My Favorite Authors

In addition to highlighting for you all of my favorite books, it seemed worthwhile to spend a few moments on my favorite authors as well. Some of these, you’ll have guessed from my other posts, but certainly not all of them.

No biographies here, just a quick tidbit on what makes these people the best of the best.

Also no Shakespeare here, but that’s a story for another time.

Tell me, friends: Who are some of your favorites, and why?

(Alphabetical by last name)

Rob Bell

Best work: Velvet Elvis

Most known work: Love Wins

I don’t always agree with him, but he has a fantastic way of expressing his ideas. Much of my non-fiction writing is stylistically inspired by him.

Jorge Luis Borges

Best work: Labyrinths

Borges and Calvino are tied for the most influential authors on my own writing, particularly Borges’ short story Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius – seriously: I was completely blown away at the story and the structure of it.

Italo Calvino

Best work: Invisible Cities

Most known work: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

(As I just mentioned) Calvino is tied with Borges for being the most influential authors on my own writing. As a fun side note, I also own more books by Calvino than by any other author (and I only have about half of his books so far).

Joseph Campbell

Best work: the Power of Myth

Most known work: the Power of Myth or The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Admittedly it can be a bit difficult to get all the way through some of his books. He's incredibly insightful, though, and has made more connections between world cultures and religions than you or I ever could have on our own.

Umberto Eco

Best work: the Name of the Rose

An incredibly versatile author and thinker. Both his fiction and non-fiction are intricate and worthwhile.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best work: Self-Reliance, the Divinity School Address, Nature

The genius of all geniuses. And yes, my son was named after him.

Michael Ende

Best work: Momo

Most known work: the Neverending Story

For some reason, I'm drawn to Ende's writings more than I can explain. I've also worked long and hard to collect all of his books available in English. Time/money well spent.

Kahlil Gibran

Best work: the Prophet

I'm not really sure how to effectively sum up Gibran in a tidbit like this. His words and ideas simply stand alone in their beauty and virtue.

John Green

Best work: Paper Towns

Most known work: the Fault in Our Stars

This shouldn’t be too surprising, since he wrote my number one favorite modern fiction book. He’s that rare combo of deeply hilarious and wonderfully insightful.

Aldous Huxley

Best work: Huxley and God

Most known work: Brave New World

Huxley is probably the oddest member of this list: as a writer, I’m actually not generally too wild about his books. They always seem to include some elements that rub me the wrong way. But as a thinker, the man is pure genius. For this reason, I tend to prefer his non-fiction.

C.S. Lewis

Best work: Till We Have Faces

Most known work: tough to say for sure, but possibly the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Mere Christianity

I’ve actually read more books by C.S. Lewis (14) than by any other author. What a brilliant, versatile person.

Cormac McCarthy

Best work: the Road

Most known work: All the Pretty Horses or the Road

The newest addition to this list. I’ve only read three of his books so far (The Road, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing), but the man is a veritable gold mine of ideas and word play.

A.A. Milne

Best work: Winnie-the-Pooh

Milne holds a special place in my heart for being the author who really got me back into reading towards the end of high school, thanks largely to Winnie-the-Pooh. Also, his book Not that it Matters is sheer delight.

Jose Saramago

Best work: the Elephant’s Journey

Most known work: Blindness

Thanks to their sheer density, I can only read about one Saramago book a year - but those few hours out of the year are among the very best I spend reading.

Makoto Shinkai

Best work: 5 Centimeters Per Second

Most known work: Your Name

The only manga author on this list. He only has three manga so far, but every single one of them is absolutely stunning. If you're ever going to read even just one manga in your life, it should be one of his.

Zoran Zivkovic

Best work: Steps Through the Mist

Most known work: no clue - he's not too well known

A somewhat obscure Serbian sci-fi/fantasy author who crafts some of the most clever stories I’ve ever read.