He was extremely important in the 30’s but he didn’t believe in God. I would love to debate with him knowing the history of WW1, the 20’s, 30’s, and beyond.
Nietzsche or Salinger…I’d love to be able to ask them questions about writing, bringing about truth and love of life through character and plot. I feel they’re my top two favourite authors.
I met Truman Capote by coincidence at JFK airport . I was escorting my brother to a flight and he wanted a drink. We sat at the bar and my brother turns to the man sitting next to him and says, “Aren’t you Truman Capote”…then my brother introduces me and starts a casual conversation. This was many years ago and my teenaged brother is the type of character Truman would write about.
Virginia Woolf or James Joyce – ironically they were best friends, until she and her husband wouldn’t publish Ulysses. I would try to get them back together again.
Rainbow Rowell because she is also from the Midwest like me and I think that is why I feel such a strong kinship with her novels, short stories, and comics.
John Sanford as I have already had the great pleasure of meeting Kwame Alexander. I only picked from living as it would have been too difficult otherwise.
C.S. Lewis. First, because he wrote my favorite books of all time, the Chronicles of Narnia. Second, because he seems like a very wise and analytical person with a Christian viewpoint, and I feel like I could get some wise guidance/advice from him.
I would also say Ken Kesey but I had met him several times. My late husband was very good friends with him and Ed McClanahan. I could listen to Ken talk for hours. What a great story teller.
She’s been adapting her current stuff to television and movies, plus she’s working on an Amazon series. It sounds like she’s keeping busy, but she is writing a new book ?
I wrote to him as a grown-up, thanking him for his show. He wrote back after a couple of months. True to form, the letter began “you sound like a very special person.”
i have had the opportunity to have several intimate book reads, when I lived in Raleigh, NC (his home town). True story: I was in traffic in Raleigh and saw a white van that said “Sedaris Flooring.” My mind went…..brother Paul? Seems in line. Then I saw smaller lettering that said “Silly P.” Bingo!
I’m a lifelong Dodgers fan. Her “Wait Till Next Year” is one of my two favorite non-fiction books of all time. I was fortunate to attend one of her appearances several years ago & get a signed copy (actually two signed copies!).
I was fortunate to hear May speak at the Boston Public Library in the mid 70’s. It was fascinating to listen to her process of creation, her character creation and particularly the physical and mental toll it takes on an invested writer to produce a novel. I love all her works from her Journals through her fiction. Highly underrated and not that well known which I find baffling.
Shirley Jackson; she used to live near where I live now in Upstate NY; she was in Vermont in a close by town and wrote about her children as well as the House on the Hill and other scary stories. She reminds me of my mother who was very creative, and funny, but could be pretty scary too!
I’ve met Jeffery Deaver (Wonderful person!), Sara Paretsky and heard talks from Diana Gabaldon and Stephen King. I would LOVE to have the chance to sit and chat with Charles Dickens, but of course that is not possible…
Steinbeck! I have a related regret: I was in the Salinas valley area for a job interview a fews year back. After the interview I knew I didn’t want the job, so saw no reason to be going back to the area. On the way to the airport I saw a sign for the John Steinbeck museum and pondered paying to change my ticket. The regret is that I didn’t change my travel plans.
But for real the one I want most to meet is an author no one has heard of- Charles Williams. He was a member of the Inklings and wrote 7 incredible supernatural thrillers no one reads.
Joy Kravetz Berger his writing is turgid which is why he will never have a great following. It is the Christian mysticism in his stories that changed my life. He was a theologian. He literally taught me about the nature of reality, Grace, evil, etc.
Oh yes. One of mine and my daughter’s favorite authors. We went to England to the Bronte parsonage and walked up on the moors to hear the wuthering. It was one of my favorite days with her when she was a teen, sharing our love of literature.
Genesis Mary MC we traveled to DeSmet, South Dakota, Laura Ingells Wilder, Giverrne France after reading Linea in Monet’s Garden, Atlanta to MLK’s home after she read about him in 2nd grade and later to Margaret Mitchell’s home. Oh and Williamsburg after reading the American Girls series. We were not rich in money but wealthy in words. Needless to say she majored in English.
@Kathleen when I finished I was so angry I threw the book down and went to my basement to stomp around till I cooled down, my husband thought it was hilarious that I was so upset!
I would want to meet Edgar Allen Poe. And one of the first things that I would want to tell him is that over 100 years after his death, the city in which he died (which is also my hometown) named their football team after his most famous poem. Because I think that would make him laugh.
There are three: Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe), and Frances Maye (Under the Tuscan Sun)
Scott actually plagiarized some of his work….He used to carry a note pad around and write down all the crazy stuff that Zelda said….then he would incorporate those quotes into his novels verbatim….one favorite quote from The Great Gatsby is attributed to Zelda….”I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”….
Amor Towles, J. K. Rowling, Leon Uris, Ken Follet, Amy Tan, Phillipa Gregory, Maeve Blinchy, Robert Ludlum, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Irving, Harper Lee. Just to name a few. Oh, and of course, Jane Austin.
I really admire J. K, Rowling having not yet started reading any of her books. She would be high on my list. Nora Ephron, Alice Walker, Barak Obama, Colin Powell, Mark Twain…..the list is too long to complete. I have already had the honor of meeting J. A. Jance and Elmore Leonard and several other favorite contemporary authors at book signings.
I’m reading my first James Baldwin now. It has been in my bookcase for a while but when I saw Another Country on the GAR list I remembered that I hadn’t read it yet.
Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read one of her books when I was a little girl and loved it. Somehow I never discovered the little house on the prairie series as a child. But, I love the tv show. Also, I have read her biography off and on. It is good.
St. Paul. The author of The Letters to the Corinthians and Letters to the Galatians. I have many questions I would like to ask. I would like to meet Moses, too.
I almost mentioned Louisa May Alcott in my list, but just saw a documentary on her, she wasn’t very gracious to her fans. So, I didn’t include her in my list.
JK Rowling, Kate Serady, Jim Kjelgaard, Barbara Kingsolver, Isabel Allende, Nicholas Sparks. I was due to meet Diana Gabaldon this week on an Outlander cruise, unfortunately had to cancel due to injury…so bummed 🙁
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Michael Bond. I first read Fitzgerald’s books when I was 13 and “the Great Gatsby” is still my all time favorite. Bond because Paddington Bear has always been my friend no matter what was going on in the world.
I got to meet the author of one of my favorite childhood books, TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd in upstate New York in HIS home for over an hour. I felt so blessed. It wasn’t planned, I was visiting a friend and another’s friend mother, the author Ruth Stiles Gannett who wrote MY FATHER’S DRAGON was at an event. I saw all of her adoring fans lined up to speak with her, and I thought, who would I want to meet. I happened to ask one of Ruth’s daughters if she’d heard of TIME AT THE TOP, and she said, “Oh, Ed lives around the corner from Mother.” I was visiting from NEW MEXICO, and I just got chills, realizing I was so close to “Ed.” Needless to say, I was at his front door the next day.
Be right there with you ladies, I am actually to the point of being a bit angry that he is not finishing this…but, it is being finished on HBO. I did get their channel to see the ending, but will cancel when it is over. Ticked off!?
James is not invited to our tea! He is always sneaking into any conversation of Edith. And she is the far better writer… it’s a lifelong peeve of mine. Maybe he can meet up later…
@Betty yes, I understand you, seems they’re often mentioned together. When I first read their books, I would read her, then him, sort of taking turns, don’t know why really but now when I hear of one the other pops into my mind. Ethan Frome is one of my favorites but I loved all hers, did you ever read her anthology of ghost stories? Fine stories and not the typical ghost story. Must ask if you’ve read The Turn Of The Screw, my favorite of his shorter works.
@Shelley I hoard and collect Wharton novels…I’m keeping a few back so I have a couple to look forward to as I age. It’s silly, but I love her. I would highly recommend The Children. It’s funny and bittersweet. I wish PBS or BBC would film it for Masterpiece Theatre! I mean how many versions of Jane Eyre & Little Women do we really need? So many great books they ignore. I do appreciate James, but he makes his women..well..not very bright, which is why I think, in film versions, the ends of the stories are usually tweaked. Even Scorsese could not improve on Wharton. As a kid I loved the film versions of Turn of Screw & Washington Square, but was then a smidge disappointed by the weakness of the characters in the book versions.
@Shelley I’m a horror buff…so it’s in my too excited to read pile – crazy huh? but I have a feeling I have probably already done damage to the cannon in short story compilations. I’ve read tons of those themed collections, ghosts, monsters, vampires…even zombies! lol I did start it a couple of times and realized I had already read the first 2-3 in my Edith…and then put it down…but I will!
Agatha Christy. She created 2 of my favorite characters in ligature. Hercule Peroit and Miss Marple. They are as different as could be, but both solve crimes. Many authors create various characters in the same genre, but they are very similar. Not these two! Which is one of my biggest reasons. Would love to meet her for tea and biscuits!
@Bruce haven’t read it, been trying to finish books on the list that I haven’t read, not that I will read them all, but some are surely worth reading..29 I haven’t read but some of those I won’t read like I said..have you read all of them? The two faves of mine are THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE , been voting for them everyday…the first is a comical novel if you like funny books, set in New Orleans…im always pushing books on someone, forgive a 66 year old book fanatic!
I’m not focusing as much on the list. I have read a good deal of them in the past and have been voting for my favorites. Couldn’t get through Confederacy, will definitely try again. BTW I’m 68 and reading is the only thing I ever did well
@Diane he actually lives/lived in Garden City the next town over from me. Glenn and I see him once in a while. The first time, I sat at the next table from him and his wife and son at a local pub. I was trying hard not to keep looking over at them and disturb them. I’m sure he noticed my efforts, lol.
I went to a signing in Scottsdale with my neighbor. She wanted her book autographed for a friend for her Birthday. So I stood in line and patiently waited. When I got to Mr. DeMille I handed him the first book and said the name of my neighbors friend Suzy – he wrote “So Nice to Meet you Suzy” ha, well the book was useless to my neighbor to give as a gift since Suzy had not in fact met him. So quickly in my copy I said please just sign your name – when you collect books just having the author sign their name keeps the collector value – so he signed Nelson DeMille with a flourish and I handed it over to my neighbor to give as a gift to Suzy. I kept the “nice to meet you copy” lol He referenced Garden City while talking to the audience – nice guy.
Hmmmmm, I question, what kind of interaction would be possible……..I have been in close proximity with a few notable people, but other than the pull of interpersonal magnetism, there is little common ground ….
Yes, many times I’ve been voting for “Don Quijote.” I thought about him for this question, too, but for this particular conversation I came “closer to home”. With so many I love, it was hard to choose one (or in my case, 4). @ @Katheryn
Pat Conroy. He loved Beaufort, S.C. , the way my parents loved it. There was an atmosphere there of a small southern town, on the Beaufort River, with scenic water views beside the town. It’s lost the charm now, that it has become a tourist hot spot. We visited there for over thirty five years.
You know, I wondered that as I was scrolling through. Yes, I’d enjoy hosting the dinner, but I’d be so nervous. I like to think that the ones I picked (Midwestern women writers) and Neil Gaiman for you would laugh gently and ask for seconds.
I went hiking there in 2010….and got lost on a trail called, ironically, The Lost Trail….because it was wiped out for more than 30 years by a mudslide….now its a trail again….one of the best adventures of my life….
I read a book, about ten years ago, about a Forest Ranger in Yosemite. It was a true story. He lived and breathed Yosemite and disappeared one day while walking his rounds. I felt like I was in Yosemite with him when I was reading this book.
I have been blessed with meeting several authors already. Some were really great (the Yarn Harlot… aka Stephanie Pearl-McFee who writes knitting essays. If it’s not your thing, you may not understand how it infects your entire life). Some were OK (Joyce Carol Oates was OK. She’s not a great public speaker, though). And some were OMG (When I heard Sara Gruen speak, I thought “there is no way this woman wrote this book”). But, I think of all the authors I’ve met, I would really like to meet Mark Twain. He would be a very interesting person to meet and I would love to hear what he thinks about Donald Trump. I’m sure it would be hysterical!
My daughter and I met E.B. White when she was about 9. He was a neighbor of friends. It made such an impression on both of us. He was absolutely lovely to us.?
He was a wonderful writer. His response to a sympathy letter on the death of his son Quentin: “He had his crowded hour.” That is poetry. It even rhymes.
Also… Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Jhumpa Lahiri, bell hooks, Neil DeGrasse Tyson (my pretend boyfriend), Ray Bradbury, James McBride, and Atul Gwande!
I read ‘The Good Earth’ when I was pretty young and it has remained a favorite over the years. I’m now 81 and still reading as much as ever, probably more since I don’t have to work any more.
@Barbara and @Karine I read it when I was pregnant with my first child. I vividly remember reading the part when O-Lan was pregnant and/or nursing during the famine and being SO GRATEFUL for every bite I put into my mouth!
Right now? Miguel de Cervantes. I just finished Don Quixote, which gives me the impression he was a really funny guy! I would like to meet with him twice. First in 1605, and second in 2018. I’d like to see if he could see the silliness in world in both times!
I didn’t read any science fiction until I discovered, while teaching middle school, his short story, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed. I clearly remember the story 30 some years later.
I’m rereading his wonderful collection Dandelion Wine and remembering how much I loved it and why. An ode to storytelling and the power of being present in your life.
This is one of the hardest questions so far to answer! I cannot pick just one. Some are: Isabelle Allende, DH Lawrence, Hermann Hesse, Milan Kundera, Herge, Jules Verne. An eclectic mix…
Mark Twain, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln (his letters and speeches), Stephen King, Barack Obama, John Steinbeck, Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Gloria Steinem…for starters.
You already have 2 of my picks (Kennedy, Twain) and I’d love to spend time with Obama. Someone mentioned Dorothy Parker and that would be fun. Tony Hillerman would have very interesting stories about the Navajo nation, and Zora Neale Hurston could fascinate us with tales of Southern Gullah (sp?) and Haitian culture and myths and the Harlem Renaissance. Who cares about dinner, right!! 🙂
Jack London, J. R. R. Tolkien, the Russian SciFi authors brothers Strugatsky (sp.?), Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, …
She was the commencement speaker at my university graduation. She was absolutely lovely and inspiring. I agree that she’d be fascinating to meet in person
Anton Chekhov
Pat Conroy
Maya Angelou
I got to meet her! She was wonderful!
Stephen King, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Mark Twain
Robert B. Parker
C.S. Lewis
H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen KIng
Pat Conroy or Nelson Demille. Or John Irving.
Salman Rushdie.
Julia Child. Didn’t even have to think about that.
Elie Wiesel
Hemmingway
Shakespeare…I’d love to know if he wrote everything
Alice Walker and Viktor Frankl. <3 And I almost forgot JK Rowling!!!
Harper Lee
Two please…. Toni Morrison and John Irving
Mark Twain
Joyce Carol Oates.
Somerset Maugham.
He was extremely important in the 30’s but he didn’t believe in God. I would love to debate with him knowing the history of WW1, the 20’s, 30’s, and beyond.
Pat Conroy
Nietzsche or Salinger…I’d love to be able to ask them questions about writing, bringing about truth and love of life through character and plot. I feel they’re my top two favourite authors.
Austen and Tolkien
David Sadaris
Just take a book along to one of his readings and stand in line. Make sure to check out what’s in his f***-it-bucket.
Well, since I already met Wally Lamb, I’d like to meet Elizabeth Berg
I love Elizabeth Berg books
@Joy Me too! She will be in New England in August. Working on taking a few days off for a road trip
Take notes ?.. I’ve read about 10 of her books.. so interesting
Diana Gabaldon, and E.E. Holmes
John Irving and Margaret Atwood
Michael Connelly
Adrianna Trigiani
She went to my college!
@Kate did you read her Shoemakers Wife?
@Marie I have not.
So many, but I would especially like to meet Jane Austen and Sharon Creech.
Stephen King!
Michael Connolley
And Salinger
Maeve Binchy ~
Oh and Nick Hornsby and Anita Shreve ?
Shakespeare and Chaucer…and Dante….and Marilynne Robinson…and maybe…David McCullough…and ….oh, gee, I’d better stop now! LOL
Truman Capote
I met Truman Capote by coincidence at JFK airport . I was escorting my brother to a flight and he wanted a drink. We sat at the bar and my brother turns to the man sitting next to him and says, “Aren’t you Truman Capote”…then my brother introduces me and starts a casual conversation. This was many years ago and my teenaged brother is the type of character Truman would write about.
@Mary Wow!!!
Daphne du Maurier and Tara Westover
Too many to name. Tolkien, Toole, Wilde …
Stephen King Barbara Kingsolver Zora N” Hurston. Sorry to break the rules.
Stephen King!!
Belva Plain, Naomi Regan..
Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, E.M. Forster.
Wow- what a hard question! David Baldacci or John Grisham or ….
Harper Lee and Willa Cather
Virginia Woolf or James Joyce – ironically they were best friends, until she and her husband wouldn’t publish Ulysses. I would try to get them back together again.
I did not know that!
That’s a really good one if you get to go to their time and place to meet them – would be so amazing to hang in a literary community
Milan Saha All those Lost Generation folks are my favs.
@Sara mine too! Do u know of any good non-fiction books about them ?
Ken Follett, Elizabeth Strout, and Hillary Clinton.
J.R. Ward!!! I love all of her books! They are so well written!
Mark Twain and any of the Inklings.
Paulo Coelho & Stephej King, i can just imagine that conversation
Margaret Atwood
Maya Angelou, Agatha Christie
Kurt Vonnegut.
Louise Penny
Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien
John Grisham
Kurt Vonnegut
Laura ingalls wilder!
Ruth Rendell (aka, Barbara Vine)
Rainbow Rowell because she is also from the Midwest like me and I think that is why I feel such a strong kinship with her novels, short stories, and comics.
Dick Francis.
James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Elin Hilderbrand, and Agatha Christie
Maya Angelou, Frank McCourt.
John Sanford as I have already had the great pleasure of meeting Kwame Alexander. I only picked from living as it would have been too difficult otherwise.
I agree with many of your favorites. Jane Hamilton’s “Map of the World” and “Book of Ruth” both made me bawl. That’s power.
Stephen King
Judy Blume and Janet Evanovich.
Charlotte Brontë or Jane Austen
Kristin Hannah, Kelly Corrigan
Maeve Binchy.
george Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
Mitch Albom Tuesday with Morrie
Wallace Stegner or Michael Connelly.
Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Margaret Atwood!!!
Madeleine L’Engle
Judy Blume.
Virginia Woolf! ❤️
C. S. Lewis
Jane Austin
Diana Gabaldon
Dorothy Parker ?
Diana Gabaldon!
Erma Bombeck
John Irving
Barbara Kingsolver
C. S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis. First, because he wrote my favorite books of all time, the Chronicles of Narnia. Second, because he seems like a very wise and analytical person with a Christian viewpoint, and I feel like I could get some wise guidance/advice from him.
Robert A Heinlein
J.R.R Tolkien
Stephen King.
I would also say Ken Kesey but I had met him several times. My late husband was very good friends with him and Ed McClanahan. I could listen to Ken talk for hours. What a great story teller.
J K Rowling
JK Rowling, Louisa May Alcott, Maya Angelou, CS Lewis, Tolkein and Janet Evonovich
JK Rowling!!! I am editing mine to add her, too. 🙂
Toni Morrison and Octavia Butler for starters.
Yes! Can I come?
@Beth we can have a party! ?
@Sandee, I’ll bring Alice Walker as my guest!
Pat Conroy
Great question. Fulfilled for me as I met Louise Penny. God, so lovely and gracious.
Pearl S. Buck
Gillian Flynn so I can beg her to write more twisted books
Where did she go?!
She’s been adapting her current stuff to television and movies, plus she’s working on an Amazon series. It sounds like she’s keeping busy, but she is writing a new book ?
JK Rowling, Jane Austen, CS Lewis, the Bronte sisters. Zora Neal Hurston, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maude Montgomery.
I also would. AA Milne. And Tolkien
Diana Gabaldon
Try to get to a book signing one day. She’s very good with her fans.
Fred Rogers ?
I wrote to him as a grown-up, thanking him for his show.
He wrote back after a couple of months. True to form, the letter began “you sound like a very special person.”
May Sarton
Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins, Stephen King
Deceased- Leonard Cohen. I was in deep mourning when he died, having read his books, poetry and listened to his music for 50 years.
now I have Suzanne in my head-thank you
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Saroyan.
Agatha Christie
Maya Angelou ?
Wilkie Collins or Oscar Wilde or Jane Austen
Oh yes on all three!!!
Louisa May Alcott, Stephen King, Jasper Fforde, Brad Meltzer
Ken Follett
David Sedaris. I have heard him in concert and I love to laugh.
i have had the opportunity to have several intimate book reads, when I lived in Raleigh, NC (his home town).
True story: I was in traffic in Raleigh and saw a white van that said “Sedaris Flooring.” My mind went…..brother Paul? Seems in line. Then I saw smaller lettering that said “Silly P.”
Bingo!
Love listen to his audio books when he does Paul’s voice. He is a treasure.
I just googled to find a picture of the van:
@Debborah I know!
So is it his brother’s company.
Debborah Peschang Connery yes. after i recognized the van to be Paul’s, I seemed to see it everywhere around town.
Very cool.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him several times. He is wonderful.
Aldous Huxley, Voltaire, Chuck Palahniuk
Pat Conroy
Hubert Selby Jr., William S. Burroughs, Flannery O’Connor, Poe, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac.
Tom Stoppard – what’s he like to be able to come up with stuff ?
Jane Austen
Sylvia Plath
Francine Rivers
Maya Angelou
Yes…loved her.
I got to sit up front at presentations by Doris Lessing and another by Toni Morrison-very inspiring-2 powerful and brillant writers.
Mark Twain
Rowling
Neil Gaiman.
and Ray Bradbury.
@Charlene He lectured at my high school, I loved his work so it was great.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Her too.
I love when she talks about her wrtiting in interviews
I’m a lifelong Dodgers fan. Her “Wait Till Next Year” is one of my two favorite non-fiction books of all time. I was fortunate to attend one of her appearances several years ago & get a signed copy (actually two signed copies!).
She’s a great lady. And told me not to get Westies. ?
Judy Blume
Francine Rivers
Ted Dekker
Anne Rice
Maya Angelou
Harper Lee
Margaret Mitchell
Maya Angelou and Alice Walker
Suetonius
Mark Twain and my husband wants Arthur C Clark.
V.C. Andrews
Jane Austen, Lucy Maude Montgomery, Charles Dickens
Stephen King & Susanna Kearsley since I’ve already met Diana Gabaldon several times.
Maya Angelou
Arthur Clark
Anne Lamott
Fred Rogers
I met him twice and he was exactly like his on-screen personality.
Dr. Seuss
Beverly Cleary
James Michener
Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison
Rachel Carson
No doubt, Joseph Campbell.
Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou, Dr. Seuss, John Grisham
Beverly Cleary
Scott Fitzgerald
Two I met that were delightful in person: John Elder Robison (woof), Rick Bragg.
Tolstoy
May Sarton
I was fortunate to hear May speak at the Boston Public Library in the mid 70’s. It was fascinating to listen to her process of creation, her character creation and particularly the physical and mental toll it takes on an invested writer to produce a novel. I love all her works from her Journals through her fiction. Highly underrated and not that well known which I find baffling.
Gayle Brandeis
I have one pending. Glad it isn’t just me.
Shirley Jackson; she used to live near where I live now in Upstate NY; she was in Vermont in a close by town and wrote about her children as well as the House on the Hill and other scary stories. She reminds me of my mother who was very creative, and funny, but could be pretty scary too!
Yes!!! Yes!!! Oh yes!!!
Kurt Vonnegut and Terry Pratchett.
Shirley Jackson
I’ve met Jeffery Deaver (Wonderful person!), Sara Paretsky and heard talks from Diana Gabaldon and Stephen King. I would LOVE to have the chance to sit and chat with Charles Dickens, but of course that is not possible…
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
London, Melville or Steinbeck. Or Dumas!
Steinbeck!
I have a related regret: I was in the Salinas valley area for a job interview a fews year back. After the interview I knew I didn’t want the job, so saw no reason to be going back to the area. On the way to the airport I saw a sign for the John Steinbeck museum and pondered paying to change my ticket. The regret is that I didn’t change my travel plans.
Stephen King, Harper Lee, Chinua Achebe
I kind of want to meet Edgar Allen Poe and then I think….maybe not….
Hemingway of course
Maeve Binchy
Stephen King.
Sue Monk Kidd
James Patterson
Charles Dickens. <3 He is my literary boyfriend.
But for real the one I want most to meet is an author no one has heard of- Charles Williams. He was a member of the Inklings and wrote 7 incredible supernatural thrillers no one reads.
You’re right..just looked him him. Very few readers and not great reviews..so what do find about his books that appeal to you?
Joy Kravetz Berger his writing is turgid which is why he will never have a great following. It is the Christian mysticism in his stories that changed my life. He was a theologian. He literally taught me about the nature of reality, Grace, evil, etc.
Toni Morrison
Christopher Moore
Louise Penny
Me too.
Charlotte Bronte
Oh yes. One of mine and my daughter’s favorite authors. We went to England to the Bronte parsonage and walked up on the moors to hear the wuthering. It was one of my favorite days with her when she was a teen, sharing our love of literature.
@Janis When my daughter was 10 we both read The Golden Compass and it bonded us in a new way.
Oh my! What a great experience for You! Lucky you, I love all about this novelist, Jane Eyre is terrific !
Genesis Mary MC we traveled to DeSmet, South Dakota, Laura Ingells Wilder, Giverrne France after reading Linea in Monet’s Garden, Atlanta to MLK’s home after she read about him in 2nd grade and later to Margaret Mitchell’s home. Oh and Williamsburg after reading the American Girls series. We were not rich in money but wealthy in words. Needless to say she majored in English.
@Janis amazing?
@Mary I thought a few years ago about writing a book about book travels with children, it’s been done.
John Steinbeck
F.Scott @Kelly
@Kurt
Stephen King.
c.s.lewis for tea and conversation. leif enger so I can punch him for the way peace like a river ended
Loved that book.
@Kathleen I did too, but I hated the end! tell me how you felt about it
@Patty I agree with you.
@Kathleen when I finished I was so angry I threw the book down and went to my basement to stomp around till I cooled down, my husband thought it was hilarious that I was so upset!
@Patty I know, then you fume for a few days.
E.B. White
Kate @Atkinson
Maya Angelou
I would want to meet Edgar Allen Poe. And one of the first things that I would want to tell him is that over 100 years after his death, the city in which he died (which is also my hometown) named their football team after his most famous poem. Because I think that would make him laugh.
Mark Twain, I think, but I’m not sure I’m smart enough to keep up with him.
Hitchens
Jane Austen and Emily Bronte
Tough choice! Can I bend the rules?! Margaret Mitchell and John Steinbeck. And thrillingly..Stephen King!!
There are three: Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe), and Frances Maye (Under the Tuscan Sun)
that’s an eclectic group!
Anne Rice. Or Edgar Allen Poe.
Pat Conroy.
agreed
I wonder if he looks as insightful and observant as his writing
Both Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Jack London and John Steinbeck
Elizabeth Berg
I’ve met her at book signings years ago. Very enjoyable!
Cathy Lamb
Hemingway and Stephen King
Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald….Oh Wait, That Was Midnight In Paris….
Zelda was a talented writer, too. Check out her novel Save Me The Waltz. F. Scott and her mental issues derailed a possible career on her own.
Scott actually plagiarized some of his work….He used to carry a note pad around and write down all the crazy stuff that Zelda said….then he would incorporate those quotes into his novels verbatim….one favorite quote from The Great Gatsby is attributed to Zelda….”I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”….
@Michael Yes, all true!
Rowling
Michael Crichton.
Jane Austin!
Kurt Vonnegutt Jr.
Margaret Atwood, again. I have more questions.
Mr. Rogers.
Stephen King and Jonathan Kellerman.
John F. Kennedy
Hemingway
Margaret Attwood
God and JK Rawling…
Obviously they are not anywhere near the same level but I would love to meet both.
Elie Wiesel… & Give him the warmest hug ❤️
I was just wondering why Night is not on the list. Surely one of the most influential books in my life at a young age.
@Janis that’s so true ?
Night was left off the list. Unfortunately. So sad.
It was worthy… Better than 50 shades or others that are on there lol
@Linda or The Notebook! Yikes.
Agatha Christie
Will you ask where she was when she went missing??
I think there was a giant bee involved. =)
I think that is my favorite episode of Dr Who.
Cassandra Clare
Pat Conroy!!!!!
Yep! Me too.
Me too. Although I did hear him talk at an event in NC. He was so funny.
How could I have forgotten Charles Dickens!
I think sitting in a pub with Douglas Adams would be a blast ?
Amor Towles, J. K. Rowling, Leon Uris, Ken Follet, Amy Tan, Phillipa Gregory, Maeve Blinchy, Robert Ludlum, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Irving, Harper Lee. Just to name a few. Oh, and of course, Jane Austin.
C.S. Lewis and Titus Coan
Anne Frank
Grace Livingston Hill
James Patterson
Me too
Jane Austen
I really admire J. K, Rowling having not yet started reading any of her books. She would be high on my list. Nora Ephron, Alice Walker, Barak Obama, Colin Powell, Mark Twain…..the list is too long to complete. I have already had the honor of meeting J. A. Jance and Elmore Leonard and several other favorite contemporary authors at book signings.
Definitely Alice, and I had forgotten about including @Nora
I loved Hunter S Thompson, but I am not sure spending time with him would have been as fun as reading him.??
@Elaine There are just too many to choose. I finish a reply and then think of three more names.
@Linda I know then I read what others wrote and I want to include those as well!
Rick Bragg
I hope you’ve seen him interviewed, its a kick
Definitely!!!
Still living Ken Follett…deceased Louisa May Alcott or Charles Dickens or CS Lewis.
JK Rowling
Ernest Cline
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Stephen King
Living JK Rowling
Dead Shakespeare
Patty Doane Cormack McCarthy
Pete hamill
I would love to have a drink with Kurt Vonnegut.
Barbara Kingsolver,Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, Mike Dooley, Dr. Seuss, Shakespeare, Hemingway, the list is endless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️
There is an audio book of Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer that is read in the southern accent of the state, so lovely.
Wow, interesting!!! ?
Maya Angelou, JK Rowling, Stephen King, Dr. Seuss, Jodi Piccoult, Roald Dahl
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, Diane Gabaldon, James Baldwin and President Obama
I’m reading my first James Baldwin now. It has been in my bookcase for a while but when I saw Another Country on the GAR list I remembered that I hadn’t read it yet.
Donna Tartt
So love The Goldfinch!
Margaret Mitchell
Pearl S. Buck
Jose Saramago and Fernando Pessoa
Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read one of her books when I was a little girl and loved it. Somehow I never discovered the little house on the prairie series as a child. But, I love the tv show. Also, I have read her biography off and on. It is good.
You need to read the series! They are all so good!
Hi, I have the first five books of the little house series now. But I have not read them yet. It is on my list of things to do.
@Lisa Please do! You will be delighted! I would love to have met Laura, too.
@Beth hi, I really want to read them. I remember reading Little House in the Big Woods as a child and loving it.
Diane Galbadon, James Michener, Dr. Seuss, Dan Brown
Stephen King, Augusten Burroughs, Harlan Coben
Tolkien, Vonnegut, Bradbury, McCaffrey
I also forgot Isaac Asimov
Vonnegut~ agreed.
Robin Lee Hatcher!!
E Eugenia Price; Wanda Brunstetter, Jan Karon, LaVyrle Spencer.
St. Paul. The author of The Letters to the Corinthians and Letters to the Galatians. I have many questions I would like to ask. I would like to meet Moses, too.
James Michner, Wally Lamb, Tolkien, Dr. Suess
Did you ever read Lamb’s Wishin’ and Hopin’? I love that book so much.
@Ann Have you seen the movie? It was hysterical!
@Ann No, but I will put it on my list.
@Chris I didn’t know there was a movie. Does it go by the same title?
@Ann Yes! It was a Lifetime movie in 2014. Some of it was filmed in my hometown.
@Chris Thanks, I’ll try finding it.
Jack Kerouac
And Heinlein
Abraham Lincoln
Diana Gabbledon
Come to a signing in Phoenix/Scottsdale! 😀
James Herriot
Love him
charles bukowski <3
Patricia Cornwell from the Kay Scarpetta series
Ernest Hemingway,even though we would have had our disagreements.
I want to go to Florida to see his cats!
I have been there. Beautiful Place and the cats are delightful.
@Natalie yes! go to Key West and tour his house – and cats.
I was so concerned when the employees and cats rode out Hurricane Irma in Hemingway’s home, but everyone came out okay.
Pete Hamill
TONI MORRISON!!!!
Oh yes!
Yep, yep, yep.
Charles Dickens; JK Rowling; L. Frank Baum; Franz Kafka; Ernest Hemingway; John Steinbeck, James Baldwin…
The amazing Alice Walker!!!
JK Rowling ?
Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, EB White, Victor Hugo, Toni Morrison – just a few others ?
Judy Blume’s books were a major part of my childhood (much like many other girls I know).
Margaret Atwood
Hemingway, hands down. And Samuel Beckett. Oh and Louisa May Alcott! 🙂
I almost mentioned Louisa May Alcott in my list, but just saw a documentary on her, she wasn’t very gracious to her fans. So, I didn’t include her in my list.
Well I would just love to tell her how much I loved Little Women… maybe if I buttered her up she’d be nice to me… ??
Dorothy Sayers, Jane Austen, Lady Murasaki
Orwell and Verne would be interesting to chat with in these times!
JK Rowling, Kate Serady, Jim Kjelgaard, Barbara Kingsolver, Isabel Allende, Nicholas Sparks.
I was due to meet Diana Gabaldon this week on an Outlander cruise, unfortunately had to cancel due to injury…so bummed
🙁
Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Thomas Verghese.
Nora Ephron. Because she was so sly and witty. And, she always knew about the best food at the best restaurants.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Michael Bond.
I first read Fitzgerald’s books when I was 13 and “the Great Gatsby” is still my all time favorite. Bond because Paddington Bear has always been my friend no matter what was going on in the world.
Michael Connelly
Neil Gaiman
Jane Austen, definitely!
I got to meet the author of one of my favorite childhood books, TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd in upstate New York in HIS home for over an hour. I felt so blessed. It wasn’t planned, I was visiting a friend and another’s friend mother, the author Ruth Stiles Gannett who wrote MY FATHER’S DRAGON was at an event. I saw all of her adoring fans lined up to speak with her, and I thought, who would I want to meet. I happened to ask one of Ruth’s daughters if she’d heard of TIME AT THE TOP, and she said, “Oh, Ed lives around the corner from Mother.” I was visiting from NEW MEXICO, and I just got chills, realizing I was so close to “Ed.” Needless to say, I was at his front door the next day.
Dahli Lama 14th
Stephenie Meyer
Michael Crichton
I have met the ones I love they reveal themselves in their writing!!!
Margaret Mitchell
Jane Austen
Jk rowling
Shakespeare William of course?
Stephen King
I would love to learn his process on writing.
@Jessica He has a book called On Writing which is fabulous!
Diana Gabaldon
Daniel Silva
Louise Penny.
Ernest Hemingway.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
@Clive
Harper Lee
Mark Twain
Madeline L’Engle
She would be at the top of my list too!!!
Maeve Binchy
Pat Conroy
Truman Capote
Robert Louis Stevenson
Allen Ginsberg, Jane Austen, & Langston Hughes
Flannery 0’Connor
Sue Grafton
Rachel Carson
Elmore Leonard
Ed McBain , the author who introduced me to police procedurals. <3
Beverly Cleary
There are so many favs. I would love to have met Barbara Michaels. I would love to have lunch with Alice Hoffman.
Kurt Vonnegut.
Patricia Polacco
William Shakespeare and Stephen King
WOW! That would make for an interesting evening.
Lisa Genova
L. Frank Baum.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
I have and she’s a joy to talk to!
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Celeste Ng
Only one?? Maybe I could narrow it down to five. E.Hemingway, V.Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, Pearl S. Buck and Alice Hoffman.
Rosamunde Pilcher
Margaret Atwood.
Mark Twain
Emily Bronte
Lois Lenski.
Easy question. Drinks in Key West with Ernest Hemingway.
Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor
Mark Twain, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Eudora Welty
Oscar Wilde
Pearl S Buck
JD Salinger
CS Lewis
Diana Gabaldon
Have met her at The Decatur Book Festival book signings. She is engaging and fun.
Diana Gabaldon
Can I just say “The School of Night” and have it count as one person???
Ken Follett
George RR Martian so I can stand over him until he finishes the last book. I
I’ll help you ….. very long wait with him.
Be right there with you ladies, I am actually to the point of being a bit angry that he is not finishing this…but, it is being finished on HBO. I did get their channel to see the ending, but will cancel when it is over. Ticked off!?
@Bobbie I won’t watch the HBO series. I want the book.
Isaac Asimov
James Michener
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Doris Lessing
Pat Conroy and Maeve Binchy
Met Conroy at a book signing and would have loved to meet Maeve Binchy.
Some of my favorite books are by these two authors.
Ray Bradbury
Harper Lee
Thomas Pynchon
James Patterson
Also Toni Morrison
Boris Pasternak
Maeve Binchy
James Michener
Pat Conroy
Yes. I have so many questions.
Jane Austen
Stephen King
Alan Bradley
John Steinbeck
Isaac Asimov
Maxine Hong Kingston <3
Ruth Rendell, also known as Barbara Vine
Stephen King
Maurice Sendak
Stephen King
Joyce Carol Oates
Marg. Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut.
CS Lewis
Robert Anton Wilson,
J.R.R. Tolkien
Twain or Poe
Joyce Carol oates
Bronte sisters
Anne Tyler
Marjorie Rawlings
Mark Twain
Me, too
Edith Wharton
How could I forget her and Henry James?
James is not invited to our tea! He is always sneaking into any conversation of Edith. And she is the far better writer… it’s a lifelong peeve of mine. Maybe he can meet up later…
@Betty yes, I understand you, seems they’re often mentioned together. When I first read their books, I would read her, then him, sort of taking turns, don’t know why really but now when I hear of one the other pops into my mind. Ethan Frome is one of my favorites but I loved all hers, did you ever read her anthology of ghost stories? Fine stories and not the typical ghost story. Must ask if you’ve read The Turn Of The Screw, my favorite of his shorter works.
@Shelley I hoard and collect Wharton novels…I’m keeping a few back so I have a couple to look forward to as I age. It’s silly, but I love her. I would highly recommend The Children. It’s funny and bittersweet. I wish PBS or BBC would film it for Masterpiece Theatre! I mean how many versions of Jane Eyre & Little Women do we really need? So many great books they ignore. I do appreciate James, but he makes his women..well..not very bright, which is why I think, in film versions, the ends of the stories are usually tweaked. Even Scorsese could not improve on Wharton. As a kid I loved the film versions of Turn of Screw & Washington Square, but was then a smidge disappointed by the weakness of the characters in the book versions.
Haven’t read the Children but will get it asap thanks
@Shelley I’m a horror buff…so it’s in my too excited to read pile – crazy huh? but I have a feeling I have probably already done damage to the cannon in short story compilations. I’ve read tons of those themed collections, ghosts, monsters, vampires…even zombies! lol I did start it a couple of times and realized I had already read the first 2-3 in my Edith…and then put it down…but I will!
pat conroy and j d salinger
Stephen King- I want to see how his mind works…
Agatha Christy. She created 2 of my favorite characters in ligature. Hercule Peroit and Miss Marple. They are as different as could be, but both solve crimes. Many authors create various characters in the same genre, but they are very similar. Not these two! Which is one of my biggest reasons. Would love to meet her for tea and biscuits!
Dorothy Sayers
Marjorie Keenan Rawlings!!
Walt Whitman
Stephen King for sure!
Thomas Jefferson
Great question
Mark Twain…I used to live near his home in Hartford, CT and visited it often. He was such a great storyteller.
Shakespeare.
Elizabeth George
Stephen King❤️
Colette
JK Rowling
Ernest Hemingway
Anne Frank
Neil Gaimen or j.k.Rowling
Michael Connelly
C. S. Lewis
Agatha Christie.
I second Agatha Christie!
What a fun tea party we could have. I volunteer to fix finger sandwiches and tea cakes.
I agree.
Jane Austen.
Julius Caesar
Christopher Moore
Love him! Just hilarious..
Then read his latest Noir. It’s a scream. I’m still laughing at it
@Bruce haven’t read it, been trying to finish books on the list that I haven’t read, not that I will read them all, but some are surely worth reading..29 I haven’t read but some of those I won’t read like I said..have you read all of them? The two faves of mine are THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE , been voting for them everyday…the first is a comical novel if you like funny books, set in New Orleans…im always pushing books on someone, forgive a 66 year old book fanatic!
Will get Noir asap thanks for the info
@Shelley I suggest A Confederacy of Dunces to many people, too. It is hilarious!
@Carol one of my top ten faves!
I’m not focusing as much on the list. I have read a good deal of them in the past and have been voting for my favorites. Couldn’t get through Confederacy, will definitely try again. BTW I’m 68 and reading is the only thing I ever did well
Chesterton
JK Rowling or Lillian Jackson Braun
Malala
Alexandre Dumas
Rosamunde Pilcher
Mike Royko
Mitch Albom.
Love & hv all his books, I beleive!
Can’t wait for his new one, the sequel to Five People.
Any good writer of historical fiction! Can imagine the conversation we”d have!
James Joyce
I’d probably be tongue-tied and blubbering. Lol!
Virginia Woolf
Maya Angelou
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Mark Twain!
Nora Ephron.
She was amazing!
I’d enjoy meeting her for a walk in Central Park.
Stephen King
Nelson DeMille
Yes, after reading Gold Coast, I wanted to meet the author to know if he naturally has that sense of humor.
Nelson DeMille? Yes, he’s terrific met him in Scottsdale – terrific guy
@Diane he actually lives/lived in Garden City the next town over from me. Glenn and I see him once in a while. The first time, I sat at the next table from him and his wife and son at a local pub. I was trying hard not to keep looking over at them and disturb them. I’m sure he noticed my efforts, lol.
I went to a signing in Scottsdale with my neighbor. She wanted her book autographed for a friend for her Birthday. So I stood in line and patiently waited. When I got to Mr. DeMille I handed him the first book and said the name of my neighbors friend Suzy – he wrote “So Nice to Meet you Suzy” ha, well the book was useless to my neighbor to give as a gift since Suzy had not in fact met him. So quickly in my copy I said please just sign your name – when you collect books just having the author sign their name keeps the collector value – so he signed Nelson DeMille with a flourish and I handed it over to my neighbor to give as a gift to Suzy. I kept the “nice to meet you copy” lol He referenced Garden City while talking to the audience – nice guy.
He always writes about NY and LI so I like reading about local places.He seems to have a good sense of humor.
Diana Gabaldon
Charlotte bronte
Shakespeare
Maya Angelou
Harper Lee.
Thomas Jefferson….
From what I’ve read of Jefferson, he would want to talk about agriculture and balance sheets. ?
Mostly liked wine and hemp….
@Catherine: I wonder about how many of these other authors might prefer to write letters instead of meeting in person.
My preference is the written word, unless I could have a small group discussion with wine. ?
Yes, I think there would need to be a “pace” that the author gets to set.
Edna Ferber
Same for me! “So Big” is one of my all-time favorite books.
@Jan Had no idea of the racial quality of Showboat until I was older either.She was so inclusive of place.
Jodi Picoult
Cathy, she is on my list also. She does book signings in Chicago every time she releases a new book….
@Laura I love the research she does for each book.
@Carolyn. I thought you would be enjoy this page also. I am truly enjoying being a part of this community of readers!
@Carolyn. I thought you would be enjoy this page also. I am truly enjoying being a part of this community of readers!
@Cathy… I know, right? So fascinating!
@Laura Thanks Laura ?
Harper Lee
Theodore Roosevelt….
B J Chute
Hmmmmm, I question, what kind of interaction would be possible……..I have been in close proximity with a few notable people, but other than the pull of interpersonal magnetism, there is little common ground ….
Barbara Bush ?
E.L.James.
Maya Angelou
Laura Ingalls Wilder
I’d rather meet Melissa Gilbert myself….
Isaac Asimov
Maya Angelou – just so I could listen to her beautiful voice.
Edith Wharton
Miguel de Cervantes
Yes, many times I’ve been voting for “Don Quijote.” I thought about him for this question, too, but for this particular conversation I came “closer to home”. With so many I love, it was hard to choose one (or in my case, 4). @ @Katheryn
George Eliot.
Mark Twain
Frank McCourt
So many…Ken Bruen. Bernard Cornwell. James Joyce. Ernest Hemingway.
Arthur Conan Doyle
William Faulkner
Pat Conroy. He loved Beaufort, S.C. , the way my parents loved it. There was an atmosphere there of a small southern town, on the Beaufort River, with scenic water views beside the town. It’s lost the charm now, that it has become a tourist hot spot. We visited there for over thirty five years.
I rarely read a book twice, but have read Beach Music twice and plan to read it again.
Just ONE?! ? Jane Austen for me.
Louis L’amour
Terry Pratchett
Donald Goines
If I only get one, Salinger. If I get more than one well… that list is very long. 🙂
Mine too
Bill Wilson
Steven King.
Stephen Ambrose
Moberg
Mark Twain
Richard Wright
Mark Twain
Albert Camus….
Maya Angelou
Roma Downey…loving her Box of Butterflies. Would love to meet Louisa May Alcott too.
Richard @Russo
Jane Goodall ?
Maya Angelou!
Diana Gabaldon, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
St. @Luke
John would be a good one too.
Yes, he would, but Luke wrote chronologically and that helps me to process
Peter Matthiessen
Samuel Clemons as Mark Twain
Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee
E.B.White, Cynthia Rylant, Di Camillo, J.K.Rowling—I like kids’ books.
Hemmingway and MFK Fisher
Neil Gaiman, but I’d probably make a complete idiot of myself
You know, I wondered that as I was scrolling through. Yes, I’d enjoy hosting the dinner, but I’d be so nervous. I like to think that the ones I picked (Midwestern women writers) and Neil Gaiman for you would laugh gently and ask for seconds.
Herman Wouk and William @Manchester
Stephen King.
Pat Conroy
Arthur Rimbaud….
John Muir….in his Woods….
Oh, you just melted my heart. The thought of being in the beloved woods of John Muir would be heaven on earth.
I went hiking there in 2010….and got lost on a trail called, ironically, The Lost Trail….because it was wiped out for more than 30 years by a mudslide….now its a trail again….one of the best adventures of my life….
I read a book, about ten years ago, about a Forest Ranger in Yosemite. It was a true story. He lived and breathed Yosemite and disappeared one day while walking his rounds. I felt like I was in Yosemite with him when I was reading this book.
What’s the title????….I must read it….I LOVED Yosemite….got lost hiking there too….What a blast!!!!….
@Michael looking for it right now. I leant it to someone and, alas, ……
“The Last Season” by Eric Blehm.
oops, it says he was in Kings Canyon and Sequoia. I would have swore he was in Yosemite. I don’t know about that
Thanks, it’s practically purchased….Amazon, here I come….
Sequoia is close enough….Muir Woods is just outside Sausalito/San Francisco….
John Muir loved Kings Canyon too! I think you will like this book. I may to reread.
Alice Walker
James Michener
I have been blessed with meeting several authors already. Some were really great (the Yarn Harlot… aka Stephanie Pearl-McFee who writes knitting essays. If it’s not your thing, you may not understand how it infects your entire life). Some were OK (Joyce Carol Oates was OK. She’s not a great public speaker, though). And some were OMG (When I heard Sara Gruen speak, I thought “there is no way this woman wrote this book”). But, I think of all the authors I’ve met, I would really like to meet Mark Twain. He would be a very interesting person to meet and I would love to hear what he thinks about Donald Trump. I’m sure it would be hysterical!
JD Salinger
Maeve Binchy
J K Rowling
aka Galbraith
Margaret Mead
Madeleine L’Engle probably tops my list although Kurt Vonnegut might be a blast 🙂
Orwell
Pat Conroy
Harper Lee
Edna Ferber
Wally Lamb
I could barely believe a man could have written She’s Come Undone
My daughter and I met E.B. White when she was about 9. He was a neighbor of friends. It made such an impression on both of us. He was absolutely lovely to us.?
William Shakespeare
Hurston
Issac Asimov is at the top of my very long list.
The Apostle Paul
Yasushi Inoue
Papa….In Cuba….
And Picasso….In Côte d’Azur….
George Sand, Bronte sisters, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Jane Austin, there are so many how can I choose.
J. K. ROwling, Harper Lee, Victor Hugo, Dumas. So many each with their own style but fabulous
Dorothy Parker
Yes.
Yes! The cure for boredom is curiosity, there is no cure for curiosity.
Danielle Steele
Katherine Dunn because I’ve probably re-read Geek Love more than any other book.
Kurt Vonnegut. (And so it goes.) (Diddly Squat!)
Margaret Mitchell
So many but I would start with Shel Silverstein
James Herriot
@Jane
Phillip Roth
Audrey Hepburn….
On Montmartre….
I’m watching Funny Face now….Swonderful, Smarvelous….
LM Montgomery and Oscar Wilde! <3
OMG Oscar Wilde! can you imagine? would love to
Truman Capote
Richard Brautigan
Jeffery Deaver
Realizied after looking at other comments…it is REALLY hard to pick just one.
Have to have a large dinner party. Can you imagine the conversation or arguments.
@Janet great idea mangia mangia ???
Temperamental Mr Hemingway! In a heart ❤️ beat!
Harper Lee
Theodore Geisel!
Oh yes! The books were so inventive and playful. . . .
Pat Conroy
me too
C. S. Lewis
with his friend, Tolkein too
Beverly Donofrio
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Fowler,David McCullough, Lynne Olsen, Charles deLint who I have met but would like to again, Louise Penny
Stephen King
Pearl Cleage
Chris Bohjalian.
What’s a good book to read for someone new to this author? @ Patti Hallstrom
I started with Midwives but The Sand Castle Girls is my favorite.
Mark Twain
Louise Penny
Any recommended books to first read? @ @Flakie
Mauve Binchey
Mark Twain!!
Diana Gabaldon (living) Hugo (deceased)
Sir author Conan Doyle
And mark twain
Sophie kinsella
Shakespeare 🙂
Willa Cather and Stieg Larsson Borge dead and Marcus Zusak alive.
Terry Pratchett
I don’t know the name, but I’ve sometimes read books without knowing its author. Do you have a favorite to recommend? @ Dawn Felsing
Sir Terry Pratchett wrote 41 novels in his Discworld series, he writes fantasy. It’s very hard to choose one, I like “The Colour of Magic”.
Tolkien, Camus, Plath
I Love Sylvia Plath….Loved The Bell Jar….
William Butler Yeats
Daniel Silva
Stephen King
Wendell Berry
Mark Twain
Alice Hoffman
Louise Penny
Maya Angelou
Me too!!!❤❤❤❤
From the past, Twain, Cather, Heinlein, Christie, among others, from the present, Louise Erdrich and Barbara Kingsolver.
JA Jance & JK Rowling
Past: Tolkien, Practhett, Bradberry, maybe Lewis? Living: Neil Gaiman, Noami Novik,
Ray Bradbury? If so… YES! Also yes to Neil Gaiman!
Pat conroy
Stephen King.
I bet Uncle Stevie would be cool to meet!
Toni Morrison
Charles Dickens
C.S. Lewis
Pearl Buck
Teddy Roosevelt
He was a wonderful writer. His response to a sympathy letter on the death of his son Quentin: “He had his crowded hour.” That is poetry. It even rhymes.
@Bobbi did you read The River Doubt?
No, but I’ll have to look into it. Thanks!
Mark Twain
L. Frank @Rick
Joyce Carol Oates!
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Christopher Moore, Richard Kadrey, Brian Freeman, Neil Giaman… I could go on and on…
Being from the Midwest, I’d like to meet Maya Angelou, Edna Ferber, Willa Cather, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Willa Cather definitely!
Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Margaret Atwood
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madeleine L’Engle and John Irving
Anton Chekhov, before the tuberculosis began to show. He was very handsome and quite the lady’s man. <3
Anne Lamott
That makes me wonder why Shipping News wasn’t on the 100 list.
@Patty, that would be Annie Proulx ?
@Jewely you are right
John Irving, Mark Twain, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Oscar Hijuelos.
Kate DiCamillo
Louis Auchincloss.
Harper Lee
maya angelou
Beverly Cleary. <3
John Steinbeck.
Robert Frost? Stieg Larssen
James Patterson
Hemingway
Agatha Christie, Maeve Binchy, and Allan Bradley.
Pearl S Buck
J.K. Rowling
Madeleine L’Engle
Kristen Hannah.
Harper Lee and L. Frank Baum
Daphne duMaurier, Mary Stewart, John Steinbeck
Shakespeare
Agatha Christie
Judy Blume, EB White, Stephen King, Harper Lee, JD Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath
great ‘cast’!!!
Langston Hughes and Eb White.
Ann Patchett, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Clare Vaye Watkins. They are all still alive, so there should be no problem.
Frances Parkinson’s Keys
John Steinbeck and Rosamund Pilcher
Jane Austen, Jane Austen, Jane Austen…
Pat Conroy
With Diane, and add Mary Stewart.
Elizabeth strout
I’d be too intimidated by most of them!
Sir Author Conan Doyle. Love Sherlock Holmes.
Maya Angelou
Louisa May Alcott
Zora Neale Hurston
Herman Melville
Mary Kerr
Louise Penny
C. S. Lewis
Melanie Benjamin, Margaret Atwood
Also… Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Jhumpa Lahiri, bell hooks, Neil DeGrasse Tyson (my pretend boyfriend), Ray Bradbury, James McBride, and Atul Gwande!
You can’t have Tyson, he’s mine! Love your list, read bell hooks years ago and would like to read more of her work. Love em all, everyone!
@Shelley I’ll arm wrestle you for Tyson! He’s my brilliant, funny, gorgeous pretend boyfriend ?
@Carly mine too, let’s get it on…2 outta 3
Pearl Buck,Edward Gorey
Pearl Buck! <3
I read ‘The Good Earth’ when I was pretty young and it has remained a favorite over the years. I’m now 81 and still reading as much as ever, probably more since I don’t have to work any more.
@Barbara and @Karine I read it when I was pregnant with my first child. I vividly remember reading the part when O-Lan was pregnant and/or nursing during the famine and being SO GRATEFUL for every bite I put into my mouth!
EM Forster
How did I ever forget EM Forester.
@Barbara He’s my all time favorite author!!!
Michael Crichton, Amy Tan, Lisa See, Philippa Gregory
Richard Wagamese.
Lee Child, Meg Cabot, Kurt Vonnegut.
When I read Michael Crichton some of his books make me hyperventilate the last chapters of the novels. Love his books!
I’ve wondered what great books he still had in him when he died.
Gladys Taber
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Zora Neale Hurston, Tony Hillerman, Mark Twain (….tough one .. like picking your favorite child…) 🙂 <3
Ann Patchett
Baldacci
Diana Gabaldon
Dorothy Cannell because she has a really great sense of humor. Read the Widow’s Club.
Ray Bradbury
Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Harper Lee
Neil de Grasse @Tyson
Dickens..
Right now? Miguel de Cervantes. I just finished Don Quixote, which gives me the impression he was a really funny guy! I would like to meet with him twice. First in 1605, and second in 2018. I’d like to see if he could see the silliness in world in both times!
Maya Angelou
Diana Gabaldon
Dorothy Parker, Virginia Woolf
Dorothy Parker would be a HOOT !
joyce carol oates maeve binchy
Jane Austen! ?
Apostle John.
Daphne du Maurier
Stephen King for sure!
Diana Gabaldon, Judy Blume, C.S. Lewis, J.K Rowling
I know you have more! Lol
Definitely! Lol
Sandra Brown, Rose Wilder, Harper Lee, Margaret Atwood, and how could I forget Erma Bombeck!!!! ?
Tie between Shakespeare & Austen
Harper Lee
Octavia @Marsha
wrong: Octavia Butler,
C. S. Lewis, deceased & Lauraine Snelling, living
Love C S Lewis
Anna Quindlen
Me too!!!!
Octavia Butler and Charlotte Bronte
Elizabeth George and Diana Gabaldon
Reading Elizabeth George right now. “A Suitable Vengeance”
Diana Gabaldon.
Harold Bell Wright, author of “The Shepherd of the Hills”.
Herman Melville
Robert Louis stevenson
I am more than half DAY through RPG! As an OLD English teacher, I am compelling to finish the no9k!
Oscar Wilde
Jane Austin
Louisa May Alcott
Robert Fulghum
Mark Twain
Nelson DeMille
Harper Lee. Also Jane Austen.
Absolutely Mark Twain!
Rosamunde Pilcher, Louise Penney, Shakespeare
Leon Uris. John Steinbeck. William Alexander.
James Baldwin!
JA Jance
Jean Auel
JK Rowling and Stephen King…. Love them both.
Michael Connelly
Stephen King
Theodore Giselle
Larry McMurtry….
Yes! I’d love to yell at him for how Lonesome Dove ended ?
It never ends….
Jane Austin
Alexandre Dumas.
Have you read the Black Count? The story of his father. Really interesting.
@Kim It’s on my to read list.
@Kim Dumas Pere — a gastronome, oui?
@Terri he was a Count in the army in France and fought in the French Revolution. Very interesting tale.
Alice Hoffman!!!!
W. Somerset Maugham, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Oscar Wilde. Wallace Stegner…
Agatha Christie
Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary.
Martha Grimes.
Still living, for certain. ?
John Crowley 🙂
Christopher Hitchens and Stephen King.
Gore Vidal and Truman Capote
Pat Conroy. I just want to find out the plot of the book he didn’t get to finish before he died
PS Carrie Fisher. Also sly and witty.
Christopher Moore.
François-Marie Arouet aka Voltaire
My favorite question- I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
John @Updike
William Faulkner
Faulkner and Hemmingway
Shakespeare
Louisa May Alcott, Brontë Sisters,Jane Austin,Gabriel Garcia Márquez,Isabel Allende, Charles Dickens.?
Maya Angelou
Jane Austin!
Ernest Hemingway
Nina George
Terry Pratchett…. it was a tradition that, my wife would give me his latest book,for my birthday every year.
Jodi Picoult, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough and especially Rabbi Harold Kushner. His books calm my soul.
B A Paris
Jane Austen
J R R Tolkien
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Farley Mowat
Ann Taylor.
Stephen King
I got to meet Gore Vidal and John Grisham. Left to meet: Dan Brown and Jane Mayer.
Edgar Allen Poe.
Walt Whitman.
Agatha Christie,
I’ve just started reading Murder On The Orient Express.
Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Ellie Wiesel, Anne Frank.
Cecil Lewis
And the rest of my list – John Irving, Tom Robbins, Stephen King, Leon Uris and Upton Sinclair.
Ann Rice, Stephen King
Ray Bradbury.
I didn’t read any science fiction until I discovered, while teaching middle school, his short story, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed. I clearly remember the story 30 some years later.
I’m rereading his wonderful collection Dandelion Wine and remembering how much I loved it and why. An ode to storytelling and the power of being present in your life.
Edith Wharton and Eudora Welty
Read them in college, great choices!
Somerset Maugham
I also.
This year I finally read “Of Human Bondage”.
Razor’s Edge is excellent
@Shelleylife altering for me at 17
I was in my early twenties when I read it… and so many years later, still reflect on it
Mark Twain. Would love to hear about how he really related to his characters, the social commentary his stories conveyed and his writing process.
You know he was great at a dinner table.
Edward Abbey
Asmiov
Neil Gaiman
Mark Twain.
Me, too
Willa Cather
Love Willa Cather!
John Steinbeck
John Grisham!
Agatha Christie, aka “The Queen of Crime”.
Pat Conroy
Prince of Tides!
Adrianna Trigiani!
She would be great to spend time with. Love her appearances on Kathy Lee & Hoda
@Linda, I do too! I’ve read all of her books, love them all!
Amor Towles
Edith Wharton.
Louise Penny who is alive.
Flannery O’Connor who is not.
Oh, that’s funny! I just wrote Louise Penny and then edited her out. I would absolutely love to meet her!
Oscar Wilde.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was a childhood favorite.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
It’s a dream come true. Spent 5 days studying the ❤️sutra w/him. I’ll refrain from sharing what followed, this is a Book discussion ?
I saw him speak last year, but didn’t get to meet him. ☸️
This is one of the hardest questions so far to answer! I cannot pick just one. Some are: Isabelle Allende, DH Lawrence, Hermann Hesse, Milan Kundera, Herge, Jules Verne. An eclectic mix…
John Steinbeck, author
Octavia Butler
I’m going to go with Terry Pratchett today!
I want to meet them all, living and dead!
Charlotte Bronte
Dostoevsky.
JANE @Austen
Robert James Waller & Wilkie Collins
George Saunders
Harper Lee
Pat Conroy
So many! Alex Haley, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy, Jen Lancaster…….I could go on & on!
PC yes
Edna Ferber read all her books, old fashioned. But love how she spun a story! Pure Americana.
I’d love to have a luncheon with Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, Douglas Adams, and JK Rowling.
Agatha Christie
Anne Tyler
Diana Gabaldon. Jane Austin. Oscar Wilde.
Jl rowing
Alfred E Newman and Artie Lang….
Mark Twain, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln (his letters and speeches), Stephen King, Barack Obama, John Steinbeck, Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Gloria Steinem…for starters.
Great guest list! Can I come? puleeze… 🙂
@Terri ..ABSOLUTELY! Whom would you like to add?
You already have 2 of my picks (Kennedy, Twain) and I’d love to spend time with Obama. Someone mentioned Dorothy Parker and that would be fun. Tony Hillerman would have very interesting stories about the Navajo nation, and Zora Neale Hurston could fascinate us with tales of Southern Gullah (sp?) and Haitian culture and myths and the Harlem Renaissance. Who cares about dinner, right!! 🙂
@Terri ….a few bottles of wine should suffice. Perhaps throw in Anne Rice?
Herman Wouk
Min Jin Lee gave a reading of Pachinko recently. She’s extraordinary!
Orhan Pamuk gave series of lectures in Boston that were brilliant and very accessible!
Stephan king
Ursula Le Guin
Agatha Christie and Patricia Cornwell
John Irving
Fredrik Backman
CS Lewis.
CS Lewis
Angela Carter
Zora Hurston. Richard Wright
Jack London, J. R. R. Tolkien, the Russian SciFi authors brothers Strugatsky (sp.?), Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, …
Emily Bronte
Jane Austen, Tolstoy, Tom Wolfe, Nelson Demille…met John Grisholm and he was the sweetest!!!
There are so many
Leo Tolstoy with a translater.
Leo Tolstoy with a translator.
Diana Gabaldon.
Stephen King.
Louisa May Alcott
Tony Hillerman was my favorite author. He past away in 2008. I really enjoyed his mystery writings that took place in the southwest.
Yes!
James Patterson!
Maya Angelou
She was the commencement speaker at my university graduation. She was absolutely lovely and inspiring. I agree that she’d be fascinating to meet in person
Toni Morrison
Ernest Hemingway, Wangari Maathai, Zora Neale Hurston, and Paul Kalanithi.
Harper @Barbara
David McCullough & Diana Gabaldon.
E.B. White.
Roald Dahl, James Joyce, Flannery O’Connor, Mark Twain
Barbara Kingsolver
J.K. o
J.K. Rowling
Norman Mailer and Joan Didion
Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl
Jane @Austen
Elie Wiesel
Andriana Trigiani … we can cook Italian while we talk about literature.
Jane Austen, Harper Lee, too many to name.
Stephen King
Living author Michelle Moran and deceased author Jane Austen
Mark Twain
Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Alexander McCall Smith
Diana Gabaldon
J.K. Rowling
Eudora Welty
Louise Penny
Bill Bryson
Stephen King
Louisa May Alcott
PLAYWRIGHTS
William Shakespeare
Tennessee Williams
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lillian Hellman
Clifford Odets
Arthur Miller
Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart)
Agatha Christie, M.C. Beaton, George Eliot, Clive Cussler, Isaac Asimov, George R.R. Martin….
Victoria Holt,I loved her books in my teen years and read all of them, historical fiction as Jean Plaidy especially.
John Steinbeck