Your Most-Read Authors >> group customs?

[Sarah]

Go to "my books" tab, and scroll down.
On the bottom left under tools, there's a new button for "most read authors."
They're still working out the bugs, apparently, but in the meantime, who is in your top ten for most read?

Mine are comic-heavy and my-favorite-authors-as-a-kid heavy, which makes sense.

Neil Gaiman
Brian K. Vaughan
Dick Francis
Bill Willingham
Orson Scott Card (bleah. I'll have to read lots of someone else to knock him down)
Walter Farley
Alan Moore
Jonathan Carroll
and then a three way tie between Dave Eggers, Ursula LeGuin and Alison Bechdel.

[Jim]

Mine are mainly mystery writers with a couple YA.

Victoria Houston
C.S. Lewis
J.K. Rowling
Haruki Murakami
Louise Penny
Neil Gaiman
Ray Bradbury
Agatha Christie
Edgar Allan Poe
Christopher Paolini
Stieg Larsson
John Galligan

[Suefly]

I love Gaiman. I've been into him since I found his Sandman series in the 90's...right around the time he was finishing it up! His kids books are fun, too.

[Rebecca]

ha ha, per your comment on OSC!

I wouldn't know where to start, really.

[Jim]

That Suefly must really love Gaiman!

[Suefly]

Jim wrote: "That Suefly must really love Gaiman!"


Stupid Sue with her stupid smart phone! Errrrr

[Sarah]

Suefly wrote: "I love Gaiman. I've been into him since I found his Sandman series in the 90's...right around the time he was finishing it up! His kids books are fun, too."

Me too (obviously, since he tops my list). My father actually collected the Sandman issue by issue from the beginning, and I started reading them right around when Dream went to hell.

[Sarah]

I think it makes sense that authors like Stephen King and Dick Francis make it pretty high on our lists. I've said before that Francis is my palate cleanser, so I've read a lot of his books just because I know I can breeze through them. They may not be our favorites, but over time we read a lot of them.

[Dan]

P.G. Wodehouse
Terry Pratchett
Stephen King
Joe R. Lansdale
Lawrence Block
Neil Gaiman
Michael Moorcock
Richard Stark
Mike Resnick
Roger Zelazny

[janine]

i only have 95 books on my read shelf (everything i've read since the beginning of last year) so this list isn't representative of my overall reading habits.

john updike (4)
heleen van royen (4) - i don't like her books at all, but i used them for a paper last year
jane austen (3)
connie willis (3) - one of those is on my to-read shelf
simon vestdijk (3)
ferdinand bordewijk (2)
miroslav krleža (2)
knut hamsun (2)
suzanne collins (2)
italo calvino (2)
jan kjærstad (2)

[Carol]

Stephen King
Alice Hoffman
J.K. Rowling
Laurie Notaro
Christopher Moore
Shel Silverstein
Neil Gaiman
Nick Hornby
I am not embarrassed. well, now I am because I spelled embarrassed wrong the first time. I only started a little over a year ago putting in books as I've read them. Every once in a while I remember I've read something and put it on GR.

[Janice]

Hmmm, this list is off a bit since I haven't listed all the books I've read. In some cases, I selected the boxed set because I was too lazy to list all the books in the set. Here goes:

Stephen King
Amy Tan
James Michener
Jack Whyte
John Irving
Dan Brown
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mary Stewart
Kathy Reichs
Mitch Albom

Ann Rice should be on this list. JK Rowlings, too.

[Gatorman]

Stephen King, John Connolly, T. Jefferson Parker, Preston/Child, Michael Crichton, Stephen White, Thomas H. Cook, James W. Hall, Philip Kerr and Val McDermid.

[Brittomart]

This isn't working for me because whenever I add a book to my wishlist, it puts it in my read shelf (which doesn't make sense to me), and then I have to remove it from that shelf, put it on my to-read shelf. According to this, even though I've taken something off my read shelf, it still counts it as read.

[Helena]

Stephen King (52?)
Cormac McCarthy (6)
Anne Rice (6)
Rudyard Kipling (6)
Charles Dickens (6)
Neil Gaiman (6)

I don’t think it works that well... but seems a fair enough representation.

[Jammies]

Mercedes Lackey 75
Agatha Christie 72
Anne Perry 41
Terry Pratchett 39
Robert Lynn Asprin 35
Robert B. Parker 31
Anne McCaffrey 29
Robert A. Heinlein 28
Marion Zimmer Bradley 28
Carole Nelson Douglas 27

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

This is totally inaccurate. It's not bringing up most read, but most shelved. It's trying to tell me I've read 13 Henry James books, which I haven't. And 9 books by Madonna. Those are on my Will-Never-Read shelf. (The Madonnas, not the Jameses. Many of the Jameses are on my To-Read.)

[Brittomart]

Love you, LG.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

:)

[[deleted user]]

Now why would you need to glorify the books you Will-Never-Read? You really have a secret self that sneaks off to peak at them. You'll find them hidden under the bed.

[Michele]

most read authors: jayne ann krentz, amanda quick, jayne castle (all same person), mercedes lackey, laurell k. hamilton, ann bishop, karen marie moning, hannah howell, catherine coulter, j.d.robb. whenever and as soon as they publish something new I rush out to buy or borrow (from the library) because I want to read it asap.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Gail "cyborg" wrote: "Now why would you need to glorify the books you Will-Never-Read? You really have a secret self that sneaks off to peak at them. You'll find them hidden under the bed."

I don't really consider it glorification. I think it sheds light on my reading/non-reading habits.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Okay, they've changed it to reflect only one's read books. So now I think I can accurately list my most read.

Joan Aiken - 11
Elizabeth George - 11
Henning Mankell - 11
P.D. James - 9
William Pene du Bois - 7
Johann Sebastian Bach - 7
Dare Wright - 7
Philip Roth - 6
Tomi Ungerer - 6
Paul Scott - 6
Jane Austen - 6

[Sarah]

Lobstergirl, are the Bach books just sheet music?

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Sarah Pi wrote: "Lobstergirl, are the Bach books just sheet music?"

Yes.

[Sarah]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Sarah Pi wrote: "Lobstergirl, are the Bach books just sheet music?"

Yes."

I was just curious because I don't consider him a big writer of books.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

No.

[[deleted user]]

Jim wrote: "Mine are mainly mystery writers with a couple YA.

Victoria Houston
C.S. Lewis
J.K. Rowling
Haruki Murakami
Louise Penny
Neil Gaiman
Ray Bradbury
Agatha Christie
Edgar Allan Poe
Christopher Paolini..."

Jim, I have to ask...Christopher Paolini? REALLY? I was one of the only Eragon lovers around here, and I actually really liked Eldest. But, Brisinger? It was so crap I went into a reading funk/depression that I couldn't pick up another book for months. Plus, have you ever heard him? He talks in his made up elvish language... *sighs and wanders off dejected all over again*

[[deleted user]]

Myles wrote: "So my overabundance of free time is showing...I've added a ton of the books I read as a kid.

R.L. Stine, 77
Terry Pratchett, 40
Gertrude Chandler Warner, 26
John Bellairs, 20
Stephen King, 19
Bria..."


Wow, 77 books read by one author? Do tell!

[[deleted user]]

1 David Eddings 17
2 Margaret Weis 13
3 L.M. Montgomery 12
4 Beverly Cleary 11
4 Anne McCaffrey 11
6 C.S. Lewis 8
7 J.K. Rowling 7
7 Judy Blume 7
9 Jane Austen 6
10 Jean M. Auel 5
10 William Shakespeare 5
10 Madeleine L'Engle 5
10 J.R.R. Tolkien 5
10 Holly Black 5
10 Patricia C. Wrede 5
10 Stephenie Meyer 5


I had a 7 way tie for 10th. I'm sure Shakespeare is turning over in his grave that he is on any list with Jean Auel. :)

[[deleted user]]

I had no idea what he wrote...I get it. You're like my kid's age then. *sigh* I may take this turning 40 thing harder than I thought.

[[deleted user]]

Seriously, it's cro magnon porn. I read it in H.S., my foster mom gave it to me to read! Heh. Have you ever seen the CotCB movie with Daryl Hannah? Terrible! :) All Jean Auel books are on my "List of Shame".

[Sarah]

Valley of Horses is about the only book ever with the word "horse" in the title that I didn't read as a kid. I remember picking it up and flipping it open and deciding that there didn't seem to be enough horses to make it worth my while.

[[deleted user]]

Heh. Valley of the Horses was half shagging, literally I think half of that FAT book was shagging.

[Sarah]

I think at the age I picked it up, I wouldn't have recognized the shagging. A couple of years later, and that would have been a selling point.

[Pat]

I think this list represents what I used to read more than what I currently read.

Robert A. Heinlein 26
John D. MacDonald 16
Elizabeth George 15
Stephen King 13
Kurt Vonnegut 8
Tony Hillerman 8
J.K. Rowling 7
Isaac Asimov 6
Jane Austen 6
John Norman 5
Gregory Maguire 5
Edith Wharton 5
Larry Niven 5

[Cynthia]

This is fun. I did note that one of my favorite authors, Donna Tartt, has only written two books so far and I've read them both.

Margaret Atwood-11
Joyce Carol Oates-10
Stephen King-5
John Irving-5
Jane Smiley-5
Ann Patchett-5
Brendan O'Carroll-4
Laurie Colwin-4

[Sarah]

Cynthia wrote: "This is fun. I did note that one of my favorite authors, Donna Tartt, has only written two books so far and I've read them both.
"

Yeah, this is definitely a measure of quantity, not quality.

[[deleted user]]

Pat wrote: "I think this list represents what I used to read more than what I currently read.

Robert A. Heinlein 26
John D. MacDonald 16
Elizabeth George 15
Stephen King 13
Kurt Vonnegut 8
Tony Hillerman 8..."

Esh. I read Stranger in a Strange Land and haven't been able to force myself to pick up another Heinlein book since! I was so ready for MVS to DIE that by the end of the book I wasn't even disappointed in that bit...

[[deleted user]]

I do love Vonnegut though.

[Pat]

Amelia wrote: "I do love Vonnegut though."

I find Heinlein unreadable now, but for a while in my youth he was a favorite. I have not reread any Vonnegut and I hesitate to because I don't know if it will hold up.

[[deleted user]]

Well, I was only introduced to them (both) in my 30's, literally in the last few years, so...

So far I would say that I have a hard time choosing between Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse. I wandered away from Breakfast of Champions and haven't yet gone back. Do you have a favorite? Even from way back when?

[Pat]

Breakfast of Champions is a favorite, but it may be a bit over the top, not his best writing.

My second favorite is Player Piano. It is very different from Breakfast of Champions. Its is much more serious, much darker.

[Jaimie]

1 Neil Gaiman 30
2 Terry Pratchett 22
3 Anne Rice 19
4 V.C. Andrews 17
5 Clive Barker 16
6 Laurell K. Hamilton 14
7 J.K. Rowling 7
8 Brian Froud 6
9 Jeanne Kalogridis 5
10 Stephen King 3
10 A.N. Roquelaure 3
10 Peter S. Beagle 3
10 Carlos Ruiz Zafón 3
10 Christopher Golden 3
15 Edward Gorey 2
15 Ray Bradbury 2
15 Anne Rampling 2
15 Gaston Leroux 2
15 Jonathan Carroll 2
15 China Miéville 2
15 John Connolly 2
15 Susanna Clarke 2
15 James Howe 2
15 Michael Romkey 2
15 Lewis Carroll 2
15 J.R.R. Tolkien 2
15 Tim Burton 2
15 Alexandre Dumas 2
15 Douglas Clegg 2
15 John Steinbeck 2

[[deleted user]]

Pat, I'll give it another go. Once I get over my Pern obsession. :)

[Phil]

I never liked Pern. Not sure why, just didn't care for it at all.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Start with Dragonflight, Myles. That's where the series really started. You just have to forgive McCaffrey her attempt to sound a bit medieval at the beginning. She gets over that pretty fast, and then you've got a good story.

[[deleted user]]

I read the first two because they were given to my daughter and I had nothing else to read at the time. They didn't grab me.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

You hate to see "dick" and "dries up" in the same sentence.

[Jim]

I hated to see dick with 3 next to it.