best authors

So, the best authors ever(in my opinion).
I will start with my qualifications:
1) I have been reading for 24 years- I'm almost 30 now.
2) I read all genres, but I will be focusing on fiction for this blog.
3) Never mind that I read the Anne of Green Gables series in 3rd or 4th grade, never mind about the Laura Ingalls Wilder books or even the Madeleine L'Engle books I read around the same time. I read Gone With the Wind in 5th grade.
4) I read at least one book a day until I got my first job at age 16- at which point I still managed at least 3 books a week.
5) In junior high I was reading 100 pages an hour- and retaining the information.
For as long as I can remember, I have been devouring books at a pretty fast pace. I relish the bittersweet minutes spent reading the last few pages of a really good book. It is absolute torture when that fantasy world has ended. The ideal situation is to finish a book in bed, go to sleep, and start a new book in the morning. However, I will read books back to back if I must.

Piers Anthony
I was first introduced to this author by my mom, who read Demons Don't Dream and passed it on to me. So of course I started with the Xanth series and moved on the the Mode series. I sadly would've left it there, but I had a dry spell and visited a used bookstore. There I found my favorites of his books. Rings of Ice, Killobyte, Race Against Time, Orn, etc. These forgotten books don't even exist at the library and are hard to find online.  I picked up Spider Legs at Waldenbooks, and that is a must-read for sure. Dream a Little Dream I also got at Waldenbooks. One must-read series available at the library is the Geodyssey series. Piers Anthony is a very well-written prolific author. I hope he lives to see his books on the big screen. Please don't let him pull an Isaac Asimov or Douglas Adams. A Spell for Chameleon should be coming out as a movie eventually.

Jennifer Crusie
I just love Jennifer Crusie. Her writing style is so light and fresh, and her sex scenes are always original. Romance is usually my fall-back for when I have nothing else to read, but I will Crusie anytime. She comes up with the wackiest characters and most insane situations. There is absolutely no other author like her, or even close. I just wish she cranked out more books faster. I would recommend Getting Rid of Bradley as a good introduction to her work.

Nora Roberts
It has to be said, Nora Roberts produces more books per year than many other authors- and they are all worth reading. I can tell an NR book from any other because her style is just so obviously hers. She writes more than just romance now, too. She writes thrillers and murder mysteries and lately some paranormal. Her new hardbacks are most likely thrillers, her JD Robb books are murder mysteries, and her paperbacks are romance. She's a very smooth read.  I would recommend starting with The Bride Quartet series.

Laurell K. Hamilton
For an introduction to this author I would recommend her collection of short stories, Strange Candy. I personally stumbled across her while browsing in the sci-fi section of Waldenbooks. I read the back of Guilty Pleasures and decided to try it. I was immediately hooked within the first chapter and I just can't get enough of the strange alternate worlds she created. Her Anita Blake series and her Merry Gentry series are so rich and powerful that I need a breather after reading from them.