This is a hard questions because I love many writers. I would have to say at this moment in time Mark Twain, Ian McEwan and Shakespeare.

Well, I am going to go way more shallow and say my favorite writer ever is Dean Hughes. Well, his stuff for adults. I love his historical fiction (Children of the Promise series, etc.) -- very well researched -- and I love the humor he instills in his writing (Midway to Heaven is a great one).

Lately I've also loved just about everything I've read by Lynn Austin, a Christian historical fiction writer. My favorite was the "Candle in the Darkness" series about the Civil War. They are really uplifting books, despite dealing with hard issues. The character growth was some of the best I'd seen.

I love Anne Rice, D.H. Lawrence, Poe, Morgan Llywelyn, Tom Robbins

My favorite authors are VC Andrews and Jodi Picoult.

My favorite authors are Marianne Macdonald and Matthew Reilly but I also like Luanne Rice and Philipp Vandenberg.

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, Jhumpa Lahiri, and inconsistently, Robin McKinley. (Not the same league, I know, but true.)

I am almost finished with Cider house Rules. Irving is amazing. I really want to read more of his works.

One thing about GR is that I am really expanding my list of authors. I love it!

John Irving and Phillipa Gregory. I also love Wally Lamb (who has a new release coming out in November!)

My answer to this would probably change on a regular basis. Right now it's hard not to say Zora Neale Hurston. The first time I read Their Eyes Were Watching God I just sat there stunned afterwards. But then there is also Pasternak, Woolf, Thomas Wolfe, and (as a poet) Tsvetaeva. These "favorite" questions are so hard...

I love Zora Neale Hurston and Pasternak too. But my favourite authors (today at least) are Dr. Irv Yalom, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Emile Zola and Sinead Moriarty (who writes chick lit).

Diana Wynne Jones has a firm place in my heart.

I read her Dogsbody when I was 9 and it was my first book love - my soulbook and since I acquired a bank account and an Amazon account I have gone about buying all her books. I have about 30 of them - which is the majority I believe.

She's such a fantastic author but it really pisses me off that she is rarely found in bookshops. Her latest book hasn't even been in my local Waterstones. Hmph well. But what do they have piles and piles of at the moment?

BLOODY TWILIGHT by that inferior author. Parp. I'm a Harry Potter fan now, but would I exchange DWJ for HP? No. She writes so many different, quirky fantastic YA and children's books and she's so much better then HP. If I had to choose... well I think she should have more, all over her books on the shelves and they can get rid of that horrid Breaking Dawn mountain they have.

This question is a hard one. Just off the top of my head, I would have to say Agatha Christie, Laurie R. King, Sue Monk Kidd, Khaled Hosseini, Amy Tan, Joyce Carol Oates (even though so much of her writing is depressing, she's a kick-ass author), Elizabeth Kostova, Ariana Franklin, Sena Jeter Naslund, and Roald Dahl. I know that there are more, but these authors are definitely great in my book.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jane Austen,

I have a special place in my heart for Michael Ondaatje. I cannot explain it. I just love the way his words sound.

John Irving and Joyce Carol Oates.
Both are amazing writers!
And Haruki Murakami is quickly becoming a third favourite - just need to read a bit more by him before he is elevated to one of the favourites.

This has to be one of the hardest questions anyone has ever asked me,because my list is unlimited.Plus i can't even remember some of them,so it would be an unfair decision for me to make...

Wow... I have so many... Well I Love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and of course there is Stephanie Meyer ( I not only love the Twilight series but The Host: A Novel is a wonderful book too!) Then there is J.K. Rowling and Christopher Paolini. And the classics: Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens... wow I could go on for days! :-)

zoe wrote: "hello. the answer to this question changes constantly, but the names that come up repeatedly are: shakespeare, joyce, beckett, coetzee, virginia woolf."

I have not run into anyone who actually liked reading Virginia Woolf in the last 10 years. I have to admit to hating Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, but mildly enjoyed A Room of One's Own and to some degree the quirky Orlando.
I had to look up Coetzee:)

So mny favorite authors,Louisa May Alcott,StephenKing,Sophie Kinsella,Cecelia Ahern,Jennifer Weiner,Debbie Macomber,Susan Wiggs,John Saul,Richard Laymon,Anne Rice,P.C.CAST,JK Rowling,Jack Ketchum,Mark Twain,

I can't choose my very top between Stephen King and Colleen McCullough. There couldn't be two any more different authors, but there it is. I will also read anything Amy Tan, Michael Chrichton and James Patterson write.

Classic fiction... DH Lawrence, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Yukio Mishima, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Contemporary Fiction - John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore, Tom Robbins, Sherman Alexie, Ken Kalfus, Jose Saramago.

Poets - Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Kahlil Gibran, Rod McKuen, Henry Rollins.

Non-fiction - Carl Jung, John Shelby Spong, Elaine Pagels, David McCullough, Naomi Wolf, Sebastian Junger, Mark Kurlansky.

Classic Fiction - Jane Austen, John Steinbeck

Contemporary - Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, Frank McCourt, J.D. Salinger

Poets - Carl Sandburg, William Wordsworth, Ralph W. Emerson

Non Fiction - Jill Bolte Taylor, John Shelby Spong

Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jane Austen, Gregory Maguire, and Paulo Coelho

There's probably more, but these are the writers I keep returning to. :)

Kurt Vonnegut

Nicholas Evans tops in mine.

I would have to opt for the following authors: Jane Austen, Stephen Ambrose, Shelby Foote, David McCullough

David James Duncan, Walker Percy, Edna O'Brien, and Hermann Hesse.

Hi all, I'm new to the group. I am a huge Richard Russo fan, but also like Boyle, Doctorow, McEwan, Delillo (my favorite modern novel is White Noise), and Chabon. Thought The Brief and Wonderous life of Oscar Wao was excellent as well.
Any recommendations based on the list above of people I am missing out on?

There are several authors that I love the most:
Jim Davis, Elisabeth Gaskell, Markus Zusak, Julie Anne Peters, and Dan Brown

Ken Kesey, Jane Austen, L.M. Montgomery, Wally Lamb, Roald Dahl, Madeleine L'Engle...I'm not sure if I can pinpoint a common thread!

Joanne Harris, Margret Attwood, E. Nesbit. Bill Bryson, Nagib Mafouz and Dickens

One of my favorites, Michael Crichton, is no longer with us ... I loved his ability to research and create something different each time; I always looked forward to his next novel because of that. ;o)

Hello all and Liz, I am new to the group. I recently fell in love with Michael Crichton's work when I read Sphere on the recommendation of one of my co-workers. It was so suspenseful I stayed up half the night reading it. Now I have to see if his other books are just as good as Sphere. I am going to be reading Congo.
Judaye

Chrichton must have been the best researcher going. His books are about such varied subjects, and yet he manages to convey the impression that he is writing the truth. Nothing he wrote is hard to believe while you are reading it.

I, literally, cried when I found out about his death. I was so saddened by the idea that I would never get to look forward to his new book again. I will read his over and over.

Judaye wrote: "Hello all and Liz, I am new to the group. I recently fell in love with Michael Crichton's work when I read Sphere on the recommendation of one of my co-workers. It was so suspenseful I stayed up h..."


Definitely worth a read, but is in the bottom two fo his works, in my opinion, with Eaters of the Dead.

Douglas Adams was my favorite author. He is hysterical.

Kandice wrote: "Chrichton must have been the best researcher going. His books are about such varied subjects, and yet he manages to convey the impression that he is writing the truth. Nothing he wrote is hard to b..."

Still in mourning ... glad that others feel the same way! ;o(

It's so hard to choose my favorite writers, probably because they keep changing. Right now I like Joanne Harris, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, and George Eliot. Next month my list will most likely change.

Judaye

Judaye wrote: "It's so hard to choose my favorite writers, probably because they keep changing. Right now I like Joanne Harris, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, and George Eliot. Next month my list will most likely..."

Change is good, Judaye! ;o)

I will buy anything and everything by Margaret Atwood and Jennifer Weiner in hardcover.

Favorite currently writing author is Ian McEwan. Favorite all-time writers are Raymond Chandler and George Orwell.

My favorite author changes year by year depending on what I'm into at the moment. Lately paranormal romance is my passion. I'd have to say Laurell K. Hamilton is my favorite these days.

Contemporary fiction: Alistair McLeod (Cdn)(wish he would write more), Tim Winton (Aussie), Richard Powers (Am)(though what I have read is not easy light reading), Lisa See (? but setting is China), and others that have slipped my mind.

Mystery: light and fun: Lyn Hamilton, Kathy Brandt (a new discovery for me on GR), Aaron Elkins, etc

I love:
Stephen King; and

Margaret Atwood.

Is that schizo?

I like everything/nearly everything by Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Haruki Murakami, Chuck Palahniuk, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl, Philip Pullman, Lemony Snicket, Willy Russell, C S Lewis, Pat Barker,
As a child I loved Enid Bylton and Jacqueline Wilson

There are many more I think can become favourites if I read more of their books

ooo Ronald Dahl! I used to love him, I should read his stuff again now that I'm older.

My fave writer is Zane. I think she is fantastic. Her books are extremely spicy with good stories and really well-written.

.....Kalidasa, Du Fu, Rumi 'n Me.....

Definitly David Fulmer, Glen David Gold, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Agatha Christie, Steve Berry, J.R.R. Tolkien, Rex Stout and of course J.K. Rowlings.

There are so many more, but I read everything these guys write.