Favorite Living Author

humanflyz · Post by **humanflyz** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:11 pm

@Happy Evil: Alright! At least someone shared my love for Clark's works.

Is Kurt Vonnegut still alive? If he is, then he will also be on my favorite living author list.

@Minerva: I know how you feel. All we read in English class are literary works by dead guys. I've just finished my second run through Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" and my first run through "The Wuthering Height". I must say that I like Scarlet Letter better than Wuthering Height because the characters in the Wuthering Height are too confusing for me. I must re-read it to fully understand it.

Shadow Sandrock · Post by **Shadow Sandrock** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:19 pm

Naoko Takeuchi

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 6:03 pm

posted by our in house philosopher Tom:
As for his books I think that the name of the rose was better than Foucault's Pendulum.
Both books are of course master pieces but Foucault's Pendulum was just a bit too clever.
His 'the island of the day before' was more of a struggle than a plesure for me.

I agree both are masterpieces. I think most people would favour Name of the Rose, so that's the one I would recommend for someone who hasn't read Eco before. But the Pendulum is my personal favorite, the density and tension in the story as well as the themes are just outstanding IMO.

The island of the day before was IMO a very interesting concept, but a bit tedious.

I liked Serendipities. What did you thing about Kant and the platypus? I'm not finished with that one yet.

Originally posted by fable:
This also applies to Italo Calvino, whom I briefly mentioned above, without elaborating upon (since I was working at the time, which is what I should be doing now). Calvino was influenced by Borges, and a great friend of Eco.

Since I love both Borges and Eco, I certainly have to read Calvino.

Thanks for the recommendation, fable

[ 10-11-2001: Message edited by: C Elegans ]

Saruman · Post by **Saruman** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 7:00 am

Favourite Living Author, George R. R. Martin, writer of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (As yet unfinished)

Favorite Dead Authors, Tolkien, Shakspeare, Asimov.

Other authors of note, Tad Williams, Michael Moorc0ck, Terry Goodkind, Roger Zelany, Mervyn Peake, oh sod it there too many to list as I read far too much.

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 11:53 am

Favorite living authors: Jonathan Carroll, Margaret Atwood, Graham Joyce, Joyce Carol Oates
Favorite dead authors: ETA Hoffman, Dostoyevsky, Philip K. ****, Graham Greene, Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ted Hughes, James ****ey, Theodore Roethke, etc, etc.

vixen · Post by **vixen** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 2:04 pm

Jilly Cooper. I like my books to be completely inane and sordid and I think she does well.

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 2:11 pm

Originally posted by VoodooDali:
Philip K. ****,

Ubik

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 2:21 pm

Love em all read em all--Valis was the one that really blew my mind. Getting ready to re-read The Man in the High Castle.

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 10:09 am

Originally posted by EMINEM:
Who knows if some anonymous pulp fiction writer will be studied in future University English courses rather than the ones whose works we admire.

Like maybe...STEPHEN KING?!?!?!?!?

Hey I'm a little late to this fascinatin diskushin but bether late than nuver, right?

Hey Eminem, why do you keep casting multiple greater malisons...Don't you know that malison doesn't stack?!?!?!? Why waste all those fourth level slots you could memorize more stoneskins instead?!? (and spider spawns

)

Anyway, I read the whole thread and there are a lot of good leads to follow in here. A lot of people I like to read to. One name that wasn't mentioned is >>>>>Martin Amis<<<<<. He's alive and i have immensely enjoyed a lot of his books, especially Money, Success, and London Fields.

As far as sci-fi goes - Fable, I thought Foundation was really good. I like Larry Niven - is he still alive?

Good to hear Eco, Borges and Calvino getting so much play! Reading them is sort of the literary equivalent of having a nasty prankster lighting up a string of firecrackers in your brain.

I am very proud to say that I share my birthday with Borges - August 24. So I feel a kinship with him.

And finally:

Adressed to ***** SAILOR SATURN *******

BUTT HOLDSWORTH!?!?!?!?!?! (snicker)

Sailor Saturn · Post by **Sailor Saturn** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 3:08 pm

Originally posted by THE JAKER:
And finally:

Adressed to ***** SAILOR SATURN *******

BUTT HOLDSWORTH!?!?!?!?!?! (snicker)

Yep. Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library. Butt and Holdsworth are two different people, though I'm not sure who they are. They coulda named it Holdsworth-Butt Memorial Library, but I'm not sure that'd be any better. *snickers*

Oh, and the middle school in that town is Hal Peterson Middle School or HPMS. They took extra care to not leave off the "H."

humanflyz · Post by **humanflyz** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 5:28 pm

The problem with the library is the time limit. I like to read my books so that I can savor it. I do not like to be pushed and forced to skip out on small details that would probably change the way I think. For example, I bought "History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides at a used book store for 25 cents. Had I borrowed the book from a library, I would have skipped a lot of details such as the huge amount of names. I would have enjoyed it a lot less. It took me two months to finish that book. I know it's pretty, but I learned a lot nonetheless. If I am going to have to re-read a book because I am pushed for time, why don't I just read it in my pace so I don't have to waste time re-reading it and read some other books.

I just checked out a copy of "Name of the Rose" by Eco from the library. So far so good.

humanflyz · Post by **humanflyz** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 7:50 pm

I read Eco's introduction. Is his story true? Did Adso's manual actually exist?