Who Are Your Favorite Authors Favorite Authors? Part II
I know that many of you have been waiting for the next installment of “Our Favorite Authors Favorite Authors.” It’s been a long, and exciting road, haha ha. I’m so glad that we’ve all been able to take this journey together. To watch these lists go from nothing to, gosh, to, you know, where we are now. Thank you, all. And now for that moment we’ve all been waiting for:
I expected a lot from Jonathan Franzen’s list, inasmuch as I did for David Foster Wallace, they were friends after all, and had a mutual taste for literary flare.
Continental Drift by Russell Banks; this was the first book I read by Russell Banks, and it was not the last. It was placed in my hands by a co-worker/friend of mine named Luke when I was working at Barnes&Noble in Murray, Utah. Bank’s is a fantastic author, and this is a good first book to start with.
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow; I collect Saul Bellow books, and I have a first printing of Seize the Day, it’s fantastic. Franzen has great taste, so far.
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles; I haven’t read many of Paul Bowles’ books, but I did read The Sheltering Sky. I’m not sure how it ended up in my hands, nevertheless it was there one afternoon, and I did not let the happenstance go to waste.
The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley; this a great underground mystery, noir flare.
Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum; I don’t really know anything about this book.
Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell; these are two surprising additions to the list, Mrs. Bridge is a good book, though.
White Noise by Don Delillo; DeLillo is one of my favorite authors. His use of imagery is so encompassing, it’s incredible. The first book I read of his was The Body Artist, and I do think that it is a good place to start. The Body Artist is a single sitting book. Everything DeLillo wrote is great.
The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury; considered one of the top 50 books of the last 50 years at the time of its publication in 1994. A great read.
The Hamlet by William Faulkner; this is an interesting Faulkner to be on a list, still I’m glad that it is.
Jesus’ Son and Angels by Denis Johnson; I discovered Denis Johnson only after I happened upon the movie Jesus’ Son starring Billy Crudup, the movie was fantastic. I had no heard of Johnson before then, though. But you can bet as soon as I discovered him, and read Jesus’ Son, I didn’t stop reading until there was nothing left to read.
I wanted to include a list with George R. R. Martin in it, however…well, it’s not that I cannot find his favorite books, and authors, it’s, to be honest, that they are too obvious. His favorite authors are exactly what you would expect them to be. And I legit got bored reading interviews, and looking up topics.
I met Neil Gaiman several years ago while he was reading/performing with his wife Amanda Palmer at The Jean Cocteau in Santa Fe, New Mexico. George Martin owns the theatre and the two, George and Neil, are good friends, Gaiman makes fairly frequent appearances as The Cocteau. It’s always interesting to me how the authors that authors often choose as their favorite often are within the same genre as the lists owner, maybe I just have a lingering hope that the lists are more varied, diverse. I don’t know.
Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe; also known as The Book of the New Sun: Volumes I and II
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees; a Science Fiction/Fantasy novel unlike anything you have likely ever read.
Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones; 1984 young adult Science Fiction book that was very popular in the 80’s.
London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew; unusual for the list, a pamphlet that describes the state of the working poor in London.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Suzanna Clarke; this is a really great work of Science Fiction, I have multiple copies, it’s a best seller from my online store for sure, but I also have three in my collection. Three, yes, because it was released with different color jackets: red, black, and white. Great story, too. Read it.
Horns by Joe Hill; Joseph Hillstrom King, the son of author Stephen King’s best work to date, I think.
Alec: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell; and unusual and fantastic graphic novel that is somewhere along the lines of Flowers for Algernon
Bleak House by Charles Dickens; again, I love it!
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny; Roger Zelazny, Neil Gaiman, and George Martin were all good friends. Zelazny died in 95’ Roger and George became writers together, in the same genre, and writing episodes of The Twilight Zone. Roger son Trent Zelazny is also a writer, living in Santa Fe, he George and Neil all remain close friends. Lord of Light is one of Zelazny’s sci-fi masterpieces, as well as The Chronicles of Amber and This Immortal.
The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton; I have not read much of Chesterton’s work, a few mystery stories from way back when. The only real piece of compelling information I know about him is this story: many years ago The New York Times released an open question in their paper for anyone to respond to-, and answer. Chesterton, it is rumored, responded to the inquiry, with: “Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton” I have always enjoyed that story.
The first book I read by Tom Robbins was Fierce Invalid Home from Hot Climates, it was unlike anything that I had read before, in a plethora of ways, he is more well known for his books, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker, both of which are great books, all of which you should probably make the time to read. It’s difficult to find the best novels that he lists alongside the author, so I’ve only included his favorite authors; with one exception.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold)
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow, Crying of Lot 49, Mason & Dixon)
Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall, Plain Song, In Search of Small Gods)
Nancy Lemann (Lives of the Saints, Sportsman’s paradise, The Ritz of the Bayou)
Andrei Codrescu (The Posthuman Dada Guide, The Poetry Lesson, Blood Countess)
Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita, Ada or Ardor, The Eye)
Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, Moloch: or This Gentile World, The Rosy Crucifixion)
James Joyce (Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man)
The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary; Robbins has voiced this novel as his unrivaled favorite novel of all time.
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