whos your favorite author

[communist]

my favorite is George Orwell his book 1984 is the best

[gerryjay]

 my vote goes to dostoyevsky, and the book 'crime and punishment'.

[clhiospzitn]

I don't know if I have a favorite author per se, but I do love Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - that's one of the greatest novels I've ever read.  Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is also a classic.

I read about half of 1984 back in high school but never finished it ... I really should go back to that one.  Same with War and Peace and Crime and Punishment.

[elspeth]

Oh so many...

George Macdonald Fraser, RIP. I was sad to hear he died recently.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Dorothy L Sayers
Bram Stoker
Susan Hill
Jane Austen
Robin Jarvis
Douglas Adams

I could go on, how many am I allowed? They are all favourites depending on my mood.

[rc]

Hmmm...  I like the big thick books, I never imagined something as good as War and Peace could exist until I read it.  The size isn't just to be wordy.  That book took me over while I was reading it, I'd be at work thinking about the characters all day.

Last good one I read was Les Miserables.  Didn't give me the same sense of reality as Tolstoy but was still a great read.  The tale of Fantine was pretty rough!

I finally got around to reading Aldous Huxley after Ted sparked my curiousity, 'Point Counter Point', but it wasn't for me.  Cool writing style, interesting ideas, but I never got into the characters and by the end was just reading to finish the book.  Too cynical for my tastes, I guess I only like satire in small doses.

Ok, if I had to pick I'd choose W&P as my alltime favorite.  I'll probably re-read it every couple of years

[gerryjay]

Last good one I read was Les Miserables.

it's on my list of books to read, i hope this year i'll do that.

[pianochick93]

I have many favourite authors, most of them a favourite in their genre.
Here they are:
Bryce Courtenay
Diana Gabaldon
Stephen King
Michael Crichton
Tamora Pierce
John Marsden
Terry Pratchett
Fiona McIntosh
Sara Douglass
Jude Fisher

There are countless others, mostly fantasy authors, but to give you a list of all of them would be cruel, and you would probably never finish reading the list.

[pianochick93]

Silly me! I forgot Matthew Reilly.

[thalbergmad]

Graham Hancock

[franzliszt2]

Victor Hugo!!!!

Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin

[mephisto]

Maybe Knut Hamsun.

[sharon_f]

Can't do just one!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Graham Greene, Thomas Pynchon, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.M. Forster, Carson McCullers, James Joyce, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen..are at the top of my list. I can read Love In the Time of Cholera & Monsignor Quixote over and over again.

[thalbergmad]

Whoever writes the Beano

[pianoplayer88]

   Ann Rinaldi
   Avi
   Scott O'dell
   

[pies]

a

[trix]

Hesse
Shakespeare

But I pretty much read true crime exclusively these days....

[richard black]

William Soutar.

[thalbergmad]

But I pretty much read true crime exclusively these days....

I am fascinated by true crime as well. Can be much more interesting than fictional crime.

I have a nice collection of Jack the Ripper books.

Thal

[mcgillcomposer]

My favorite is, without a doubt, E.M. Forster.

[trix]

I am fascinated by true crime as well. Can be much more interesting than fictional crime.

Yep, truth is not only stranger and more interesting than fiction: it can be a helluva a lot scarier as well....

I have a nice collection of Jack the Ripper books.

Thal

Nice!  Have you heard of Patricia Cornwell?:

https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-pamandsickert.html

She's among those that claim to have discovered his identity (and destroyed some old, historic, valued paintings in the process of trying to "prove" it i.e.,https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,615413,00.html). 

I watch a lot of  true crime shows on TV as well and she was once on one of them talking about her "discovery" and her book and she came off as having found this one thing that was going to make her famous and gain her some intellectual cred and she was just milking it for all it was worth.  It was kinda funny actually.

 

[ctrastevere]

Ayn Rand.

Her philosophy aside, being understandably controversial and at times flawed, I simply don't understand why people criticize her writing so harshly. I found both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to be thoroughly enjoyable. Certainly Atlas is redundant, but the story is grand.

Ayn Rand
lol jkjkjk

Have you read Rand? If so, what is it you don't like about her?

[gymnopedist]

"Franny and Zooey" is probably my most favorite book ever, so I think Salinger is good candidate. "Seymour - an introduction" is also nice.

[thalbergmad]

Nice!  Have you heard of Patricia Cornwell?:

I have heard of her, but never read the book.

The "Sickert" theory was previously discredited after Stephen Knight's book, when his son admitted the hoax.

Still interesting though.

Thal

[general disarray]

Patricia Highsmith (" The Talented Mr. Ripley," among other great titles) when I feel like getting freaked out by my reading.

Edith Wharton
Willa Cather
Tolstoy -- "Anna Karenina" is the greatest novel in any language, imo.
E.M. Forster -- "Howards End" is my favorite English novel.
DICKENS!!!!!!!!!!!  (I'd have his baby.)
Aldous Huxley
Alice Munro -- the greatest short story writer since Chekhov.

and, last and perhaps least . . . .

Me!! (three novels, 20 short stories, all unpublished . . . any one out there a literary agent looking for the next "Great Thing?"  If so, send me a PM.   

[thracozaag]

Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, EMR, Douglas Coupland, John O'Brien, Tim O'Brien, Rilke, Octavio Paz, Ernesto Sabato, Enrique Lihn, Kobo Abe, Murakami, Wittgenstein, Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, Charles Bukowski, Julio Cortazar, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, George Orwell, Baudelaire, Poe, Lovecraft, E.M. Forster, Flaubert....

[rc]

it's on my list of books to read, i hope this year i'll do that.

It was a damn good story, most of it was very colorfully written.  Unlike Crime and Punishment where I got absorbed the further I got in, with Les Miserables the flow was up and down, there were some sections where I had to force myself through.  By the end, I put it down with a reverent "whoa".

[general disarray]

Tim O'Brien

Participated in a writer's workshop with him.  Good writer, I agree.  But, that's the only flatering thing I can say about him.

[point of grace]

My favourite is definitely Roald Dahl!! 

[ted]

For fiction, Joyce, particularly Finnegans Wake, and Aldous Huxley. For non-fiction, Huxley and, at the moment, Douglas Hofstadter.

[wotgoplunk]

If I HAD to pick only one...I would say Khaled Hosseini.

Brilliantly written books.

[ihatepop]

I can't pick just one. Perhaps George Orwell. I loved his 'Animal Farm'

ihatepop

[frigo]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nietzsche
José Saramago
Fernando Pessoa
Flaubert
Vitor Hugo

And many others I can't remember.....

[mike_lang]

I think it's a toss-up between Herman Hesse and Milan Kundera.  I read Narcissus and Goldmund last semester and really enjoyed it!

Michael

[lisztisforkids]

It would have to be either Herman Hesse, or Franz Kafka. Kafka's 'The Trial' is probaly the single best piece of fiction I have ever read.

[pianowolfi]

I love Hesse, though, I haven't read him for ages. Especially "Steppenwolf" of course . I love also Goethe, Faust. And Max Frisch. And Heinrich Böll. But during the last years I didn't read a lot anyway. Dostojewsky's crime and punishment has left a long lasting impression, also "The Idiot"

[pies]

a

[ctrastevere]

I once read Atlas Shrugged when a teacher told me about an Objectivist essay contest that gave out a decent prize, somewhere around a few hundred or thousand.  I read the entire book along with some stuff about Rand and Objectivism and I concluded that the essay contest was not worth it because:
1) Rand is a crazy pseudo-pop-philosopher and her ideas are seriously flawed.
2) Rand threatened to supress criticisms of her work via lawsuits.
3) Objectivism is a cult.
And most importantly:
4) She is an awful writer.  Atlas Shrugged was 1167 pages of literary anguish.

I'm relieved that I came to slightly different conclusions. Too bad you didn't enjoy Atlas Shrugged -- I found it to be a very enjoyable read, despite the redundancy. Though I must say, The Fountainhead is in many ways a much better novel.

Though 1, 3, and 4 are opinions, I''m curious about the allegedly factual statement that "Rand threatened to suppress criticisms of her work via lawsuits." I've done a lot of research into her life and have never read that. Do you have a website or something I could read?

[mike_lang]

Too bad you didn't enjoy Atlas Shrugged -- I found it to be a very enjoyable read, despite the redundancy. Though I must say, The Fountainhead is in many ways a much better novel.

I have to agree with pies on the cultishness of Objectivism, but I really enjoyed both Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead.  I believe Fountainhead to be the superior work, if only on the basis of its concision, but both were quite interesting.  Atlas Shrugged could have used more differentiation between its protagonists' characters, and I must say that I skipped over the 50-page Galt monologue which droned on in various metaphors for approximately 50 times as long as it needed to.  But yes - Fountainhead!  What a read.

[pies]

a

[pianogeek_cz]

Michail Bulgakov. Period.
Ephraim Kischon is also awesome, and Lion Feuchtwanger is quite a reading as well.
For poetry, Velemir Chlebnikov and Jan Skácel.
Drama? Probably Eugene Ioannesco.
I do like Seneca, too.

And one more, Terry Pratchett. It might not be a "high genre", but - obviously aside from the excellent humor - his command of language is staggering.

[indutrial]

Michail Bulgakov. Period.

Wow, same here!

I also like Proust, Musil, Tolstoy, Kafka, and Hamsen.
There's no one favorite

[mephisto]

Wow, same here!

I also like Proust, Musil, Tolstoy, Kafka, and Hamsen.
There's no one favorite

Hamsen or Hamsun? If Hamsun, what are your favourite novels by him?

[indutrial]

Hamsen or Hamsun? If Hamsun, what are your favourite novels by him?

I've only read Hunger and Pan, but both were incredible enough to make me rank him amongst my favorites. The whole favorite thing is difficult for me, and after I posted, I immediately thought of more authors who are indispensibly great.

I'm especially fond of novels from the fic-de-siecle period in which guys like Hamsun and Proust wrote. I also spent a considerable amount of time studying Russian lit from that period and I would rank Andrei Bely up there as well.

[mephisto]

I've only read Hunger and Pan, but both were incredible enough to make me rank him amongst my favorites. The whole favorite thing is difficult for me, and after I posted, I immediately thought of more authors who are indispensibly great.

They are great, arent they?! Since you liked them, I would recommend Mysteries, basicly his 2nd novel. Written not long after Hunger. Very interesting.

[i heart xenakis]

my favorite is George Orwell his book 1984 is the best

Then shouldn't you change your screen name to Socialist instead of Communist?


[rant]

My favorite authors are everyone in this thread.  You guys are hilarious!  I like how on a piano forum with the key demographic of age group 15-19, a third of the people here have not only read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, apparently, but so thoroughly devoured them you have deemed it appropriate to refer to James Joyce as your favorite author!  And I'm sure all of you guys whipped through Gravity's Rainbow one lazy afternoon; I assume, since that is the most academic and esoteric output of Pynchon, you are qualifying him on this work?  Because who would waste time on such a frivolous and plebeian expendature such as Mason Dixon?  Although, certainly my favorite part about these author threads (and every forum, with the possible exception of an actual literature forum, supplies the same answers shown in this thread, all the way down from video game forums to music forums to computer forums, so this is mostly just a vent in general) is the odd exclusions.  For instance:

Orwell and Huxley, but no Burgess
Joyce and Pynchon, but no Roth
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but no Nabokov
Camus and Sartre, but no Kierkegaard
Nietszche and Kafka, but no Heidegger

A lack of Robertson Davies, Ezra Pound, Don DeLillo and Lawrence Durell also smack of conspicuous... well you see what I'm getting at >>

[/rant]

[pies]

a

[rob47]

china mieville - perdido street station

neil gaiman - neverwhere anansi boys and of course american gods; his new short stories (i think it's new) contains a 50 page novella based on Shadow from american gods.

george orwell - Buramese Days is more depresseing than 1984 IMO (also I prefer it over the other)

Michael Ondaatje - in the skin of a lion

anthony burgess clcokwork orange

I just started reading the classic "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin

and for the last year or so I've been reading with love/frustration Umberto Eco "The island of the day before" which is one of the most intersting books ever, except i have to start reading over and over again due the way it's written or translated or untranslated

my favourite authour of all time might be Frank Herbert

[mephisto]

Then shouldn't you change your screen name to Socialist instead of Communist?


[rant]

My favorite authors are everyone in this thread.  You guys are hilarious!  I like how on a piano forum with the key demographic of age group 15-19, a third of the people here have not only read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, apparently, but so thoroughly devoured them you have deemed it appropriate to refer to James Joyce as your favorite author!  And I'm sure all of you guys whipped through Gravity's Rainbow one lazy afternoon; I assume, since that is the most academic and esoteric output of Pynchon, you are qualifying him on this work?  Because who would waste time on such a frivolous and plebeian expendature such as Mason Dixon?  Although, certainly my favorite part about these author threads (and every forum, with the possible exception of an actual literature forum, supplies the same answers shown in this thread, all the way down from video game forums to music forums to computer forums, so this is mostly just a vent in general) is the odd exclusions.  For instance:

Orwell and Huxley, but no Burgess
Joyce and Pynchon, but no Roth
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but no Nabokov
Camus and Sartre, but no Kierkegaard
Nietszche and Kafka, but no Heidegger

A lack of Robertson Davies, Ezra Pound, Don DeLillo and Lawrence Durell also smack of conspicuous... well you see what I'm getting at >>

[/rant]

This is a classical piano forum, no wonder many people here would appreciate heavy literature.

For instance how normal is it to listen to Beethoven symphonies on a regular basis? Not normal at all, but for people on this forum it is nothing strange.

[i heart xenakis]

And you should change your screen name to "haughty internet pseudo-intellectual," or the more appropriate and even more scornful name, "soliloquy."

Er... what did you call me?  A pseudo-intellectual?  LOL!


Some classic pies threads, where he just names a minimally esoteric and modern piece and then displays his utmost comprehension of said music.


Sciarrino Sonata No. 4 Thread Header post:

Best sonata ever?  Discuss.

I will post an mp3 soon.

Giacinto Scelsi Thread Header post:

Is it just me or is Scelsi tragically underrated and underplayed?

Flynn Trinity Thread Header post:

https://rapidshare.com/files/71758545/wild.mp3.html

   I am in love

Penderecki Thread Header post:

Does anything beat Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima?

Cogluotobusisletmesi Thread Header post:

Easily one of the best pieces of the 20th century.  I love it.

Finnissy Thread Header Post:

I haven't listened to all of the pieces yet but I feel confident in saying that this is the best work of the 20th century.
Discuss.

I could go on but I'm too lazy.  Pies, when you can carry a half-decent conversation about an ACTUAL contemporary composer like Ghelhaar or Murail with me, then you can call me a pseudo-intellectual.  Until then, that distinguishment is all yours, sweetlips.  Also, I would be very interested in hearing your views on a comparison between Personae and Cantos.  Oh... you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?  Go ahead and google it and then tell me you did though.  But don't bother trying to wiki an answer to my question; it would be less embarrassing for you to simply slink away than to attempt to speak on any subject requiring 10 or more points of IQ.

Happy Valentine's Day <3

[viking]

You are an ass.  You must have nothing to do if you spend your time making fun of anonymous people online.  The fact that you brag about your knowledge only points to the fact that you live a very sad life alone.  Oh, wait, you're gay right?  Damn, get a girl to loosen you up and live a little.  Or you could always shoot yourself.  The world doesn't need people like you. 

Sam