Jump to content

Your most-read authors


The Marquis de Leech

Recommended Posts

The author by whom I've read the most individual books is Michael Moorcock at 45. The author by whom I've read the most pages is almost certainly Terry Pratchett (39 Discworld, plus Good Omens - your average Pratchett book is roughly twice the length of your average Moorcock). Donaldson* and Tolkien (including the History of Middle-earth) are heftier still, but they simply aren't prolific enough to beat Pratchett - unless you count re-reads, where Tolkien wins easily.

Who is your most-read author?

*Once I get around to reading the last couple of Thomas Covenant books, I might have to do a back of the envelope calculation of page count, but as it currently stands, I'm pretty sure my Donaldson reads - the first two Thomas Covenant trilogies, plus the first two books of the third series, plus Mordants Need (two books), plus The Gap (five books), plus the two short story collections, don't beat the quantity of Discworld.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to go with rough estimates here. For number of books (and probably pages as well because the hardcovers have around 400+ pages) it is probably the somewhat trashy late 19th century German adventure writer Karl May. I must have read more than 50 (there are about 80, depending on how one counts) of them between ca. age 10-15, also frequently re-read in that time. [Even without re-reads this must amount to 15-20k pages or more.] Enid Blyton's are far shorter but I probably read more than 50 as well (there are already 21 Famous Five and I read most of the other "children detective series" as well and also *blush* at least some of my sister's Mallory Towers and other "girls at boarding school" crap). So make this another ca. 10k pages

It seems hard to beat such childhood/teenage favorites (around 12-15 I must also have read about two dozen Agatha Christie mysteries, guesstimate 20-25 books, including story collections)

Later on I read all Jeeves&Wooster books and another dozen of Woodhouse's (about 25+ in total) but these are fairly short at about 200p per novel (or short story collection).

I read all original Lord Peter Wimsey novels and stories (but that's only about a dozen or so) and all but one of the Judge Dee mysteries, around 15 (and not very long books).

My latest obsession are Rex Stout's mysteries and I read more than 30 volumes (again fairly short around 200 pages each) since last June.

Of more "serious" authors, Dostoevsky is probably the winner in page count; as I read his big novels (most at least twice, and they are sometimes close to 1000 pages) and several (not all) of the shorter ones.

In SF/Fantasy, Martin probably wins by page count (Tolkien with re-readings, because his are about the only ones I ever re-read), Pratchett or Asimov by number of books, although I have only read a fraction of their output and am not sure how much, probably 10-12 each, and I keep reading Pratchett although I'll probably never read all of them.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roughly from the top of my head..

Authors discussed a bit on the board: Jordan (there are quite a few WoT-books), Sanderson, Tchaikovsky, Kate Eliott, Robin Hobb

Authors not frequently discussed: Orhan Pamuk, Haruki Murakami.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most likely it would have to many books from the John D. McDonald "Travis McGee" series.   Now that's a blast out of the past!  LOL   Pratchett would be next I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The author I've read the most books by is Harry Turtledove and his many alt-history series.  I've probably read 20-25 of those, averaging 500 pages each. 

Authors I've read a lot of their books:  Stephen King, Robert Jordan, George RR Martin

Authors I've read most/all of their work:  Jon Krakauer, Michael Crichton, Joe Abercrombie, J.K. Rowling

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Robert Jordan - 15 (3 of them written by Sanderson though, but based on his notes)

2. Isaac Asimov - 13

3. George RR Martin - 10

3. Joe Abercrombie - 10

3. William Shakespeare - 10

3. Glen Cook - 10

7. Robin Hobb - 9

8. Brandon Sanderson - 7

9. Dan Brown - 6

10. Timothy Zahn - 5

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By # of books, I'd guess that David Gemmell tops my list. I've read everything he wrote, even his one contemporary novel. By page count, I think Alexandre Dumas probably tops the list. I've read every book of his that's been translated into English that I could find.

 

Jack Vance and Poul Anderson are probably pretty high up there too, as I've read at least 20 books by both of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to Goodreads:

1. Jim Butcher

2. Brandon Sanderson

3. Robert Jordan

4. Steven Erikson

5. Joe Abercrombie / Michael Sullivan / Daniel Abraham

 

Kind of surprised that Butcher is ahead of Sanderson, since I haven't even read the last 2 Codex Alera books, or the first Cinder Spires book.  I also don't log short stories unless it's a collection, FWIW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm is my most read, in terms of number of books. If I checked it's probably page-count too, since her books are fairly hefty. I count 19 novels, 1 collection of short fiction, and 1 novella. Could be forgetting something though

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think my teenage self has a lot to answer for given the first three entries...

1 - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - 26

2 - David Eddings - 22

3 - Raymond E. Feist - 21

4 Lois McMaster Bujold - 20 (at last, an author I still read)

5 - Peter F. Hamilton - 18 (wouldn't surprise me if he lead based on pages read given how huge many of his books are)

6 George R.R. Martin - 17

7 - Ken MacLeod - 15

8= - Robert Jordan - 14

8= - Tim Powers - 14

8 = Adrian Tchaikovsky - 14

11 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

OK how are you all getting this info from goodreads? Is there a button I'm missing?

From the front page, click on "My Books" and then look for "Most Read Authors" near the bottom of the list on the left of the page.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha, yeah, GR only has books I own, so my insane LIbrary reading days are not included:

 

1 Bernard Cornwell 44

2 Margaret Weis 32

3 L.E. Modesitt Jr .27

3 Glen Cook 27

5 Troy Denning 26

6 Terry Brooks 22

6 Stephen King 22

8 Michael A. Stackpole 21

8 Mine Yoshizaki 21

8 David Weber 21

Yeah me and my teenage self need to talk.  King should be Higher cause I've read almost all his books. So I think he edges out Cornwell by just a smidgen. And it counts Manga too?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Gene Wolfe 23

2. Philip K. Dick 17

3. Robert Jordan 15

3. Bernard Cornwell 15

5. Larry Niven 12

6. Steven Erikson 11

7. Daniel Abraham 9

7. Fred Saberhagen 9

7. Sharon Kay Penman 9

Surprising no one at all Gene Wolfe is my most read author.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...