and I intercepted them on route to Oxfam.
Lucky you!
Ah to be embarking on that marvellous trip for the first time...
don't ask - just buy
Jonathon Coe
David Mitchell
Neal Stephenson (I even risked a hernia by lifting my hardback of Anathem)
Haruki Murakami
Nick Hornby
My must buy list
David Mitchell
Jonathon Coe
Robert Irving
Victor Pelevin
David Nichols
William Boyd
Francis Wheen
and Harper Lee
For me....
My must buys are...
Iain Banks (but again not his Sci Fi stuff)
Ian McEwan
John O Farrell
Stephen Fry
Frederick Forsyth (especially for long haul flights)
Don't even read reviews
Iain (M) Banks - I PREFER the sci-fi ones.
Terry Pratchett
Stephen Donaldson
Stephen King used to be up there but a bad run put me off
Unapologetic sci-fi/fantasy fan.
Yep, I'm a Pterry man
Even when he was kind of coasting in some of the mid-period Discworld books like Jingo there was always something about them that was worth the effort, but it seemed like from around the point of Thief Of Time he just hit another gear: Night Watch, Going Postal and Nation were all just fabulous...which reminds me...hang on...ok, back now; just ordered the Unseen Academical paperback and Going Postal DVD from that nice Mr Amazon.
No longer with us but
A Gordon Burn book never disappoints. Either fiction or non-fiction. Best and Edwards is the best football book ever written. Not to be confused with Gordon Burns from North West Tonight and Krypton Factor.
David Lodge is one of the best of the last 40 years. Any collection of Giles Smith writing is essential. And can I join the WORD consensus backing Jonathan Coe. Give him a column in the mag now!
No longer with us but
A Gordon Burn book never disappoints. Either fiction or non-fiction. Best and Edwards is the best football book ever written. Not to be confused with Gordon Burns from North West Tonight and Krypton Factor.
David Lodge is one of the best of the last 40 years. Any collection of Giles Smith writing is essential. And can I join the WORD consensus backing Jonathan Coe. Give him a column in the mag now!
David Lodge
is great, so was Malcolm Bradbury. All his books are recommended too
Would be interested to hear
Would be interested to hear views on which Iain Banks books to get. Read and enjoyed The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road years ago, but subsequent novels disappointed. However, just finished Dead Air - tedious at times, but the first and last couple of sections were electric. The Steep Approach To Garbadale looks quite interesting.
Have to say I tend to get itchy feet with most authors - after two or three books, I'd rather move along to someone/something different, as there are so many writers out there. There are obviously exceptions though - George Pelecanos, James Kelman, Anne Tyler to name a few.
Complicity
Garbadale was fun if light. Complicity is my favourite, and I think that the Iain M banks "Use of Weapons" is in some ways a companion piece. Both are very dark. If you want to get into the SF stuff I recommend Against a Dark Background, but recommend you avoid Feesum Enjin. The Culture novels you really have to start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas.
Didn't rate Garbadale myself
but if you're on this board it's a fairly safe bet you'd like Espedair St
double post
nothing to see here
Los Bros Hernandez
Graphic novels not novels, but anything by Love and Rockets Hitmaker, Jaime Hernandez.
As reminded by your name.
Umberto Eco,
the essays especially. Interesting, intelligent and very humorous.
Stephen King, I like his books even when I don't, if that makes any sense...
David Sedaris, always entertaining.
And a few swedes that you probably haven't heard of...
My five..
CJ Sansom
William Boyd
Philip Roth
Cormac Mcarthy
Anthony Beevor
Iain Banks - loved early ones like The Bridge and Walking on Glass although both are not straightforward.
Bit of a crime fan
so Ian Rankin
Michael Connelly
Peter Robinson.
William Gibson
and Ian Rankin.
Pretty much always buy Iain M Banks (not so fond of some of the non-SF stuff), Neal Stephenson (bought but still to tackle the System of the World trilogy), Terry Pratchett.
Gibson's novels are getting less SF each time round - the lastest trilogy seems to take place about 5 minutes from now. Presumably his next novel will be set in the past.
David Lodge again..
..his latest novel, Deaf Sentence, was one of the funniest and most poignant things I've ever read. We're woefully short of comic fiction in these times and Lodge is an absolute master, (Jonathan Coe is the only other author operating in a similar field who springs to mind). If you haven't read DL, or even if you have but haven't read his latest, then treat yourself, it's a real pleasure.
Deaf Sentence
Picked this up in one of those "I've got two must find another" grabs that I expect many of us do in Waterstones.
I really enjoyed his campus novels of the mid/late 80's but then he slipped off the radar for me.
A copy of Deaf Sentence is on the unread shelf beside me and I had been wondering what to pick up next. I will give it a go based on your recommendation Preston.
on your recommendation
have just taken 'Deaf Sentence' out from the library.
Let me know..
what you think chaps. It also taught me all I know about linguistics, although I realise that may not be a great recommendation.
making slow progress
so better reply before this thread's ancient history: I'm 75 pages in and enjoying it (if that's the right word for a book about infirmity and mortality...)
Ditto
I'm about 60 pages in and thinking of giving up on it. No dramatic tension, dull character, far too many digressions and hearing aid minutiae.
Getting there
I'm enjoying it and should finish this weekend.
I do find the long passages about the process of increasing deafness of great personal interest, being a tinnitus suffering hypochodriac. Struggling with the bits about linguistics and keep rereading to check if I really know what he's on about.
Believable characters, not much plot but enough so far to keep me entertained.
Kinky Friedman...
Stephen Fry
Bill Bryson
David Lodge
Nick Hornby
There's probably a couple of others but I can't think of them at the mo.
.
James Lee Burke
James Ellroy
Michael Connelly (although his most recent offerings have disappointed)
Crime James Lee Burke's
Crime
James Lee Burke's truly a literary god. Rain Gods was brilliant - somehow I managed to miss Pegasus Decending a few years ago and bought it the other day and am utterly enthralled again.
George Pelecanos, although I think he has not lived up to the Derek Strange and Stefanos books of late. He's always worth spending a few quid on.
Just read two Florence set crimers by British author Christobel Kent - bloody brilliant. I think some of the European set books are much less run of the mill than much British tec fiction which is very procedural.
Having said that, the Charlie Resnick novels by John Harvey are very, very good - I have no idea why they haven't become prime time ITV1 fodder.
Henning Mankell & Ernesto Mallo have been recent favouites.
Elsewhere
is by some way the best in the world IMO. His book Dublin v Kerry about the most famous gaelic football rivalry is beautiful, emotional and genuinely insightful - I had to wipe away a wee tear at times. It's also one that non GAA fans would love.Irish sports writer Tom Humphries
Matt Rendell's cycling books are great value too.
Du Noyer's always worth a read as is Bill Bryson.
I don't get a lot of time for literary fiction due to reading lots of NI politics and political communication stuff for work. If anyone is interested in these then: Ed Moloney, Jon Tonge, Kevin Bean, Roy Foster, John Keane, Manuel Castells are people I always turn to.
My regulars
Fiction
William Boyd
TC Boyle
David Mitchell
Ian McEwan
Douglas Coupland (in danger of joining Hornby & Welsh on the relegation list if he doesn't raise his game after a few duds)
Non Fiction
Antony Beevor
Clive James
Another Canadian author
Wayne Johnston (especially The Colony Of Unrequited Dreams)
and from UK
Patrick Neate
Another shout for
James Lee Burke. Rain Gods has just been published in paperback and I'm about to start it.
My favourites
Currently:
Nck Hornby
Elmore Leonard
Neil Cross - excellent author
Willy Vlautin - master craftsman
Used to read Graham Greene although not all of his catalogue, Joseph Wambaugh before I got into Elmore Leonard and pretty much all of the Gerald Durrell books. Oh and V.S.Naipaul and the Paul Theroux travel books and novels.
Willy Vlautin
I think he has now written three novels?
Anyway the two I've read - this Motel Life and Lean on Pete have been excellent.There is a sparse,clipped Steinbeck feel to them
Much as I do enjoy Richmond Fontaine I think long term he will be better known for his written output if he keeps up their quality.
a fair few
George Pelecanos
Elmore Leonard
Robert Crais
Walter Mosley
James Ellory
Ian Rankin
Carl Hiaasen
Bill Bryson
Nick Hornby
Antony Beevor
Mark Steel
Joe R Lansdale
James W Hall
I'll go with everything here but
Robert Crais, especially the Elvis Cole novels which are terribly run of the mill after a while. I love Joe and Elvis, but, man, they become predictable. They just become so, well, so so.
He's very like Jonathan Kellerman in that respect - these people are much to perfect to be believable. Which, I know, is not the point - but I hope you get my drift.
Some draw the pictures too
Darwyn Cooke
Brendan McCarthy
Grant Morrison
Chris Ware
Alan Moore
(he knows the score)
Alastair Reynolds.
Several...
Fiction (I'm another crime fan):
Michael Connelly (although I'm still catching up)
Jim Crace
Sebastian Faulks (catching up, pt.2)
P.D.James
Ian Rankin
Non-fiction:
Malcolm Gladwell
to name a few
Ian Rankin
Jasper Fforde
Margaret Attwood
JG Ballard
Paul Scott
Bill Bryson
Simon Schama
Richard Dawkins
Nick Hornby
I think its often a case of I know what I'll get from them so maybe a little lazy or unadventurous on my part.
I was also going to say Joanne Harris. read all of hers and loved them but please don't tell the wife
A lot of commonality on this post
My must buys
Ian McEwan
Tim Winton
Peter Carey
Jonathan Coe
David Mitchell
a few more repeated names
Alastair Reynolds
Christopher Brookmyre
Neal Stephenson
David Mitchell
Iain M Banks
China Mieville
Jim Dodge, if he ever publishes another book
I will pick up the next John Ajvide Lingquist as soon as I see it
people who used to be on this list but have fallen off
Iain Banks
Stephen King
Carl Hiaasen
William Gibson (Spook Country was actually painful to read)
Paul Auster
Robertson Davies (no fault of his own, dying has slown his output somewhat, but any excuse to shoehorn my favourite ever writer in. The Brookmyre fans here may well recognise certain, uh, elements of his work...)
Robertson Davies
what a magnificent writer. The Deptford Trilogy blew me out when I first read it in my youth and The Rebel Angels is well up there in my personal top 20 ever
The master
The Deptford Trilogy is great; for me, the Cornish Trilogy tops it. Stunningly brilliant writing, wonderful characters, great jokes, breathtaking erudition. On the subject of erudition, a lot of authors could learn from Davies about how to wear their learning lightly - I'm talking about you, Faulks, in particular Human Traces.
China Mieville
The City and the City is the novel I've most enjoyed, and thought most about, over the last year or two.
See also Jeff VanderMeer - he's a bit irregular, but most of his stuff is basically backwards7 in a book. (That is a Good Thing.)
I've never not thoroughly enjoyed a Richard Morgan book either. Even his sword-and-sorcery jobby was a proper read.
Another vote for Brookmyre
Impatient for a new bok from him (not due until 2011 apparently) I re-read all of his bokos this month and feel a hole in my life now I have finished.
Robert Rankin
Carl Hiaasen
Iain Banks (and Iain M Banks)
Can I also put in a word for David Nobbs?
No surprises here
We DO all have a lot in common, don't we. I'll certainly be trying some chosen by people whose favourites I like.
My automatic buys (living authors only):
Neal Stephenson
Terry Pratchett
Stephen King
Jasper Fforde
Philip Pulman
Christopher Koch
Tim Winton
Scott Turow
Peter Carey
Richard Dawkins
Nick Hornby
and doubtless several more who will spring to mind as soon as I've clicked Post Comment
Stuart MacBride
-Author of gritty police procedurals based in Aberdeen featuring the much put-upon Logan McRae. Just read the latest ('Dark Blood')in hardback.
Another fan of Brookmyre.
Michael Chabon - Author of Yiddish Policeman's Union, Wonderboys, Kavalier and Clay etc.
Henning Mankell - Author of Wallander
A quick glance at my bookshelves
Kate Atkinson, got hooked last year on Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Paul Auster
James Lee Burke , tipped of by a fellow massivian ( Thank You )
Bill Bryson
Peter Carey, love affair started a long time ago
Charles Dickens
Robertson Davies
James Ellroy
Phillip Kerr
Denis Lehane
Primo Levi, first read him 20 years ago and keep coming back
Phillip Roth
George P Pelecanos, another massive favourite
\peter Carey
Another guy I "forgot"I love. I really like his earlier stuff, which I think is neglected a bit. How good is Illywacker? Did I read somewhere recently that someone is making a film out of Bliss? In the right hands that could be a great film.
Bliss
The film was made in 1985:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088821/
I didn't know about that
Checked it out - what I saw was a reference to this:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2781757.htm
Looks like I'm pretty average Mr Massive
Jonathan Coe
Sebastian Faulks (though a couple could do with a good edit)
Nick Hornby
David Nicholls
David Nobbs
Irvine Welsh
Mark Haddon
Neil Gaiman
Used to buy all the Pratchetts but realised it was out of loyalty recently rather than the fact that they were any good anymore.
I do quite a few autobiogs as well and a bit of travel writing if it has a spark of humour with it, eg Peter Moore and early Bryson.
The FPO likes books where people get killed and ever-so-clever people find out who did it and get them locked away, therefore the bookshelves at Maison Dyson also have loads of:
James Patterson
Ian Rankin
Val McDermid
Karin Slaughter
Personally they bore me to tears - I did try try a couple.
James Patterson
Is the name of my nine year old son, and was also the name of my
Dad, when he was small,and could't read he was very puzzled whenever I took him into
a bookshop, and showed him these books, asking the assistants to tell him the name of the author.No lasting damage.
Authors not mentioned yet:
Thomas Hauser
Jonathan Rendall
Donald McCrae
James Patterson
Is the name of my nine year old son, and was also the name of my
Dad, when he was small,and could't read he was very puzzled whenever I took him into
a bookshop, and showed him these books, asking the assistants to tell him the name of the author.No lasting damage.
Authors not mentioned yet:
Thomas Hauser
Jonathan Rendall
Donald McCrae
James Patterson
Is the name of my nine year old son, and was also the name of my
Dad, when he was small,and could't read he was very puzzled whenever I took him into
a bookshop, and showed him these books, asking the assistants to tell him the name of the author.No lasting damage.
Authors not mentioned yet:
Thomas Hauser
Jonathan Rendall
Donald McCrae
James Patterson
Is the name of my nine year old son, and was also the name of my
Dad, when he was small,and could't read he was very puzzled whenever I took him into
a bookshop, and showed him these books, asking the assistants to tell him the name of the author.No lasting damage.
Authors not mentioned yet:
Thomas Hauser
Jonathan Rendall
Donald McCrae
James Patterson
Is the name of my nine year old son, and was also the name of my
Dad, when he was small,and could't read he was very puzzled whenever I took him into
a bookshop, and showed him these books, asking the assistants to tell him the name of the author.No lasting damage.
Authors not mentioned yet:
Thomas Hauser
Jonathan Rendall
Donald McCrae
I can't believe no one has mentioned John Connolly
His semi supernatural detective, Charlie Parker, arrived fully formed from the first book along with a brilliant supporting cast including two sinister gay hitmen. Read in sequence for maximum effect as Parker's back story unfolds.
+1 for John Connolly.
+1 for John Connolly. Reminds me of Stephen King at his best, found Black Angel as scary as It.
I seem to have a good deal in common with other Massivers...
... as I'll always go for a...
Haruki Murakami
David Lodge
Sebastian Coe
David Nicholls
Ian McEwan
Ethan Canin, possibly
David Sedaris is sort of joining the list, too. He makes me laugh.
Martin Amis used to be on the list, but after "Yellow Dog" and the dreadful "Pregnant Widow", he's been emphatically relegated from it.
I've never liked any crime fiction whatsoever. Not even the well-written stuff.
I've never liked any science fiction whatsoever.
At least 95% of all the books I've ever enjoyed have been by male writers. I don't know why this is. It probably indicates something rather suspect about me.
Not everything without fail, but
Most by these guys I have, and will always check out their new ones.
William Boyd
PG Wodehouse (I know the OP said 'current' but this guy wrote 93 separate novels and many short pieces so a lot is still unread and therefore new)
Stephen King - I adored Christine and Cujo as a teen and thought The Stand was a fine piece of grandstanding storytelling. Though his recent Duma Key I thought was a clunker of epic size. He blows hot and cold with me these days
Carl Hiassen
Kinky Friedman
Richard Price
Garrison Keillor - this guy is getting better as he gets older.
Clive James - I wish he'd write another novel.
The king
If you enjoyed The Stand (and I certainly did, too) then I highly recommend the new one, "Under the Dome".
I don't agree with you on Duma Key, but my daughter was the same age as the character's daughter, and we're similarly close, so it got to me.
Possibly not on anyone else's list?
I don't think anyone has mentioned James Hawes. He is brilliant, especially "Speak for England". I don't understand why he isn't more popular.
Also Michael Connolly, David Nicholls, Nick Hornby, Malcolm Gladwell.
Lots of others I like but I might not read all of them.
Add me to the Joe R Lansdale
Add me to the Joe R Lansdale fanclub.
Plus Jonatha Safran Foer, though he takes his time to write anything new
Add me to the Joe R Lansdale
Add me to the Joe R Lansdale fanclub.
Plus Jonatha Safran Foer, though he takes his time to write anything new
It used to be Norman Lewis & Brian Moore (not the toothless one)
But now that they're gone, the following:-
William Trevor
Tim Parks.
Ian Sansom.
Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano's crime series.
Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels (his other stuff is a little ropey).
William Boyd.
James Hamilton Patterson.
This lot have written a lot and the following are just starting out and show great promise in the sport and non fiction field.
Jonathan Wilson's books on football and Travis Elborough.
I shall now go home and find that I have missed out on several obvious ones, guess we're not counting 'classic authors'.
Brian Moore
After PG Wodehouse and possibly Graham Greene my favourite 20c author.
Should be far better known than he is. Sadly a lot of his work appears to be going out of print as he's been dead ten odd years.
In no particular order
Ian Rankin
Jasper Fforde
Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett
Richard Dawkins
Iain (M) Banks
Stephen Fry
Robert Rankin
Neal Stephenson
Christopher Brookmyer
Charlie Brooker
Alan Moore
Magnus Mills
Funny and original take on mundane, everyday life.
And Andrew Martin, best known for his railway detective novels set about 100 years ago, but I wish he'd do another Bobby Dazzler, one of his early novels about juvenile delinquents and professional Yorkshiremen.
I'd forgotten about Magnus Mills
And Alexei Sayle. Both similar. Magnus Mills always rather disturbs me.
Screwtop Thompson
..a collection of Mills' early short fiction is out in October. All Quiet on the Orient Express is a classic.
Willy Vlautin
Sebastian, you should read Northline - it is the best of the three. His characterisation in this novel is first class.
What about Michael Morpago and Frank Cotterell Boyce?
I know they're written for teenage kids but MM writes quality stories full of warmth, humour and emotion - impossible not to be moved by Private Peaceful and Kensuke's Kingdom.
Meanwhile me and my 9 year old lad have just read FCB's book COSMIC together. Talk about father and son bonding moments. I can fill up just thinking about it...
Ian McKewan
On the basis of the Word’s recommendation of On Chesil Beach – I have recently gone on a bit of an Ian McKewan binge….
Chesil Beach and Cement Garden are flawless pieces –
The other two which I have read, Saturday and the recent Solar – are both enjoyable but not in the same league. Both of these focus on wider contemporary issues and this detracts from the minimalism and claustrophobia which make Chesil Beach and Cement Garden so distinctive.
If you like those
Try the early short stories (First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets). The claustrophobic druggy feeling is at its strongest in those. I think McEwan is superb in short stretches, but still feel he hasn't written a single great novel to date.
...Thanks for the recommendations –
….out of interest – is there anything that you would recommend reading which has a similar style to McEwan’s more claustrophobic work? (as a further pointer I really don’t like Martin Amis)
I would say that The Cement Garden is, at the very least close to being a great work... though admittedly at 144 pages it may be more novella than novel.
On Chesil Beach
I'm a big fan of McEwan but really OCB was a huge disappointment - I don't care how awkward these people were about their sexuality, it was utterly absurd to think that their marriage could founder on the basis of one night of gauche mixed messages. The whole thing was well-written juvenilia. Atonement on the other hand, now there's a novel.....
'now there's a novel'
yes, if 'that novel''s the ridiculously similar but far superior 'The Go-Between' - LP Hartley...
Go-Between
Read it about 30 years ago and can remember nothing but the famous first line (not a reflection on the book, just on my powers of retention). Ought I to read it again then?
agree
liked everything I read of his up until Chesil Beach, found it a bit too art for arts sake. But then, didn't it win a Booker prize or something, so what do I know.
Thanks for the heads up on John Irving earlier in the thread, One of my all time favourites but you can only stand so many bears.
More Moore
I'll add Lorrie Moore to the list.
Wry, sharp and funny, yet heartrending. I thought her novella Who Will Run the Frog Hospital was wonderful; although I have to add that my better half considered it one of the most depressing things she'd ever read...
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Carl Hiassen, Christopher Brookmyre, Iain Banks (including the sci-fi).
James Ellroy may well be included if my catch-up reading is as good as the four I've read so far.
I Forgot
...to mention John LeCarre and Len Deighton, although LD doesn't seem to have "produced" in a while.
If Deke Leonard wrote another one I'd buy it.
Has no-one yet mentioned....
Roddy Doyle?
The Barrytown Trilogy is fantastic(The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van).
Other gems are Paddy Clarke hahaha and The Woman Who Walked Into Doors.
The latest trilogy is A Star Called Henry, Oh Play That Thing and The Dead Republic.
I haven't read The Dead Republic (I can't get it out the library yet).
Note to self...get the first two out again to refresh memory
Favourite Authors
Doesn't look like anyone has mentioned Richard Ford yet. His Frank Bascombe trilogy, starting with 'The Sportswriter' are ajoy to read. He wriotes beautifully and with great attention to detail.
Rupert Thomson is another favourite.
Anything by Mel Gibson
Particularly if it is offering advice on relationships.
How could I have forgotten
Australian crime writer who my Melbourne correspondent hipped me to - Peter Temple.
And Jon A. Jackson - dry, witty crime writer. The Mulhausen series are great.
A very short list for me
and not at all original:
Bill Bryson
Stuart Maconie
Dave Gorman
The good lady wife, on the other hand - whose consumption of books dwarfs mine - absolutely loves Janet Evanovich and has usually read the latest offering before the ink has dried.
She has a particular penchant for crime novels, but (to answer the second question posed in this thread) eventually tired of Patricia Cornwell and Sue Grafton after numerous titles.
Old Habits
I buy every new Stephen King. Its just a habit, I havent read one in ages.
Thought long and hard about this
and there are not many.
Haruki Murakami.
Sebastian Faulks.
Ian McEwan.
Orhan Pamuk.
Philip Kerr.
C J Sansom - for the Shardlake Novels
Set in Tudor times. Shardlake is a lawyer who gets involved in all manners of political intrigue.
His novels capture the fear, uncertainty and political/religious instability of the times.
They're page-turners. New one out soon in h/b.
I'd almost forgotten
I also love Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth novels. The last one, Form Aberystwyth With Love was hilarious and poignant in equal measure.
Gwyn Thomas’ The Dark Philosophers….
… I got this one after James from the Manic Street Preachers recommended it in some column or the other (may have been Word?)
The surprise, having read this book, is that Thomas’ isn’t mentioned in the same breath as those other great cynics of the mid 20th century: Camus and Orwell… though this trio of novella’s is more accessible than Camus and more timeless than Orwell… please read.
Elton, Gayle, Hornby...
I have to get any book by Ben Elton, Mike Gayle or Nick Hornby.
I also aim to buy anthing by the following authors (though I don't quite have everything yet): Douglas Coupland, Robert Rankin, David Baddiel, Christopher Brookmyre, Alex Garland, Louise Wener.
Too many authors in common!
I am amazed at how much common ground there is here!
My current must buy-as-soon-as-published are
David Mitchell
Michelle Paver (kids)
James Elroy
AS Byatt
Jeanette Winterson
Jasper Fforde
Neal Stephenson
and probably loads more
previous must haves, dropped in disappointment but previously eagerly awaited
Anne Tyler
Martin Amis
Ian McEwan
Iain Banks
M John Harrison (I loved his work, and can't find any now!)
Jeff Noon
Dave Sim (every phone book of Cerebus, bought over 11 years on the dot of publication, and what a bloody waste of waiting for the last one)
And guiltily enjoyed
Steig Larrson
and - gulp - Jeffrey Deaver - but please don't tell anyone!
Cerebus
hmm, I enjoyed The Last Day actually. For me the nadir of Cerebus was Latter Days, the penultimate phonebook. There is some good stuff in the last 100 issues, but it's probably best to think that the whole thing finished at the end of Minds.
Too many authors in common!
again, annoying duplicate post
Too many authors in common!
irritating repost
Response to original post.
Chuck Palaniuk. You've got to read Pygmy. Snuff also looks good. He did write Fight Club a while ago. Check him out!
Just one
Richard Dawkins.