My Favorite Writers Book Tag
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- A tag all about your favorite writers.
The idea behind this video comes from Alex at WhatPageAreYouOn. Check out his video here: www.youtube.co....
Steve Donoghue turned Alex's idea into a tag. Check out his video here: www.youtube.co....
I was inspired by Brian at Bookish's video: • My Favorite Writers Tag
But wait, there's more!
Website: supposedlyfun....
Goodreads: / gregory-baird
Instagram: / supposedlyfun
Twitter: / supposedlyfun
I think Saramago is great. He is one of my favorite writers. I've read many of his books and recently I read The Stone Raft, which I loved. My favorite of his is The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis; but I need to re-read his 1982 Baltasar and Blimunda.
I definitely want to read The Stone Raft next, but beyond that I'm undecided.
Blood Meridian’s bleakness probably makes No Country for Old Men (haven’t read the novel, but love the film) look like a Hallmark card. I adore Saramago. I, too, really want to read The Stone Raft.
Old Blue's Chapter and Verse True! Blood Meridian has the distinction of being the only novel I have not finished because it was too disturbing.
You read Death With Interruptions earlier this year, right? I have a copy of that and have been meaning to get to it. The movie of No Country for Old Men and the book are astonishingly similar (almost entire pages of dialogue are grafted in) to the point I felt like McCarthy really should have gotten a screenwriting credit. The only significant thing they changed is the order in which things happen in the ending and I did not like that change at all. The way it goes down in the book makes more sense to me.
Supposedly Fun - I did, but The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is my favorite.
I'll keep an eye out for that one!
I am really enjoying these tags. Great way to find new authors to check out!
It's a fun one--you should do it!
@@SupposedlyFun Oh man! I have SO many favs! lol
Loved hearing your take on this one. I basically agree about Proulx, she's an incredible prose stylist, but sometimes I find her humor mean-spirited or her work cold. But Shipping News was in my memory quite warm, though it has been twenty years since I read it, who knows if that sense would hold up if I revisited it now.
Proulx's descriptive style is pretty unimpeachable, in my mind.
Shipping News sticks in my mind too. Great novel.
You know, I used to have Junot Díaz as one of my favorites, but you brought up an interesting point about the number of books he has written. I agree. He needs to write more.
I read Fresh Complaint and really loved it. I have yet to read anything else by him, but I plan to read Middlesex sometime soon.
Middlesex will be a fascinating book to reread at some point. I hope you like it!
Just FYI, I saw him speak at a university, and he made a point of saying he just cannot write faster than he does, which is very slowly.
Jhumpa Lahiri, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison and E M Forster would probably all be on my list too Greg. This tag really makes you think about books or authors you haven't read for years and I plan on rereading a lot next year to see where I stand on some of these, for example, I haven't read Forster in almost thirty years, rereading will actually feel like reading brand new books I think which is wonderful!
I'm very into rereading books I used to love and books I hated when I read them when I was younger. I think the results might be fascinating.
Never clicked with Kurt Vonnegut. Forster is good. Truthfully, I only liked Pride & Prejudice (which is one of the most finely crafted novels of all time) by Austen. My favorites are Wharton, Cather, & Hardy. I have read numerous books by these authors and have liked 99%. I haven't kept up with modern writers.
Solid favorites!
I have some Vonnegut, but never read. Thanks for the reminder. What a great list. And Toni Morrison is on my favourite list, and I am currently rereading.
I still adore Vonnegut and I can't wait to get to more Morrison.
Respectable choices. One of the better author lists.
My choices, as of now;
1. J.G. Ballard
2. H.P. Lovecraft (tied for first)
3. Vladimir Nabokov
4. Hunter S. Thompson
5. Cormac McCarthy
6. Thomas Pynchon
7. Philip Roth
8. Bret Easton Ellis
9. Donna Tartt
10. Elmore Leonard (?)
Hell, screw it, here's my favorite Novels (and a few Graphic Novels):
House of Leaves (M.Z. Danielewski)
Blood Meridian (C. McCarthy)
The Wasp Factory (I. Banks)
Pale Fire (V. Nabokov)
The House on the Borderland (W. H. Hodgeson)
The Bell Jar (S. Plath)
In Watermelon Sugar (R. Brautigan)
Inherent Vice (T. Pynchon)
Watchmen (Comic) (A. Moore & D. Gibbons)
The Savage Detectives (R. Belaño)
Glamorama (B.E. Ellis)
American Psycho (B.E. Ellis)
Super-Cannes (J.G. Ballard)
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (H.S. Thompson)
Bleeding Edge (T. Pynchon)
At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft)
Atlas Shrugged (A. Rand)
From Hell (Comic) (A. Moore & E. Campbell)
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Comic) (C. Ware)
Invitation to a Beheading (V. Nabokov)
The Satanic Verses (S. Rushdie)
The Plot Against America (P. Roth)
The Virgin Suicides (J. Eugenides)
Empire of the Sun (J.G. Ballard)
A Confederacy of Dunces (J.K. Toole)
Red Harvest (D. Hammet)
Wise Blood (F. O'Connor)
The Great Gatsby (F.S. Fitzgerald)
Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
Solaris (S. Lem)
Operation Shylock (P. Roth)
The Secret History (D. Tartt)
The Unlimited Dream Company (J.G. Ballard)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Le Carré)
The Master And Margarita (M. Bulgakov)
H.M.
Sabrina (Comic) (N. Drnaso)
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (H. Murakami)
Almost Transparent Blue (R. Murakami)
Trainspotting (I. Welsh)
Black Hole (Comic) (C. Burns)
In Cold Blood (T. Capote)
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (K. Oē)
Trout Fishing in America (R. Brautigan)
2001 (A.C. Clarke)
Smiley's People (Le Carré)
Vineland (T. Pynchon)
Joyland (S. King)
Revival (S. King)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (M. Haddon)
Choke (C. Palhniuk)
No Country for Old Men (C. McCarthy)
Flatland (E. Abbott)
I read Marquez (No One Writes To The Colonel) I found him extremely boring.
Like you Vonnegut was one of my favorites in my twenties and I read most of the books he published up to _Blue Beard_. I like Saramago, but have never read _Blindness_ . I have a copy, but it is in a fat paperback that includes three other novels and is awkward to hold and read. Its kind of a dumb reason not to have read it, but . . . .
Life is real, I don't usually buy collected volumes like that for the same reason. Either the print is tiny beyond belief or the book is bulky and awkward. I loved Blindness very much when I first read it--I'm really not sure why my temperature on it has cooled over time.
I highly recommend Toni Morrison's Paradise!!!
Thanks for the recommendation!
For me, it's Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mishima. I have a lot of almost favorites - Faulkner, Diaz, James Tiptree, Jr. (sci0fi), Samuel Delaney (scifi), Baldwin, Cormac McCarthy, both Adam and Denis Johnson. I saw Diaz at a university event, he was great. Blood Meridian is a stunner, I read it twice and will read it again. Also, Suttree. Some of the best English language ever in print in the first pages of that book. I read it and wonder why I even bother to do more than sign my name. Masterful. Didn't think I'd like Poisonwood, but it was incredible.
Great choices! I haven't read a lot of those authors yet.
Baldwin's Another Country is very high on my list. If you ever plan to read it, I would love to join you. Gosh, you have so many wonderful authors on your list. Emma (the book and the character) is so charming! I suspect you will love her spunky style. Northanger Abbey is quite different from Austen's others, but also terrific fun. Love in the Time of Cholera is a book that has stuck with me for years. And yes yes yes--read Beloved right now! I also recommend Morrison's Sula. I am planning a Morrison reread year during 2020, I think. House of Mirth is really fantastic as well. Kingsolver is also a favorite of mine, and I loved going to her family's restaurant in southwest Virginia a few years ago.
I didn't know Kingsolver's family has a restaurant! I think I'm going to prioritize Love in the Time of Cholera next year as part of a general plan to read more authors from outside of the US and Europe. Another Country is very high on my list for Baldwin but probably won't get to it until next year. I'll keep you posted!
Supposedly Fun Excellent! I will definitely read along with you if you read Another Country in 2020. Kingsolver wrote a memoir about her experiences growing a lot of her own food. It is a charming book.
You reminded me about Kurt Vonnegut! It used to be one of my favorite writers as well but now I realize that I haven't read any of his books in almost ten years. Now I'm a bit nervous to go back and reread them. Will I still like them or will I have to change my mind about his work? The timing is right though: I've just moved to USA for a year and give myself a challenge to read as many great American books as I can during my stay here. So i may as well include Vonnegut in that plan.
Thank you for your video, it was as always very entertaining and thought provoking!
I still like Vonnegut very much, I just started to like E.M. Forster more. I would definitely recommend getting back to Vonnegut!
Depending on which half you liked, we agree utterly on Barkskins, which makes it fascinating that we completely disagree on Shipping News , one of my very most favorite novels. But mostly I am so deeply curious about which half you liked because nobody else has ever said they loved half and disliked the other half of Barkskins. :-)
I thought the last hundred pages or so of Barkskins felt unduly rushed compared to the rest, which was deliberate and thorough. When I say half, I'm actually referring to the two diverging storylines. I enjoyed every chapter that followed the Duquet/Duke family line but I thought the Sel chapters began to get repetitive and were overly burdened with the weight of the book's thematic material. But I definitely also think the last part was rushed in a way that hurt the book. I read The Shipping News at some point in the last decade and I don't actually remember much about it. I remember loving the description of the cold and the wind and the creaks in the houses (Proulx is a master at such writing), but I don't remember enough of the rest to say what it is I didn't like so much, but I think it had to do with Quoyle.
Saramago would probably be on my favourites alongside Morrison and Garcia Marquez. I have read all of Saramago's books and love many (esp. Manual of Painting and Calligraphy, Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, History of the siege of Lisbon, and The Double) and there are no turkeys. Garcia Marquez faded for me in his later books but everything from One Hundred years of Solitude to General in his Labyrinth was a five star love affair for me and the former is my all time favourite book! So we have some common ground. I also totally agree with you about Eugenides so it seems a little surprising that we differ so much about the Shipping News, and my favourite Ishiguro by some distance is the one nobody else likes - The Unconsoled. You have highlighted some authors I really should get to so thank you.
At least one other person agreed with you about The Shipping News, so I think I will need to reread it when I get to it in my Pulitzer Project. I've heard that Garcia Marquez's later writing is not as powerful, but I would love to explore his work more.
Louise Erdrich is an author I really want to get to...have a couple on my shelves & I will explore some of her books next year.Have loved Baldwin since I first picked him up from my parents' library about 30 years ago. Read 100 years of solitude a long time ago too - should really give it a reread.And Interpreter of Maladies really made me get into short stories again - prior to that I was convinced I just did not like short stories.
Short stories can truly be a wonderful thing. I'm so looking forward to reading more of Baldwin!
I love Kurt Vonnegut, currently working my way through his books. Agree 100% on Junot Diaz, I loved the Brief Wonderous Life, I was thinking during it that he was just trying to accurately portray the male chauvinistic culture, I would hope his personal beliefs don't line up with his characters. I really disliked The Virgin Suicides but I have recently picked up Middlesex to give him a second try. I am just about to start reading The Road so I hope I like it :) a lot of these books if not read are on my tbr haha so I will definitely try to get to them soon.
I hope you like The Road as well! Diaz has said that Yunior is a fictionalized reflection of himself when he was young. What's not entirely clear is whether or not Diaz has completely outgrown Yunior's problematic relationship(s) with women. He says he has, some women around him have said no.
I too read Bluest Eye and have the same feeling that Morrison could be a favorite for me. Got to read Beloved before i go there.
I'm so looking forward to Beloved.
Looking forward to your thoughts on Blood Meridian! It's in my top 5
I'm excited to get to it at some point!
I just had to say this regarding the comments on Junot Diaz....I haven't read his work and yet in general, I can say that if an artist wants to produce something artistically, then it's incredibly toxic towards that art to say say that it must represent the views YOU hold. I'm not saying that this is what you were saying in the video but it's obviously a viewpoint that's held by others - that we should tailor art to satisfy the social justice warriors and that characters in literature should be represented in a fashion that THEY deem acceptable, not in the way that the author desires. If we carry on down that road, we will end up with a literary landscape that presents a dull, grey, homogenous soup that says nothing to anybody. If someone ventures into literature with the expectation that all literary work should duplicate the one reality that they feel comfortable inhabiting, then I think they really need to ask themselves why they read in the first place.
The issue with Junot Diaz is primarily that he allegedly made some inappropriate sexual advances on students and other women. The murkier issue is that his fiction can be seen as perpetuating negative portrayals/ways of thinking about women--especially within the community he aims to represent. Yes, there's room to portray it as it is, but I also think there's room to do better--and thankfully, Diaz has the chance to do so.
I would've agree with you until you started harping on (social justice warriors ) then you lost me you sound like a reactionary jerk, so I mentally rolled my eyes . I also like books that sting me, and have something bold and unique to say.
@@zharapatterson at least I didn't get personal and resort to insults. Having a differing opinion on something is hardly reactionary. I guess trolls just gotta troll - made all the more bizarre by the fact that by your own admission, you actually agree with me.
I was a Big Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Fan when I was yunger. I started reading The Road, but I couldn't get much into it. He doesn't use punctuation. I had to put it down after a few pages because I found it literally unreadable without Punctuation.
I've never tried a Cormac McCarthy book on audio, but that may be a good way for you to get around the punctuation (or lack thereof).
@@SupposedlyFun - Thank You for the Suggestion. Did he ever say why he didn't use Punctuation in his books? Is it just a Gimmick of his?
@@HoldenNY22 He hasn't commented on it to my knowledge, but it's very possible he has talked about it. It does seem to be a sort of trademark of his.
Yay, another person who loves Howards End and loves Maurice - even though I'm not LGBTQ, it was still one of my favorite love stories as a teenager. Do read the other Austens - she has never written anything that's not wonderful. :-)
Always happy to find another Maurice fan! :-)
The bluest eye is better than beloved that in my humble opinion is overrated. I love the first book of junot diaz. I read it twice. Did you read "drown"?I read the same baldwin's books as you and love them. I like middlesex best. Suttree and blood meridian by mccarthy are awesome! Better than the road definitly. The inconsolable by ishiguro is the one i like best even if i prefer haruki murakami. I adored lacuna by kingsolver and with regard to saramago, he is my best author EVER. I read everything and loved everything.
Thank you for the advice. I should definitely get to more Saramago.
I' ve become your new follower right Now!
Thank you!
Regarding Ishiguro, he would easily have been among my favorites before The Buried Giant. I despise that book. My favorites by him are The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans. The only novel I haven’t read is The Unconsoled. We’re on the same page with Junot Diaz. Oscar Wao is easily one of my favorite novels, but Diaz needs to write more. If you are interested in the Dominican Republic and Trujillo, I highly recommend The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa.
My favorite authors: William Faulkner, EM Forster, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust. I’ve read all of In Search of Lost Time, all of Jane Austen’s novels, and all but The Longest Journey from Forster. Part of what determines my favorites is asking myself which authors I would be content to read for the rest of my life if I could only have five.
Regina Lemoine - I did a Buddy Read and review of The Buried Giant back in December, I think it was. It was a distancing and frustrating novel in many ways, but the more I considered, thought about and talked about it, the more fond of it I became.
Regina, that's a good list of authors. I have been resistant to Proust but I may give him a try next year as part of a project I'm considering. Thank you for the recommendation--the only book by Mario Vargas Llosa I have read is The Bad Girl, and that was very good.
@@SupposedlyFun My main bit of advice on reading Proust is that when you get to The Prisoner and The Fugitive it's going to be tough going at times. All of Proust's neurotic jealousies are laid out for many pages and it's frustrating, to say the least. BUT, if you can stick it out and get to the final volume, Time Regained, the perfection of the work as a whole is revealed. I do recommend the newer translations.
@@OldBluesChapterandVerse I keep thinking I should possibly give the book another chance, but I am reluctant, to say the least. I'll go and check out your review.
@Regina Lemoine Thanks for the advice on translations--that is very helpful.
Has anyone other than me discovered DBC Pierre's Vernon 'God' Little?
Have you tried any of Agatha Christie's books?
It's been a while, but in my late teens and early twenties I read most of her books. I don't remember most, so I've considered going back.
I love Agatha Christie's books.
Love your videos xxx keep up the great work xxx sending love and light from a gay from new Zealand
Thank you!
Not sure why you have to read more than one of a writer’s books to have them qualify as a favorite ? “The Bluest Eye” is a masterpiece. Is it quantity over quality ? Two greats vs one not so great ??
So to me, if I read one book by an author and I love it, I can include that book in my list of favorite BOOKS of all time, but not favorite authors. If I've only read one of their books, I can't gauge the quality of their work. Take Louise Erdrich for example: I loved the first book of hers I read, merely liked the second, and wasn't very keen on the third at all. If I had called her one of my favorite authors based on the first book alone, it wouldn't have been accurate.
Got it ! Thanks for the explanation. 😎