Are there any writers whose books you always grab?

Gary Paulsen

C. J. Cherryh

Connie Willis

There are others, but those I always always grab.

Oh, lord, yes, Connie Willis. She could write a dozen books a year and that wouldn't be enough for me.

M.C. Beaton a/k/a Marion Chesney is one of those "MUST GET NEW BOOK" authors for me. Fortunately, she has three mystery series and she's quite prolific.

Less-prolific faves are Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block.

For literary, the brilliant and quite prolific Percival Everett.

Connie Willis:
...has won, among other awards, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Willis
*whistles, & jots down name*

tomothecat said:

It's been my experience that I can LOVE a book, and then hate something else by that author. Like, for instance, Alice Sebold.

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I have the same experience; I usually judge a book individually without dependence on its author. I have loved a good number of books by authors that just left me aghast, but I was not lured by their other works.

I will never hesitate to buy an F. Scott Fitzgerald work that I haven't yet read. And Maxence Fermine's translated books (because they're nearly impossible to find in America).

Now, if you want to talk about collecting nonfiction by subject, then I'll be more than happy to oblige. I have virtual libraries on certain topics, particularly in history.

Inkdaub said:

Do you Picoult fans read her comics? I haven't but I am always curious as to how readers will react to their favorite novelists comic experts.

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I didn't know she wrote comics. Hmmm...I'll have to look into it for fun.

I can't believe no one has said "Abbie Hoffman" yet....

Nothing?

WAKE UP!!!!

I had his "Steal this Book." I think someone stole it from my library though. I can't find it.

Anyway, when I was younger I had to read EVERYthing by Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lin Carter, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Allan Dean Foster (before he started churning out movie adapts), Andrew J. Offutt, and John Jakes (before he abandoned fantasy).

Now I try to read everything Nelson DeMille puts out. I was reading everything by Michael Crichton. I've read pretty much everything by Henry Miller. And I was reading everything by Laurel K. Hamilton until she turned to porn.

Robert McCammon. I've read everything of his. More than once, in some cases.

Robert Crais
Michael Connelly
Jeffery Deaver
Tom Clancy
David Brin
Derek Paterson--well, someday.

Joe Haldeman just keeps getting better and better, John Varley, Richard Rhodes never fails to be interesting, Stephen King (of course), Steven Levy, and Annie Dillard (though I'm still working on the back catalog).

ETA: Oh, and Thomas Harris, Hannibal Rising nonwithstanding.

Tad Williams and Robin Hobb.

Harlan Coben
Jodi Picoult
Janet Evanovich (Plum series only)

There are others that I consistently buy but these three I actually wait for release dates and have to get right away.

Vonnegut. Always Vonnegut.

Out of all the authors I love, there are a few I obsessively collect without even checking to see what their newest work is about. Ursula LeGuin is one; her Earthsea books are incredible, just like pretty much everything ELSE she's ever done. I have all of Octavia Butler's books, and I only wish there were more to come; I hate it when good authors die too young. Anne Rice used to be one, but her latest works... well...

C.J. Cherryh is a somewhat recent discovery who has joined this rather exclusive list I have yet to complete my collection, but I'm devouring everything of hers I can. sunna, Medievalist- since you both listed her too- what are your favorite Cherryh books? My heart was won by the Faded Sun trilogy, but the Morgaine saga is right up there, for me. Read the trilogy, and then realized there was more; I have to get my hands on that fourth book!!

Margaret Atwood, George R. R. Martin, Kelley Armstrong, Charlaine Harris, Linda Fairstein, James Rollins and the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books.

These are my must-buys in hardback. I'm always looking for the older hardbacks in used book stores. A few months ago, I finally completed my collection of first edition Preston/Child books.

John Irving
Terry Pratchett
Nicci French
Sarah Rayne
Stephen King
Donna Leon
Sarah Waters

Dean Koontz
Laurell K Hamilton (or at least I used to, the last couple I have read, but copies at the library...I keep hoping to be pleasantly surprised)
Sidney Sheldon (he doesn't come out with new ones anymore, but I have every copy of his books)
Michael Crichton
Vicki Pettersson (granted, she only has 3 books out, but after reading her debut novel, I am hooked!)
Agatha Christie (I want to read/own all her novels, but only have a few)
Shakespeare (I have about 1/3 of his works, want them all too)
Preston/Childs
Larry McMurtry (not a big western fan, but love the Lonesome Dove series)
Kelley Armstrong
.....there are probably more, but I can't think of any. Fighting a bad head/chest cold right now and I am feeling kinda loopy....

Marilynne Robinson
Natalie Goldberg
Alice McDermott
Iam McEwan
Rita Dove
Andrea Seigel

Laura Kinsale. She's the only author who's never disappointed me yet.

Really the only author I buy every new book from is Dean Koontz.

Andy McNab. only one.

The new ones by Suzanne Brockmann but I won't get the re-issues of her harlequin romances because they just aren't good. I bought one and returned it to the bookstore. the girl asked me the reason i was returning and i said because it sucked.

And even her new ones now, I've been disappointed by her last three, maybe four. She has one more chance and then i'm waiting for the paperbacks. The last three definitely were not worth the hardcover prices.

So yeah, only Andy Mcnab. And often I have to order his books from Britain because the bookstore here will say, yes we are going to order the hardcover and then they say, whoops changed our mind, you'll have to wait for the trade paperback. bastids.

John Buchan

Okay, I know he's almost completely forgotten and ignored these days, but I've yet to read an adventure that compares to his best - The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, The Powerhouse, Huntingtower. If you've never read one, please consider.

Robert Crias
Rick Riordan
Michael Connelly

Nakhlasmoke said:

George MacDonald Fraser (I'm a total Flashman junkie)

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Me, too!

Also Stephen King, Theodore Sturgeon, Lee Child, J.A. Konrath, P.J. Parrish, Michael Connelly. All of whom I've met (only half in the case of Parrish), but that's not why. And Allen Steele, whom I've known since high school.