Sunday 5/03/09 Your fave novelist of all time?

[Saifuddin]

Stefan Zweig(I wish he had written more fiction!), Dostoevsky, Lermontov, Laxness(Iceland's only Nobel laureate), Kafka and many more.

Among new writers I would list Daniel Kehlman as a promising writer. I think he has got some potential.

Just finished a session of 2004 Langhe shu pu-ehr from last night and my cup is now holding some breakfast tea.

[cherylopal]

Iain M. Banks (fantastically intelligent and inventive SF), .

could you rec a book by him that would be a great first go? i'd love to read something by him...

With pleasure
I started with The Player of Games, and I'm glad I did. It had me playing chess again for the first time in years.
This first one, Consider Phlebas, tends to drag on in places in my opinion, but I know that many consider it their favorite. PoG is much tighter and gives you a fine introduction to The Culture. It would be my first pick, also because it's probably not the best one - you'll be at the start of a rising curve.

I can recommend all his later SF, with some reservations for Use of Weapons. It is exceedingly brutal, even for Banks. Most of his stuff has sequences that are not for the squeamish.

Banks does not appeal to everyone, but if he hits you where you live, there isn't a weak book among the ten or so he's written this far. He's one of the few authors I almost wish I could discover all over again.

If you do get around to trying him out, I'd love to hear what you think!

ok- I'll try The Player of Games- unfortunately my library doesn't carry this title- I'm off to the outlets on this rainy day- if the bookstore has it, I'll pick it up otherwise good old amazon. and thanks for the heads up on Use of Weapons- I really don't like brutal stuff-

[spot52]

Classic: J. Steinbeck His catalog is more impressive than just Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath.

Pictured here is Steinbeck and his famous dog Charlie. Oddly Travels with Charlie is one of my favorites.

Contemporary: Annie Dillard. (she won the Pulitzer prize for her first book when she was in her twenties. ) You tea types would like how she approaches the world and her aesthetics.

I recommend Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and The Maytrees, after the 45 page prologue.

[iannon]

In my youth..outside of the classics..stuff i read for pure reading enjoyment, before i read tolkien, was Robert E Howard and Arthur Conan Doyle and firstmost Michael Moorcock and all the eternal champion series. especially the Elric series. it remains one of my favs. the non-stereotypical anti-hero

[silvermage2000]

I like j. k. rowling. And I like other authors to. Probley will have more of the same from yesterday in tea.

[brlarson]

Will Faulkner. To quote an old friend, ``after reading Joyce I always feel a sense of loss, but after reading Faulkner I always feel enriched.'' I love his characters and that he has chronicled some of the most painful times in our history and I love his comedic sense. The problem with talking about Faulkner is that it's hard to stop. Other favorite authors are Alexandre Dumas, William Gibson, J.K. Rowling -- I love the rhythm of her prose, and Marcel Proust.

My main Japanese tea these last few days has been powdered Asamiya Benifuki from Maiko. I won't tell you that it tastes good, but I will say that it makes breathing easier during these times of high-pollen.

Takumi sencha this morning rather than oolong! My sencha box is overflowing so I need to drink that down. Yutaka Midori and Temomi shincha have arrived and I"m still waiting for my order from Zencha.

Happy TeaSunday folks.

Bruce

EDIT: how could I forget Proust!

[kymidwife]

Repeating yesterday's disclaimer, I think choosing favorites is just too hard. Love all, serve all, LOL.

I have always been an avid reader of a very wide variety of material. I read everything from Shakespeare to Hemingway to JKR to trashy romance novels and Archie comic books... depending on my mood. I can't seem to get interested in anything except re-reading the Twilight series right now, not because its the most stellar writing I've ever seen, but because I fell in love with the story, the characters, and the concept. I did the same with the Harry Potter series... and much moreso, because I think that series has decidedly more literary depth than any series I've ever encountered other than LoTR.

For anyone enjoying the Danielle Steele variety (I gave up on her long ago due to the repeated killing-off of the supposed main character after I'd fallen in love with them... too much tragedy for me)... give a look to Jodi Picoult. Her work is really fantastic writing, tons of research, and enthralling modern-day stories... not romantic fluff.

I'll give Stephen King the nod today... have never seen any writer better at individual character development... and I am fascinated by his study of human fear, of how our minds work, of what truly frightens us at our very core. The Stand and The Green Mile and Eyes of the Dragon and The Body were all great reads.

Darjeeling Puttabong FF to start the day...

Sarah

[olivierco]

Tsuru Jiru Shi gyokuro in a few minutes.

[Victoria]

ToT Star Village Black to start the day.
This is my last go at this one, it's just not for me.
I didn't even finish, decided to see if it will be any better iced.

Have a nice day everyone!

[jazz88]

Jane Austin, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain, Bulghakov (Master and Margarita – the most brilliant prose work (and perhaps, poetical work as well) of all time. )
From more recent authors – Iain Pears (The Dream of Scipio )

Also have to mention: Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson and Kenneth Grahame.

Keemun Rhapsody in my cup.

[Aphroditea]

Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Franz Kafka, George Orwell, Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, Victor Hugo, Lewis Carroll, Hemmingway, Twain, Dr Suess - there are a lot of awfully good folks missing from that list.

Fave book of all time? The Lorax.

H&S Paris this morning.

[spot52]

OOOOPS oh yeah forgot to post about my most delicious cup. I am savoring a teddy bear red Keemun. It is just the bees knees, doncha know.

Have a splendid supercilious tea day!
Cheers!

[ErikaM]

Limiting myself strictly to living, best-selling novelists, then it's a tossup between John Le Carre, Gabriel García Márquez, and Isabel Allende. (I have a thing for latin american magical realism.) I also love Carl Hiaasen, although I tend to think of his stuff more as witty social commentary disguised as fiction.

I read for a living so I'm very seriously jaded about books these days. An author has to be beyond good for me to spend my non-work time reading.

Still deciding what to brew. Sencha karigane sounds good...

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Other: Douglas Adams and Robert Heinlein rank at the top of my list followed by Raymond E. Feist, Anne McCaffery, Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child. I have read some of the authors on the list, but they don't rank high enough to be favorites.

At the moment, I am waiting for the water to get to the right temperature to make some Fuka-Midori sencha.

[chamekke]

What a wonderful idea for a poll! Tea and books go together like... tea and books

If I had to choose a single author, it would be Jane Austen. I can go back to her works time and again and find fresh humour, new insights.

Names already mentioned here whose work I love include: Isabel Allende, Marilynne Robinson, and Douglas Adams. A.S. Byatt and Ford Madox Ford are also wonderful.

My favourite SF writers are Ursula Le Guin, John Crowley, and Joanna Russ - thought-provoking in very different ways - plus Alan Garner for his magnificent Red Shift and Keith Roberts for Pavane.

Special shout-out to Flann O'Brien/Brian O'Nolan/Myles na gCopaleen (pick your nom de plume of choice), who is my current pick for funniest writer. And let's not forget A.A. Milne. Pooh is humble but great!

P.S. I left out Timothy Findley by mistake! Ack!