Top 3-5 authors of literature

[Gomithrus]

Like the question posed about the top 5 games in a time-capsle in the escapist podcast 024: Dr Who, Serious Sam 3 & Questions i came to wonder about writers and their works. So I was wondering who are the best 3-5 authors of literature according to the views of others.

Top 3:
Leo Tolstoy --> suggested reading: Anna Karenina OR (if short on time) The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Fedor Dostoyevsky --> The Idiot OR Crime and Punishment
William Shakespeare --> Hamlet OR The Tempest
----------
Alexander Dumas --> The Count of Monte Cristo OR The Three Musketeers
Mikhail Bulgakov --> The Master and Margarita

 

[Esotera]

Well this is going to be incredibly plebeian compared to your high-hitters:

- Iain M. Banks
- Alastair Reynolds
- Cory Doctorow (for the hilarity [http://www.johnjosephadams.com/wastelands/?page_id=22])

_______________

- Isaac Asimov
- John Wyndham

You can tell I only really read one genre.

 

[JesterRaiin]

1. Edgar Alan Poe
2. Stanisław Lem
3. Waldemar Łysiak
4. Mark Twain
5. Neil Gaiman

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. Edgar Allen Poe
3. William Shakespeare
4. Alexandre Dumas
5. Leo Tolstoy

I'm just a huge fan of their works, and I think they are all brilliant.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Graham Greene, Alexis DeToqueville, William Faulkner, (Playwright but his works are now in book form ) William Shakespeare.

 

[NinjaOnXTC]

Poe Shakespeare and Sun Tzu

 

[PieceOfEden]

1. J.R Tolkien - The Hobbit
2. Lyall Watson - Dark Nature
3. Stephen King _ Hearts in Atlantis
4. William Shakespear - Hamlet

 

[Samus Aran but a man]

Right now I would say George R.R Martin, George R.R Martin and George R.R Martin.

I don't read much.

 

[EdwardOrchard]

George RR Martin
Max Brooks
Robert Heinlein
China Mieville

In no particular order.

I wanted to throw in Kim Stanley Robinson, but I have sort of a love/hate relationship with his novels... I love his books, but I hate reading them. If that makes any sense.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Chuck Palaniuk.
Nothing much to add, really. Read 'guts'. The man is a genius.

 

[ecoho]

Am I really the first to say Victor Hugo? Please someone go read Les Mis

If anyone says Robert Jordan, I will personally come to your house and shout at you

1.Robert Jorden- wheel of time series (come oh ye of little taste)
1.J.R. Tolken-the hobit and the lord of the rings
3.William Shakespear - Hamlet
4.Homer- the odyssey
5.John Flanagan- the ranger apprentice books

Tolken and Jorden are tied for first as i cant decide which writer i like better

 

[Yokai]

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Terry Pratchett
3. Neil Gaiman
4. China Mieville
5. Warren Ellis (Shut up, you, Transmetropolitan is literature)

Patrick Rothfuss, George R.R. Martin, Charles Stross, Max Brooks and Larry Niven make up the next five in some order.

 

[Carnagath]

This is absolutely not a subject that can be covered in a "list". However, fuck it. Being a writer myself, these are the people that depress me the most, because I know I will never be able to write like them. While they are in a coma. And have lost half of their brains.

John Steinbeck
Gabriel García Márquez
William Golding
Ernest Hemmingway
Nadine Gordimer

 

[Don Reba]

Here are some of my personal favourites:

1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
3. Franz Kafka
4. Richard Feynman
5. Ray Bradbury
6. Kir Bulychev
7. Isaac Asimov
8. Richard Dawkins

Honourable mention: Peter Watts for Blindsight.

 

[Don Reba]

Gabriel García Márquez

I was looking for good literature in Spanish. Can you recommend anyone else?

 

[RedDeadFred]

1. Tolkien-LOTR and The Hobbit
2. Harlen Coben-Tell No One
3. Douglas Adams-Hitchhikers Trilogy
4. Stephen King-Firestarter

 

[Ed_Fox]

1. George Orwell
2. Charles Dickens
3. Joseph Conrad
4. Bill Bryson
5. Michael Crichton

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Well this is going to be incredibly plebeian compared to your high-hitters:

- Iain M. Banks
- Alastair Reynolds
- Cory Doctorow (for the hilarity [http://www.johnjosephadams.com/wastelands/?page_id=22])

_______________

- Isaac Asimov
- John Wyndham

You can tell I only really read one genre.

You see I prefer Iain Banks without the 'M'!!

So mine are:
Iain Banks
Stephen King
C.S. Lewis
Sir Ian Fleming (Fact: he didn't only write James Bond Novels, he also wrote Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang)
and Oscar Wilde