I’ve been on half term for the past fortnight, and my major project has been to create a new master index of books read and reviewed since I started my blog, and you can see it on the tab above – the one called ‘Review Index’.
Easier said than done to get in a format that doesn’t go on forever. Initially, I created the basic list on a word doc and then pasted it over, then realised that the spacing was all wrong as the list went on forever with the wide default spacing – so I edited the whole thing in code putting in breaks rather than paragraphs. Then I did all the links.
PHEW! But the result is up to date to the end of last month. There are still some missing posts that didn’t export over when I moved to my own domain: I added a few back into the blog in their original places, so you may have seen some old posts pop up, there are some others that I’ll add back in as needed, and a few that are completely lost. Most of these are from 2014-15. As all my reading lists from previous years and my reviews for Shiny New Books are now incorporated into the new page, I’ve taken them down except for the current year.
Now having all that information to hand, I thought it would be fun to share with you which authors are my most reviewed (and correspondingly most read) since I started my blog back in September 2008…
4 Books
JG Ballard – a great favourite – but I’m surprised he doesn’t feature more strongly.
Kyril Bonfiglioli, Becky Chambers, Marina Fiorato, Alan Garner, Sophie Hannah, Mick Herron, Alice Hoffman, Jane Thynne, JRR Tolkien and Jeff Vandermeer.
5 Books
Roddy Doyle, Charlie Higson, Russell Hoban and Deborah Levy
6 Books
Paul Auster – (another of my absolute favourite authors, whom I read a lot more of pre-blog).
Plus Antoine Laurain, Pierre Lemaitre, Magnus Mills and Patrick Ness
7 Books
All on her own, it’s the wonderful Muriel Spark.
8 Books
Sharing the limelight: Stephen King (with 7 books of the Dark Tower sequence) + 1 and
Marcus Sedgwick – my favourite YA author (most of whose books are wonderful reads for adults too).
And then a big leap to…
13 Books
My most read author in translation – it could only be one person – Georges Simenon.
There are only 12 reviews though – 1 is thoroughly lost!
I was lucky enough to meet his son John at a wonderful book event back in 2015. I was wonderful to hear about him at first hand.
But in top place, drumroll please with…
13 Books + many more posts
My most read, and read about author has 13 of her own books reviewed by me, but has her own page with more (under my ‘The ‘B’s and Other Stuff’ tab) and is tagged in 38 posts.
It is, of course, BERYL BAINBRIDGE!
She vies with Auster for top spot in my literary affections. I have hosted 2 Beryl Reading Weeks in 2012 and 2016. I would have loved to have met her, but someone who did and wrote about it in a guest post for me was author Stephen May – read his lovely piece here.
A Reading Week for (Feb) 2020? But which author?
I was wondering whether, four years on, to host another Beryl Bainbridge Reading Week, however it struck me that I should feature a different author instead.
One favourite author missing from above as I’ve only read three of his books since starting the blog, many more before though, is Iain Banks. J G Ballard would be another great choice, as would Paul Auster. I’m going to finish this post with a poll… which of the three would you prefer for a reading week in say mid-Feb?
I’d go for either Ballard or Uain Banks, been meaning to read more of them.
Sorry, Iain of course. Big sausage fingers and mobile phone keyboards do not mix well.
Well, I’ve voted for Ballard because I love what I’ve read of him and I could do with a push to read more! 😀 Well done on creating that index – I keep thinking I should do that for mine, but the thought makes my head hurt…
Such a lot of work, Annabel. I hope it was enjoyable. I’m certainly impressed with the results. I’ve been wondering about my own review tables for some time. They’re beginning to become quite unwieldy.
It took days. It would have been a lot quicker had I left it in paragraph and list formats – but never-ending to scroll through. Doing it appealed to the geek in me though.
That kind of thing can be very satisfying when it comes together!
I’ve voted for Iain M. Banks. I’ve meant to read something by him for ages – ideally one of his SF books – and haven’t got round to it!
I haven’t organised my reviews on my new blog, but on my old blog, Lionel Shriver was easily my most reviewed author (5 books, followed by Sarah Moss with 3 books and a load of other people with 2). I tend to review books where I have something to say, so I don’t think this makes her my favourite author as such, but her work is always very thought-provoking.
I’ve voted for Auster as I’d like to read more by him following Timbuktu this past summer (and I really struggle with classic SF authors, though I understand Banks might not count as such).
I found this so interesting Annabel, really made me think about my favourite Authors, Maggie O’ Farrell would be up there along with Kate Atkinson. I too love Beryl Bainbridge, this has inspired me to read more! Thank you, Jenny.
How efficient. I really must read more Beryl Bainbridge.
I have a half-done master excel spreadsheet of my reading journals so I can know when I read a particular book and find the review in the print journals from 1997-2007. But it’s all half-done and I’ve dipped into various books and got into, basically a muddle. I’ll expect to find Iris Murdoch as my most-read, and possibly Paul Magrs next, or Larry McMurtry or Anne Tyler. Hmm …
My master spreadsheet only truly starts at 2006, I wish I’d kept a proper record before then. Iris must be tops for you I’m sure!:)
My Auster count is at 9.
Anita Brookner – 24
Iris Murdoch – 20
Nevil Shute – 19