Favourite Writers

[Plumstead Red]

Will Self definitely, plus:

George Orwell
Sebastian Faulks
Sue Townsend

[oxford_fan]

I recently read Salinger's 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and thought it was crap. Can you recomend another of his novels? One that's actually worth reading?

Salinger didn't write that, but The Catcher in the Rye is his only full length novel i think

I like Will Self a lot, but have never been able to get into his books. Though I was mainly trying with 'Junk Mail.'

[herthab]

The Catcher in the Rye

I like Will Self a lot, but have never been able to get into his books. Though I was mainly trying with 'Junk Mail.'

Apologies. The Catcher In The Rye was the book I meant.

[thepeoplesgame]

Apologies. The Catcher In The Rye was the book I meant.

Thank God for that. The Catcher In The Rye is indeed a bit of a disappointment. Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, however, is terrific.

[Amir]

Ditto that, thepeoplesgame.  Never really got into any of the beat generation stuff myself.

I'd have to go with...

George Orwell
Phillip Roth
Albert Camus

Although I'll probably regret that list when I think about it more. 

[oxford_fan]

Apologies. The Catcher In The Rye was the book I meant.

I can see why you might not like it.

I read it when I was about 20, so it was highly relevant, and I liked the style of the writing. I don't know about books changing your life, but this had the biggest impact on me.

I don't think there's much else to recommend as Salinger has pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth since The Catcher in the Rye. He published a book of short stories, 'For Esme - with Love and Squalour', of which a couple are brilliant and others so-so. And after that two more books of longer short stories, mostly based on characters from Esme, but I've not got onto them yet.

[flammableBen]

I can see why The Catcher in The Rye appeals to people, but I couldn't get over how much of an insufferable twat the main character is. Which I guess is sort of the point? I just really didn't enjoy it.

I might now if I gave it another chance.

[leefer]

I only seem to read autobiographies now.

Same as...Kipling is exeedingly good,Faulks is my favourite modern writer...and i still flick through my bible at random times.......who wrote that.

[A Gent Orange]

If you have any love of writing rather than merely stringing words together then PG Wodehouse has to get more than just a mention. Forget the, albeit good, old fry and laurie fronted Jeeves and Wooster tv series - plot is immaterial in his works - it is the language, the jokes, the sheer intricate perfection in every line. Just read the opening line of something such as full moon and you'll discover a writer who makes even Orwell's lovely prose look like dan brown's brutal illiteracy.

He wrote every book by completing a draft and sticking each sheet to the wall around skirting board level. Then worked on each page time and again until each word had been chosen and the sheet had climbed to the picture rail. 

Here ends the lecture.

[Ardiles]

...and for the same reason, one of my favourites is Kazuo Ishiguro.  Read the opening chapter of 'The Remains of the Day' and it's as near to perfection as an opening chapter could be.  He has written a couple of books that are, frankly, weird ('When We Were Orphans' being one), but I'm a big fan of most of his others.  He writes in a very simple way, but there's something about the simplicity and conciseness of the language that he uses that really gets me.

Could write for hours on a subject like this, but in the interests of brevity I'll just mention one other author: Harper Lee.  Bit of a one hit wonder, but purely on the strength of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Harper's right up there for me.  I studied the text for GCSE and didn't think much of it, probably because I had 4 or 5 essays to write about it afterwards.  Then I re-read it years later and loved every second.  One of the most blinding books I've ever read.

[adje]

Top 5 for me; 1 Graham Greene-the greatest English writer of the 20th century for me(recommend "Ministry of Fear)
                   2 Haruki Murakami(Recommend "Norwegian Wood")
                   3 Garrison Keillor(Lake Wobegon Days)
                   4 Dennis Lehane(Shutter Island)
                   5 Ian McEwan (Saturday)


                   

[Ben Wah Balls]

Irvine Welsh has written some superb books. Roger Hargreaves has also written some classics.

[nochee]

Irvine Welsh is a great writer. The book, Porno,his follow up to trainspotting is amazing all the way thru and the ending is fantastic.

Conn Iggulden is another favourite of mine. He wrote 4 books about Ceaser (is there a word for 4 books?) and a trilogy on Genghis Khan.

Dan Brown would also be on my list along with Chris Ryan and Andy Mcnab.

[iffy]

For me, David Foster Wallace, Joseph O'Neill, Graeme Greene, Salinger and Fitzgerald are favourites.
"Franny and Zooey" is my favourite Salinger.
PG Wodehouse is good too.

Dan Brown is bloody awful and quite possibly one of the worst writers of all time.

This paragraph, from the Da Vinci Code, is so bad it's good.

Captain Bezu Fache carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and preceded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters.

[leefer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse

I read recently that PG was nearly arrested for treason..certainly was a complex man....incidently i only recently realised it was wode...and not wood!