What do you read? Review Authors You Like!

In the thread How Much Time Do You Spend Training A New Internal Auditor? Rox said:

RCBeyette said:

I must admit, reading is something I take for granted. My Mom started reading to me as soon as I was born and I've now started collecting antique bookes. He may have lived for 50 years...but has he experienced life? Has he sailed down a river with Huck Finn? Or walked along cobblestone streets with Oliver Twist? Makes me grateful for this ability.

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I have already admitted to being a SciFi freak. See SciFi discussion . My reading is far from limited to that genre, though. I see a chance to get new hints here.

What do you read?
What sparked your interest in it?
Favourite authors, books and what have you?

/Claes

Claes,

Glad you started this thread but I seem to remember answering this last year. I must go and look under 'Favourite authors' ... I think.
I am sitting here in my newly completed study and library. (I love it almost as much as my workshop/garage. I think it is a guy thing) and I look over my shoulder at my favourite authors (in no particular order),

Wilbur Smith - Entire collection in hardback. I love his research into Africa and the picture he paints of the landscape and people.

John Grisham - I cannot put his books down even though I know the 'poor' shm**k lawyer is going to lose everything in the end. Painted House and Bleachers were excellent.

JRR Tolkien - I have several sets of the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. He set the standard for an entire genre.

David Eddings - His early works were quite satirical and I love the sense of modern speech set in that make believe landscape.

Stephen Coonts - Entire collection. An excellent author of the modern military thriller/adventure and his Jake Grafton character rivals Jack Ryan and Son, of Tom Clancy fame.

Tom Clancy - Entire collection but I do not read his new op centre books. Clancy spawned an entire genre. See almost all of my favorite authors.

Larry Bond - The forgotten half of 'Red Storm Rising'. IMHO he surpasses Clancy

Harold Coyle - Another of the military thriller genre. Team Yankee is a classic.

Dale Brown - Entire collection. Brown again is a military writer and his best known work is probably 'Flight of the Old Dog' although his later books are getting more into Sci Fi in regards to hardware (planes etc)

Andy McNab - Entire collection. Author and leader of 'Bravo Two Zero' the famous SAS patrol from the first Gulf War. He has written some hold no punches spy thrillers that have to be read to be believed. he lends no fancy Hollywood heroics in his storytelling and he has a way of captivating a reader.

Chris Ryan - Missing two books. Another member of Bravo Two Zero and the only person to escape from Iraq. Writes in the same mould as McNab but possible even better. Very edge of the seat stuff.

Len Deighton - 'Bomber' and 'Goodbye Mickey Mouse' are two of my all time favourite books.

Bryce Courtney - A South African born Australian wrote 'The Power of One' and 'Tandia' has also written some fantastic books on the early years of Australia. In the same vein as Wilbur Smith has done with Africa.

Jean Auel - Her Cave bear series was a fantastic read. I have just realised she is the only female author I have.


I have read every book at least twice and I never thow out a book from these writers. I also have a lot of single author titles but the above group are my absolute favourites and I have my name down at a few book stores to keep me alerted. I read every night and encourage my children to read also. My wife never read and now she, like me, reads every day.

Greg B

I dont read at all, except from the newspaper, some magazines and several internet forums.

I wish i would do a little more but for some reason, reading can't keep me occupied for very long. If i take the effort of startiung to read a book, it just can't interest me for very long

On the other side, if i make this statement in a conversation, to my surprise i most of the time get the remark "you don't read? How is this possible?". I guess that people automatically assume that if you have a certain type of job or display a certain level of intelligence, that there are a number of stereotype requirements you have to fullfill according the society.

JRR Tolkien - One of my absolute favourites too.

Stephen Coonts - Very good, but sometimes a bit hard to come by here..

Tom Clancy - I've read most of his work.

Larry Bond - A new one to me. I'll see if I can find his works here.

Dale Brown - Yep, I think I've read them all.

Len Deighton - 'Bomber' and 'Goodbye Mickey Mouse' are very good. Try 'Fighter' as well.

Jean Auel - Yes, the Cave bear series is good. I was a little bit disappointed in the latest one because of poor command of language, but I read that one in swedish, and it probably lost something in the translation.

I'll add some from my own list of favs (apart from the ones in the Sci-Fi thread when I get home.

DDaenen1 said:

I dont read at all, except from the newspaper, some magazines and several internet forums.

On the other side, if i make this statement in a conversation, to my surprise i most of the time get the remark "you don't read? How is this possible?". I guess that people automatically assume that if you have a certain type of job or display a certain level of intelligence, that there are a number of stereotype requirements you have to fullfill according the society.

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Yeah, I know what you mean... To me, reading is like breathing, and I admit that I have a hard time grasping the fact that not everybody loves it, but I also know full well that it has nothing to do with the level of intelligence.

/Claes

Currently I'm trying to read the ISO 9K standard. Is that a classic or fiction?

Atul Khandekar said:

Currently I'm trying to read the ISO 9K standard. Is that a classic or fiction?

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LMAO! You rascal, you...

It is not exactly brimming with spirited language is it? I have a hard time imagining anyone reading it in twenty years from now and telling everyone what a good read it is. A classic? Nope...

Fiction? Possibly, but I see lots of QMS's based on it, so I guess it'll have to be fiction turned fact then?

On a (just slightly) more serious note: A good deal of my reading does deal with professional literature. Let's not forget that part.

/Claes

I like to have a good laugh when I read. A couple of good examples of such, would be "Three men in a boat" and "Three men on the bummel". They are short enough even for a busy life - and they both make me laugh out loud.


Dave

Claes,

Great thread starter. This should be interesting...

Margaret Atwood - one of the best Canadian authors in recent history.

Robert Munsch - kids' author, but a fantastic one at that. I started reading at age 2, and as a result was getting books like "Little Women" as birthday presents by the time I was six. Just because you can read the words, doesn't mean the comprehension is there...anyway, I guess I still pine for the nonsensical books that I missed out on as a kid. Robert Munsch is a great one for that...

Helen Fielding - I've read Bridget Jones's Diary about fifty times. I know, I know - not all that intelligent - but Brit humour is something I can't get enough of. The British wit is just great. Also a die-hard fan of Coronation Street - although we're months behind England! Any of you Brits - Lucy just told Shelley that she's Peter's wife. How far behind are we, really?)

E.B. White - Charlotte's Web, also a favourite childhood classic. "That is so-o-o-o-ome pig!"

Then there's the chick books that, though amusing at the time, I feel slightly less intelligent for having read once they're over. Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella...all the standard Bridget-esque storylines about dysfunctional twenty-and-thirty-something females looking to be polished and classy, but winding up looking more like something from a TV bloopers show.

Not much into sci-fi, really - my boyfriend has been trying to get me to read/watch the Lord of the Rings books/flicks, but I really have no interest. (That should start some comments, I'm sure...)

Cheers all,
-R.

Hmmm....much of my book collection is packed up and sitting in storage pending the finalization of my divorce and the purchase of a new house. I must admit that not having easy access to my books drives me insane...especially on rainy days when there's not much to do and I don't feel like going on the computer. But lets see what I can come up with from memory....

Dan Brown - Newest addition to my collection and I have all 4 of his books. Two of them, The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons rekindles the debates between religion and science...the differences between them and the commonalities. Very interesting and very thought-provoking. His other two books focus on politics and science and lines that just should not be crossed, best line is "Who will guard the guards?" (but you have to read the book to appreciate it in its context).

L.M. Montgomery - Canadian author of the famed "Anne of Green Gables" series, although my favourite book by her is The Blue Castle. A quiet, submissive woman finds out she is dying and takes one last chance at life...only to (a) fall in love and (b) find out she isn't dying after all. Some laughing and some tears.

Tom Clancy - Okay, I admit, I love his books...I even read "his" new ones (though they aren't really written by him, are they?).

Jim Collins - Nonfiction on companies that do more than just "survive" in today's economy(ies).

Shakespeare - Gotta admit he had some interesting storylines!

Almost anything on druidism, Elizabeth I, and corporate law.

I used to buy Star Trek books as soon as they hit the shelves, but I've lost the urge to read them over the years.

I admit to having some trashy romance books gracing my shelves, as well, but traditionally they're a series of books like those written by Jo Beverely and her Malloren family series.

....added afterwards....Richard Back - Small books with lots of hidden meanings and thought-provoking statements. Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is his best book in my opinion...what do you think Atul? Jonathan Livingston Seagull is good as well but still can't hold a candle to Illusions.

Tolkien is always a favourite. I re-read the Lord of the Rings every 5 years or so (although now I can just sit down and watch the DVD!).

I tend to prefer reading biographies and autobiographies lately, I find learning about peoples lives and what they went through to get where they are is pretty cool, if not inspiring. People like Ted Williams, Arnold Palmer, Paul Castellano, Winston Churchill, etc. tell some stories that fiction just can't match.

Oh, and my Sports Illustrated every Friday.