Deciding who to put on a list of favourite authors turned out to be more difficult than I imagined, becuase there are just so many wonderful writers out there. To make my choice, I decided not to include any author by whom I have only read a single book, no matter how big a favourite it is and how much I want to read more by them, and that made it easier. I sat down and thought about the books I re-read most frequently, the ones that have given me the most enjoyment, and the authors whose books I collect, and came up with this list:
As you can see, I put the ladies first, but that is not necessarily an indication of the order of preference :-)
- Jane Austen, for all her wonderful characters and plots.
- Georgette Heyer, for writing detailed and funny historical novels and romances with sparkling dialogues and great characters.
- L.M. Montgomery, for inventing Anne Shirley and giving her all those adventures to have.
- Jennifer Crusie, for her funny dialogues, ugly but endearing animal characters and lively plots.
- Agatha Christie, for writing some of the most enjoyable mysteries I have read.
- Terry Pratchett, for being funny and writing such wonderfully structured stories.
- Gerald Durrell, for being able to transport me to wherever each of his books takes place, an for writing character descriptions that make me feel as if I personally know the people and animals he is describing..
- J.R.R. Tolkien, for building an absorbing world and creating interesting characters and intricate plots.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for consistently enjoyable storytelling and for Sherlock Holmes.
- James Herriot, for his warm and entertaining animal tales.
As you can see, I put the ladies first, but that is not necessarily an indication of the order of preference :-)
Comments
I think we should all thank Arthur Conan Doyle simply for Sherlock Holmes, ha.
I never had a chance to finish looking at all the lists last night because I had to go to a meeting and it ended up being the meeting that would never end. Ha. I like your list. As I was driving home from said meeting I thought that I should have put Harper Lee on my list since I think that To Kill a mockingbird is a perfect book. However, I based my list on body of work and I force myself to pick authors that I have read three or more of their books. But I think my list would look different today than yesterday...an evolving list.