TOP TEN TUESDAY: MY MOST-READ AUTHORS

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

The fact that I've been fully absent from this blog for about a month, and I've made the rash, 11:38pm-on-a-Monday decision to make a "Top Ten Tuesday" post for this week, is probably not one of the best ideas I've had so far in July. But being that it's about time I headed back to this platform anyways, it's one that I'm still going to commit to with this list. I promise I'll give more commentary and detail on my absence soon - and you better believe it's going to involve quite a lot of commentary on Blogger's absolutely horrible, near-unusable new platform - but for now, I am actually incredibly excited to be discussing this topic. 

Truly, when I was scrolling through my Bloglovin' feed, and saw a couple of people's own perspectives on the subject, I only kind of bemusedly pondered who my own list would include. Some were a given: I'm sitting fully across my bedroom from one of my bookcases, and can still see the Agatha Christies taking up a full shelf of them. But with others, I wasn't so sure... I have a voracious habit to reread books, at least one or two "old" ones a month, so while it might be true I've only really read a handful of Mark Twain books, I reread The Adventures of Tom Sawyer every summer. But whose canon have I really invested my time and attention in? 

Here are the results I came up with: 

1. Agatha Christie

The Queen of Crime, and an obsession of mine since I was in the seventh grade. I had a best friend whose extended family was from England, and another whose parents were direct transplants, so it made sense to join on in the fun. Her tomes now take up two very specific shelves in my room: the ones I've read (27), and the ones on the opposite side of the room I haven't (11... oh, and her autobiography!). If you're staggered by that second number, please understand that she's one of my favorites to search for in secondhand bookstores. They always have the better covers! 

2. Tamora Pierce

Truly an experience that shaped my adolescence, was picking up my first Tamora Pierce novel at the age of 14 (Trickster's Choice, in case you were wondering). Since then, I've read and reread various books of hers every single summer, plus more times throughout the year when I feel like I need inspiration. There are still a few I've never gotten around to - I tried at Alanna's series when I was in my early 20s, and could barely get past the first few chapters, while I remember so little of Daine's, I barely count it - but her authorial voice and flair for compelling Fantasy is still one of my favorites. After years of hemming and hawing over whether to lend any of my copies to my similarly-minded 18-year-old brother, he surprised me by reading almost all of the Tortall books during the Covid-19 crisis. Truly a universally-beloved author! 

3. Jasper Fforde

I've read every installment so far in the Thursday Next series, save the latest, and I've read every book in the Jack Spratt spin-off series, too. In fact, I've read everything he's published in the years between 2001 and 2007, plus one after the fact, and I own two more novels (one Thursday, one not) I haven't read. His skewering of British pop culture and literature and history alike has never been anything but hilarious to me, since I started reading them in high school... and I'm actually in the middle of doing a reread right now! 

4. J. K. Rowling

I know, I know. Things are a little tense with Mrs. Rowling right now. And I absolutely, unequivocally state that I recognize why, and I do not support her beliefs. At the same time, I stand in the same quandary that so many of us are currently facing: her books defined not only my childhood, but also my adolescence, being that the last movie came out the summer before my senior year of high school. There was a period of time where not only I read solely Harry Potter books, but I read them back-to-back-to-back, in a never-ending carousel of managing thick, brightly colored hardcovers peeking out from between my heavy textbooks. It is a shame. 

5. Scott Westerfield

I had such an incredible Scott Westerfield period as an early teenager. Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras may have been the title everyone else glommed on to, but it was his standalone, So Yesterday - about a teenage trend forecaster, and the intersections of fashion and anarchy and technology and more - that I remember the most. Also, the Midnighters series, which was so loveably goofy in its early-2000s intensity. I wonder if they hold up? 

6. Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket's work absolutely holds up. Not only did I reread all of the books in the Series within the last couple of years, and can personally attest that they hold up, but as anyone who has watched and loved all three seasons of the television show can tell you, they are a wonderful adaptation of the source material, and they make for really compelling and engaging media, too. What a guy! 

7. Leigh Bardugo

As I mentioned before, I have the honor and distinction of having introduced my brother to the incredible Tamora Pierce, but I also was an early endorser of reading of Leigh Bardugo, too! After tearing through the Grisha trilogy, and the Six of Crows duology, and Language of Thorns, she became his proudly-announced favorite author. And in turn, because he read them and loved them so much, so, too, have I read alongside him... albeit at a much slower pace. I still haven't gotten to Ninth House yet, but I'll make it at some point. 

8. "Carolyn Keene" 

This one almost feels like cheating, because as we all know, Carolyn Keene is not real. Her name is, instead, a pseudonym created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and her books are based on the generous outlines generated by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, with the narratives filled in by a range of ghost authors, most notably and vitally, Mildred Wirt Bensen. None of this changes the fact that I was - and will always be - a total Nancy Drew kid, and I own all of the original titles in their later-period yellow covers, plus a handful of WWII-era copies, and even that dopey little cash-grab, The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, all of which bear her name. 

9. William Shakespeare

Okay, this one almost feels like a joke to write, but it's not. Between a robust high school English department reading list, a college course that sometimes feels like it changed my life, and a full appreciation as an adult, I have read at least nine - more than half of those multiple times -  and I have two more on my TBR shelf (Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice). I know it is almost old hat to bring up a love of the Bard as someone who graduated with an English Lit degree... but it's not going to stop me from saying it. 

10. Jamie Oliver, technically speaking

Here's the deal: I read a LOT of Food Writing. Food media is pretty much my favorite kind, actually, when you consider the amount of man-hours I invest in the Food Network on a weekly basis. But nothing - nothing! - will every come close to my teenage Jamie Oliver fixation: I own seven of his cookbooks and have read them all cover to cover (and let's not even mention the 17 copies I have of his magazine, from between '09 and '14, intact and tucked in the corner of my cookbook shelf). 

What's in your Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below!