Post Your Desert Island Author!

[OneCentStamp]

For the rest of your long, solitary life (there's food aplenty on this island, and you're the apex predator), you have only the written catalog of a single author to keep you company. Whose work do you take? For the purposes of this thread, books written by two or more authors together count as part of each author's catalog.

For me, it would be Stephen King, winning out narrowly over Tolkien, Herbert, Maugham, and a few others. He isn't my favorite author, but he has the winning blend of entertainment value, serious literary work, and sheer volume of written catalog, to keep me entertained for a long time.

Who's yours?

[AndrewRyan]

Stephanie Meyer...

Nah, I'm just fuckin' around.

Mine would actually be Stephen King as well, and for much the same reasons.

If not King then Isaac Asimov I suppose.

[Oliveloaf]

George Orwell

He da man.

[Orual]

Neil Gaiman.

[What Exit?]

Heinlein will nudge Tolkien for two reasons, far more to read and honestly I know Tolkien so well I could spend my time trying to rewrite the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in the margins of the Heinlein books. I bet I would get it fairly close considering the lack of other hobbies available. Then I would go on to write a sequel taking place in the fourth age of course.

[Cluricaun]

Neal Stephenson since it would take me approximately forever to finish the Baroque Cycle based on how long book one took me.

[OneCentStamp]

George Orwell

He da man.

See, I love me some George, but that's ten books to last you a lifetime, several of which are pretty short. Plus, they're all good, so you don't even have a Tommyknockers or other lesser work to use as emergency butt wipe.

[Oliveloaf]

Hmmm.

A problem with Orwell. I've read it all already--and the dude died at 50. I could reread all the stuff, including the essays, in about a month.

May reconsider with more prolific author.

[artifex]

I picked King - admitting it somewhat abashedly just after reading the subject line - because he's prolific and eminently readable. Stephenson writes thick, dense books - still have never gotten through the Baroque Cycle - but I can't pick his stuff up in the middle of a chapter and go as well, because the storylines are complex and epic.

[Fink-Nottle]

P.G. Wodehouse

Wrote a lot and if I'm stuck on a desert island I'll probably need a laugh.

[Cluricaun]

I picked King - admitting it somewhat abashedly just after reading the subject line - because he's prolific and eminently readable. Stephenson writes thick, dense books - still have never gotten through the Baroque Cycle - but I can't pick his stuff up in the middle of a chapter and go as well, because the storylines are complex and epic.

The only one I've made it through so far is Quicksilver, which took nearly three months of daily reading to get through (I eat things like John Grisham books up in two or three hours usually) and that was mostly skipping over all the math and stuff. I re-read it the second time with a highlighter in my hand and made notes on the damned thing so I could Google the parts that flew past my head on the first go or reference back to exactly who the hell everyone was.

That's not recreational reading, that's taking a college course by someone who's a lot smarter than you and who talks really fast and who gets sidetracked into telling awesome stories about pirates prostates every so often. That's why he's my desert island guy, there are still two more books in just that one series to read, forget the other books too. That guy is a goddamned lunatic. A brililant and entertaining lunatic for sure, but you kill a chapter of him and you have to take a damned nap.

[Glazer]

Heinlein even though I've read them. All and reread most. And repeatedly read a few. I could read them all again and again. Except for "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" I never really liked that one. But after a wile I guess I would reread it a few times too.

[Zuul]

Piers Anthony!

[Glazer]

Piers Anthony!

I could live with this except for the Zanth books. I would be stuck on an island and have nobody to kill.:Shake:

[OtakuLoki]

P.G. Wodehouse

Wrote a lot and if I'm stuck on a desert island I'll probably need a laugh.

This is what I was going to suggest, too. I'd be able to finally sit down and catalog each and every one of that villain Jeeves' crimes.

[Zuul]

I could live with this except for the Zanth books. I would be stuck on an island and have nobody to kill.:Shake:

Yeah, that'd be the main problem. Sure, it could be entertaining to rant and scream about how bad they are, but you don't have anyone to rant and scream at.

[OneCentStamp]

Yeah, that'd be the main problem. Sure, it could be entertaining to rant and scream about how bad they are, but you don't have anyone to rant and scream at.

WILSON!!!! These books suck!!! WIL-SOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!!!!

[OtakuLoki]

Dammit! Too slow

[Clothahump]

Lee Child and the Reacher novels.