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I can't really pick just one.
I love Daniel Keyes and his novel Flowers for Algernon, that will always be up there as one of my favourites.
I also love Charlaine Harris (as you can tell from the Sookie Stackhouse series thread).

It's easier for me to tell you which authors I really hate razz

It's about an adult 'retard' (that's the expression used in the book, not my own choice of words) called Charlie who has an IQ of something like 60 ... and he's being tutored by his teacher Miss Kinnian (can't remember how to spell her name).
Some scientists have done surgery on a mouse (Algernon) and made it smarter and they want to try the surgery on Charlie to see if it heightens the level of intelligence in people as well.
The book is composed of Charlie's diaries as he faces all of his mental challenges with a new way of understanding.

That's how I describe it to people anyway razz
It's such a heart-warming book.


Authors I hate include George Orwell, Cormac McCarthy, Sebastian Faulks and ... although it's only a dislike rather than a hate ... J K Rowling. I find Harry Potter VERY tiresome now.

Oh right it's the one with the mouse. I just put it on hold at library actually. I really want to read it now. It sounds good.


I've never read the first three. I've never even heard of Cormac or Sebastian. But I somewhat agree with J K Rowling. I liked it when I read them four years ago? I think I read them then. But they don't really appeal to me anymore.

George Orwell wrote 1984 and animal farm (although, after reading half way through 1984, I never bothered with that one). I was never forced to read it for school or anything, so I hate it of my own free will razz
It's like the original big brother theory, so it's all based around politics etc, and it drives me crazy. I also don't like Orwell's writing style, I find it very dry and hard to swallow (I think my metaphor there was quite appropriate).
Cormac McCarthy is a really well-established writer, and he's really, very well critically acclaimed. I read his book 'The Road' not too long ago, and it just made absolutely no sense to me. I didn't like his writing style at all, it was very choppy and so I had no idea what was meant to be happening. The speech wasn't indicated with speech marks and it was not made clear which character was speaking. There were NO chapters. It was just one whole piece of writing and so it became difficult because of the style to tell whether what was happening was directly after the last event or whether there was any significant amount of time between them.
I just found it very disappointing and grim after how much it had been praised.

FINALLY! Someone who agrees with me about Harry Potter. I usually get shouted at (or typed at in capital letters), or looked at in a very peculiar way when I say I don't like it, but it's really repetitive in style and in plot. I did used to like it ... about 4 years ago like you said, when I was 14. After that it became an overrated nuisance.

You really should read Flowers for Algernon though. It's a beautiful story.

Garth Nix is my favorite author. Diana Wynne Jones comes in second.

I'm reading The Road right now because a friend of mine insisted I read it. He loves it, but I hate the writing style. Like Vogue Muffin said, it's very choppy, no quotations for speech. I can't follow along at all, but I'm struggling through it for my friend.
I have a feeling I'm going to end up with a severe dislike for Cormac McCarthy.

Seeing as you agree with me so strongly, I think you will end up hating Cormac McCarthy too!
I mean... by the time I got to page 100, I still had NO IDEA what was meant to be going on. I just knew there was lots of death and a Road. I couldn't work out if the little boy was actually the guy's son or not ... and it's so choppy it's just unreadable.

I have no idea if his other books are written like that or not, but frankly, I don't really want to find out. ><