Top Three Most Read Authors

[Ammanas]

So not necessarily your favorite author, but which three authors have you read the most? Rereads do not count; so if you have read Way of Kings 30 times it still only counts as one. For me:

1. Glen Cook- I own and have read everything he has written, some several times, (except for one that he wrote under a another name and is impossible to find). I have long ceased been able to write a unbiased review of his works. His style is not for everyone, but I feel he writes with a honesty and realism that is refreshing. I believe it is 52 books plus short stories.

2. Raymond E. Feist- when people ask for recommendations I usually avoid this name unless they are brand new to fantasy. I fell in love with the Riftwar series as a boy and can easily overlook the flaws this series accumulated as it progressed.  I still will pick up a book in the series, when I want something light, and happy. 21 books

3. Brandon Sanderson- I have read everything in print by him (except for Alcatraz and WoT). Unless I miscounted 15 books

Edit

I forgot about Jim Butcher. I guess he would knock Sanderson out of the top three with 16 books

Edited August 29, 2017 by Ammanas

[Sunbird she/her]

So I just went through my GoodReads to tally these up, and here are my results:

1. Brandon Sanderson with 29 novels/novellas. In this count I'm including Secret History and Edgedancer as their own things but excluding Arcanum Unbounded. (I haven't read any WoT.)

2. Rick Riordan with 25 novels/short stories. Basically all his mythology-based MG/YA stuff, and a couple of the 39 Clues books.

3. Jim Butcher with 24 books. (15 mainline Dresden Files + 1 short story collection, 6 Codex Alera, 1 Aeronaut's Windlass, and 1 Spider-Man novel)

In this tally I excluded AK Applegate's Animorphs series because lots of those were ghostwritten, but they would have blown the others out of the water with 50+ books. XD

[Modal Seoul he/him]

1. Brandon Sanderson (duh)

2. Stan Lee (that being comics he wrote)

3. Jules Verne (he's awesome)

[Draginon he/him]

Let me think...

Rick Riordon with 12 (Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus and the first books for Apollo and Magnus)

J K Rowling with 11 (I'm counting her pseudonym)

Lemony Snicket with 14 (A Series of Unfortunate Events and the Unauthorized Autobiography)

I know Stephen King is in the top 3 but I'm not sure how many books I've read exactly so he'd bump Mrs Rowling for sure.

I'm just someone who doesn't go reading every single thing ann author writes I think since I've read a bunch of books but not a lot from the same authors.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

As far as authors I will seek any and all things they have written? 

1) John Crowley

2) Anthony Powell

3) William Golding.

Haris Durrani is not on the list simply because he just started. But I'm really looking forward to any output from him

[Leiasqz she/her]

This count kind of depends on whether or not children's authors count. If they do:

1) L. E. Modesitt Jr, with 45 books.

2) Anne Cath. Vestly (norwegian childrens author) with 42 books

3) Brandon Sanderson, although it's hard to count because it depends on how one would classify "books". Basically it's "everything except infinity blade 2".

If children's books don't count, 3) becomes 2) and the last 3) is Robert Jordan, with 15 books (counting the ones Sanderson wrote as co-ops).

[Hood he/him]

1. Steven Erikson - 11 whole books. If you like epic fantasy with page long paragraphs describing how civilisation itself is the cause of its fall (or at least that's the message that I got, esp. from the Jaghuts), then he is for you. Also, please excuse him for his poetry.  

2. Brandon Sanderson - 10 books. Magic, and the structure of his books. These are the primary reasons he is one of my favourite authors.

3. Robert Jordan - 6 books. Sometimes Mat and Lanfear (Lanfear most of the time) were the only reason I read him.

This list is strange in the sense that I started my journey with GRRM, but couldn't complete his first book.

 

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Brandon Sanderson, JK Rowling and either CS Lewis or George RR Martin probably.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

Sanderson comes in at 11 (counting the stories of AU as 1.)

Steven Erikson at 10

GRRM at 9

[Ammanas]

On 9/1/2017 at 3:17 PM, AngelEy3 said:

Sanderson comes in at 11 (counting the stories of AU as 1.)

Steven Erikson at 10

GRRM at 9

Have you read GRRM's Dreamsongs? Some of those stories were pretty good. Tuf Voyaging was also kind of fun even if it's a bit dated.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Ammanas

[AngelEy3 he/him]

I have not read Dreamsongs, but I got it for my mom for her bday, so it shouldn't be too long before it's my turn to read it. 

[Erandeni he/him]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman with 23

Brandon Sanderson with 16

David Eddinngs with 10

 

[Sunbird she/her]

5 hours ago, Idealistic said:

Brandon Sanderson with 16

[Jondesu he/him]

1. Brandon. I’ve read everything he’s published, either online or in print, unless I’ve missed something.

2. Terry Goodkind. Haven’t read his books in a while, but I liked them well enough despite the long speeches he always includes.

3. Timothy Zahn. Best sci-fI writer I’ve ever read, and I’ve reread the Thrawn trilogy, as well as the Hand of Thrawn trilogy, more times than I can count.

[DSC01 he/him]

I guess it depends how we're counting the books. GRRM edits the Wild Cards series, but his actual writing input is often minimal. If we're going to count those, then he's number 1 for me, with 27 books (21 Wild Cards books, ASoIaF, and Dreamsongs). 

Then we've got the Brandon dillemma: how do we count the novellas and short stories? I read most of them separately as they came out, but if you consider everything in Arcanum Unbounded to be one book (after all, I did consider Dreamsongs to be a single book in GRRM's case), then I'm at 20 for Brandon. If they're all separate pieces, well, I'd have to count, but I think he might take the number 1 spot from GRRM.

After that, I'm not sure. I suppose Robert Jordan, but whether you count the last 3 as RJ or BS books affects the total (either 15 or 12). I've read 12 Robin Hobb books, but did I read more individual Pern books than that? I don't know. I think I only read 9 of those, but I could be wrong, and I may be forgetting about about non-Pern McCaffrey books that I read when I was young. I've probably read 11 or 12 C.S. Lewis books, too, but again, I don't really know. It hardly seems fair to count The Screwtape Letters as equal to much longer single works.

[Ammanas]

@DSC01 I believe you are thinking too hard about the question, but I appreciate your input What's your favorite Dreamsongs story? It's been a long time since I read it, but I really liked the story about the mist planet, and the one about the couple that were romantically involved and were both mind readers (sorry I can't remember more details!)

Edited September 8, 2017 by Ammanas

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

1. Mercedes Lackey. 53 if you count each anthology separately, 44 if you don't count them. 

2. Brandon Sanderson. 21 with everything in AU counted as one book

3. Rick Riordan. 15, plus some short stories. 

Looking at this list, it probably seems like I read way more short stories and anthologies than I actually do. 

[DSC01 he/him]

@Ammanas So, a little over 6 years ago, I had been in a reading rut for some time. This had always happened to me, where I'd read a lot for a while, then not be able to find any books to hold my interest, and I would just not read for months or years at a time. Then I started hearing about Game of Thrones, and I was intrigued by the concept. I began reading ASoIaF around the same time that GoT started to air, and I realized, Oh, I like fantasy. I should stop trying to force myself to read "literature" and the classics and just look for fantasy books to read. I haven't been in a rut since.

Now, I don't actually much like GRRM these days, having refined exactly what kind of fantasy I enjoy a bit more. Before casting something of a wide net in an attempt to find the books that would really appeal to me, I just read whatever GRRM books I could easily find, and that included Dreamsongs. What I'm saying is, I remember that I read Dreamsongs, but that's about it. I wish I could tell you which stories were my favorites, but...

[Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper she/her]

1. Sanderson with... 16 I think.

2. JK Rowling with 7.5 (in the middle of Cuckoo's Calling atm).

3. Stiefvater with 7. 

I read a too wide range...

 

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

1. Brandon - 38 (count is based on the "Books" list on his site; the only things I'm missing are Legion & Snapshot)

2. Christopher Fowler - "Bryant and May" mystery series - 14 (just found out there's a new one! soon to be 15!)

3. Brian MacLellan - "Powder Mage" series - 10 (counting e-books; #11 is due out in less than a month!)

Honorable mention: Spencer Quinn - "Chet and Bernie" mystery series - 9 (counting e-books)