[Scarabin]

Although he is long dead I think my favourite fiction author is still Dashiell Hammett. I was reminded of this while watching "The killing". I think Soren Sveistrop could have modelled his scripts on "The glass key". Am I alone in this?

[mike777]

I GUESS I will back up and ask why is Hammett your favorite and who is your second and third?

fwiw I could tell you my favorite childhood book, but adult author tough. you invite discussion.

[Scarabin]

Hammett was a great innovator. He wrote completely unique detective stories and I do not think they have ever been surpassed.

Second favourite in fiction is John Mortimer for his Rumpole stories. In non-fiction probably David Chandler for his military histories and Liddle-Hart for more recent wars.

Mind you I have practically given up reading books with the advent of computers and dvd's.

[Winstonm]

Big fan of James Clavell. Also enjoy Charles Dickens. Have always been impressed by the language skills utilized by Dean Koontz.

[blackshoe]

My favorite? David Weber.

[barmar]

I'd probably have to go with Isaac Asimov, simply because I think I've read practically all his fiction, and a good deal of his non-fiction. I don't think his writing is "great", in the artistic sense, but I read it mostly when I was young and it was very easy and pleasant to read. I never got lost in his stories, like I did when I tried to read more acclaimed authors like Tolkien.

[hrothgar]

Tim Powers

Last Call and Declare both rate in my top five books list

[Aberlour10]

Winstonm, on 2013-September-28, 07:41, said:

Big fan of James Clavell. .

Me too, especially in my youth. With the amazing "King Rat" novel on my private top list.
The first always the best? I "ate" the "Shogun" through the entire nights.
"Tai-Pan" and "Noble House". first class Family Saga's but...

..I have read "Whirlwind" too and could not belived it was written by the same author,
IMO a godawful novel, hundreds sites full of hackneyed phrases, naive patriotic stuff etc etc...

[Fluffy]

David Eddings (and his wife)

[kenberg]

There have been a number of authors that I have really liked, and later been much less enthusiastic about. A recent example is Daniel Silva. His books have a ongoing hero, Gabriel Allon. Early on, I would read his latest adventures as soon as I could get my hands on a copy. The latest, The English Girl, I'll get around to finishing sometimes.Although Allon does have a hilarious confrontation with a goat. Silva can write, no doubt about that. But I am having trouble telling whether I am reading a new story or re-reading an old one.

At I guess a higher level, although I am not much into levels. I had the same experience with John Updike and with Saul Bellow. Of course they at least have different characters (mostly) in their different books, I just got tired of the authors anyway, despite earlier high enthusiasm.


My wife reads at least five books to my one, and she suggested Border Songs by Jim Lynch. I agree. Not a perfect book, but I enjoyed it greatly. The main character "thinks in pictures" as his mother realized when he was growing up. He keeps track of the varieties of birds that he sees or hears during the day. And his father, a dairy farmer who sees that the industry is not going well, has pushed him into a job with the Washington/ British Columbia Border Patrol. It all comes together. The author is very knowledgeable, or has expert advice, in both dairy farming and marijuana growing, the latter of interest to the Border Patrol.

It's a story about individuals, culture, change, and forces beyond control. Love, friendship, and luck make appearances as well. I liked it a lot.

[WellSpyder]

Aberlour10, on 2013-September-30, 14:35, said:

..I have read "Whirlwind" too and could not belived it was written by the same author,
IMO a godawful novel, hundreds sites full of hackneyed phrases, naive patriotic stuff etc etc...

Interesting. I have enjoyed most of the Clavell I have read, and probably put "Shogun" top of my list, too, but I never managed to finish "Whirlwind". I assumed it was just me not being in the right mood at the time and perhaps I ought to go back to it one of these years, but I'm having second thoughts now....

[Scarabin]

When I was very young I discovered and devoured Edgar Rice Burroughs martian stories. So much so that I recently saw "John Carter" but found it ridiculous.

[blackshoe]

Hollywood is remarkably inept at translating books to the silver screen. Probably the best adaptation of Burroughs' work was "Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes" (1984), starring Christopher Lambert.

Burroughs was one of the best selling authors of his day - Tarzan, John Carter, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, The Land That Time Forgot, The Moon Maid, and many more, all his. All told, he wrote some 80 novels.

[Winstonm]

WellSpyder, on 2013-October-01, 10:04, said:

Interesting. I have enjoyed most of the Clavell I have read, and probably put "Shogun" top of my list, too, but I never managed to finish "Whirlwind". I assumed it was just me not being in the right mood at the time and perhaps I ought to go back to it one of these years, but I'm having second thoughts now....

I read all of Whirlwind but cannot remember much of the story - which must mean it did not match the other works of Clavell.

edit: I just corrected a misspelling, but on further review think I should have left it intact - above I wrote that it "did not match the other workds of Clavell".

I kind of like that.