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

Nalini Singh

Louise Penny
Susan Hill
Paulina Simons

@Topseyt123 ask me this time this next year and Jodi Taylor might be one of my top reads. I've just bought my 5th St. Mary's book.

Thomas Hardy
Iris Murdoch
Ian McEwan
Bill Bryson

Quite varied!

I love Jodi Taylor and have branched out to the Time Police books and of course her many short stories so it adds up to a lot.

As a child and as an adult revisiting (and still loving) Enid Blyton (Malory Towers) and ditto C S Lewis

Philippa Gregory
Torey Haydn

Yes, I forgot to add that I have also read the books from the Time Police spin-off series. Love them too, and they are just as good in my opinion.

Probably
CS Lewis
Agatha Christie
Dorothy L Sayers
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Shakespeare
Chekhov

Not necessarily in order of quantity

Probably Agatha Christie many times more than the other individual authors tbf

Agatha Christie really was the perfect step up to adult literature. It's almost 40 years since I read my first one and I still remember how much I enjoyed it. She definitely helped to make me a reader for life.

Child:
Roger Hargreaves
Enid Blyton
LM Montgomery
Nancy Drew/Sweet Valley High (ghostwritten, I see!)
Judy Blume
Agatha Christie
Arthur Conan Doyle

Adult:
Haruki Murakami
Almost accidentally JK Rowling – not a huge fan of Harry Potter but I read it to the kids, and have read all of Robert Galbraith.
Kate Atkinson
Neil Gaiman
CJ Samson

I love this thread. It’s so interesting to see what other people read, and this is a really different way of asking. Its such a good way of encouraging a bit of diversity in the recommendations too.

Enough waffle. Here’s my top 5 (drum roll)

Mark Dawson - 21 (trashy spy thriller on kindle unlimited. They’ve got me through some tough times as they are mindless fluff. I ❤️ John Milton)

Peter James - 15. Urgh. The writing is naff, the women characters are really poorly written… but if I were to get murdered I hope it’s in Brighton so that Roy Grace has to solve the case.

Joanne Harris - 10. A new book of hers is an event as far as I’m concerned.

Pat Barker - 8 No intro needed. When I read her I wish I could write.

Jointly both on 7 GRRM and Helen Dunmore.

Sorry. Have also read 7 Vera so include Ann Cleeves.

@Topseyt123 someone else who has read Benedict Jacka! I hear he is working on something new though I was a bit peeved by the ending of the Alex Verus series.

When young:
Enid Blyton
Elinor M Brent-Dyer
Monica Edwards
Agatha Christie

Now:
Terry Pratchett
Robin McKinley
Patricia McKillip
Naomi Novik
Probably some crime ones like Elly Griffiths, Rebecca Tope and Ann Cleeves who are very prolific

Every book published, written by Ruth Rendell. So around 60 plus 14 written as Barbara Vine.
23 by Nicci French.

Sharon penman
barbara erskine
robset harris
ken follet
kazuo ishiguro

These are the ones I return to time and time again.

As a child:
Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Sweet Valley High, Judy Blume

As an adult:
Anne Tyler, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan

Dickens- almost every thing and many of the novels at least twice, Great Expectations and Bleak House several times.

All of Steinbeck, E.M Forster, Somerset Maugham, David Mitchell, Kate Atkinson Catriona McPherson, Kazuo Ishiguru, Jean Rhys, George McKay Brown, Emily St John Mandel.

Most of Zola, Balzac and Flaubert

Masses of Agatha Christie, Stephen King and P. G Wodehouse.