Thursday, February 19, 2009

Favorite authors through time

Crossposted from Facebook, because it seemed to fit here, too.

Instructions: List your ten favorite authors when you were ten years old, and your fifteen favorite authors when you were fifteen years old. Star those who are on both lists. Then list ten authors you love whom you discovered after the age of 15! The final step: decide on your five favorite authors of all time.


MY 10 FAVORITE AUTHORS WHEN I WAS 10
(in no particular order)

CS Lewis*
Marguerite Henry
Walter Farley
Judy Blume*
Beverly Cleary
Donald F. Glut (wrote a novelization of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that I read to *tatters* in 4th grade)
Katherine Paterson
Anna Sewell
Whoever wrote the Encyclopedia of the Horse that I had back then
Whoever wrote the Time-Life book on Early Man I used to get out of the library again and again.

After the first five, this was really tough. Mostly I just read my favorite books over and over again. And I was surprisingly into non-fiction, or at least pseudo-non-fiction, for a girl who would grow up to write fiction. My local library had a series of fictionalized biographies of the childhoods of early Americans that I loved--I especially remember the ones about George Washington, Robert E Lee, Douglas MacArthur, and Tecumseh, for some reason. I also read a lot of military history written for kids. There was a whole series on WWII.

It strikes me that I was a somewhat strange kid.

MY 15 FAVORITE AUTHORS WHEN I WAS 15
(also in no particular order)

CS Lewis*
Judy Blume*
Jean Auel
Belva Plain
Alexandra Ripley
Celeste de Blasis
Georgette Heyer
Clare Darcy
Candice Ransom
Charlotte Bronte
Anne Frank
Mary Francis Shura
Taylor Caldwell
John Jakes
Margaret Mitchell

Fifteen-year-old Susan sure loved her some family sagas...

TEN GREAT AUTHORS I DISCOVERED AFTER THE AGE OF 15

Jane Austen
Patrick O'Brian
Louisa May Alcott (I know! But I never read her as a child!)
LM Montgomery (see note on Alcott)
Bernard Cornwell
Dorothy Sayers
Jacqueline Carey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lindsey Davis
Bill Bryson

MY FIVE FAVORITE AUTHORS OF ALL TIME

Jane Austen
CS Lewis
Dorothy Sayers
Patrick O'Brian
Bernard Cornwell

2 comments:

Carmi Cimicata said...

Hello Wellington friend!
I was wondering when I would finally meet one! Thank you for popping by my blog! It is great to have another blog to visit!

Susanna Fraser said...

There are a few of us out there! Thanks for stopping by!