Zeitgeist Authors

Favorite stars25 top-favorited authors

50 top-rated authors

Authors rated by at least 50 members (average/ratings/raters).

The Lockman Foundation (5/7/112), Don Wood (5/1/126), AA.VV. (5/2/84), Vonda N. McIntyre (5/1/56), Richard Rodriguez (5/1/90), Arnold Bennett (5/2/228), Henry Cole (5/1/70), Marion Rombauer Becker (5/1/382), Anonymous (5/2/547), Tom McArthur (5/1/63), Ian Jack (5/1/131), The Kyoto Costume Institute (4.76/78/73), Luigi Serafini (4.76/60/54), Janet Arnold (4.74/276/115), William M. Gaines (4.74/367/51), Crossway Bibles (4.72/161/224), William Little (4.68/19/76), Arthur G. Bennett (4.68/146/138), Ollie Johnston (4.67/76/65), David Lynch (4.67/3/190), Jonathan Larson (4.65/62/50), Steve Purcell (4.64/66/52), Don Rosa (4.64/354/115), James C. Christensen (4.63/65/60), Harold Abelson (4.63/197/184), Jeff Brumbeau (4.61/74/58), Ki Longfellow (4.61/228/169), Tom Tierney (4.6/574/74), Bill Watterson (4.59/8355/2370), Carla Emery (4.59/85/82), Georg Friedrich Händel (4.59/186/59), Richard Williams (4.59/52/50), Randall Munroe (4.58/97/66), W. Richard Stevens (4.57/254/153), Johann Sebastian Bach (4.57/308/98), Hervé Tullet (4.56/137/69), Harold McGee (4.55/370/312), Menena Cottin (4.55/74/51), Bryan A. Garner (4.55/120/93), Ludwig van Beethoven (4.54/245/86), Robert A. Caro (4.54/815/362), Henci Goer (4.54/74/68), Eberhard Nestle (4.54/180/174), David Allen Sibley (4.54/397/238), Alice McLerran (4.53/92/71), Peter Menzel (4.53/257/196), Peter Jackson (4.53/203/86), Walt Kelly (4.52/542/96), Jane Sowerby (4.52/164/163), Walter J. Ciszek (4.52/25/52) — show more

50 lowest-rated authors

Bill Jemas (0.79/7/113), Barbara Pease (2/1/109), Christopher Ransom (2.07/101/83), Randy Davila (2.16/122/121), Hal Lindsey (2.33/137/82), Jessica Cutler (2.41/53/50), Michael Gerber (2.53/188/144), Nancy Balbirer (2.54/62/61), John B. Olson (2.54/204/193), Emma Tennant (2.57/178/139), Simon Cox (2.59/81/69), Melissa P. (2.6/179/161), Phoenix Desmond (2.62/61/57), Ellen Fein (2.63/70/51), James Bradley (2.64/114/106), Simon (2.67/160/118), Kaavya Viswanathan (2.68/84/80), Andrew Keen (2.69/137/138), Catherine Millet (2.7/187/166), Charlotte Roche (2.72/283/249), Cook Coleridge (2.72/56/53), Jacquelyn Cook (2.73/98/84), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (2.74/234/97), Theresa Schwegel (2.74/77/66), Erich von Däniken (2.74/476/283), Jessica Adams (2.75/108/80), Kevin Trudeau (2.76/92/76), Phil Hellmuth (2.76/58/54), Heleen van Royen (2.77/170/107), Barbara Cartland (2.79/964/97), Gustavus Hindman Miller (2.79/69/68), Frank Brennan (2.79/104/93), Michael Drosnin (2.82/135/110), Rachel Johnson (2.82/71/59), Philip Prowse (2.83/303/237), Noah Charney (2.83/138/119), Candace Bushnell (2.83/1502/1003), Claude Izner (2.84/187/138), Xaviera Hollander (2.84/73/50), Lydia Adamson (2.85/136/51), Amy Sterling Casil (2.85/60/53), Sue Leather (2.85/536/249), Nostradamus (2.85/71/67), Adolf Hitler (2.85/230/192), Tracy Quan (2.85/117/90), Susanna Rowson (2.85/62/54), Maureen Lindley (2.86/78/71), Luís M. Rocha (2.86/44/55), Johanna Skibsrud (2.87/99/80), Bill Gates (2.87/183/167) — show more

50 authors people can't agree on

Must have 50 raters. The numbers are the standard deviation of rating—how much they differ from the average.

50 uncontroversial authors

The least divergent star ratings. Must have 50 raters.

Rudolf Kittel (0.25), The Kyoto Costume Institute (0.47), Edward Moore Kennedy (0.5), Janet Arnold (0.56), Rowan Jacobsen (0.56), Barbara Demick (0.57), Menena Cottin (0.57), Steve Purcell (0.58), Richard Williams (0.59), Hannah Berry (0.59), Craig L. Symonds (0.6), Bill Thomson (0.6), Stephen Dedman (0.6), Jill Wolfson (0.6), William M. Gaines (0.61), Don Rosa (0.61), Josh Neufeld (0.61), Kaja Foglio (0.61), Lars Svensson (0.62), Rosy Thornton (0.62), Tom Siddell (0.62), Luigi Serafini (0.62), Sarah Bakewell (0.62), Izzeldin Abuelaish (0.62), Halima Bashir (0.63), Kevin Boyle (0.63), Paul F. Boller (0.63), Jane Sowerby (0.64), Steven Zaloga (0.64), David Allen Sibley (0.64), Ann Weisgarber (0.64), Jack Lynch (0.64), Hervé Tullet (0.64), Kadir Nelson (0.64), Mark Ovenden (0.64), Michael W. Kauffman (0.64), Rose George (0.64), Kate Beaton (0.64), Lise Eliot (0.64), Paul A. Offit (0.64), Douglas A. Blackmon (0.64), Jacob Baal-Teshuva (0.65), Randall Munroe (0.65), Margi Preus (0.65), Peter Parnell (0.65), Harold McGee (0.65), Jonathan Larson (0.65), Guillaume de Laubier (0.65), Ellen Bryson (0.65), Bill Barnes (0.65) — show more

Authors who LibraryThing (complete list)

Diana Gabaldon, Lee Child, Don Maitz, Sandra Brown, David Brin, Laurie R. King, John Green, Jude Deveraux, Diane Duane, Ann Brashares, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jon Scieszka, Brandon Sanderson, James Rollins, Naomi Novik, Lisa See, Katie MacAlister, Andrew Gross, Janny Wurts, Dan Chaon, Chris Bohjalian, Nancy Holder, Elizabeth Bear, Melissa Marr, Jo Beverley, Tite Kubo, Sharon Kay Penman, Edward R. Tufte, Susan Wittig Albert, Patrick Rothfuss, Susan Mallery, Adriana Trigiani, Alan Furst, Susan Wiggs, Elisabeth Waters, Matthew Pearl, Lynn Viehl, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Chris Regan, Randy Alcorn, Sharon Lee, Zachary Sholem Berger, Sarah Addison Allen, James Dashner, Neal Asher, Andrew Vachss, Sabrina Jeffries, Chitra Divakaruni, C. E. Murphy, Cate Dermody — see the full list.

Top 75 authors (author cloud)

By number of copies

J. K. Rowling (484,016), Stephen King (352,313), Terry Pratchett (282,847), J. R. R. Tolkien (230,049), C. S. Lewis (214,750), Neil Gaiman (213,594), William Shakespeare (189,742), Nora Roberts (178,987), Agatha Christie (165,385), Jane Austen (150,410), Stephenie Meyer (144,609), James Patterson (143,035), Isaac Asimov (142,072), Charles Dickens (134,392), John Grisham (125,808), Anne McCaffrey (120,331), Dan Brown (117,773), Orson Scott Card (117,613), Janet Evanovich (114,648), Kurt Vonnegut (111,698), Anne Rice (109,431), Douglas Adams (107,312), Dean Koontz (105,251), George Orwell (104,252), Robert A. Heinlein (102,265), Mercedes Lackey (100,137), John Steinbeck (99,428), Roald Dahl (98,154), Dr. Seuss (97,196), Laurell K. Hamilton (92,622), Charlaine Harris (91,679), Margaret Atwood (88,735), Anonymous (87,839), Robert Jordan (87,119), Mark Twain (85,557), Michael Crichton (85,023), Piers Anthony (83,938), Ernest Hemingway (83,239), Fyodor Dostoevsky (80,849), Lemony Snicket (80,452), George R. R. Martin (79,506), Philip Pullman (77,956), Haruki Murakami (77,630), Suzanne Collins (76,351), Ray Bradbury (76,343), Gabriel García Márquez (75,087), David Eddings (72,370), Bill Bryson (71,432), Tom Clancy (70,651), Jodi Picoult (70,430), Philip K. Dick (70,141), Ursula K. Le Guin (69,734), Patricia Cornwell (68,780), Mary Pope Osborne (67,440), Frank Herbert (67,164), J. D. Salinger (67,037), F. Scott Fitzgerald (66,922), Jim Butcher (66,221), Tamora Pierce (65,445), L. M. Montgomery (65,246), Neal Stephenson (65,223), Arthur C. Clarke (65,108), John Irving (62,513), Chuck Palahniuk (62,511), Arthur Conan Doyle (61,008), Marion Zimmer Bradley (60,836), Alexander McCall Smith (60,626), Umberto Eco (60,532), Madeleine L'Engle (60,519), Carolyn Keene (59,085), Stieg Larsson (58,545), Rick Riordan (56,843), Meg Cabot (56,535), Leo Tolstoy (56,146), William Gibson (56,026) — show more

50 "completist" authors

Average number of books in a collection, if there's one.

Willy Vandersteen (27.04), John Westerdale Bowker (21.82), Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (18.98), E. L. James (16.64), Robert Charles Wilson (15.99), Kenneth Robeson (15.32), J. M. Snyder (15.11), Karen Thompson Walker (14.63), Andrew Grey (13.7), Jacques Martin (13.5), Perry Rhodan (12.99), Stephani Hecht (12.96), Yumi Tamura (12.8), Elsie Jeanette Oxenham (12.72), Annette Smith (12.7), Merian (12.64), CLAMP (12.37), Margit Sandemo (12.3), Saki Hiwatari (12.11), Nora Roberts (11.53), Carol Lynne (11.39), Tsukasa Hojo (11.35), Chie Shinohara (11.03), Yoko Kamio (10.98), Havank (10.92), Jean Graton (10.82), Mercedes Lackey (10.82), Robert Berkow (10.82), Jeffrey Lord (10.53), Rumiko Takahashi (10.48), Society for American Baseball Research (10.16), Kim Dare (10.15), Eiichiro Oda (10.04), Roger Leloup (10.04), Ordnance Survey (10.02), James Axler (9.96), Maurice de Bévère (9.92), Tabor Evans (9.87), Sean Michael (9.86), Beverley Randell (9.84), J. T. Edson (9.84), Riichiro Inagaki (9.84), Gosho Aoyama (9.82), Michael Schaper (9.8), Terry Pratchett (9.79), Kentaro Miura (9.78), Christopher P. Andersen (9.69), San-Antonio (9.69), Jamie McGuire (9.65), Naoki Urasawa (9.62) — show more

Notes: See standard deviation for more on this concept. Basically, if everyone basically agrees that an author's books are good or bad, the standard deviation is low. If opinions differ a lot, the standard deviation of ratings is high. All statistics are updated daily, if possible, or more frequently.

 

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