The Sword and Laser discussion

I haven't read James Patterson or Stuart Woods in years but they have so many books. It is going to take a while before they are knocked off my top 10 list.


author books read
1 Neil Gaiman 122
2 James Patterson 42
3 Caitlín R. Kiernan 41
4 Joe Hill 38
5 Brian K. Vaughan 36
5 Mike Carey 36
7 Stuart Woods 32
7 Geoff Johns 32
9 Jim Butcher 24
10 Dean Koontz 23
10 Stephen King 23

1. Michael Moorcock (22)
2. H. Rider Haggard (14)
3. Simon R. Green (13)
3. Jack Vance (13)
5. James S.A. Corey (12)
5. Edgar Rice Burroughs (12)
5. C.J. Cherryh (12)
8. Glen Cook (11)
9. K.J. Parker (10)
10. Neil Gaiman (9)
10. Tad Williams (9)

Not entirely representative/accurate -- the Moorcock & Green numbers in particular are heavily inflated by me rating books I read before I started using Goodreads -- but a pretty fair sampling of how I've been spending my reading time since 2011.

I wish it would give me an option to rank by pages. Patterson may have the most individual books, but I have spent relatively little time with him.

(1. Patterson 2. Jordan 2. Riordan 4. Dekker 5. Melissa Marr)

Because I read all of Discworld, Pratchett. Asimov and Heinlein for volume, not to discount Bradbury and Clarke for influence with fewer works.

On volume though I'd have to include Clark Darlton aka Walter Ernsting from my early reading of Perry Rhodan books. He had to have written a quarter of the 150 I read.

Mine, Although very inaccurate as 40+ years of reading before good reads.

Tolkien near top as reread many times... I am not sure I want to know how many hardy boys books I read... this does not include comic collection rereads


author books read
1 1654 Terry Pratchett 49
2 5091 Lee Child 24
3 4477395 E.E. "Doc" Smith 23
4 10746 Jim Butcher 22
5 56353 Neal Asher 20
5 1221698 Neil Gaiman 20

Humm... My top ten is a mix of crime-thrillers, SF&F, and historical fiction. Some of them cross genres (Cornwell: historical & thrillers, Williams: historical & SF, Rusch: crime-thrillers & SF).

1. David Weber
2. Bernard Cornwell
3. Robert A. Heinlein
4. Larry Niven
5. C.J. Cherryh
6. Robert B. Parker
7. Eric Flint
7. Walter Jon Williams
9. Kristine Kathryn Rusch/Kris Nelscott
10. Patrick O'Brian

Apparently I'm still coasting on books read in the distant past

1 Donald Hamilton 42
2 Don Pendleton 36
3 Peter David 35
3 Ben Aaronovitch 35
5 John Scalzi 29
5 Arthur W. Upfield 29
7 Aimée Thurlo 26
8 Richard Stark 25
9 Various 24
10 Steve Brewer 23

Ben Aaronovitch is the only fantasy author in my top 10 because I've been reading his comics in addition to novels. John Scalzi is there because I read his serialized books. Most of the rest are suspense and mystery novelists that I read years ago.

OK, and here's my top 10 from LibraryThing (which is where I keep more-or-less my full collection -- I use GR for tracking what I'm actually reading). So I haven't necessarily read all of the books I own by these authors, but it's still a pretty good representation:

Robert E. Howard (91)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (88)
Tanith Lee (78)
Lin Carter (76)
Jack Vance (76)
Michael Moorcock (75)
C.J. Cherryh (58)
Charles de Lint (56)
Glen Cook (54)
L. Sprague de Camp (54)

So...I read all the Tarzan books (25) and something like 8 Barsoom books. And as I think about it, 3 Venus books. So, 41. How did you get to 88?

John (Taloni) wrote: "So...I read all the Tarzan books (25) and something like 8 Barsoom books. And as I think about it, 3 Venus books. So, 41. How did you get to 88?"

Well, that does include some duplicates (I have two full sets of Barsoom, one with the D'Achille covers and one with the Whelan; plus a few other dupes). But 25 Tarzan, 11 Barsoom, 5 Venus, 7 Pellucidar, plus a whole bunch of standalones or 2-3 book sequences.

https://www.librarything.com/catalog/...

The most read list is somewhat disparate from my favorite authors, a function of which authors have written series, as well has how many books they've written in all. Also, several of these are authors of series I read as a child, so though I enjoyed them greatly at the time, I wouldn't currently count them as favorite authors any longer.

Most Read:

1) Margaret Atwood - 16
1) Clive Barker- 16
3) L.J. Smith - 14
3) Andrea K. Host - 14
5) M. R. Pritchard - 12
5) Christopher Pike - 12
7) Brian Jacques - 11
7) R.L. Stine - 11
9) Laurell K. Hamilton - 9
9) Robert Jordan - 9
11) Phillip Pullman - 8
11) Anne Rice - 8
13) J.K. Rowling - 7
13) Tanith Lee - 7
13) C.S. Lewis - 7

I would say my favorites include, in no particular order:

1) Margaret Atwood
2) Clive Barker
3) V. E. Schwab
4) George R. R. Martin
5) Phillip Pullman
6) J.K. Rowling
7) Justin Cronin
8) Pierce Brown
9) Tana French
10) Ian McDonald
11) Maggie Stiefvater
12) Jeff Vandermeer
13) Andrea K. Host
14) Anne Rice
15) Tanith Lee

Not indicative of everything I have ever read, because I haven't logged everything in Goodreads.
I have made it my goal this year to get through all of Salvatore's Drizzt series, hence my #1.

1) RA Salvatore - 25
2) Brandon Sanderson - 14
3) Raymond E. Feist - 6
4) Stephen King - 5
4) Joe Hill - 5
4) V.E. Schwab - 5
7) Brian K Vaughn - 4
7) Fredrik Backman - 4
7) Jeffrey Archer - 4

Sooooooo many more to list, but I'll start with those

I have a lot of reading that predates Goodreads. In particular I'm glad that my teenage Piers Anthony reading doesn't show up, because that would be pretty embarrassing.

author books read
1 16094 Lois McMaster Bujold 21
2 5600 Patrick O'Brian 20
2 656983 J.R.R. Tolkien 20
4 16667 Isaac Asimov 18
4 1654 Terry Pratchett 18
6 6252 Robert Jordan 16
7 36746 Lemony Snicket 14
8 589 Orson Scott Card 13
9 4763 John Scalzi 11
9 932179 C.S. Forester 11
9 9226 William Gibson 11

Other than Stephen King, I don't really read books because I like the author. Most authors on my list are there because they wrote a series. There were a few more names with 2 books but that's it.

1 Laura Ingalls Wilder 10
2 Stephen King 8
3 Hugh Howey 6
3 Ian Fleming 6
5 Arthur Conan Doyle 5
5 J.K. Rowling 5
7 William Shakespeare 4
8 Roald Dahl 3
8 Douglas Adams 3