Weekly Geeks is a site that has a weekly just-for-fun book theme or question. This week I thought I’d give it a try: list your favorite authors, one for each letter of the alphabet.
And right off the bat I can see I’m in trouble:
A: Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, or Isabel Allende? Kate Atkinson, Ilona Andrews?
B: L. Frank Baum or Ray Bradbury? What about Patricia Briggs, TC Boyle, and AS Byatt?
Of course you don’t have to select only one, or cover each letter. But I’ve tried to narrow things down and make the tough picks where I can:
- A: Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende
- B: L. Frank Baum and Ray Bradbury
- C: Susanna Clarke
- D: Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle and Roald Dahl
- E: Jennifer Egan
- F: Jasper Fforde
- G: Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel)
- H: Thomas Hardy and Nick Hornby
- I: Henrik Ibsen and Kazuo Ishiguro
- J: Norton Juster
- K: Barbara Kingsolver
- L: Madeleine L’Engle
- M: Armistead Maupin and David Mitchell
- N: Garth Nix and Naomi Novik
- O: Maggie O’Farrell
- P: Sylvia Plath and Marge Piercy
- Q:
- R: JK Rowling
- S: Helen Simonson
- T: JRR Tolkien
- U:
- V: Sarah Vowell
- W: Scott Westerfeld and E.B. White
- no X, Y, or Z
I had more trouble than I thought with S. One book doesn’t make a favorite author, but Helen Simonson did write one of my favorite books from last year. I also liked Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland series but wasn’t sure he should make the cut.
I’m sure I missed a bunch, although the Kindle does make it a lot easier to search the authors I read. Hope you enjoy and take a stab at it yourself.
Hope it’s a happy Easter weekend, a happy rest-of-Passover, or whatever you’re celebrating. Personally, I’d celebrate a warm day without rain, but not sure I’m going to get that.
I love the idea of this but it’s already daunting trying to figure out authors for each letter. I may give it a try though.
we’ve got several in common! I bet Sarah Vowell shows up for V on a bunch of lists; she’s very good.
Great list! I forgot Jennifer Egan on my list. Thanks for reminding me…I need to pick up “A Visit from the Goon Squad”.
Nice job! I cheated a bit to fill in the oddball letters, and I only picked one per letter. It skews a bit toward what I’m currently reading versus “all time best,” I think.
Great list! I almost put Nick Hornby and Arthur Conan Doyle on my list as well.
Charles Dickens is super awesome – everyone should have a copy of his work on their shelf..
have a great week..
:)
Pingback: From A To Z « a home between pages
I really enjoyed making an A-Z list of authors. It was easy for me as I have an obsessive spreadsheet so I could quite easily just look down my alphabetised list of books I’ve read.
I didn’t find any for Q, U, V X, or Y which is now frustrating me! Must find some.