And other than the obvious JRR Tolkien (a moment of silence, please) who are your favorite authors?

John Sandford, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly and Tess Gerritsen to name a few.

Apologies if this same thread is somewhere else, I am rather new here

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I purrr, therefore I am ...

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Neil Gaiman is the coolest author I've ever encountered. His American Gods easily ranks amongst the best books I've ever read.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

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I moved this thread over here to the Library from the Red Book forum, which is more for works that we are ourselves writing rather than what we are reading.

I'm currently re-reading Asimov's The Gods Themselves in brief bursts before going to sleep. Most of my spare time is going towards, well, most of you know already.

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In gratitude forever … .

I'm currently reading Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, though I can't say it's one of my favorite books. My favorites other than Tolkien are probably Janny Wurts and Tad Williams.

Um .... I'm reading Hall of Fire.

Also Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

Just finished The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana which I did not like. I like Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, but not much he's written since then.

Also just finished Lincoln's Melancholy, by Joshua Wolf Shenk, which was enjoyable, but I disagreed with the romanticism of the depression.

Also recently listened to an audio book version of The Devil Wears Prada, by Lauren Weisberger, which was great, and makes my boss look like a saint by comparison.

And if you consider it reading ... I've discovered podcasts! I just downloaded 1068 of them into my new iPod.
Mostly science news type articles, NPR programs, short stories, Spanish language classes, medical info, meditations, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Great way to make a bus ride go by fast.

I'm reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke (again), which is a work of literary genius.

I'm reading Xenocide by Orson Scott Card, which 'aint half bad.

I finished recently The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, in which he puts forth a theory that time is a fourth dimension. (And he has some good arguments for it too)

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Why is the duck billed platypus?

I'll out myself in this illustrious group as reading silly stories: I've recently picked up "The Once and Future King" and am enjoying it a lot. I'd heard of it a long time ago, but I had no idea it was so silly and hilarious.

I don't really have favourite authors, though, I think, or if I listed everybody I find admirable, it would be a long list.

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but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.

Trollope, as usual. "Rachel Ray" right now, prompted by the fact that there is a person with that name being famous at the moment. Wasn't it on a recommendation from Rachel Ray that we SF m00ters went to that Dim Sum place?

For some reason, another foray through Bleak House.

Jared Diamond. Man, EVERYONE ought to read Jared Diamond. The guy is brilliant and not a bad writer, either.

Piling up John O'Hara. From "Appointment in Samarra" to "Ten North Frederick", plus all the short stories. One of the best short-story writers ever, though he went off the rails at the end in his novels. He is due, long overdue, for a revival.

narya, I read Temple Grandin's autobiography and found it fascinating, so will give a go to the one you mention.

Never did finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. I use it as a doorstop.

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Dig deeper.

hobby, the first part of The Once and Future King is silly and funny, but it gets tragic fast. It's one of those books that seems a bit schizoid: light and even a little juvenile in the beginning, as if written for children, but then becoming (in my opinion) quite serious and adult. I love the book—I find it moving—although the rather intrusive narration and the conscious application of psychological theories to the characters are both pretty dated techniques.

For favorite authors (for pure joy of reading, not necessarily literary perfection) I'd list Tolkien, Austen, Dickens, Sayers, Le Guin, Bujold . . . and now we're getting to where I have to stop or I'd list twenty more I like as well as Bujold.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I'm curious to get there, Prim. I had meant to wait with posting about it till I'd have finished it, but I'd probably have doubted it would find enough interest for a thread and have left it.
I'm only two-thirds through "The Sword in the Stone" so far, but it just got fascinatingly political, in addition to just silly.

At first I was a bit confused because I thought all the anachronisms were involuntarily funny, but it got more and more absurd, and finally there was some auctorial comment on this, so at least the narrative style here helped to make it clear that the author was not just being stupid.

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but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.

A lot of that drops right out of the story once Arthur is king.

I have to say, to be fair, that to me the sequence where the young Arthur lives as a wild goose is utterly beautiful.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I love the Sword in the Stone. Brilliant.

I'm reading The Hobbit to my 10 year old sister.

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Why is the duck billed platypus?

You're a good brother, Crucifer.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Mark Twain is the only author to make me laugh out loud continually.

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Try Stephen Leacock. "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" makes me weep with laughter.

He was nearly a contemporary of Twain's, btw.

And then there is the immortal James Thurber. I am going to go and dig Mr. Thurber out of the cupboard, right this very minute.

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Dig deeper.

Oooh, yes, vison—Thurber! Holby, if you like Twain and haven't tried Thurber, for gosh sakes get your hands on some. The Thurber Carnival is still in print and in libraries, and it's a great place to start.

Twain's great, though. "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" is one of the greatest pieces of snark ever written.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Ta. She hasn't read it yet, while I read it when I was 8. I was like !

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Why is the duck billed platypus?

I'm re-reading the Dune trilogy at the mo - first time I've revisited it in 10 years.

And my son and I are re-reading LoTR together, with a giant map of ME as reference, and every now and then we play a CD with JRR himself reading bits and singing bits It's a lot of fun this way!

And I'm reading Trollope, The Prime Minister. I haven't been able to find any more in the Barchester series in my pre-loved bookstore, still looking.

And I'm reading yet another parenting book, Raising Positive Children, which I'm finding mildly interesting.

Once and Future King was read long ago - maybe 20 years? - and I remember enjoying it very much but cannot for the life of me remember the writing or the details. Means I shall have to re-read, of course.

And did you say Stephen Leacock and James Thurber? *Adds names to list*

I wonder why my brain doesn't remember names of books and authors? It's like one of those magician's hats - things go in, they don't come out but simply disappear.