top ten tuesday: authorpalooza

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature over at The Broke and The Bookish where we highlight a different theme every week. This week's theme is "April 21: Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors (yeah, I'm mean like that! You could narrow it down to a genre if you it REALLY kills you...or just make your list a top 20 :P )" And, as many bibliophiles will know, this is a daunting subject. I narrowed my list down to twelve, but there were nearly thirty amazing authors in the mix at one point or another. There are just so many amazing writers out there, it is hard to pick and choose favorites.

1. Rainbow Rowell – When someone asks me who my favorite author is, I often think of Rainbow Rowell first thing. I absolutely adore every single thing that she has written, and I would highly recommend her to a wide variety of readers. Her stories are real and funny, and I honestly just can't get enough.

2. John Green – Another one of my knee-jerk reactions to the question of favorite authors. I have dutifully read every single novel that John Green has ever written or contributed to, and though I have liked some more than others, there is nothing that John Green has written that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. 

3. Jane Austen– My first Austen novel was Sense and Sensibility, and I read it when I was eleven years old. Ever since then, I have been, maybe predictably, in love with Austen and her entire world. When I visited Bath, in the UK, where Austen spent a lot of time, I nearly lost my mind. Though my favorite novel of hers is Mansfield Park, I truly do adore each one of her novels. 

4. Sarah J Maas– I just read my first novel by Sarah J Maas last fall, and she immediately became one of my favorites. Her Throne of Glass series is one of the most epic, completely compelling and readable series that I have ever read, and I cannot wait to get my hands on A Court of Thorns and Roses soon. Maas is newer to me but definitely up here in the list of my favorites. 

5. Morgan Matson– I must admit, I was interested in Matson for a while, but never got around to reading any of her novels. Then, when I finally read Since You've Been Gone, I fell in love and read her other two novels in quick succession, loving every single second of the experience. It has been a while since I was so completely swept up by a contemporary author, and I can't wait to see what else Matson has to offer. 

6. Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket – One of my primary childhood influences (is this a scary statement? probably) I tore through A Series of Unfortunate Events several times in my formative years. He is so funny and clever, though, I soon expanded my reading experience to those books beyond just the series, and I have yet to be disappointed. 

7. Stephanie Perkins– It has been a good amount of years since I first read Anna and the French Kiss, and after about eight rereads (and several reads and rereads of her subsequent two novels) I can firmly say that I will never get tired of Stephanie Perkins' writing. She has such a talent for characters, and I cannot help but fall in love with her writing, every single time. 

8. Rick Riordan – My love for Rick Riordan's stories goes back to when I first read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief when I was 11 years old. I had never read anything like it, and I kept up with his new releases every single year until the Heroes of Olympus series finished last fall. I can't wait for his new series to begin this October, though I am sad to be leaving some of my absolute favorite characters behind.

9. J.R.R Tolkien– Tolkien is another one of those authors that captured my imagination when I was in middle school, and the first time I read the Fellowship of the Ring was such a magical experience for me, I cannot imagine a favorite authors list without Tolkien on it. 

10. Shannon Hale– It seems that I have loved so many of these authors since I was a child, because Shannon Hale is another author who shaped my young adolescence. I read The Goose Girl and Princess Academy over and over, and I still have yet to read a book of Hale's that I haven't loved. 

11. J.K Rowling– Guys. Come on guys. J.K. Rowling has to be on your list! Where would we all be without Harry Potter? 

12. Gail Carson Levine – Ella Enchanted was just one of the many amazing novels that Gail Carson Levine wrote that I loved. There are many other fairy tales, short stories, and fantastical worlds to visit, and I love every single one of them. 

There are so many other amazing authors! It was so hard to pick just these. What are some of your choices for this list? 

xx

Sunny