The Best Author You've Never Read...

"Do Electric Sheep Dream" ... from which Ridley Scott's "Bladerunner" was drawn.



timber

Thanks, TLK. I loved the movie, it is now on my list.

There are at least two best-selling authors these days whose books I have tried to read and have given up trying. They bore me silly. I freely admit that the fault is probably mine, not theirs. After all, the millions of readers who have made Tom Clancy and Scott Turow runaway best sellers can't be wrong. Can they?

As for Dick, I've only read some of his short stories, either in SF magazines or anthologies. But he's good!

Stephen King is a prolific, best-selling author who has made millions from novels I have never read. I find his style boring and inane.

I've liked some of King's earlier stuff, but I can't read him any more. He is exasperating. I hate to see a writer who obviously has gifts insist on writing dreck.

Well I hope to read the "Graphic Novel" that one of my favorite movies is based on--"The Crow".

Never have I read a whole Steven King novel - can't deal

I also have never read Phillip K Dick though I am a giant fan of sci-fi.

And I've never read a Harry Potter book.

You and me, kid. I've never read a Harry Potter book either.

s'posed to be great.

Im putting Dick on the list for have to reads.

I enjoy King on occassion, he has become a bit off with good stuff as of late but, I keep going back to him.

I couldnt make it through the movie Harry Potter...I dont think the books a good idea so I wont bother going there.

Some SF authors I enjoy, in no particular order;

David Drake
Terry Brookes
Ursula K. LeGuin
Fredrick Pohl
Spider Robinson
Larry Niven
Jerry Pournelle
Poul Anderson
Roger Zelazny
Stephen Donaldson
Orson Scott Card
Anne McAffrey


Lots of others ... I used to devour the SF monthlies. Many works that acheived success as novels first appeared as serials in the pulps, and many authors of current significance got their start on the pages of them.


And I happen to think Stephen King is to Speculative Fiction (Political Correctness for "Sci-Fi" and its relations) as is Rod McKuen to poetry, or Television Commercials to Legitimate Theater.





timber

I've read 9 of your above list Timber. My fav is Larry Niven, but I think maybe we've typed about this before.

I can't read Tom Clancy either. What really killed it for me was one night I had Larry King on, and Clancy was on for a phone interview. The man was dead drunk, and really embarrassing. Or King. Or James Patterson - they're all formula writers, and bore me.

But Philip Dick, yes. Particularly his short stories.

Since I've gotten older, I have a reading rule for myself. I give a book fifty pages, more or less. If I can't get into it by then, it's on to something else.

I've never read Salman Rushdie, either.

mamajuana - did you know that there's an A2K reading group for Fury by Salman Rushdie going on right know? Forgive me if you've already been to the thread, I haven't been there since it opened.

Thanks, littlek, no I didn't. This is another case where I picked up the first book, tried, couldn't get into it. I guess that's why they write so many books.

A long time ago I had an English teacher who told us to take something by Shakespeare into the bathroom and read it out loud. Some of the best teaching advice I ever received. I discovered that doing it that way made it come alive for me, and I have enjoyed reading Shakespeare ever since. Same thing with Dickens. My father started me on him when I was twelve, and then we would have our own little discussion group.

But max, I guess it's age. There are a lot of books I have no intention of ever picking up.

Two writers I've been meaning to read:

Zane Grey
Ivan Turgenev

Good question, Maxsdadeo!

For the person who is new to Philip K. Dick, I have read all his novels and I would recommend that you start with this one:

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE

If you can't find that one, read A SCANNER DARKLY

They are (IMHO) Dick's 2 most perfect novels. You are in for a treat, because Dick was a genius!

I've read about 75 books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and about 110 by Agatha Christie. As a whole, she has been a brilliant commentator on contemporary British culture, from about 1920-1980. Immense change in those years. I have loved every word by J.R.R. Tolkein (twice), but the best book I ever read, among hundreds, has been Shogun by Clavel. Nowadays I prefer true crime and quickie, informative nonfiction. Generally the more obscure the better. For example I would be fascinated by a biography of Mary Lincoln rather than Abraham. I have no interest at all in battle descriptions in book form. I love the unknown.

quinn: Please please please PLEASE don't judge the Potter books by the movie.


The movie was positively loathsome.


The books are riveting.

Try the first one, it is a quick read, and if you aren't hooked, I will be surprised.

There is a reason that Rowlings is the first Billionaire Author, and it isn't marketing, plain and simple....



She writes good books.