‘Completist’ authors poll

LibraryThing lists these authors as having the most ‘completist’ fans, ie that those who have one book by the author are likely to have a lot more. (I’m a bit surprised not to see Lois McMaster Bujold here, or more classic crime writers.) Not all of them are in fact single authors, but we live in an imperfect world.

Myself I have at least tried Terry Pratchett, Terrance Dicks, Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, Franklin W. Dixon, David Weber, Dick Francis, Carolyn Keene, and Agatha Christie. Recommendations (and disrecommendations) welcome in comments.

One thought on “‘Completist’ authors poll

  1. I was always a bit hesitant about my French ( we always knew that “les francais ne parlent pas O Level French et les quebecois even more so!”) especially as back in the 70s you could get a pass without ever having been taught the names of the letters of the alphabet, so you couldn’t even spell your name. However I once managed to amaze myself by keeping up a conversation in the waiting room at Bruxelles-Midi for the better part of three hours without too many circumlocutions.

    I’ve always been rather embarrassed at the British reputation for being hopeless with languages, and always at least try the local lingo in the belief that you get better treatment if you show willing (except in NL, the Dutch always seem to detect your accent and are then determined to show off their English and don’t give you a chance to try to improve your terrible Dutch…). I’m reminded of my last visit to Prague when I conducted something like an old modem’s handshaking process to try to find a mutual language:
    Me to receptionist: “Dobry den! Mluvite anglicky, prosim?”
    Receptionist: “Ah, ne….” (shuffles off the the back room and emerges with someone who could well be her grandmother)
    Grandma: “Dobry den! Mluvite nemecky?”
    Me: “Ne, anglicky, velssky, francousky…”
    Grandma: “Ah, francais!” and we then proceeded to get on like a house on fire, though I did pick up a bit more Czech from her during my stay.

    If you speak Welsh you can reveal a lot about yourself by whether you count in vingesimal or decimal – deg a thrigain rather than saith deg, to compare with your soixante-dix / septante, it’s both an age thing and shows whether you spoke the language as a child or are a learner, rather than a geographical distinction.

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