this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
19 points (100.0% liked)

Literature

5411 readers
4 users here now

Pretty straightforward: books and literature of all stripes can be discussed here.

If you're interested in posting your own writing, formal or informal, check out the Writing community!


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Mine is Becky Chambers. I've just finished rereading all of her work, and it gave me the exact same feeling of hope I had the first time. Not groundbreaking, but soul-feeding.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Brian Jacques, of Redwall fame. I feel so lucky to have grown up on such a lovely collection of adventure stories. I have such fond memories of my mom surprising me with a new book. I picked one up the other day and read a snippet, and it was just as lovely as it ever was.

In the 1980s, Jacques worked as a milkman, on a round which included the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind.[1] He got to know the children there, and volunteered to read to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst, and began to write stories for them. So that the visually impaired children would be able to picture the scenes he was writing for them, he developed a highly descriptive style, emphasizing sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch, and kinesthetics.[6] From these short stories and reading sessions emerged Redwall, an 800-page handwritten manuscript.[7] -wikipedia

Guy was a saint, simple as.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't know if I have a favourite but Becky Chambers is excellent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Gonna piggy back on your comment to agree with OP. I get such joy from reading Becky Chambers!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Gene Wolfe, but I am a sucker for a longwinded description of a bizarre world. Definitely not for everyone. As type this I had the thought, "gods I hope he is not a shitass." BRB, got some searching to do

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Roberto Bolaño has been most influential in my life, I first read him as a teenager and many trips, career decisions and lifestyle choices during my early 20s were directly influenced by two of his books: The Savage Detectives and Last Evenings on Earth.

He's been my favorite author for a long time and certainly the writer I've read and re-read most often, but I think I've outgrown him a bit during the past year. I'm glad he's been part of my life for so long though, and I look forward to finding my next favorite author.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Currently I would have to say Becky Chambers at the moment too. I love A Closed and Common Orbit and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within the most.

I still need to read her Monk & Robot series though.

I did like To Be Taught, If Fortunate and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Record of a Spaceborn Few and I didn't really get on well though, sadly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Henry Neff, author of the Tapestry series, Impyrium, and as of this week, Witchstone.

Awesome writer. Awesome illustrator, and in 2020, he made my year. I DM'd him on Twitter asking if he had a physical copy of his 5th book in the Tapestry series that I could buy, because at that time you could only get it in e-book format. He sent me an inscribed and signed special edition as a Christmas present with a bunch of neat swag. That book is my prized possession.

www.henryhneff.com

(Honorable mentions: Christopher Farnsworth and Christopher Buehlman)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Man, that's a really tough question if I'm only allowed to pick one.

I've enjoyed some Becky Chambers books as well, though the Monk & Robot series weren't quite my cup of tea. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is one of my favourite books.

If I could wish for one new book from any author, it'd have to be Robert Brockway. His Vicious Circuit trilogy is a masterpiece in so many aspects, I've immensely enjoyed Carrier Wave and am currently following his rewrite of Rx and Fuck You In Particular, Nashville, Tennessee on Patreon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I don't have one particular favorite, but up there is Akwaeke Emezi, who wrote Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji (among many, many others). Something about their writing style just sings to my soul.