Maureen at By Singing Light has a post on this and I thought it was entertaining to see where we match up. Without actually going downstairs to look at my shelves, I would bet I own at least 20 books by the following authors (in no particular order):
1. CJ Cherryh. I own all of hers except I gave away the Rusalka ones. They take up several shelves.
2. DWJ. I own absolutely all of hers now, I think.
3. Steven Brust. I think I have all of his, even TECKLA, though I am a bit surprised I haven’t given that one away. But I’ve been re-reading the Taltos books slowly and out of order and I know it’s still on the shelf.
4. Gillian Bradshaw. I have all hers except some of the SF titles.
5. Martha Wells. I have all hers, even the Star Wars titles, though I haven’t read them yet.
6. Barbara Hambly. I got rid of those dreadful Nazi books and the horrible MOTHER OF WINTER, but I have all the rest, including the Abigail Adams books she wrote as Barbara Hamilton.
7. Ngaio Marsh. I have all her mysteries and there must be more than 20.
Let’s see if I can get to ten. I’m not at home so I honestly can’t go look downstairs. Um. Don’t have my Kindle with me, either, though the only author on there I think must be close to 20 is Martha Wells. Okay let’s see . . .
8. Rumer Godden. I haven’t read all of them because it’s not like there will ever been any more! But there’s such a thing as parceling them out too slowly. I should read one sometime soon.
9. Oh, Lois McMaster Bujold, obviously. If she doesn’t have 20 yet, she must be close.
10. Sharon Shinn, probably. I think I have all her books except maybe one or two.
11. Oh, of course, Patricia McKillip! I even kept STEPPING FROM THE SHADOWS, just to be complete. I might have ditched SOLSTICE WOOD, which to me reaches backward to ruin WINTER ROSE.
Okay, can I get to a dozen? Let me think.
12. Orson Scott Card? Guy Gavriel Kay? Have either of them written close to 20 books? I don’t think I have everything by Kay and I know I haven’t liked everything by Card — I disliked the Alvin Maker series and don’t have those. I thought Card was going sharply downhill as a writer, in fact, but then ENCHANTMENT was really good.
Well, I’ll leave it there. But I’ll try to remember to actually look when I get home and see if I have another author who definitely belongs in that twelfth spot.
UPDATE: Yes, in fact. I have 17 books by Dorothy Dunnett, which is more than by Card and Kay put together. Great comments for this post; thank you all for chiming in!
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Some of those authors, I’m a little surprised they’ve reached 20.
Elizabeth Moon? Especially if you’ve been keeping up with the inferior new fantasy books.
I have a nagging sense I’m forgetting someone obvious.
I would have guessed that I had more books by Rex Stout than by any other author, but in fact it looks like Agatha Christie is the winner (57 vs 49). I went on a Spenser binge about 15 years ago, so I have 20+ books by Robert Parker as well. I haven’t looked at them in quite a while, though, and I’m not sure how well they’d hold up. I also own a terrifying number of Star Wars tie-in novels, though I don’t think I have 20 by a single author. We have lots of Pratchett novels, though not a complete set; we’re missing some of the early Discworld books, and I’m not really in a hurry to pick them up. I think we have all of Bujold’s books. We also have most or all of Brust’s, though I haven’t been hugely enthusiastic about the recent Vlad novels. Cherryh is definitely on the 20+ list, but we haven’t been adding to them recently, since both of us bounced off the Foreigner series.
I had so much fun with this topic, running around my house counting books. DWJ is my #1. That actually surprised me I thought she would be 2 and my #2 would be 1. Almost every author on here is on my TBR but I don’t own any of their books.
I wouldn’t have predicted it (not sure what I *would* have predicted), but it looks like I have more books by Poul Anderson than any other writer. And I haven’t made a point of collecting his stuff, just picked up a book here or a few there… he wrote an awful lot, so it’s not that surprising I ended up with 36 of them.
Whoa–we have way more Poul Anderson books than I thought, too (58 in paperback, plus any e-books Mike has picked up recently). I haven’t actually read most of them myself, but maybe I should make it a project!
For Anderson, add three hardcovers and ten ebooks. (Though there are definitely some overlapping contents among them.)
I might have ditched SOLSTICE WOOD, which to me reaches backward to ruin WINTER ROSE.
All the best people agree on this. (I was SO MAD because I really enjoyed WINTER ROSE and then SOLSTICE WOOD just completely ruined it.)
Also, I’m interested by how few we have in common! But then, many of the ones you’ve listed I’ve just begun reading and therefore haven’t gotten around to buying yet.
Maureen, eventually I will forget everything about SOLSTICE WOOD, the same way I have determinedly forgotten everything about “Alien III”. Then I will re-read WINTER ROSE.
Also! I do have everything by Austen and McKinley; it’s just that neither has written all that many books compared to the authors I have the most books by. On the other hand, I’ve never read anything at all by Elizabeth Goudge or Maud Hart Lovelace. I’m wondering if they are really teen books? Maybe it’s too late to really enjoy Goudge? If I should try her, what’s a good title to start with?
Craig, I didn’t count since I wasn’t at home, but I think most of them are at least *near* twenty. I have a good handful of Moon’s, but for me the new Paksenarrion-universe series is strictly borrow, not buy.
Linda, my mother is the one with the entire Rex Stout collection! I need to wander over there and pick up a few to re-read sometime. I have one (1) Parker novel, which I liked, but I guess not enough to pick up others. I have a good handful of Star Trek tie-ins, but zero Star Wars because I just never got into that universe.
If you count audiobooks, which I forgot about, I probably have 20 or so books by Pratchett. I don’t care much for the earlier ones, but I hear there’s a new one due out, RAISING STEAM, that I will certainly pick up.
And here’s Brandy’s list , for those who would like to click through! This may make me look illiterate, but . . . CS Lewis *wrote* 18 books? I had no idea.
Good heavens, 58 books by Paul Anderson? Wow. Just . . . wow. I think I have, uh, one. (FIRE TIME.)
C.S. Lewis wrote a lot of nonfiction, as you’re probably distantly aware. Fiction only… 7 + 3 + … I don’t think you can get to 18 even if you count the marginal cases (e.g. The Screwtape Letters.
There aren’t many writers I could get to 20 on, in large part because most of my preferred authors don’t have 20 books to their name — e.g. I justmake it for McKillip, and my other favorite living fantasy author, Tim Powers, is well below 20.
(I was going to say there’s no way to get to 20 for Tolkien, but I suppose anyone completist enough for the complete History of Middle Earth series can make a good try at it.)
Do multiple editions count? I’ve got several different editions of LOTR, including a gorgeous 1″ thick one volume one. The most portable there was, in the days before ebooks. And yeah, I do have the complete History.
i think I have all novels McKillip ever wrote, even SOLSTICE WOOD, although I don’t like it much.
Buljold, Wrede, Kay, DWJ – have you (anyone reading this) read CHALDEA yet? What did you think? I thought it was good, but not quite DWJ.
Others I’ve bought (not teen or husband) that reach 20 or complete output of author: Janny Wurts, Michelle Sagara West, Michael Scott Rohan, CJC (of course), Gillian Bradshaw, Rosemary Sutcliff. And Andre NOrton, which I keep around mostly for nostalgia, as the last one I tried to reread caused me to bounce hard.
We’ve also got a ton of Poul Anderson, David Weber, Jane Linskold, Timothy Zahn – the Dragonback YAs are much more enjoyable than I expected.
For Elizabeth Goudge… I read PILGRIM”S INN way back in my early teens and liked it enough to look for more, including the sequels and her classic juvenile, LITTLE WHITE HORSE. She wrote contemporary adult books, like PILGRIM’s INN, and historicals, like GREEN DOLPHIN STREET, which IIRC is the one set partially in New Zealand, as well as 3 or 4 juveniles/YAs. I haven’t a clue how they’d strike me now, or whether you’d like them. I didn’t care that much for most of the historicals, but parts of GDS linger still forty years later. They aren’t as good & different as Rumer Godden, but I think deal with some of the same sorts of things, if that helps. And (again, looking back a LONG way) very character centered.
Did you ever read Eleanor Farjeon?
Re: CS Lewis, actually, though I’m surprised he wrote that many, I do have some of his nonfiction myself!
Elaine, I haven’t read CHALDEA yet, but Brandy at Random Musings has.
Also, I noticed later that I have Goudge’s LITTLE WHITE HORSE on my wishlist. I think Charlotte is the one who got me to put it on there.
Yes, I keep my Andre Norton around because of nostalgia, too. Maybe I’ll try them again sometime, or maybe I should give them away to some 12 year old who likes reading.
And no, I’ve never heard of Farjeon.
Elaine, I haven’t read CHALDEA yet, but Brandy at Random Musings has.
Also, I noticed later that I have Goudge’s LITTLE WHITE HORSE on my wishlist. I think Charlotte is the one who got me to put it on there.
Yes, I keep my Andre Norton around because of nostalgia, too. Maybe I’ll try them again sometime, or maybe I should give them away to some 12 year old who likes reading.
And no, I’ve never heard of Farjeon. But I see her Martin Pippen in the Apple Orchard is free on Kindle.
About Elizabeth Goudge: The Little white horse is the most famous of her juveniles, but I like Linnets and Valerians, maybe even a bit better: it’s a bit less mystical, more grounded in the way life might have been for four kids staying with an old tutor in a little country village, having childish adventures with some magical/mystical overtones. For me, it has some of the charm of E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children, or The Wouldbegoods. I don’t know her other juveniles, and though I liked some of her grown-up books fairly well, none have become favourites and others made less of an impression.
If you occasionally like those old-fashioned children’s stories, you would probably like the books by Monica Edwards about Punchbowl farm and Romney marsh; they’ve been reissued as trade paperbacks but aren’t out as e-books yet, as far as I’ve been able to find. There isn’t any magic, fantasy or SF element in them, apart from a few ‘looking through time’ incidents (and one maybe-timetraveller) in a few of the books, and I’m new to reading your blog, so I don’t know if this is a genre you might like too.
Thanks, Hanneke! I *loved* The Railway Children; I’d forgotten all about that one; it’s nice to be reminded of it. Such a charming story. Oh, you used the word “charm”, too! Well, that’s exactly the word that leaped to mind for me as well.
I’ll have to try a couple by Goudge one of these days — and maybe one of the Edwards. Sometimes a peaceful, charming children’s book is just what I’m in the mood for.