Top 5's

I quite like making lists of things I like and trying to get the perfect 5. Rather than just being my favourite 5, the 5 things have to complement each other so that they create the perfect grouping. Here's my current thoughts on things, written down so I can look back and see how my thoughts have changed.

Top 5 authors to take take to heaven

If I was allowed to take the complete works of 5 authors to heaven and read only these books for the rest of eternity. So the authors have to be varied in pace, style and subject matter. They also have to have a fairly large collection of works to keep me going. This last point in some ways caused me the most grief - I've had to leave behind some of my favourite books because the author was lazy :)

1. Ernest Hemingway

   I really love the way Hemingway writes, so I would be happy re-reading his works and even studying them to some extent. As he wrote some of my favourite books (especially The Old Man and the Sea) he was pretty much a shoe in for first place.

2. Philip K. Dick

   Another shoe in, my favourite sci fi author and a prolific writer. His books are interesting, thought provoking and worthy of re-reads. His writing style sometimes requires effort on the readers part, though always well rewarded.

3. David Gemmel

   My first "easy read" author, Gemmel was a childhood favourite and I still find many of his characters as engaging today as I did back then. His work is intelligent heroic fantasy and since his sad passing I have struggled to find a replacement author for the genre.

4. Cormac McCarthy

   I just couldn't go to heaven without a copy of The Road, I rate it as my favourite novel mainly due to the prose. He paints a picture of such draining darkness that you see the characters in black and white. His other works are also excellent, but The Road is transcendant.

5. Robert Anton Wilson

   One of the truly great minds of our time and a personal hero. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction on a truly inspiring variety of topics. Whilst some of his work was so heavily based in the ethos and culture of the 70's it seems a bit dated stylistically, the ideas are as relevant today as ever.

Honorable mentions

There are so many honourable mentions it's just as hard trimming these down. First off, I am sad I have no Eastern authors in my list, both Bulgakov and Turgenev were definitely in the running. Vonnegut was replaced by McCarthy. I will miss Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Job II, but along with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson he was pushed out by Philip K. Dick. Herman Hesse and A. E. Housman would have added to the collection with their style and subject matter. I also really like Jeff Lindsay, author of the Dexter novels of the popular TV series. Still, if making the list was easy, it would be no fun.

What would yours be?