Who is your most read author?

[TattiePants]

I expected my most read author to be Kate Atkinson but it turns out it’s Pat Barker. I’ve only got 2 more Barkers to read then I’ve ran out until her next one comes out in 2024. There is a new Atkinson and Harris out this month and I haven’t read the latest Aaronovitch / Rivers of London yet so that’ll be a few more to add to the list.

Pat barker 13
Kate Atkinson 11
Robert Harris 10
Ben Aaronovitch 8
Margaret Atwood 7
CJ Sansom 7

C. S. Lewis
Tolkein
Elinor Brent-Dyer
Agatha Christie
Georgette Heyer
Dorothy L. Sayers
P. G. Wodehouse

All books from my youth - have read pretty much everything they published.

Then:
Anthony Trollope
George Eliot
Thomas Hardy
V. S. Naipaul
Henry James
Patrick White

Amongst my more mature favourites. But the list doesn’t properly represent all my reading - which obviously has included 21st century writing and every continent!

Scott Mariani - 17 or 18
Shakespeare - lost track
Agatha Christie
L M Montgomery
Liane Moriarty
JoJo Moyes

Jeffrey Archer!

Ooh, that’s a good question!

I’d like to say PG Wodehouse or Ann Tyler, but it’s probably Enid Blyton 😂

Actually I’ve completely forgotten about children’s books. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, JK Rowling and bloody David Walliams would be pretty high. I’ve also forgotten:

John Boyle, 7
Maggie O’Farrell, 7

Stephen King

Milly Johnson, Jane Fallon, Debbie Johnson.

I read many Patricia Cornwell books pre dc, but after I had my dc I couldn't stomach forensics books! Weird.

John Connolly
Stephen King
James Herbert
Angela Marsons

Anne Tyler

Stephen King is an author I always mean to read more of. So far I’ve only read The Gunslinger and 11/22/63 and I’ve had The Stand on my book shelves for years. I’d need to avoid all his horror ones as I’m still traumatised from seeing my mum’s copy of Carrie when I was a child and seeing bits of The Shining and Salem’s Lot!

I miss when Goodreads had the "most read authors" on your profile. It was quick and handy to check.
I think Shakespeare and Terry Pratchett were my most read authors.
Jacqueline Wilson and Anne M. Martin (Babysitters Club) are probably in my top 5 most read authors as well.

Look at me spelling Tolkien wrong … The shame.

<Blames illiterate phone …>

Peter James , Simon kernick , Chris carter and mark billingham

Since I've the vast majority of Poirot, Miss and Marple, and the Chalet school series... plus the Babysitters Club, and Saddle Club... Any of those! 50+ easily, maybe even 100+!

In more recent times...
Scott Mariani 26
Robin Roughley 28
Lee Child 24
I think are my top 3

I think he's an acquired taste. Very wordy, very descriptive. It's not always peaks and troughs of the story, but providing so much context you end up knowing the entire town by the end of his books. For some, it's too slow, but I love it! If you can cope with the length, (it's quite a slog!) then I'd recommend Under The Dome. IT is my favourite but I've always had an unsettling feeling for clowns.

Under The Dome is the only book I’ve slung across the room on finishing!

That bloody ending! Even for SK, that was a dog of an ending 😂

Anya Seton
Hilary Mantel
Philip Pullman

It will be Terry Pratchett, but that’s mainly because not that many people have written a series of 41 books - I’ve read all of Discworld and a few of his others.

I’ve added Under the Dome to my ridiculously long TBR pile and I also wanted to try his new one, Fairy Tale. @ShirleyJackson hopefully I won’t regret reading 1000+ pages if I hate the ending!

And if we’re going way back;

Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew Mysteries x 57
L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables x 8

Terry Pratchett (over 40 Discworld books plus a few of his others) would probably take the top spot, followed by Lois McMaster Bujold (27 books plus a few novellas), Carrie Vaughn (25 books plus some novellas), and probably Robin Hobb after that (15 books).

If children’s books were included, it would definitely be Enid Blyton!

I was just going to say exactly the same. Mine is definitely Enid Blyton.
The author of The Beano Annual comes in a close second as I had one every year from around 6 to 14 🤣

Hilary Mantel
RIP

The first that spring to mind

PG Wodehouse
Miss Read
Jane Austen
JKR/Robert Galbraith
James Herriot
Agatha Christie
Terry Pratchett
Ann M Martin
Roald Dahl
Elinor Brent Dyer
Alexander McCall Smith

Like @EllieQ Terry Pratchett and Lois McMaster Bujold (not that often I come across someone whose even heard of LMB).
And then Christie, partly because there's a lot of them and they're generally short.
Blyton in my childhood and again now as my children get into her.