Have Your Ever Wondered Who Your Favorite Authors Favorite Authors Are?
There is something buried deep within our humanity that strikes a chord for us when catching even a small glimpse of the personal lives that our heroes and mentors lead, the psychology of it is exceptionally fascinating, though albeit a little irritating [for me]. Nevertheless I understand it, I mean, somewhere in my youth, eh my early twenties, I read somewhere that one of Johnny Depp’s favorite books was The People’s Act of Love by James Meek. At the time I was being told fairly frequently that I resembled Johnny Depp from the movie Secret Window, and since I had been a longtime fan of Mr. Depp something inspired me to seek out this book, and to read it.
To this day The People’s Act of Love remains one of my favorite books, and over the years a handful of Meek’s other books have joined the ranks, books such as: We Are Now Beginning our Descent, The Museum of Doubt, and Last Orders and Other Stories. I may not have discovered Meek had I not read that article about Johnny Depp, and, in a lot of ways, reading that book instilled in me, at a very impressionable time in my life, renewed passion for literature—I may not be the person I am today had it not been for that book.
And, so, with that in mind, I have decided to write a series of blogs dedicated to the favorite books and authors of our favorite authors (at times I might extend that to various people of influence). So, without further ado:
Stephen King is likely the most prolific and important author since Shakespeare, at least when viewed through the lens of a reader, and someone who consistently plants the seed for us to become writers.
•The Golden Argosy: The Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language—edited by Van Cartmell and Charles Grayson is a collection of short stories by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, Kipling, Faulkner, Poe, Steinbeck, Thurber, Wolfe, Stevenson, Doyle, Maugham, and many others it consistently finds its way on a list of King’s favorites. And I ‘m right there with him.
•The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain—of course this is a classic novel, though sometimes I wonder if it’s on everyone’s list simply because it is what it is, though, with that said, I can absolutely recognize how The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn influenced Stephen King’s writings.
•The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie—I love that this book is on King’s mind. Sometimes books such as The Satanic Verses become famous simply for being famous, I could say the same thing about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but The Satanic Verses was truly a great piece of literature.
•McTeague by Frank Norris—I’m a little surprised to have found this as one of King’s favorites, I’ve read it, but only because it’s a single sitting read. And it’s considered, in some respects to be a classic.
•Lord of the Flies by William Golding—Of course, but eh.
•Bleak House by Charles Dickens—Yes! A Dicken’s Masterpiece.
•1984 by George Orwell—It was at this point that I started to become a little suspicious of Stephen King’s list of favs, there may be just one too many classic novels, regardless of how great 1984 might be.
•The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott—Yet another classic, though somewhat obscure. Raj Quartet is a four volume novel about the British Raj in India. I am surprised about this addition as well.
•Light in August by William Faulkner—Yes, here’s another classic work of American Literature, however I’m glad King chose Light in August and not one more likely to be found on a high school reading list.
•Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy—this is the biggest surprise on the list for me. If you have not yet read Blood Meridian, you should. A historical fiction novel that follows the true exploits of the Glanton Gang, they murdered Native Americans along the U.S. Mexico border in the mid 1800’s.
One of my favorite authors, cause I mean Stephen King is great, because he’s Stephen King, but he’s honestly not a favorite of mine, is Haruki Murakami. Murakami is a great story teller, and is a fascinating human being, the only thing about his writings that I’m not thrilled about is that they all follow a very predictable formula, an outline. But whateves.
•The Castle by Franz Kafka—What a great quick read. Check it out!
•The Raymond Chandler Omnibus by Raymond Chandler—this a collection (an omnibus) of four of Chandlers’ novels, including The Big Sleep.
•The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald—I’m a little surprised this wasn’t on Stephen King’s list, and I’m equally surprised to find it on Haruki Murakami’s.
•Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger—I’ve always thought this was an important book, any book that highlights the transitions, and struggles of youth. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, It’s Kind of a Funny Story are a couple, too, that haven’t quite received the recognition as Catcher in the Rye, but they are great reads as well. I love this book.
•The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky—Dostoevsky is a fantastic short story writer, if you haven’t read his stories, you really do need to. They’ll help you to develop a greater appreciation for Crime&Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
I may have mentioned, on the rare occasion, my understanding of the genius of David Foster Wallace, I may, too, have let it slip that beyond being my favorite author, his work is, in my opinion (though anyone who disagrees is unfathomably wrong) un-relatable to any that I have ever come across. This list, I should mention, is the most sundry of reading lists that I have ever seen.
•The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis—Wow! Great book.
•The Stand by Stephen King—when you recognize that an author’s most popular books are not always their best. The Stand is fantastic.
•Red Dragon & The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris—it’s likely that most of you have never actually read the books by Thomas Harris that inspired the incredible performance by Sir Anthony Hopkins, please do.
•The Thin Red Line by James Jones—I read this book in grade school, as I’m sure most of you did as well. It’s a good book, however Wallace must see something in it that I don’t.
•Fear of Flying by Erica Jong—I am going to be that guy that points out that this is the first book we’ve come across amongst either Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, or David Foster Wallace that was written by a woman, which ironically is fitting enough in its controversialist regards of female sexuality, and the Second-Wave Feminism. Despite whatever inhibitions or triggers you might have, exploring the perspectives and thoughts of someone you might disagree with, or not understand is incredibly beneficial, and rewarding—for those of you who might be feeling the warm trigger surfacing from the use of the word ‘Feminism.’
•Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein—one of the classic Science Fiction novels.
•Fuzz by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter)—McBain is a crime/police procedural novelist who has written under such pseudonyms/pen names as: John Abbott Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, and Richard Marsten (as well as others). McBain is an incredibly prolific and great mystery novelist.
•Alligator by Shelley Katz—a pulp novel by a relatively unknown Shelley Katz, I’m not sure but my guess is that Wallace knew her personally. Maybe they went to school together. I did read this partial review: “I read it with spellbound amazement…It’s true that this is nowhere near Nobel Prize material, but somewhere I read the quote of a famous author who said that if you really want to find out the most about a society, don’t read the high-toned literature of the Ivory Tower, but rather, read the mundane pulp literature showing a much closer picture of the life of the masses.”
•The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy—Clancy’s popular Jack Ryan series, they are good reads. Not literature, but fun. I always enjoyed that about Wallace’s taste, he was interested in pop culture, and how it affect us, and how we related to it. I guess that’s why Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Chris Pine, and Ben Affleck all played the same character (Jack Ryan) over the years.
I was going to include a few more authors in this post, but this is already longer than I expected it to be, so I suppose you’ll have to wait for the next installments where I’ll touch on the favorites of George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Franzen, Tom Robbins, and more…
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