Ongoing likes
Because I misread a word in a meme: “List ten of your favorite authors”.
I don’t think I have ever had ten favorite authors at any ONE point my entire life.
Throughout my life, certainly more than ten.
When I was a child, I loved Walter Farley (his Black Stallion series I still reread just for nostalgia sake), and very much-enjoyed Marguerite Henry’s “Misty of Chincoteague books.
Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene introduced me to fun loving sleuths, where teenagers (Frank and Joe Hardy, or Nancy Drew and her friends), survive and thrive all kinds of crazy mysteries.
Other books I remember reading (and wanting more of) include: The Sadie Rose Adventure series by Hilda Stahl, which helped spark my interest in the Pioneers of the Oregon Trail … both those who traveled west all the way to California, Oregon and Washington, and those who settled in the Midwest.
As I was growing up, I was drawn to Lois Gladys Leppard’s Mandie books - from book 1 “Mandie and the Secret Tunnel” all the way to number # … gee, I haven’t the foggiest how many I read. Anyway, I felt drawn to Mandie’s plight and struggle in a brave new world despite having experienced almost none of the cataclysms that threatened to tear her apart emotionally and physically.
The only books by C.S. Lewis that I’ve found and read is his seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia. Having read it both chronologically, and the order published, I have to say reading it in the order they were published - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, followed first by Prince Caspian, then The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and later The Silver Chair, sequeled by The Horse and His boy, afterwards which came The Magician’s nephew and lastly The Last Battle -
Entering High School introduced me to a whole new genre: Space Opera. Specifically, the Star Wars: Expanded Universe - Now Legends Class. Pretty much everything Star Wars (with one or two exceptions),
Of particular interest were the Young Jedi Knights series - all fourteen books - by Kevin J. Anderson and coauthor Rebecca Moesta. Of course, I wouldn’t have known who any of those characters were without first reading Timothy Zhan’s contribution to the Star Wars Legacy, and the other authors who picked up the call after George Lucas opened up the Galaxy Far, Far, Away.
Dragons also grew more important - Ann McCaffrey’s Pern world captivated my heart. Now with her passing, the Human-Dragon symbiosis has fallen to the wayside.
Ender’s Game and the Shadow books following (Orson Scott Card) interested me during these instructive years. Alas, I have reread those books so often I am no longer excited to pick them up (and, having tried other books by OSC, but none were to my taste).
When two expert writers - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins - teamed up to write the explosive “Left Behind books” - A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days - I became obsessed with the then-yet unfinished series. And until the last two book, #12 Glorious Appearing and #13 Kingdom Come: The Final Victory, I loved every one. Now?
Oh, the first four, perhaps the first six or eight, are enthralling and entertaining enough to be reread, but I have no desire to slog through the last ones. (perhaps in a decade or a score of years, I’ll be willing to take them up again, but the ending was a bitter disappointment).
Now that I am grown, I still enjoy space Opera - David Weber is one, with his Honor Harrington saga, - but I have also discovered something a bit like home: Alternate History Universes -specifically Eric Flint’s “1632 Reign Of Fire” series. Alas, the local library has several large gaps in that multi-author continuum, so I found myself lost and out of my preferred depth when I last picked up one of his works.
But do not despair! For Alan Dean Foster can create brand new worlds with every novel. And yet, the ongoing struggle of Pip & Flinx grew cold before he brought their galactic search to a not-so spell-binding conclusion.
For a while I read some Rita May Brown books, was turned off by the writing style. Oh, not the mystery books, nor the animal friends who helps solve the ‘who-don-it’ aspect, but indulgent activities hinted at in every single book, where that aspect of the main character’s background is not necessary, nor is the emphasis doing anything to build or support the personality of Sister Jane; instead it distracts from the action and the plot, in my opinion.
Then another female author I thought I might love was Beverly Lewis, but when the books offered at the library are from 75 to 90% Amish stories, it gets old, real quick. One or two are good, because it gives a very nice look at both history, and a simpler lifestyle.
Alas, my love affair with Star Wars - particularly the newest books (published after Political Correctness entered into our literature and written entertainment) - has largly fallen to the wayside.
The Older writtings, (pre Legacy of the Force, publish date), still interest me and many (not all. There are a handful I will not touch again) I enjoy savoring from time to time. Karen Traviss’s Clone Wars era books - plus five novels - are among those Star Wars authors I love. (but oddly, outside S.W., I don’t seem too interested in her works. Go figure).
Most recently I have picked up Lauraine Snelling - and because The Golden Filly series fed my adventuresome spirit, I am thinking her other books - The Dakota Treasure trilogy for instance - will be promising. At the very least it will sooth a heart broken by other books where they PRETEND -or, portray themselves- to be historical, but are filled with more Artistic License and Writer’s Liberty (fancy names for truth distortion) than any real facts.
I don’t think I have ever had ten favorite authors at any ONE point my entire life.
Throughout my life, certainly more than ten.
When I was a child, I loved Walter Farley (his Black Stallion series I still reread just for nostalgia sake), and very much-enjoyed Marguerite Henry’s “Misty of Chincoteague books.
Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene introduced me to fun loving sleuths, where teenagers (Frank and Joe Hardy, or Nancy Drew and her friends), survive and thrive all kinds of crazy mysteries.
Other books I remember reading (and wanting more of) include: The Sadie Rose Adventure series by Hilda Stahl, which helped spark my interest in the Pioneers of the Oregon Trail … both those who traveled west all the way to California, Oregon and Washington, and those who settled in the Midwest.
As I was growing up, I was drawn to Lois Gladys Leppard’s Mandie books - from book 1 “Mandie and the Secret Tunnel” all the way to number # … gee, I haven’t the foggiest how many I read. Anyway, I felt drawn to Mandie’s plight and struggle in a brave new world despite having experienced almost none of the cataclysms that threatened to tear her apart emotionally and physically.
The only books by C.S. Lewis that I’ve found and read is his seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia. Having read it both chronologically, and the order published, I have to say reading it in the order they were published - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, followed first by Prince Caspian, then The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and later The Silver Chair, sequeled by The Horse and His boy, afterwards which came The Magician’s nephew and lastly The Last Battle -
Entering High School introduced me to a whole new genre: Space Opera. Specifically, the Star Wars: Expanded Universe - Now Legends Class. Pretty much everything Star Wars (with one or two exceptions),
Of particular interest were the Young Jedi Knights series - all fourteen books - by Kevin J. Anderson and coauthor Rebecca Moesta. Of course, I wouldn’t have known who any of those characters were without first reading Timothy Zhan’s contribution to the Star Wars Legacy, and the other authors who picked up the call after George Lucas opened up the Galaxy Far, Far, Away.
Dragons also grew more important - Ann McCaffrey’s Pern world captivated my heart. Now with her passing, the Human-Dragon symbiosis has fallen to the wayside.
Ender’s Game and the Shadow books following (Orson Scott Card) interested me during these instructive years. Alas, I have reread those books so often I am no longer excited to pick them up (and, having tried other books by OSC, but none were to my taste).
When two expert writers - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins - teamed up to write the explosive “Left Behind books” - A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days - I became obsessed with the then-yet unfinished series. And until the last two book, #12 Glorious Appearing and #13 Kingdom Come: The Final Victory, I loved every one. Now?
Oh, the first four, perhaps the first six or eight, are enthralling and entertaining enough to be reread, but I have no desire to slog through the last ones. (perhaps in a decade or a score of years, I’ll be willing to take them up again, but the ending was a bitter disappointment).
Now that I am grown, I still enjoy space Opera - David Weber is one, with his Honor Harrington saga, - but I have also discovered something a bit like home: Alternate History Universes -specifically Eric Flint’s “1632 Reign Of Fire” series. Alas, the local library has several large gaps in that multi-author continuum, so I found myself lost and out of my preferred depth when I last picked up one of his works.
But do not despair! For Alan Dean Foster can create brand new worlds with every novel. And yet, the ongoing struggle of Pip & Flinx grew cold before he brought their galactic search to a not-so spell-binding conclusion.
For a while I read some Rita May Brown books, was turned off by the writing style. Oh, not the mystery books, nor the animal friends who helps solve the ‘who-don-it’ aspect, but indulgent activities hinted at in every single book, where that aspect of the main character’s background is not necessary, nor is the emphasis doing anything to build or support the personality of Sister Jane; instead it distracts from the action and the plot, in my opinion.
Then another female author I thought I might love was Beverly Lewis, but when the books offered at the library are from 75 to 90% Amish stories, it gets old, real quick. One or two are good, because it gives a very nice look at both history, and a simpler lifestyle.
Alas, my love affair with Star Wars - particularly the newest books (published after Political Correctness entered into our literature and written entertainment) - has largly fallen to the wayside.
The Older writtings, (pre Legacy of the Force, publish date), still interest me and many (not all. There are a handful I will not touch again) I enjoy savoring from time to time. Karen Traviss’s Clone Wars era books - plus five novels - are among those Star Wars authors I love. (but oddly, outside S.W., I don’t seem too interested in her works. Go figure).
Most recently I have picked up Lauraine Snelling - and because The Golden Filly series fed my adventuresome spirit, I am thinking her other books - The Dakota Treasure trilogy for instance - will be promising. At the very least it will sooth a heart broken by other books where they PRETEND -or, portray themselves- to be historical, but are filled with more Artistic License and Writer’s Liberty (fancy names for truth distortion) than any real facts.