Who is your favorite author?

You should really take a look at Levitt's & Dubner's Freakonomics.

As a matter of fact, I have a copy of it! I didn't read it all (first few chapters) a friend is borrowing it currently but I liked what I read.

My favourite author is Charles Dickens.

I can't name just one, but Dickens has the inventive sentences I admire most.

One of my favorite authors is William Faulkner. He's a challenge, and I like that. I also like Doctorow. I'm currently rereading Loon Lake, IMO a brilliant novel.

Sounds good, I may check out their books in the near future. One book I found kind of challenging was one I read a long time ago called The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

I read one of his short stories called "Tomorrow". It was really good in a lot of ways, so I tried "The Sound and the Fury". It totally defeated me.

That's a bit ironic when you consider what BLINK was about.

I hope you found new info with each read, but Gladwell probably wanted you to go with your first impression.

roger, I liked The Sound and the Fury, but I liked The Light in August more, and I thought it was a bit more accessible.

I also liked As I Lay Dying. I read these a long time ago. Maybe my opinion would change. I might try rereading.

I said Dickens was my 'favourite', that doesn't mean I only ever read his works. I am not like the lady member of JASNA (the Jane Austen Society of North America) who, interviewed by the BBC outside Austen's home in Yorkshire, said "I only ever read Jane Austen.". When the reporter asked "What happens when you have read them all?", she replied "Why, I just start again at the beginning!". I know someone whose sister aged 35 does this with Harry Potter. I do re-read Dickens, but at intervals. I also like HG Wells, Kipling, Tobias Smollett, Jules Verne, Stanislaw Lem, Javier Marias (in English), among others, in that happy-to-read-again way. Oh and Michel Houellebecq (again in English). But I also love to find new authors to like.

I started a job with a long commute a few years ago, and I started putting audiobooks onto my phone to listen to on the bus and while waiting. I download 'em. Don't ask how. I have to admit a guilty pleasure - WEB Griffin. I have listened my way through the Brotherhood of War, The Corps, and Men at War series.

Why, I wonder, did I get a downvote for that?

The Light in August is my favorite Faulkner, too.

I liked Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!

Also, Sanctuary.

After my literary brother told me how well they went well together, I spent one whole winter reading Faulkner and consuming bourbon. He was right. Yeah, Absalom, Absalom was pretty good. I liked Light in August, Intruder in the Dust and the Scopes Trilogy as well. Faulkner wasn't above penning a potboiler from time to time. I read some short stories that were entertaining if not particularly challenging.

I think that if asked to name my favorite author I'd say Thomas Hardy. I love his use of language, his descriptions of nature and the pastoral world, and his unsparing pessimism.

J.K ROWLING

I've never read any of her work although I find it awesome as well as I very much admire her for taking Stephen King out of #1 Selling Author spot and replacing him. :-)

I'm going to go with PG Wodehouse. EF Benson comes close with his gift of observation http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2013/07/25/e-f-benson-his-life-and-times-an-appreciation-by-walter-mason/ but Wodehouse is the author for me.

I don't really like questions of this type, because I like different authors for different reasons. Overall, though, I'd say Émile Zola . . . if I didn't say Jane Austen.