The Sword and Laser discussion

Which authors have you read one book by, then proceeded to blaze through their entire oeuvre?

I, personally, have several examples. – In high school, I started reading Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (because I was in high school in the year 2001), then quickly went on to read all of his fiction, and a few non-fiction works. After Clarke, I moved on to Isaac Asimov, which is a difficult author for any completionist, since he is credited as the author or editor of 400+ books, so I mostly focused on the sci-fi novels/anthologies. Although, I did dip a bit into his mystery works. Then, I went down the Robert A. Heinlein rabbit hole. The novels, the YA novels, and the few non-fiction.

Non-genre authors that I have binged through-
I first heard of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. thanks to the 2003 movie, The Recruit with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. The book mentioned was Cat's Cradle, but my shop did not have it so I got Hocus Pocus instead. I loved it so much that I proceeded to read all the Vonnegut I could get, which took me about a month to do.
And finally, Paul Auster is my favorite living author. I'm not too sure how I first discovered him, but after reading The New York Trilogy, I quickly devoured the rest of his books (novels, non-fiction, autobiographical, but not his poetry, yet), and have been eagerly anticipating whatever he releases next. Sadly, his most recent novel was back in 2017.

Louie wrote: "Which authors have you read one book by, then proceeded to blaze through their entire oeuvre?

I, personally, have several examples. – In high school, I started reading Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (because I was in high school in the year 2001),..."

That’s cool. In college my professor said, “We’re going to read 1984 because it is.” Here’s something else to make you feel young: the wallet I received as a high school graduation present (and still use) turned 38 years old last week. Here’s a third thing to make you feel young as the world was new: Tassie Dave.

I’m not a completionist, but I definitely have gone down the path of consuming vast amounts of an author’s output. Some of them it was because I happened to be reading when their debut or sophomore novels dropped, like Jack L. Chalker, Vonda McIntyre, John Varley, Alan Dean Foster, etc. I also went down the Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein rabbit holes, as well as Anne McCaffrey, Katherine Kurtz, John Brunner, and so many more.

But back in the 70s and even into the early 80s it was easier to keep up with SFF publishing because there just wasn’t that much of it compared to today. Most bookstores had a couple shelves dedicated to it, unless it was a truly gigantic store like The Strand in NYC or World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto. Even Asimov had only written half the sci-fi books he’d eventually turn out when I first discovered him.

There were authors who I read anything I could get hold of when I was young. Asimov, Bradbury, Wells, Verne.

I haven't got time with today's prolific authors who write massive tomes over multiple series (looking at you Sanderson) I will just pick and choose series.

Trike wrote: "Here’s something else to make you feel young: the wallet I received as a high school graduation present (and still use) turned 38 years old last week. Here’s a third thing to make you feel young as the world was new: Tassie Dave."

You cheeky young whippersnapper. Get off my lawn.

😉

In November it will be 44 years since I left High school (or any school) 😟

Only 356 days until I turn 60 😢

The authors I have read most of are:

Stephen King, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Robert Jordan, Steven R. Lawhead, Dean Koontz, Jules Verne, Louis LaMour, and Zane Grey. I like a little bit of everything, but these authors always seem to have something interesting to contribute.

Tassie, cheer up, you're only as old as you think you feel. Of course it has only been 27 years since I graduated High school.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Only 356 days until I turn 60 😢
..."

I thought you were old. You're... middle aged.

On topic - Heinlein for sure. Varley. I don't count aAsimov or Clarke as I liked their stuff but never binged it. Le Carre of course.

My most recent binge was Jim Butcher's Dresden series. I'd never read it and picked up book 4 (Summer Knight) on a "eh, I'm bored, I've heard about this, let's try it" whim and read 13 of them one month a few summers ago.

Oh and most recent? Brust's Vlad Taltos series.

Stephen King. It started with IT then the the Dark Tower and then books connected to Dark Tower and I couldn’t stop I needed to see all the connections

The most exact example for me would've probably been Terry Pratchett -- I knew that he existed, and I had read Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch as soon as it came out, but I think I had kind of bounced off the first couple of Discworld books back in high school.

But then Robert Silverberg's Legends anthology came out, and included a Granny Weatherwax story, and pretty much as soon as I finished that book I went out and read something like 20 Discworld books in 25 days. Or maybe it was 25 books in 20 days.

Other authors I've read mass quantities of include but are not limited to Edgar Rice Burroughs, C.J. Cherryh, Robert A. Heinlein, Tanith Lee and Jo Clayton.

I don't really binge any authors all at once but there are some who I eventually get around to completing.
Heinlein was my first love and I have read everything he's written.
Others that I'm still working on; Spider Robinson, Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett, John Scalzi, Robert Sawyer, Douglas Adams.
I've also read a ton of Asimov and Clarke but they had so much output that I'll never finish. Plus the later stuff by Clarke that he "co-authored" was pretty shitty.

Phil wrote: "Plus the later stuff by Clarke that he "co-authored" was pretty shitty."

Aw. My favorite Clarke is one of the co-authored novels, The Light of Other Days.

Back when I was in college in the late 1990’s I tried to read all the Philip K. Dick I could get my hands on. This was a bit hard at the time, because they hadn’t started republishing his work like they would in a few years, it was pre e-reader, collectors had snatched up a bunch of the paperbacks, and a lot of people had just thrown out the pulp paperbacks at the time. But even then I think I only made it through maybe a dozen of his novels, and some of his short stories.

I have read almost all the Dresden books, but not his other works. And while I think his writing has gotten quite a bit better over the years, I sort of put both his and other writers of many book serials in a different category.

Some honorable mentions-

I read several Michael Crichton novels early on. Mostly the ones that were adapted to movies, and there are quite a few of those.

It took reading 9 of his books to realized I was not that big a fan of Chuck Palahniuk. Reviewers and critics referring to him as the new Vonnegut probably had nothing to do with that. :/

I haven't read 100% of any author that I'm aware of, but I've come pretty close with:
Stephen King
Anne Rice
Philip K. Dick
Jonathan Maberry
Patrick Rothfuss
George R.R. Martin
Mark Tufo

I've also read a lot of:
J.R.R. Tolkien
Robin Hobb
Dean Koontz
Jim Butcher

& loads of tie-in books:
Star Wars
Star Trek
Doctor Who...

It's pretty hard to read everything by the classic authors. We're talking a lifetime of output. Some of it isn't very good. I remember getting a collection of Arthur Clarke's early short stories and having to force myself through it. Methuselah's Children, not exactly a competitor for Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

But I have read a honkload of: Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, McCaffrey. I read all the Sherlock Holmes books and a scattering of Doyle's SF, but not near everything. Verne and Wells, just the most popular ones. Of more recent authors, plenty by Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher, and of course my indie fave Kate Danley. (More Maggie for Hire! More!)

Donald Hamilton
Ian Fleming

I miss the Most Read Authors feature of Goodreads which made answering this question very easy.

Louie wrote: "Phil wrote: "Plus the later stuff by Clarke that he "co-authored" was pretty shitty."

Aw. My favorite Clarke is one of the co-authored novels, The Light of Other Days."

I haven't read that one but the ones I did I've come to understand were actually written by the second author with Clarke just providing ideas. Maybe he had more of an active hand in that one and I know Baxter is decent on his own as well.

I loathed the later Rama books, and only read the bunch because I'd purchased all of them at once. Just a bunch of silliness betraying the original, with a coda straight from Olaf Stapledon. Bleah.

Growing up I would hunt down certain authors with a passion. The completion isn’t urge was a strong one. I ploughed through a lot of Asimov (his short stories are stronger than the novels).

I now find it to recall all the authors I chased this way but it included Eddings, Feist, and a few fantasy series I now cannot recall. From the classics I read a lot of Asimov, Clark, EE Doc Smith, McCaffery…

As I continued to plunder the SF&F shelves at my library I eventually moved on to more interesting books by LeGuin, Delaney and others and began to lose the completionist urge.

I still try and read all the books by some authors, Pratchett was one of these and I miss buying a new book each year. I tend to follow series I enjoy, such as Dresden, St Marys, Fitz and the Fool, and look for those when they come out. I tend to run a two strikes rule though… One bad book in a large series is OK, two in a row and I am not reading the series any more.

This one of the reasons I started using a spreadsheet so that I did not keep returning to the same authors.

Mark wrote: "I miss the Most Read Authors feature of Goodreads which made answering this question very easy."

I miss that function, as well.

Phil wrote: "I haven't read that one but the ones I did I've come to understand were actually written by the second author with Clarke just providing ideas. Maybe he had more of an active hand in that one and I know Baxter is decent on his own as well."

I do generally agreed though that the co-authored novels were not all that good. One of the few Clarke novels I did not read was Richter 10 which he co-wrote with Mike McQuay. It was one of the last ones on my list, and I just never got to it.

Louie wrote: "I do generally agreed though that the co-authored novels were not all that good. One of the few Clarke novels I did not read was Richter 10 which he co-wrote with Mike McQuay. It was one of the last ones on my list, and I just never got to it..."

It’s not very good. You aren’t missing much. I do like McQuay’s other books, especially his novelizations of Escape from New York. I still remember the awesome noir first paragraph: “He was an iron bar fistload in a hard right hand. He was rough like a chisel and relentless as a jackhammer. He was Snake Plissken and he was running for all he was worth.”

I’ve done this with many authors including Michael J Sullivan, RA Salvatore, Raymond Feist and Nina Kiriki Hoffman. It’s amazing finding an author that you just fall in love with

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "& loads of tie-in books:
Star Wars
Star Trek"

This was it for me. It's been since I was a teenager that I really just binged so many related books at once. It was Star Wars and Trek books in turn, but on the author front, it was usually longer historical fiction series for some reason. All the Hornblower novels, all the Sharpe novels, eventually twice through Patrick O'Brian.

I seemed to do this more when I was younger. Some authors that I've read most if not all of their works include:

Katherine Kurtz
Lois McMaster Bujold
Anne Rice
Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman
David Eddings
Jacqueline Carey

I seemed to do this more when I was younger as well. Some authors I have read a lot of include:

David Eddings
Jennifer Fallon
Fiona McIntosh (just her fantasy books)
Belinda Alexandra (I went through a period where I couldn't get enough of her historical fiction)
Brandon Sanderson (more recently, although no where near have I read all his books)
Jim Butcher (currently reading through Dresden Files)

I could swear goodreads had a page that would list your most read authors but I can't for the life of me find it any more. Maybe they removed it.

I know I've read a LOT of Stephen King due to Dark Tower (and my general enjoyment of how he writes characters). I've not read too many of his more "horror" stories (some would bin most of his stuff as horror, but I think he writes a variety of genres personally).

I've also read everything Jim Butcher has written including his Spider-man book. I really enjoy all of his stuff, not just Dresden.

I've read most of Sanderson stuff, but I've started to burn out on him a bit. I used to love every book he's written but that hasn't been the case the last few years. He's still one of my favorites.

Robin Hobb is another I've read a lot of, but all in the Elderlings universe. I haven't really read much of the other stuff she's written (often under another name).

Robert Jordan is up there, simply due to how long Wheel of Time is. I've never gone looking for other stuff he's written.

Finally Michael J. Sullivan has put out a lot of Riyria books or more recently ancient history of the world from Ryria, so I'm such his count is pretty high as well.

Rob wrote: "I could swear goodreads had a page that would list your most read authors but I can't for the life of me find it any more. Maybe they removed it.

I know I've read a LOT of Stephen King due to Dark..."

They removed the "most read authors" thing a couple years ago. It's too bad; I used to look at that all the time to see who was "winning".

Phil wrote: "They removed the "most read authors" thing a couple years ago. It's too bad; I used to look at that all the time to see who was "winning""

Ah ok. I didn't look at it too often, but I did like checking it from time to time. This thread reminded me of that.

I really don't know what the goal/plan Amazon has for this site beyond "sell more books", but I feel like the site has mostly stagnated. The applications are mostly useless.

There is little to no integration between kindle or audible and the website and they just remove features (they are removing events) without adding or improving to the core functionality.

It's one of the reasons I spend more time on discord now than I do on goodreads.

The main thing that keeps me here is this bookclub and the bookshelf stuff.

Mark wrote: "Donald Hamilton
Ian Fleming

I miss the Most Read Authors feature of Goodreads which made answering this question very easy."

Somebody (may have been Trike) posted how to take the Goodreads extract data then use Pivot Table in Excel to get your most read authors. I did a search for that post but could not find it :(

My most read author is currently Michael Moorcock (44), but will soon be eclipsed by Ed McBain (34) as I'm working my way through the 54 book, 87th Precinct novels.

AndrewP wrote: "I did a search for that post but could not find it"

This post? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Louie wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "I did a search for that post but could not find it"

This post? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

No, I found that post but it doesn't have what I'm looking for. The post I am referring to had a quick tutorial, with screenshots, on how to manipulate the data. I saved a copy but not sure how to repost it here.

I am surprised more people haven’t listed David Eddings. One of my co-workers was reading Pawn of Prophecy on a break and said I would like it. He was wrong, I loved it. Spent the next month reading both Belgariad and Malloreon series. Well most of Malloreon the last 2 books weren’t released yet.

Guilty pleasure. Think a reread is now on my todo list for the summer.

AndrewP wrote: "Louie wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "I did a search for that post but could not find it"

This post? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

No, I found that post but it doesn't have what I'm looking for. The post I am referring to had a quick tutorial, with screenshots, on how to manipulate the data. I saved a copy but not sure how to repost it here...."

It wasn’t me. The extent of my computer knowledge is “turn it off then on again” and “hit it on the side.”

I recall that thread, too, but also couldn’t find it. Maybe it got purged.

I’ve been using https://imgbb.com/ to post pictures. It’s free and fairly intuitive.

AndrewP wrote: No, I found that post but it doesn't have what I'm looking for. The post I am referring to had a quick tutorial, with screenshots, on how to manipulate the data. I saved a copy but not sure how to repost it here...."

Here you go, I put a new one together for everyone. This uses the goodreads export feature and google sheets.
https://imgur.com/a/kuD6cpZ


From doing this just now, looks like my most read authors are Ryk Brown (no surprise there lol), Stephen King (thanks dark tower), James S. A. Corey, and Jack Campbell. Craig Alaison is quickly climbing the list with his Expeditionary force series.

A "most read" feature on Goodreads would be useless to us older readers. Most of the books I read were before Goodreads was a thing.

I had 40 years of reading before Goodreads started (2006)

Tassie Dave wrote: "A "most read" feature on Goodreads would be useless to us older readers. Most of the books I read were before Goodreads was a thing.

I had 40 years of reading before Goodreads started (2006)"

I did not join Goodreads until 2012, but by then I had been keeping a written reading log for 7 years, so I was able to enter that data when I joined.

In my romance days, my binge authors were Julie Garwood and Johanna Lindsey.

My one constant since the late 70s in elementary school/middle school has been Stephen King.

So since I'm stubborn I modified my Goodreads parser app rather than just using the pivot table which would have been far faster.

I'm also not sure my code is super efficient either, but it works. So here is my top "10" (it's really more due to ties).

Incidentally, not sure if the pivot table is taking into account if you've actually read a book or simply shelved it. That definitely bit me in my first implementation since I've shelved a bunch more King books I haven't read yet.

This output is accurate as of January 2021 (I didn't bother to re-export my data today)

The other caveat is there are probably a bunch of books pre goodreads I didn't import/add to my shelves.

Author Counts:
*****************************************
1: Hajime Isayama - 36
2: Jim Butcher - 31
3: Stephen King - 30
4: Brandon Sanderson - 24
5: Brian K. Vaughan - 23
6: John Grisham - 18
6: John Scalzi - 18
7: Robin Hobb - 16
7: James S.A. Corey - 16
7: Michael J. Sullivan - 16
8: Robert Jordan - 15
9: Terry Pratchett - 13
10: Simon R. Green - 11
10: Joe Abercrombie - 11
10: Steven Erikson - 11
10: Django Wexler - 11
10: G. Willow Wilson - 11
*****************************************

Graphic Novels and Manga kind of skew these numbers a bit.

Now that I have this in my head I'm sure I'll make a few more iterations on this code until I'm happier with it.

Good enough for now. Especially since I should have gone to bed over an hour ago..

I actually have a log of all my books read since I was fairly young (I've only started adding dates to the entries when I was 14, but I have 170 entries from before that, so I assume it goes back until not long after I started reading.

I think most of my 'author binges' were from my childhood and early teenage years, as the following table of authors with most books shows:

1. Stephen King - 32
2. R. L. Stine - 31
3. Thomas Brezina - 25 (German author of children's books)
4. Joanne K. Rowling - 17
4. Terry Pratchett - 17
6. Raymond Feist - 16
7. Wolfgang Hohlbein - 14
8. Ken Follet - 12
9. Tad Williams - 12
10. Alan Dean Foster - 11

Now that is very interesting, because only 3 of those I've probably read anything of in the last 5-10 years (Terry Pratchett, Raymond Feist and Alan Dean Foster), which just shows that ve used to have a lot more time for reading.

As for my childhood/teenage reading stuff, it seems that I have read more of Rowling than she actually wrote, but that is just because I count books that I've read in more than one language individually and the Harry Potter series was the first real books I've read when learning English. (The philosopher's stone is the only book I've read in 3 languages I believe).

I've also read most of the Stephen King stuff before I turned 14, which now that I have kids of my own, has me a bit worried...

Rob wrote: "Incidentally, not sure if the pivot table is taking into account if you've actually read a book or simply shelved it. That definitely bit me in my first implementation since I've shelved a bunch more King books I haven't read yet."

You're right, it's not!! I've updated the tutorial to filter out unread books. Thanks for pointing that out!

https://imgur.com/a/kuD6cpZ

I don't have numbers, but some stuff I've read en masse -

All the JD Robb In Death books
Almost all the Nero Wolfe novels of Rex Stout
All or almost all (not sure) the Travis McGee novels of John D. MacDonald
Tons and tons of Mercedes Lackey novels
All Lois McMaster Bujold
All the Nalini Singh Psy-Changeling novels, plus others
All the Patricia Briggs Mercyverse novels plus others
Most Agatha Christie

Wouldn't be surprised if I could add a few others.

I have kept a paper log since the 1970's and have been slowly adding them to Goodreads. The problem is some older obscure works are not in Goodreads. I'm in the Goodreads Librarians group but adding them requires time consuming research to get enough data to make it acceptable.

Since I joined Goodreads, here are the top 10:

	Brian Wood		26 (DMZ and other graphic novels)
	Margret Rey		14 (Curious George)
	Larry Correia		14
	Garth Ennis		13 (The Boys and other graphic novels)
	Martha Wells		12
	Mary Robinette Kowal	11
	Marko Kloos		10
	Brian K. Vaughan	10 (Saga graphic novels)
	Neal Stephenson		9
	Mo Willems		9 (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus)

I was kind of surprised that the kids' books had worked their way into the ranking.
Definitely an incomplete view due to not capturing my first 20+ years.

For books I've shelved on Goodreads, here are the ones I've read 10 or more from:

10 - Tad Williams (fantasy)
10 - George R. R. Martin (fantasy and SF)
13 - Neal Stephenson (fantasy and SF)
13 - Lemony Snicket (fantasy?)
13 - Sofie Kelly (cozy mystery)
15 - Robert Jordan (fantasy)
21 - Brandon Sanderson (fantasy and SF)
26 - David Rosenfelt (legal procedural ish)
29 - Joanne Fluke (cozy mystery)

This doesn't include books I read as a kid, so I'm 100% certain Ann M. Martin (Babysitter's Club), Beverly Cleary, and Judy Blume would be on this list.

AndrewP wrote: "Mark wrote: "Donald Hamilton
Ian Fleming

I miss the Most Read Authors feature of Goodreads which made answering this question very easy."

Somebody (may have been Tri..."

I think you are thinking of a post in another group (SciFi and Fantasy Book Club)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Since I've read the whole Discworld series Terry Pratchett has a massive lead with 42. Then I have John Scalzi and Jim Butcher with 21 and 20 in second place. Then the rest is comic book writers due to the nature of Trade Paperbacks and how many more of those I've read.

Robert Kirkman and Brian K. Vaughan being my most read comic book writers.

1. Jim Butcher - 15
2. John Scalzi - 9
3. Kevin Hearne - 8
4. Kenneth Harl - 8
5. Neil Gaiman - 8
6. J.K. Rowling - 7
7. Chuck Palahniuk - 6
8. Marie Brennan - 6

After that there's a lot of authors that I've read 4 or 5 books from. Of course, goodreads is missing all the stuff I read as a kid or else R.L. Stine would definitely be at the top of the list. Seanan McGuire would be somewhere higher on the list too if it weren't for pseudonyms

Robert Heinlein 45
Isaac Asimov 30
Larry Niven 25
Spider Robinson 24
Orson Scott Card 21
David Eddings 20
Robert Sawyer 19
Arthur Clarke 16
Christopher Moore 13
Terry Pratchett 12
Stephen Donaldson 12

I tried out the Excel method linked to by Conal

Ben Aaronovitch 49
Donald Hamilton 42
Don Pendleton 36
Peter David 35
John Scalzi 32
Arthur W. Upfield 29
Steve Brewer 26
Aimée Thurlo 26
Richard Stark 25
Steven F. Havill 24

The numbers for Aaronovitch and Scalzi are skewed because I read individual Rivers of London comics instead of trade paperback collections, and Scalzi published a serialized book a few years back.

These are mostly crime and spy novels because that's what I frequently read back in the day.

David wrote: "I am surprised more people haven’t listed David Eddings. One of my co-workers was reading Pawn of Prophecy on a break and said I would like it. He was wrong, I loved it. Spent the next month readin..."

David Eddings was what initially got me into the Fantasy genre. I loved The Belgariad and then after that proceeded to consume as much David Eddings as possible. I have re-read The Belgariad a number of times and will always be a favourite.

Mark wrote: "I tried out the Excel method linked to by Conal

Ben Aaronovitch 49
Donald Hamilton 42
Don Pendleton 36


Mack Bolan and Matt Helm? I read quite a few of these in my younger years. I also have a few mystery/crime novel writers on my most read list but still mostly SF/Fantasy...

Robert B. Parker 47
Anne McCaffrey 45
Raymond E. Feist 37
Gordon R. Dickson 28
Alan Dean Foster 28
David Eddings 26
Stephen King 25
Jack L. Chalker 25
Marion Zimmer Bradley 24
Timothy Zahn 23
Brandon Sanderson 22
John Scalzi 20
Jack Campbell 19
Don Pendleton 18
John D. MacDonald 18
Michael J. Sullivan 18
Will Wight 18
Brian McClellan 16
David Weber 16
E.E. "Doc" Smith 16
Orson Scott Card 15
Steve Perry 14
Isaac Asimov 14
Nathan Lowell 14
David Baldacci 13
Julian May 12
Warren Murphy 12
Robert A. Heinlein 12
Katherine Kurtz 12
F.M. Busby 12