Favorite Authors

[DeletedUser]

Also, I don't know how, but I forgot to add J.K Rowling to the list.

Click "Edit", and you're good to go.

 

[DeletedUser20396]

 

[ajqtrz]

That was a great story @ajqrtz. But did you learn anything from the Bible? Did you understand what it was saying? The Bible is the Word of God. He spoke to us through it. Jesus said that he is the way. We are under grace now. The Old Law of Moses does not apply. It's only purpose was to show that no man is perfect, except one. He was the sacrifice for all sin, he was the perfect lamb, without blemish, the firstborn. He died, so we may live for eternity. I hope you realized that.

It always bothers me that we classify "religion" as something we can't talk about in the forums. So we can't talk about it. Sigh.

On a related note though, we have to ask "why" we can't talk about, don't we? Not "why do they not allow us to talk about it," because if you've ever tried to do so you have experience enough to answer that question. But, instead, "why is it difficult for some people to avoid displaying disrespect for others when talking about it?" And, in the end, it's the disrespect that hurts all of us.

So I won't talk about it. :>). What I will say, not about "it" -- but about what I think the role of books is in the development of an ability to talk about "it." In our colleges and Universities, where I've spent years and years both as a student and as a teacher, we expose ourselves and our students to many, many divergent views. We, in fact, think it simply unwise, even immoral, to attempt to exclude most views -- unless we perceive them as "exclusionary" of some group or other. "Diversity" we think, is derived from a wide range of cultural experiences and the person who spends their life experiencing a wide range of differing cultures will, we suppose, come to the conclusion that all of them are pretty much the same....thus none should be condemned. This leads to an irony. Students exposed to multiple cultures tend to not be able to praise any culture above another. No evidence is sufficient when you believe all evidence is merely the development of an imaginary 'narrative.'

Books, on the other hand, stand solid. Whatever "story" they are telling remains, like the ink on the page, indelible. Yes, they get re-interpreted, re-evaluated and even re-censored or un-censored but the range of interpretation is narrow because they are a physical thing that does not change without the author's permission. The words remain the same and that, in itself, means they carry their culture as represented. All of which, in my mind, means schools should spend more money and time getting students to READ books rather than to :"party with" some person who may or may not be a good representative (or accurate representative) of his or her culture.

A few years ago I had a man living with me from Africa. Cameroon, to be specific. He has been in the US for about thirty years. He always complained that he thought it strange that when he walked onto campus everybody instantly thought they understood his culture, his religious beliefs, his political stance, etc....because of the color of his skin. Books don't have that problem. One of the best books on apartheid, for instance, is Walter Patton's "Cry, my Beloved Country." If you haven't read it, do. What you will get is a strong sense of the difficulties actually experienced under the apartheid regime and how sometimes the best intended social justice systems fail. The work is much like Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," both of which should be read at least twice.

Finally, not so related to the subject of why we can't talk about "it" is a thought I have on the physicality of the book. Researchers, or at least some researchers (one can always find counter studies, can't one?), have noted that we read physical books differently than screen ones. Physical books are four dimensonal so the place where it says "x" is "2/3 the way through, on the right page" or "at the beginning just after the first chapter ends" are both an indicator of that third dimension -- "thickness" and the fourth -- time: "after I read the first 2/3's of the book" or "right after I finished chapter 1." The physicality of the book give us markers and whatever is 'in the book" is physically "in" the book. Screen reading is three dimensional but a three dimensionalism which, like all things digital, is limited to a single page "thickness." And without the "thickness" I think we psychologically read a book a bit like we watch a movie...it passes before us and then away. In other words, a physical book has "being" in our time and space, a screen book passes through into some void of which we are aware but cannot travel. Just a thought to ponder I guess.

AJ

 

[DeletedUser20396]

It definitely is a shame about not being able to talk religion. I have a friend who bought a car tag for the front that looks like this.

 

[DeletedUser]

a physical book has "being" in our time and space, a screen book passes through into some void of which we are aware but cannot travel.

So very, very true.

It definitely is a shame about not being able to talk religion.

Like-minded players can always discuss religion via private messages if they want, just not on the game forum itself.

 

[DeletedUser15476]

One of my favorite authors is Kate Atkinson (mysteries)
another is Louise Penny (mysteries, too but a bit more of a candy bar book)
Slow reading but among my favorites is Charles Dickens
A fun favorite is Tom Robbins
And I know I am missing many...I love to read

 

[DeletedUser20396]

A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield. I've read a Christmas Carol, and I just bought David Copperfield. I don't know the others, but thanks for posting.

One of my favorite authors is Kate Atkinson (mysteries)
another is Louise Penny (mysteries, too but a bit more of a candy bar book)
Slow reading but among my favorites is Charles Dickens
A fun favorite is Tom Robbins
And I know I am missing many...I love to read

 

[DeletedUser15476]

A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield. I've read a Christmas Carol, and I just bought David Copperfield. I don't know the others, but thanks for posting.

Dickens wrote in installments and published in magazines so there are often cliff hangers at chapter ends and that part of the story may not be added to for several chapters. I have found remembering this helped with his "jumps" from episode to episode.

His Great Expectations is considered one of the finest but wasn't my fav. Copperfield and Oliver Twist are my favs.

 

[DeletedUser20396]

Ever played the card game Authors? Oliver Twist was one of the books on them.

 

[DeletedUser15476]

No, I haven't. hmmm should check into that one!

 

[DeletedUser20396]

It's a game played back in my mom's day. It's a lot like go-fish, but with books. Like Shakespeare, it has Hamlet as one card, the Tempest as another, Romeo and Juliet another, and Julius Caesar as another. I think they're Kings.

 

[LilWolf De Lioncourt]

I like H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King as well as Edgar Allen Poe...I'm also very much into the paranormal. Also James Paterson is a good Author. There's more but right now I can't think of any.. I also love Horror movies too*lol*

 

[Vergazi]

Frank Herbert, JRR Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton (talented old gal), Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Edgar Allen Poe, Orson Scott Card, Robert Frost, John Dalmas, Philip K. Dick and so many others. I was never into horror as in slasher/gore movies...real life is scary enough for me thank you much. ( scuttles back into his panic room and slams and bolts the door )

 

[DeletedUser20396]

These sound good.

 

[DeletedUser9759]

Tom Clancy
John Grisham
Laurence Saunders
Andrew Greely

Recently started on the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.

 

[DeletedUser20396]

I like John Grisham, I've only read one book though. Playing for Pizza. Loved it.

 

[Vergazi]

I'm apalled that I could somehow forget to include Fred Saberhagen, Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock.

 

[DeletedUser21002]

Ernest Hemingway, Lloyd Pye, Zecharia Sitchin, Edgar Allen poe, and William Blake

 

[DeletedUser21621]

Fantasy belongs tto Anne McAffrey ,Tolkein,George RR Martin, Jack Whyte ,Morgan llewellen. Historic fiction to Bernard Cornwell,Clive Cussler. Sci fi...Frank Herbert,Isaac Asimov E.R, Burroughs E.E. "Doc" Smith, Orson Scott Card. Harlan Ellison.....but my favorite trio would be Anne Mcaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern Bernard Cornwell and all his work , and Jack Whyte for his take on the Aurthurian saga beginning with the Skystone
Also i would like to invoke the name Stephen A Lawhead and his Talesin Series about a celtic bard and his progeny... So many stories ...so many ideas...so many truths..so little time.I've journeyed with Doc Savage,John Carter.Tarl Cabot. F'lar and Lessa,Merlinus Ambrosius, Paul Atradies, Dirk Pitt, Alvin Journeyman. Kimball Kinnison, Bilbo and companions from middle earth through the entire universe
.from prehistory to the end of time and none of my experiences have left me unmoved They are my friends and I will treasure them

 

[DeletedUser20396]

I will add Anne McCaffrey to my list, because I am loving her Pern books. It is true that books are my very best friends. Second to those I've made on here.