I keep a list of my favorite books on Goodreads. The list currently has 247 books on it. Happily, many of my most beloved writers are still alive and writing including Clint Smith, Maira Kalman, Bill Bryson, Erik Larson, Anne Lamott, George Saunders, and Elizabeth Strout. But there are also some of the writers whose books I have loved most will write no more books. Those are:
Émile Zola
Sid Fleischman
Terry Pratchett
Italo Calvino
Hermann Hesse
Franz Kafka
Truman Capote
George Orwell
Alexandre Dumas
John Steinbeck
Charles Dickens
Edith Wharton
Leo Tolstoy
Carol Shields
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.
Ooh nice picks! I don't read too many classic writers myself but I did enjoy some of the earlier takes on paranormal fiction! Lol.
ReplyDeleteHere's my Tuesday Post
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
Add John Steinbeck, Somerset Maugham, Robertson Davies, Ernest Hemingway and Mary Oliver to my list.
ReplyDeleteTerry Pratchett is a great answer.
ReplyDeleteMany of these are "old friends," but many are new to me. I'd add Laurie Colwin and Mary Oliver. And Anne Frank.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fascinating to see how they feel about the world today and what works they would produce as a product of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful list of impressive authors. I still need to try a book by each Herman Hesse and Emile Zola.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT list: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/ttt-humorists-i-wish-were-still-writing.html
I see some of my own favorite writers on your list. One wonders what they might have to say to us if they were alive today, how or if the intervening years since their lives ended might change their message.
ReplyDeleteSo many greats here--Tolstoy. Imagine if he written a novel on the end of the Romanovs and coming of the Bolsheviks!! Wow! If you "liked" [not the correct word really] Grapes of Wrath check out TC Boyle's Tortilla Curtain a sort of update of it focusing on the labor undocumented immigrants. It is 30 years old now, but still worth it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recommendation, Lisa.
DeleteI would add Rosamunde Pilcher, Laurie Colwin, Willa Cather, and Pat Conroy, if I were making this list.
ReplyDeleteRosamunde Pilcher! I have read MANY of her books back in the day.
DeleteI'm sure my husband would love some new Terry Pratchett books.
ReplyDeleteHere's my TTT for the week: https://readbakecreate.com/my-most-read-authors-of-all-time/
I have actually read several of these authors and heard of most of them. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi dear Deb, I enjoyed your list of books! My Monday post is up but because Blogger has been acting up every now and then, my post never appeared in the Blogger news reader.
ReplyDeleteI am a bit late in responding to blogs, as I had a bone density exam today.
Thank you so much for sharing, dear friend!
Wyatt and I just read By the Great Horn Spoon! I had never read it and it was a fun one.
ReplyDeleteGreat list. I haven't read any of them though.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your choices. For me, the ones I really miss are those that I read religiously for 20 or 30 years before they passed on, people like Larry McMurtry, Leonard Elmore, and Philip Roth.
ReplyDeleteGreat picks! I think Terry Pratchett might be the most popular author in this week's TTT. I still haven't read his books yet but I've only heard great things!
ReplyDeleteI have never read Terry Pratchett. I need to remedy that.
ReplyDeleteLovely idea. There are some great ones there that I totally agree with you. Calvino, Dickens, Hesse, Orwell, Shields, Steinbeck, Tolstoy ... But I can do without Kafka. He was my most hated author in school and I still can't warm to him.
ReplyDeleteI listed contemporary German authors:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2026/05/top-ten-tuesday-top-twelve-german.html
Like someone said above, it would be really interesting to see what some of these classic authors make of contemporary issues and themes.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Interesting list. So many great authors.
ReplyDeleteYou clearly love the classics! I do wish Jane Austen was still alive and writing. And it would be interesting to see what Dickens would do with the current state of the world, and what Shakespeare would do with modern language and today's poetic and musical rhythms. Can't you just see a collaboration between Shakespeare and Lin Manuel Miranda?
ReplyDeleteTerry Pratchett made my list, also (in what I think of as the honorary mention section, because I have only read one or two of his books so far.)
“Can't you just see a collaboration between Shakespeare and Lin Manuel Miranda” Absolutely!
DeleteI have recently taken on reading Terry Pratchett! I love the Witch Series...dee-light-ful!
DeleteI really wonder what Orwell would think of society right now. How are you? I know I haven't been visiting but life.. that's all I have. Hope you are well.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear what Orwell thinks of our present-day world. I'm doing well. I have not been visiting as much as I want...I need to get back to doing that.
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