Booking Through Thursday: Thankful

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Today's question:

What book or author are you most thankful to have discovered?
Have you read everything they’ve written? Reread them?
Why do you appreciate them so much?

Hmm. How much time to you have? It might be simpler if I named the books/authors I wish I'd never picked up or been forced to read. :-) But that attitude wouldn't fit well with a day of thanksgiving. So, here are few highlights on the "thanks for writing stuff, guys" list:

1. Carolyn Keene (and the writing machine that was "her"). I've read all of the original Nancy Drews, but can't say I've read everything with Keene's name attached. And, yes, I've reread those original stories many, many time. Why do I appreciate them? Because if it weren't for Nancy, I don't think I'd be the reader I am now. I fell in love with reading with those books. And fell in love with books and bookstores. Nancy introduced me to the wonder that was Mason's Rare & Used Bookstore in Wabash, IN (sadly, no longer there--or anywhere). Through that introduction, I learned to love the "thrill of the hunt"--looking for and finding book treasures among the shelves.

2. Dorothy L Sayers. I've read every single one of her mysteries. I intend to read all of her religious apologetics. I love Lord Peter Wimsey. I love the way she writes. I love the witty, literate prose. I love the mysteries and the quotations and the bits of knowledge and lore that she sneaks in there.

3. Jane Austen. Still working my way through all of her works. But I appreciate the way she wrote about the manners of her time. I love the characters and how very real they seem.

4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. What mystery fan could not appreciate the creator of Sherlock Holmes? I love Holmes and Watson and the Victorian era.

5. David Lodge. I've read most his fiction. I appreciate his British wit and his take on academic life. Working in academia myself, I absolutely appreciate the college types that he puts on display...in all their flawed glory.

6. Edna St. Vincent Millay and Emily Dickinson who taught me to love poetry.

And Kerry Greenwood, Katherine Anne Porter, Christina Rossetti, Agatha Christie, Edmund Crispin, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss, C. S. Lewis, Rainer Marie Rilke, Poe, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Douglas Adams....I could go on and on and on.