Tuesday 26 February 2013

Top Ten Tuesday - autobuy authors

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that I occasionally like to join in with.  Today's theme was pointed out to me by Strange Chemistry on twitter and I thought of my first 4 straight away...

1. Terry Pratchett is my fave author in the whole wide world and has been for literally half of my life.  I discovered him because there was a poster on the tube advertising the Discworld in which TP was the spitting image of my Dad!

2. I've loved Frances Hardinge since her first book, Fly By Night in 2005, and they keep getting better.  She has a wonderful way with words.

3. The Chaos Walking trilogy and then A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness are so perfect that he has to be on my staples list now.

4. I added James Dawson because I loved his first book, Hollow Pike, and am really excited by the blurb for his next, coming out this year.  He came to my school last year and my pupils (and I) loved him :-)

So those were the 4 I tweeted.  Thinking further, there are dozens of authors that I love but I am a library addict, tending to borrow and rarely buying, so I can't say that many are 'auto-buy'.  There are things I will automatically buy for my school library but I don't think I can really count them...I will drop everything and read something new by the following authors, and do own a large number of their books:

5. To my shame, I didn't mention her in my tweet, but I adore everything by Maggie Stiefvater and have managed to get all my copies signed by her at various UK events.

6. The Dustland trilogy, so far, is wonderful.  Moira Young is a lovely lady, she's visited my school twice and is really engaging, she has an amazing imagination.  I can't wait for the last book.

7. Garth Nix is another one who seems to consistently deliver brilliance, I've been reading his books for years, and at a book signing last year I snagged one of Sabriel's bells so I love him a little bit more!

8. I have proofs and signed hardbacks of the first two Department 19 books by Will Hill so have to continue for the whole series...conveniently they're really good and well worth having on the shelf...but sadly the third proof was an ebook!

9. Philip Reeve is another of my long term favourites, Mortal Engines is one of the most gripping books I've ever read, so I always keep an eye out for another prequel/sequel!

and finally...10. hmm, will have to be shared by all the newish series I've been reading and am desperate for the next one of, but won't necessarily buy for myself - Veronica Roth, Charlie Higson, Michael Grant, Michelle Paver...

The next time you hear from me will be my personal Carnegie short list - the real one is announced on 12th March and I've only 2 of the longlist left to read!