The Sword and Laser discussion

Who are your top 5 most read authors? (according to Goodreads stats)

Mine are fairly predictable. The big three Grand Masters of SF, my former favorite living author, and my current favorite living author.

I've actually found there is a bit of difference between my most read authors and my favorite authors.

Most Read Authors:
1. Garth Nix
2. Mark Lawrence
3. JK Rowling
4. Kevin Hearne
5. Brandon Sanderson

Favorite Authors:
1. Brandon Sanderson
2. Kevin Hearne
3. Mark Lawrence
4. Peter V Brett
5. George RR Martin

I've no idea. I have nearly 50 years of reading behind me.
In no particular order (as I don't know)

The usual suspects would rank high: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, HG Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe

More contemporary authors: Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Stephen King, Joe Abercrombie, George RR Martin

How did you get to that list? I'm not familiar with that page, and I can't seem to find it.

If you click on My Books then below the hand navigation for your bookshelves is Tools and under that you should have Most Read Authors.

Yeah I only just found it myself when I seen this thread, its pretty cool :).

Ah. Never noticed that down there. Thanks James. Here's mine:

1 Jim Butcher 25
1 Stephen King 25
3 Hajime Isayama 19
4 John Grisham 18

I wouldn't have guessed I'd read as much Butcher as I have King. King's number seems a bit low to me though. I'll have to check a few things I may have read years ago and see if they are on my good reads shelves. But as King was my favorite author before I discovered Jim Butcher (whose my current favorite), it seems appropriate they are sharing the number one spot.

I also didn't realize I read so many Grisham books. A lot of them weren't very good either. Robert Jordan (15), Robin Hobb (14) and Brandon Sanderson (13) are just outside my top five. And the last two being favorites of mine and still writing, will hopefully knock him out of the top 5 eventually..

Oh and Hajime Isayama is kind of unfair because I can read like a ton of manga in the time it would take me to read one King book.

Yeah that's definitely a big downside to it cause it will also be effected by graphic novels

I expect Jim Butcher and Brandon Sanderson to break into my most read authors. Of the top five David Weber is my only must read author, I don't think I've read anything from Piers Anthony or Michael Stackpole since the early 90s.

1. David Weber 43
2. Piers Anthony 34
3. R.A. Salvatore 27
4. Raymond E. Feist 24
4. Michael A. Stackpole 24

1 Terry Pratchett
2 Piers Anthony
3 Lois McMaster Bujold
4 Jim Butcher
5 John Scalzi

Oh, Piers Anthony. I very much enjoyed your books when I was too young to realize how horribly sexist they were.

Unfortunately, the "Most Read Authors" link that Goodreads provides only counts "first-listed author," so if you have certain authors who are usual coauthors (say Weis & Hickman), the second coauthor won't be included in "Most Read."

This also ends up confusing for me because I'm a big fan of the Sten series by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (8 books), but NEITHER of them shows up in my Most Read list, because certain editions I have list one author before the other. Odd!

That said, here's my list!

1. CLAMP (72) - multiple manga series
2. Mercedes Lackey (61) - Valdemar is only half of this
3. Rumiko Takahashi (56) - InuYasha
4. David Weber (52) - I still haven't read a couple series
5. L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (43) - still missing a few series
6. Harry Turtledove (39) - haven't read him in 7 years
7. Anne McCaffrey (37) - haven't read her in years, probably won't read any more.

I included my top 7 (to include at least 5 prose writers). Interestingly, just below McCaffrey is Alan Dean Foster (Pip & Flinx FTW) and Agatha Christie. I do plan to finish reading the rest of Christie's oeuvre (I'm 44% of the way through all her books). She'll probably end up #1 unless CLAMP comes out with another big series that I want to read.

I keep my manga on a separate site, LNs and YA books are bad enough at bloating.

1)Katherine Applegate - 72...hello animorphs and middleschool.
2)David Weber - 56
3)Terry Pratchett - 39
4)Yu Wo - 24
4)Ben Bova - 24 (probably the first sci-fi author I picked up)
4)Lois McMaster Bujold - 24

Out of these authors I got a few more Pratchett books to read same with Bujold but for the most part they are done writing.

Weber and Wo are still prolific so I expect those numbers to go up, so is Bova but I'm not really a fan anymore.

1. Steven Erikson
2. JK Rowling
3. Brandon Sanderson
4. George RR Martin
5. Bryan Lee O'Malley

I feel like this isn't really indicative of much because most of those are books in a long series. *shrug* I haven't read O'Malley in a long time. There are just 6 Scott Pilgrim books I've read. Meh.

Mine:

1. Jim Butcher - 22
2. Robert Jordan - 14
3. Brandon Sanderson - 13
4. Guy Gavriel Kay - 10
5. Kevin Hearne - 9

Yeah the series take the most room here - and Kevin Hearne's numbers are bloated by the short stories and novellas. Kay's the most interesting, since most of his works are standalones. I love his stuff though - Fionavar and a Song for Arbonne are two of my favorite books/series.

1. Jim Butcher
2. Clive Cussler - my teenage years
3. John Scalzi
4. Robert Kirkman - the collections of the walking dead
5. Steven Erikson / Harry Connolly

I had to go to number 11 to get a female author (JK Rowling) and then 18 for a female author that I am currently reading (Alex Hughes).

I think I might look to see if I can sort this by era somehow, I think my current reading habits are not accurately reflected here.

1. Jk Rowling
2.Ann Rice
3.CLAMP
4.R.L Stine (read every goosebumps book freshmen year of high school)
5.Neil Gaiman (if you count the Sandman series)

Not all of them are my favorite authors today but they were at one point.

Am I missing something I thought JK Rowling only wrote Harry Potter...a couple related works and just started on a new series under a pseudonym.

1. Raymond E. Feist 25
2. Robin Hobb 18
3. Robert Jordan 15
4. Neil Gaiman 12 (this is mostly the Sandman comics)
5. Brandon Sanderson 10
5. Joel Sheppherd 10

Interesting that an author who wouldn't come to mind at all if you'd ask me about my current favorites tops a list like this. I read his entire Riftwar saga years ago, haven't gotten around to the last 3 or 4 though.

1. Terry Pratchett 51
2. David Eddings 19
3. Robert Jordan 16
4. Terry Brooks 14
5. Orson Scott Card 13

So many Pratchett books!

1. James Rollins 21 (4 books co-written with Rebecca Cantrell)
2. Katharine Kerr 19
3. David Eddings 17
4. Margaret Weis 13 (with Tracy Hickman)
5. Lynn Flewelling 11

Huh.

Rob wrote: "Oh and Hajime Isayama is kind of unfair because I can read like a ton of manga in the time it would take me to read one King book."

James wrote: "Yeah that's definitely a big downside to it cause it will also be effected by graphic novels"

Yeah, I know what you guys mean. My next 5 are comic book authors, and are sure to increase, based on my current reading habits-

6) Robert Kirkman (17)
7) Brian Michael Bendis (13)
7) Jason Aaron (13)
9) Jonathan Hickman (10)
9) Brian K. Vaughan (10)

I think I've read more Mercedes Lackey than this, also Anne McCaffery, but I only added stuff to my shelves from the top of my head-

Anne Perry - 26
Anne Rice - 23
Mercedes Lackey - 23
Anne McCaffrey - 22
Christopher Stasheff - 22

I think I'm biased toward authors named Anne...

Aaron wrote: "Out of these authors I got a few more Pratchett books to read same with Bujold but for the most part they are done writing."

Have you been reading The Long Earth series by Pratchett and Baxter?

1 Jules Verne
2 H. Rider Haggard
3 J.R.R. Tolkien
4 William Morris
5 Arthur Conan Doyle
5 Ursula K. Le Guin

Dara wrote: "I feel like this isn't really indicative of much because most of those are books in a long series. *shrug* I haven't read O'Malley in a long time. There are just 6 Scott Pilgrim books I've read. Meh."

Yeah, I know this isn't the most accurate indicator of most read authors, but I still think it's fun to see what authors are on everyone's list. Also, it just might motivate people to read more of a certain author to get them in their top 5.

Tokio wrote: "4. R.L. Stine (read every goosebumps book freshmen year of high school)"

Oh, god. I don't have a single Goosebumps book logged, but I read at least 30-40 of them back in elementary school.

Andy wrote: "4. Robert Kirkman - the collections of the walking dead"

With Outcast, Vol. 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him, I will be reading the first non-Walking Dead title from Kirkman.

Have you read the Walking Dead novels he did with Jay Bonansinga?

Stephen King - 40
Lawrence Block - 18
James Rollins - 16
Robert Jordan - 14
Michael Crichton - 13

I can't imagine anyone catching King but there are a lot of Lawrence Block mysteries, so its possible. Jordan and Crichton are not long for the list, for obvious reason.

Top 10
Stephen King 37

The only surprise is the number is so low. But maybe I didn't add all his books when I joined Goodreads.

Tsugumi Ohba 35

I was surprised at first, but then I remembered between Bakuman, Death Note and Hikaru no Go ... yeah, that sounds about right.

Karuho Shiina 20

That's a lot of girly romance.

Nagaru Tanigawa 20

I guess that's including both his novels and various manga spinoffs.

Mitsuru Adachi 19

I'm trying to read through H2 now. I have another 30 volumes to go, so he's going to shoot up the list.

Terry Pratchett 19

I don't remember reading that many Discworld novels. They all seem the same after a while.

Yuyuko Takemiya 16

More romance!

Alastair Reynolds 16

Ah, finally some solid SF.

Yoshinobu Yamada 16

I had to look up who Yamada is. Oh, yeah, giant survival horror series guy.

Hajime Isayama 16

I was just going to list my top 5, but then I found out I had a four way tie for fourth place.

1 Jim Butcher 19
2 Rick Riordan 10
3 Michael A. Stackpole 8
4 Christie Golden 7
4 J.K. Rowling 7
4 Rich Burlew 7
4 Joss Whedon 7

Louie wrote: "Have you read the Walking Dead novels he did with Jay Bonansinga? "

I stopped picking up the Walking Dead around volume 11. I was watching the TV show and I decided that the comics just do not have the suspense that the TV show nails so well.

Now I look at the TV show as Walking Dead 2.0, a chance to take the best of the books and make something great.

Let's see:

Warren Ellis 37
Margaret Weis 29 (also Tracy Hickman, because I haven't read either of their solo works)
John Scalzi 23
Neil Gaiman 21
Mark Waid 18
Raymond E. Feist 15
Naoki Urasawa 15
David Eddings 14
Brian K. Vaughan 11
Kazu Kibuishi 10

There's a lot of comics writers in there. (I no longer track comics and graphic novels with Goodreads, but I used to.) Let me eliminate the mostly-comics writers. Also, the Scalzi count is inflated because I was counting the separate installments of The Human Division while I was reading them. I'll cut those out.

Margaret Weis (& Tracy Hickman) 29
Raymond E. Feist 15
David Eddings 14
John Scalzi 14
Robert J. Sawyer 9
J.K. Rowling 8
Frank Herbert 8
George R.R. Martin 7
Robin Hobb 7
James S.A. Corey 7
Terry Brooks 7
Michael Moorcock 7

David(LA,CA) wrote: "It's also interesting to note that it counts books you've listed as "Want to read"."

Um, no it doesn't. It only counts titles you've set as "Read". The link on that page takes you to the books you have by that author in your library, weather you've read them or not.

Andy wrote: "I stopped picking up the Walking Dead around volume 11."

Well, then you've missed some pretty big developments in the comic universe since then. At this point, they are pretty much different stories to me. I still eagerly pick up each trade as they come out. (I ain't got the time/money for single issues.)

Louie wrote: "David(LA,CA) wrote: "It's also interesting to note that it counts books you've listed as "Want to read"."

Um, no it doesn't. It only counts titles you've set as "Read". The link on that page takes..."

Ah. Whoops. I have removed my previous comment.

David(LA,CA) wrote: "I have removed my previous comment."

You didn't need to do that. It was an honest mistake.

Veronica wrote: "Huh."

Care to expand your thoughts on your Top Authors, Veronica?
EDIT: Nevermind, I am hearing your thoughts on the podcast right now.

My list got a bit distorted by some writers having their short stories individually listed and by my haphazard way of recording (lots of gaps before 2012 with well over 1000 books read but not included).

Kristine Kathryn Rusch 37
Jack Vance 33
Margaret Weis 20
Michael Moorcock 17
Anton Chekhov 17

I don't have everything in Goodreads yet but so far my top five are:


1. Michael Moorcock - 34
2. Isaac Asimov - 23
3. Piers anthony - 15
4. Larry Niven - 14
5. David Eddings - 13

Aaron wrote: "Am I missing something I thought JK Rowling only wrote Harry Potter...a couple related works and just started on a new series under a pseudonym."

The Casual Vacancy is still under the Rowling name even if her new mysteries aren't.

So someone can still have a list with Rowling with up to 11 books (7 HP, 3 related, and The Casual Vacancy).

But some people read a lot of different authors instead of a lot of single series, so Rowling can easily be in the top for people. She's very far down on my own list, however.

This is so cool! I was pleased/surprised that so many of my top authors are sword and lasery. Of course, I've only been keeping track of my reading since 2004 so we're missing all the Bobbsey Twins, Sweet Valley High, and Babysitter's Club that I read as a kid. :P

Mine are going to be significantly skewed because I didn't log books before I joined/from when I was a kid. If I did, then the woman who wrote the Babysitter's Club books would be my #1 because I read every darn thing she wrote in that world.

Right now, without looking, I bet it's Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan. And GRRM would be up there.

Ok, I actually looked at the stat...

1 Robert Jordan 15
2 Brandon Sanderson 14
3 Lemony Snicket 13
3 Neal Stephenson 13
5 David Rosenfelt 12

GRRM is #6 (quantity 10).

Brandon Sanderson 11
Jim Butcher 10
Neal Stephenson 10
Brian McClellan 9
Michael J. Sullivan 9

I omitted Terry Goodkind out of shame

Oh dear.

#1, Terry Pratchett (47)

But after that it's very much fantasy-fan-from-the-90s stuff:

2: Weis (and mostly Hickman) (22)
3: Eddings (21)
4: McCaffery (15)
5: Dahl (14)
5: Feist (14)
5: Hobb (14)
Followed by Asimov, Enid Blyton, Pete Abrams (the Sluggy Freelance webcomic), Gemmell, Salvatore, Cunningham, Jordan, Lewis, Douglas Niles, Tolkien, Mary Kirchoff, Martin, Robert N Charette...

I re-visited The Baby-Sitter's Club books. I read at least the first 47 of them, not counting The Baby-Sitter's Club Super Specials books and the Baby-Sitter's Little Sister series books that I read... So that would easily make Ann M. Martin my most-read author.

terpkristin wrote: "I re-visited The Baby-Sitter's Club books. I read at least the first 47 of them, not counting The Baby-Sitter's Club Super Specials books and the Baby-Sitter's Little Sister series books that I rea..."

High-five! I said almost the exact same thing the post above you hahaha.

Did you babysit, and carry a shoebox with you? I did....

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Did you babysit, and carry a shoebox with you? I did...."

YES!!! I think I even wrote "Kid Kit" on it. Man, I can't believe I'm confessing that. ;)

terpkristin wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Did you babysit, and carry a shoebox with you? I did...."

YES!!! I think I even wrote "Kid Kit" on it. Man, I can't believe I'm confessing that. ;)"

We were brainwashed! And what do you think of when you see someone wearing black, white, and red? Hahaha, it never leaves you.