somethingquirky
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"So, what are you like now?"
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Post by somethingquirky on Jan 1, 2013 13:35:43 GMT -6
Which authors do you really like?
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snowmania
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I'm just posting here so that the "%\1\%" under my name goes away.
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Post by snowmania on Jan 9, 2013 20:14:16 GMT -6
HERE ARE SOME AUTHORS I LIKE. All my choices are from when I was a teenager because that was the last time I read a lot. But these people are still meaningful for me.
Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma, Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food). Pollan holds the distinction of being the author of the only book I can think of, offhand, that changed my life (Omnivore's Dilemma). I'm sure he'll be thrilled once he finds out.
I have to make a caveat to say I don't quite revere him as I did when I first read him -- occasionally he flubs the science, not to say the practicality, of some of what he writes about. But he writes so engagingly about our modern food system and our relationship with eating that it more than evens out. A lot of what he wrote about in Omnivore's Dilemma was news to me (the stranglehold that corn holds over modern agriculture; modern, conventional agriculture and alternatives; and more) and made me think more seriously about my role in that system as a consumer. It's a little precipitous, but I can trace so much of where I am now -- what I studied in school, my present interests, how I make my tedious, tedious living on the production side of food -- back to the interest sparked by that book.
Jeffrey Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex). I haven't read the book he came out with a year or two ago, and I've only read Middlesex once, but my teen girl confession is that I have probably read The Virgin Suicides more than any other novel in my life. He strings together the most banal vignettes and somehow comes up with this really rich portrait of this suburban tragedy. His prose probably walks over -- nay, catapults!!!! -- the line into purple territory, but I unabashedly love it. That's what I craved in the long-ago when I read fiction on a regular basis. Delicious-ass prose that took me far, far away...to Michigan.
Salinger. Yeah, me and every other teenager in the world read Catcher in the Rye, and I do still love that book. But I was surprised to discover I loved Franny and Zooey and some of the short stories about the Glasses even more. They're funny. They're sad. I love the voices of all his narrators. (Also, I know the Glass family came first, but I feel like J.D. Salinger was copying Wes Anderson's precocious families???)
Which authors do you like, Quirk?
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somethingquirky
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"So, what are you like now?"
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Post by somethingquirky on Jan 10, 2013 9:43:43 GMT -6
Most of my favourite authors are ones I discovered as a teenager. It actually just hit me the other day that I barely read, compared to how much I used to. Stupid internet =P
I hadn't heard of The Omnivore's Dilemma; it looks really interesting, though probably a bit much for me.
I actually first read The Catcher In The Rye a few years ago, and haven't got to Franny and Zooey yet. I'm a little behind on the classics. When I was young I would read a lot, and read more advanced stuff for my age, so family members would give me classic books like Pride and Prejudice, and I always thought that I would save that stuff for when I was older, I think because of some part of me not wanting to grow up that much yet, but I still haven't read any of those kinds of books, other than Catcher and Ender's Game, and ones I had to read for school like Brave New World and 1984. I'm probably using the term 'classics' a bit broadly, but oh well.
My favourite author for a long time was James Herriott. How could I not be hooked in by the semi-autobiographical stories of a British vet?
Currently my favourite is David Levithan. He just has such an amazing way with words. In his book The Lover's Dictionary (and on his twitter, which is an expansion of that book) there are so many things he says that are so relatable, and I wouldn't have been able to describe them well, but he pinpoints the exact feeling. His books always have these parts that resonate so well with me, and it amazes me every time.
I was a fan of Sarah Dessen, though haven't kept up with any new books of hers in a few years. Her stories are a bit girl-meets-boy, but they're really good. I'm not really a fan of happy endings where the boy and girl get together and everything's great, but the build-up and backstories make them worth it.
Special mentions go to Nick Earles, Jaclyn Moriarty, Scott Westerfeld, Eoin Colfer and Judy Blume.
I'm sure John Green will go on this list once I've read one of his books. I've just read Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which he co-authored with David Levithan.
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