My Favorite Authors

For the longest time, my favorite author was Meg Cabot. I was about 12 or 13 when I first discovered her Princess Diaries series, and I thought it was the best series ever. Soon, I was reading everything by Cabot, from her 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series (I was in love with the lead male character, Rob Wilkins!) to The Mediator series, and all of her standalone books, like Teen Idol and All-American Girl. Somewhere along the way, though, I became disenchanted with Cabot and her writing. Change around the character name and the setting, give the main heroine problem like becoming the princess of a foreign country or saving the life of the US president, throw in a love interest that the girl would inevitably get together with at the end, and the premise of the story would always be the same. Once I became familiar with all of her books and her writing style, there were too many similarities with each novel for my liking, so I stopped reading her books.

Now that Cabot has been out of my “favorite author” picture for a while, I have decided on my two all-time favorite authors. My first favorite author is Roald Dahl. I have loved his books for as long as I can remember, and the best part about his books is that they remain timeless. No matter what age you are, you will always enjoy the brilliance that is The Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or my personal favorite, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Quentin Blake’s illustrations are fabulous, and I love how creative, inventive, and clever Dahl is with his stories. My copy of the Roald Dahl Treasury is well-worn as I’ve gone through it so many times, and I am working on owning every Dahl book that is in print as I love his writing so much!

My second favorite author is Sarah Dessen. I own a copy of every book she has pubished (to date, she has published nine) and am always eager to reread them to escape into the rich, vivid world she creates for each of her characters. I love how her later novels mention some of her earlier characters here and there, such as how in This Lullaby, Scarlett from Someone Like You was a minor character. It helps the feeling that her novels are all in the same world, and they’re so realistic and true that hey, the fictional town of Lakeview, where all of her books are set, could be just only one town away from you. My favorite Dessen novels are Someone Like You and This Lullaby, with Lock and Key a very close second. However, I have yet to read Along for the Ride, Dessen’s latest release, so my favorite could very well change after reading her latest book!

Question of the Week: Who are your favorite authors?

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.