@aemathenge - hands down, Wilbur Smith is THE ONE.

Still, I think it really depends - one can swing from Anton Chekhov, to George Orwell, to Dickens, to Stephen King and find delight in these different writers. Lets not forget Soyinka and Chinua Achebe on whose books many of us were nurtured...

I still have fond memories of Jack London's "Call of the wild" and "White Fang" on which I cut my teeth in appreciating good writing many years ago...if I may share the opening paragraph....


"Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost."

well . . . Pillars of the Earth is being made into a TV Series . . . British (thus more chances of it staying true than JJ’s Dark Tower rendition is likely to be). As for Dan Brown, I think he’s stuck too much to a single formula and just as a heads up . . . the book IS ALWAYS better than the movie!!

In the crime thriller genre, one of the greatest fictional writers of the 20th century - René Brabazon Lodge Alan Raymond a.k.a. James Hadley Chase.

Widely read, hugely admired, sorely criticized, universally published and translated.

First I must recognize the skills of Stephen King. I read Pet Cemetary back in high school, and it was TERRIFYING to me at that time. At the same time, UNPUTDOWNABLE. However due to the terror effect, I kind of shied away from his books. However watched the movie Sixth Mile based on his book, and it was equally riveting.

For me, though, the author that I went back to again and again is Ludlum. I just loved his plots and counterplots. The Apocalypse Watch was one of my favorite in my high school days. I read the Bourne series a bit late after high school, and those were real page turners.

I started reading fiction back in primary school with Tintin & Asterix, moved to Hardy Boys, till Form 1 when I discovered Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, Ludlum, Mario Puzo, etc.

I did read some Dickens et al, but I must admit... I started readin in the 90s, and so did not dig as much as I probably should have.

did you know that JK Rowlings of the Harry Potter fame is the first billionaire solely from the written word.