My 1000th Post - 100 Favorite Authors

What to do when you are approaching your 1000th post? Reflecting on the fact that my blog is primarily about books, I decided to present a list of 100 of my favorite authors. I'm sure in attempting this, I will leave off an author who needs to be recognized (that's why I really loathe making these lists in the first place), but I should be able to come up with 100 authors, whose books I categorically love, without too much trouble.

I will list them by category. Plus, for the few who are one-hit wonders (I've only encountered one book which really soared), I will identify those with an asterisk (*).



Classics:

1) Charles Dickens
2) Fyodor Dostoevsky
3) Louisa May Alcott
4) Shakespeare
5) Thomas Hardy
6) Edgar Allen Poe
7) Mark Twain
8) E.M. Forster
9) Theodore Dreiser
10) John Steinbeck
11) Edith Wharton
12) T.S. Eliot
13) Emily Bronte *
14) Charlotte Bronte *
15) Victor Hugo *
16) Daphne du Maurier *
17) Harper Lee *

General Fiction:

18) Maeve Binchy
19) Alexander McCall Smith
20) Sophie Kinsella
21) Nicholas Sparks
22) Khaled Hosseini
23) Kristin Hannah
24) Jodi Picoult
25) Jeffrey Archer
26) Richard Paul Evans
27) Anita Shreve
28) Alan Bradley
29) Joanne Fluke
30) M.L. Stedman *
31) Audrey Niffenegger *
32) Kathryn Stockett *
33) Marilynne Robinson *
34) Mark Haddon *

General Non-Fiction:

35) Bill Bryson
36) Oliver Sacks
37) Annie Dillard
38) Mitch Albom
39) Torey L. Hayden
40) Anne Lamott
41) Christopher de Vinck
42) Stephen King * (Yes, he writes great fiction, but I love him primarily for his book on writing.)
43) Erik Larson *

Young Adult all the way down to Picture Books:

44) Kate DiCamillo
45) Kate Klise
46) Suzanne Collins
47) J.K. Rowling
48) Patrick Ness
49) Lois Lowry
50) Richard Peck
51) Andrew Clements
52) Madeleine L'Engle
53) Laura Ingalls Wilder
54) Katherine Paterson
55) Gloria Whelan
56) Louis Sachar
57) Gary D. Schmidt
58) Laurie Halse Anderson
59) Lauren Child
60) Louise Fitzhugh
61) Beverly Cleary
62) Roald Dahl
63) Judy Bloom
64) Sarah Weeks
65) Peg Kehret
66) Carl Hiassen
67) E.B. White
68) Deborah Wiles
69) A.A. Milne
70) Dr. Suess
71) Jeff Kinney
72) Bernard Waber
73) David Shannon
74) Eric Carle
75) Gus Clarke
76) Mercer Mayer
77) H.A. Rey
78) Gene Zion
79) Shel Silverstein
80) Markus Zusak *
81) Brandon Mull *
82) Frances Hodgson Burnett *

Christian Fiction:

83) Karen Kingsbury
84) C.S. Lewis
85) J.R.R. Tolkien
86) G.K. Chesterton
87) George MacDonald
88) Liz Curtis Higgs

Christian Non-fiction:

89) A.W. Tozer
90) Elizabeth Elliot
91) Philip Yancey
92) Beth Moore
93) Dr. Paul Brand
94) Ravi Zacharias
95) Frederick Buechner
96) Brennan Manning
97) John Piper
98) Kay Arthur
99) Mark Batterson *
100) Anne Voskamp *

Of these authors, I studied under Frederick Buechner, while at Wheaton College. I attended lectures by Brennan Manning, Madeleine L'Engle, and Elizabeth Elliot (whose neice was my best friend freshman year in college). I once received a personal letter from Gloria Whelan. And, the most incredible connection of all? While working for the Marion E. Wade Collection, I transcribed all the personal letters of C.S. Lewis, and went on a trip to assist with an oral history interview of his first cousin, Ruth Parker.

How about you? Did I miss one of your favorite authors? Do you have an interesting connection to a favorite author?