Who do you have most books by?

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I just started a music one on ILM. Since I also have my books in something purporting to be a database (two tables, totalling five fields, advaned database fans!) I can also generate a list of authors. You'll be aware that some people have written far more books than others, obviously, and some people's books are easier to find cheap than others, which means this isn't also an ordered list of favourites.

1. Ed McBain/Evan Hunter (82)
2. Philip K. Dick (53)
3. P.G. Wodehouse (41)
4. Tucker Coe/Richard Stark/Donald Westlake (28)
5= Patricia Highsmith (26)
Elmore Leonard
7= Kingsley Amis (23)
Graham Greene
John Updike
10. J.G. Ballard (22)
11. Muriel Spark (21)
12. Ross Macdonald (20)
13= Anthony Burgess (18)
George V. Higgins
15. Lawrence Block (17)
16. Emile Zola (16)
17. Alan Coren (15)
18= Joseph Conrad, Samuel Delany, Ursula LeGuin, Stanislaw Lem, Philip Roth, William Trevor, Evelyn Waugh (14)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably Terry Pratchett, although they're mostly all at my parents' house. Well, if you count all the books I have stored at my parents' house, it's probably Enid Blyton still.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:26 (twenty-three years ago)

mumblePratchettmumble

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

If I just count books I have in my flat, it goes something like 1) Scott Adams 2) Pratchett 3) Iain Banks (not M). After that, noone has more than a few each, although Alasdair Gray and Umberto Eco score high on percentage-of-total-output-owned.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't own a whole ton of books, and I tend to like to change what I'm reading a lot, so probably Nabokov, with about 7 or 8 I guess.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:33 (twenty-three years ago)

The whole Robert Jordan series probably triumphs, but I don't like to think about that. I own every Tom Robbins novel; he's got, what, 10 books?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:33 (twenty-three years ago)

The number of Stephen King books I have (34, I think) outweighs any other author by quite a distance at present.

That's not saying he's necessarily my favourite author. His work is hit & miss; I love his best work almost unreservedly.* I like a lot of authors who've never been all that prolific, though. It's not altogether possible to make a Harper Lee collection, for instance...

(*Which would include the Dark Tower series, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Misery and Dolores Claiborne.)

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:34 (twenty-three years ago)

C.S. Lewis. Probably about a dozen.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Philip K Dick = 6
Murakami = 6
Knut Hamsun = 6
Kerouac = 5

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably Italo Calvino or John Barth, but I seriously doubt I own more than seven or eight books by either of them -- mostly due to leaning really heavily on the library when I was a student.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably Hiaassen or Elmore Leonard, though for a long time it was Kerouac.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:47 (twenty-three years ago)

nope, just counted, it's pratchett for me too. then 12 by c.s. lewis (no narnia).

i haven't bought many books in a couple of years because i've discovered the goodness of the library, and the money-devouring vortex of cds.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably Victor Pelevin, but I think most of them are lent ot people.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I do not buy many books and just borrow them from the library because 1) I might as well get my money's worth from the taxes I pay and 2) rarely re-read novels 3) book collections get very, very heavy. Of the books I've read, PKD would lead in number read at 6.

― fletrejet, Monday, 10 March 2003 20:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Colette, followed by Robert Graves.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I have no idea. It's a neat question, though. It might be Delany, these days, but I have a feeling I'm forgetting someone obvious.

Oh, wait, actually it's probably Garry Trudeau, if that counts.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, sadly I have nearly no books at all (well, one good-sized bookcase's worth) because of lack of space and lack of money. That's why borrowing (from the library and from friends) is the way I usually go.

― Nicole (Nicole), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

On the moving house theme (I'm moving house, you know)... I did get rid of a humongous pile of books a while ago, which were mostly things I had when I was a kid, a lot of them quite badly beaten up. But I still have quite a lot. I have a lot of them packed up ready, filling most of two large boxes which I couldn't possibly lift, let alone carry. (Leave it to the removal men.) And there's a pile still left to be packed.

I was thinking that all of this could be stored electronically and only take up a small portion of an average hard drive weighing next to nothing. But somehow, real books are more sexy.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I also own at least 9 Robert Anton Wilson, uh, "novels", and considering the length of Illuminati!, I think that should count as 12 or 13 books.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:17 (twenty-three years ago)

probably harry mathews.

― john fail (cenotaph), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:24 (twenty-three years ago)

turgenev. hemmingway a close second.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Roger Hargreaves

http://www.rickanddonna.com/images/reviewsBooksFunMrTickle.gif

― oops (Oops), Monday, 10 March 2003 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

This is slightly off-topic, but I know a guy who has read roughly 100 Piers Anthony books. He scares me sometimes.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 10 March 2003 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I probably shouldnt admit Sylvia Plath being one of mine, should I? Oh well, tis the case. Also, Italo Calvino, Milan Kundera and Oliver Sacks.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 10 March 2003 23:15 (twenty-three years ago)

faulkner (14?)

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

HAHAHAHAHA I am a loser

Dave Sim

AUUUGGGH

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:13 (twenty-three years ago)

i have a half-dozen Pratchett books and about six or seven by Nick Earls

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:42 (twenty-three years ago)

which says far more about me than i'd like

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I feel so inadequate, the most of any one "literary" author I have is two I believe.

Comix though:
18 Frank Miller
11 Jeff Smith
8 Hiroaki Samura

Clearly Millar and I are illiterate.

― Leee (Leee), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthony Powell (14) - A Dance To The Music Of Time plus 2 others

Evelyn Waugh runs him close, though

― chris j (chris j), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:07 (twenty-three years ago)

16 by P.G. Wodehouse. I started collecting them (used) because our public library only has a few of them (the mostly-old foax who read them have all died, apparently. I just recently picked up four Wodehouses from the annual library book sale). On the other hand I only own one Agatha Christie book, but have read every single one (85+?).

― Poppy (poppy), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Well geez, if we're allowed to count Mr. Pole-Powell as 12 different books for Dance, then he wins with me, too. (I thought the UK editions were folded up into four movements just like ours, though?)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought the UK editions were folded up into four movements just like ours, though?

But how would that enable the publishers to screw the maximum profit out of the reader? Mine are the early '80s Fontana paperbacks with the Marc caricature covers. Anyway, as each volume was published separately between '51 and '75, I think they count even if you bulk-buy.

― chris j (chris j), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:33 (twenty-three years ago)

1. Hergé
2. Iris Murdoch!

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I s'pose Tolkien. With Charles Schulz as a close second.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 02:56 (twenty-three years ago)

This is a shocking exercise (I'm not an obsessive, I swear!): Simenon 33, Stark/Westlake 26 (meaning 24 Starks--all of 'em, I think--and 2 Westlakes), Burroughs 24, Ballard 23, Chester Himes 17, Blaise Cendrars, A. J. Liebling, and Edmund Wilson tied at 16 apiece, Raymond Roussel 15, Walter Benjamin 13, Jim Thompson and James Ellroy 12 each, Kathy Acker and Victor Serge 11 each, Traven and Kafka each 10. And I'm not counting Balzac or Mark Twain 'cause they're in omnibus volumes. But wait--Phil Dick wrote 53 books??!!

― Nyarlathotep, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 05:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i double checked it is 14 faulkners thanks for asking

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 05:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I have an even dozen by Mark Twain. Next closest are Flann O'Brien and Xenophon with six each.

Oddly, I have five by Homer, since I have the Iliad and Odyssey in the translations of both George Chapman and Robert Fitzgerald, plus the lesser homerica in another volume.

A lot of the authors on my shelves are poets and their collected works are bound in a single volume. Very handy that.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 06:08 (twenty-three years ago)

john d. macdonald, ross macdonald, p.g. wodehouse. i don't keep that many fiction bks after i read em tho, also most of the bks i read come from the library

― duane, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 07:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think i have 12 Nabokovs, not counting the 2-volume Brian Boyd biography, one volume of his correspondence, another volume of his "infamous" correspondence with Edmund Wilson, his "infamous" translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, and a collection of critical essays on various Nabokov novels and stories. my excuse -- i did my senior undergrad thesis on Nabokov.

also have a shitload of Fielding, Dickens, Shakespeare (what English major doesn't?), Borges, Marquez, and James Joyce (including an unread Finnegan's Wake).

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 07:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a few by Raymond Feist (I think he has 14 so far), but I like so many different authors and my library is pretty diverse. Behind Feist is Dan Simmons and J. K. Rowling with 4 each. And don't knock the Harry Potter books, they rock.

― Brent C (A Bettik), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 07:39 (twenty-three years ago)

do books purchased for college classes count? otherwise this is only going to reflect obsessions from high school and before, namely irvine welsh and bret easton ellis. i'm a student, i don't buy/read books for FUN.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 08:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm Dutch and my favourite writer is Holland's greatest: Louis Couperus, I think he wins.

o, I have piles of Jules Verne novels but they're from my ex. I tried to read one of them once, but i could not get past 4 pages or something.

― erik, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 09:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm, I've probably got at least 6 Vonnegut and Dan Simmons lying around, 5 or so Gaiman and Neil Stephenson. The most would probably go to my old fantasy trilogy stuff, R.A Salvatore and Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 09:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Robert B. Parker (for Pete's sake!), followed by Hesse.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 09:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I have 15 Shakespeare plays up there, and I think that's probably a maximum for any writer... I am the uber-rockist!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 09:47 (twenty-three years ago)

this is interesting because you'd assume that most books=favourite author? obviously some authors are more prolific than others (mcbain? sheesh Martin).
i notice i've got loads of burroughs. but i haven't read even a third of them (Barthes too, maybe). I think at particular times i've had access (worked in 2nd hand shops, had too much time on my hands, was very interested etc) and stocked up.
I rarely buy books now (i'm a librarian fer chrissakes) and my collection is pretty unrepresentative of my current tastes. but it tracks the path of me up to a certain point.

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I borrow most stuff from the library and lately I've been borrowing stuff from martin (heh).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:28 (twenty-three years ago)

so how many precinct 80-whatever books are you up to Julio? (no Mcbain/skidmore dis intended)

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:32 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm guessing maybe john le carré? i inherited loads off my parents, certainly everything up to the russia house + maybe more.

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Joan Didion or John Irving

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

this is interesting because you'd assume that most books=favourite author?

Martin says right before the list that he isn't assuming this..

Actually, if you can include Graphic Novels, Alan Moore probably rose to the top of my list two weeks ago.

If you count single comics, then it's probably Grant Morrison. Also, I'm guessing Martin would stop looking so smart :)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 10:52 (twenty-three years ago)

True, I do separate comics, even in paperback form, from books of writing. They are separate art forms. I'm not sure that having loads of McBain (what's wrong with him, Gaz? Strong dialogue, the best weather you'll ever find...), Dick and Wodehouse is so smart anyway, to be honest - the most highbrow types never wrote so much. I mean, I have all of Borges and Joyce and Barth and Erickson, I think, but they don't make the list. I also have everything by Shakespeare, but it's in one book. Ditto Shaw's plays.

If I'd included comics in anything like book form, Schulz would be first by a distance - I have 60 or more Peanuts books. Goscinny/Uderzo second, I think. If we're talking American comic book material, I guess I have more by Jack Kirby, in all kinds of formats, than anyone else. Moore and Morrison would be some way behind.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to have a pretty large Jack Kirby collection. At some point I got seriously skint, and then, as if by magic, I no longer did.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Gordon Lish, oddly enough. I think I have 7.

― Mandee, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Ironically, though, I still have more Kirby comics than books by Stephen King. Isn't that nice.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

PKD wins here - I've got around 30.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:29 (twenty-three years ago)

How closely does his story follow the Minority Report movie? Sorry, just curious. I sort of liked the movie, even though part of me wanted to hate it. Never read any PKD stuff at all.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, I should say how closely does the movie follow... etc... but you know what I mean.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

...having loads of McBain (what's wrong with him, Gaz? Strong dialogue, the best weather you'll ever find...)

just that he's so prolific...and you keep buying them! probably nothing wrong at all with the books themselves. just surprised!

thats the thing i find interesting about this and the similar music thread. i would never have picked you for an 82 McBain guy!

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 01:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, PG Wodehouse, Rene Goscinny

― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 11:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Gaz, McBain's books can be found fairly cheaply, and I've rarely come away unsatisfied. He's not so high on my favourites list, but next time I see one I don't have for a quid, I'll grab it. Prolificness or prolificity or whatever it is is no sign of quality - Wodehouse writes as wonderful prose as anyone, and wrote 90 odd books, and the terrific Joyce Carol Oates has been putting out about two a year for forty years. I think she's probably more prolific than McBain.

I've not seen the film of Minority Report, but the story is one of his greatest. It's pretty short, and from talking to people the film adds lots of pretty conventional action-adventure stuff, and loses the best twists.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Top ones owned are Ben Elton (8), Irvine Welsh (7), Stephen Fry (6), Douglas Adams (6), Stephen King (6) but these are no real reflection on favourite authors, just what I can pick up cheap from car boot sales. I tend to take more out of the library.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 19:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Make that 9 by Douglas Adams as I just remembered I lent the Dirk Gently ones to someone, and I have Last Chance to See lying about in a suitcase somewhere.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

It did have a lot of run-of-the-mill stuff, but it was better than I thought it'd be.

Well, to be honest, I have a completely irrational aversion to movies with Tom Cruise on account of his ridiculous... er, 'religious' beliefs. But I know this is stupid and I didn't let it affect how I felt about the movie. it had some nice things in it.

I've been tempted to read some of PKD's work, even though I'm really not too hot on sci-fi. Amusing Kirby connection here: the funniest title of any Kirby list thread ever was when someone asked if Kirby had read PKD, under the subject 'Was Kirby A DickHead?'

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 19:25 (twenty-three years ago)

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