Sunday, July 31, 2011

Updated Top 10 authors

I first blogged this list here: http://thecolloquialtimes.blogspot.com/2008/06/top-10-authors-yes-i-know-there-only-9.html,   but I've read a lot since then and I need to revise. 

The problem is I don't really want to bump anybody, but I have to add

#1 David Foster Wallace.  I will re-read his books.  All of them.  Multiple times, and I don't do that.  When I re-read a book, I think of all the time I'm wasting when I could be reading something new.  I know that if I read DFW's 100 times I'll get something new every time. 

He is getting that #10 spot that I couldn't ever 100% decide on. 

Jonathon Safran Foer is quickly making his way into the list too.  I LOVED Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated.  I can't read his new one, Eating Animals, because I know it will disturb me to an extent that may result in my commitment to a long-term mental health facility. 

Here's the old list: 

  1. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World, Snow Crash, Zodiac, The Big U, The Diamond Age
  2. John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp
  3. Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Long Dark Teatime of the Soul
  4. J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter and Seymour: an Introduction, Nine Stories, The Catcher in the Rye
  5. Tom Robbins - Still Life with the Woodpecker, Skinny Legs and All, Another Roadside Attraction, Jitterbug Perfume
  6. Terry Pratchett - ALL
  7. Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan, Breakfast of Champions, Cat’s Cradle, Slapstick
  8. Sena Jeeter Naslund - Ahab’s Wife, The Four Spirits, Abundance
  9. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Potential 10's:
  • Orson Scott Card (Thanks for the suggestion Pat!) - I do love Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and The Worthing Saga. In that same sort of vein, I also do love
  • Frank Herbert - Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune

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