Favorite Authors

[BeyGon]

I read my first Ayn Rand while in the USMC waiting to go to Vietnam. It was The Fountainhead, really liked it, then I found Atlas Shrugged and loved it. I think those books helped shape me/my thinking as I am today. I then read some shorts and Anthem, another great book. I have read Atlas Shrugged twice now and I am sure will read it again. It seems that only the names change.
My other favorite author is Hemmingway, I think I have read everything he published. Most were just great.

[tabs]

Hemingway wrote the same thing over and over again, it just goes to show U that if you write the same thing over and over sooner or later you will be considered to be great.

[Jeff Higgins]

Is that what you are doing here, tabs?

[scottmandue]

I really liked "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" by Robert Pirsig - although it is rather surreal and has three story lines going on concurrently... it's more about a father and son taking a road trip across America on a motorcycle and less to do with Zen or motorcycle maintenance, lent it to a friend and he hated it but it is considered a classic.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda is also... uh... interesting.

You might be able to find them at a public library.

I read mostly philosophy and theology so I have somewhat odd taste in books.

[BeyGon]

The onley "Zen" book I have read is "Zen Golf", Mastering the Mental Game, By J. Parent. Still reading it, may have keep on reading it.

[Superman]

Rand is a fad, but not a thinker. You want Rand? Just read Nietzsche. Superman. Rand and Nietzsche appeal to people who prefer to believe that things (the world. universe. society, spirituality, etc) are very simple, and who tend to idolize people with power. Hemmingway too, actually. Rand's books are decent enough, as plain ol' novels. Nobody really thinks she's a philosopher, except folks who haven't read much except her stuff.

There are lots of very entertaining authors out there. I recently read Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Pretty good. I've enjoyed several of Michener's books. Ludlum is can't-put-it-down stuff. Lots of great authors to choose from.

[tabs]

Raymond Chandler....

[CJFusco]

Originally posted by scottmandue
I really liked "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" by Robert Pirsig - although it is rather surreal and has three story lines going on concurrently... it's more about a father and son taking a road trip across America on a motorcycle and less to do with Zen or motorcycle maintenance, lent it to a friend and he hated it but it is considered a classic.

Have you checked out Pirsig's sequel, LILA? If you liked the discussion on Quality/Value, LILA is a great read.

My favorite authors are Orwell (although after just finishing my Master's Thesis, I am a little sick of him), Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami, and Hunter S. Thompson.

[RKC]

Mark Twain, Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Macaulay, William Manchester and lately John Steinbeck. Twain is THE American. And some of Fitzgerald's phrases still give me chills (Last Tycoon - just a draft but wow!)

Read Pirsig twice and it is the best link between mechanical things and thought.

Have never read Rand.

Enjoy the thought of Hemingway as a way of life more than his writing. Similar life was Teddy Roosevelt, and his autobiography is quite good.

Sitting on a Grant biography that Mark Twain had a hand in but haven't read it yet.

[bell]

hunter s. thompson.....after all, he is the doctor

[Taz's Master]

David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Joseph Conrad, David Sedaris, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Bill Waterson (anything by him is worth reading), and C.S. Lewis.

RKC, that Grant biography is worth reading.

Oh, and I reccomend, anything by Lubemaster or Moses on this board.

[Shuie]

Fun thread.

John Kennedy Toole and Peter Straub wrote my two favorite books, "A Confederacy of Dunces" and "The Throat". However, Alexandre Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle are my favorite authors if I consider an entire collection of work.

[FastCarFan]

On a lighter note, how about B.S. Levy, author of the great "Last Open Road" series books?

They can be very funny, & they paint a great portait of the early days of road-racing. For someone who is 48, I really enjoyed the "history lessons". You learn along with the narrator, young Buddy Palumbo.

I highly recommend the 4 books (so far -- I think there will eventually be 6): "The Last Open Road", "Montezuma's Ferrari", "The Fabulous Trashwagon" & "Toly's Ghost".

Check them out.

[berettafan]

well i'll be the unsophisticated one who admits to enjoying Clancy and Crichton. old stephen king stuff was entertaining in a way.

[Paul K]

Wilbur Smith. Great stuff.

[M.D. Holloway]

Wayne Dempsey (Porsche books), Douglas Adams (all 4 of the trilogy), Kurt Vonnegut (everything), J.McMahon (poems), Michael Crichton (old stuff), Michael Holloway (all stuff).

[Moneyguy1]

Wow....Too many to mention. I like fiction, but I also have a number of science books (mostly physics and astronomy), and some history, particulary of the two world wars. Fascinated by the technology of Nazi Germany as compared with the ROW at the time.

Fiction:

Time wasters but fun: Dean R. Koontz, occasional Stephen King, some S-F writers like Brin, Greg Bear, Asimov (also his science books as well)

More serious fiction: Umberto Eco, C.S. Lewis, Tolkein, Caleb Carr, Dickens, Philip K. Dick

Science: Hawking, Brian Greene, Arthur Clarke (a combo of science..look up the things he predicted like satellite communication systems), James P. Hogan, James Gleick, Alan Guth to name just a few....

Other: Dalai Lama, other philosophers.

[mattdavis11]

Edmund Spenser, James Patterson, and ....... Holloway.

[M.D. Holloway]

Matt,
You start Tuesday!

[onlycafe]

Originally posted by tabs
Raymond Chandler....

and dash hammet, and kinky friedman.