# Which of these writers do you like most? (Part One)



## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

Which of those great writers do you like most?


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

This thread appeared 4-5 h after submission.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Looks like the time-delay system is in full operation.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Goethe...........


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov was a great book, but so was Tolstoy's War and Peace. I'd be hard pressed to choose between them, but I went with Dostoevsky because I also like Crime and Punishment quite a bit.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Voted Dickens but also love Brontes. Just read Shirley by Charlotte and previously read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights!


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

AAUUGGHH! You're KILLING me with this list!

Just one, eh?

Hm...Dickens is the English Twain; Twain is the American Dickens...

Dickens. By a chin whisker.


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

Totenfeier said:


> AAUUGGHH! You're KILLING me with this list!
> 
> Just one, eh?
> 
> ...


Not one. As many you want.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Well, if I can have more than one...I'm behind on my reading in George Eliot, Flaubert, and Proust, but for the rest, yes, please!


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Dickens.................


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

For me: Tolstoy wrote the best single fiction novel I've ever read, and that was War and Peace. But Dostoevsky all-round is the best author I've ever read. Thus I'm able to juggle both. Overall, I think I enjoy all of Dostoevsky more than I enjoyed War and Peace. But that's not really saying much. Russian writers were just utterly genius, hard to pit them against each other.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Dudley Moore


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Dudley Moore


More so than Peter Cook?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

SimonTemplar said:


> More so than Peter Cook?


about the same, including Derek and Clive


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Shakespeare, but I haven't really read too many of the ones listed. Of the ones I have, I didn't care too much for them, though Goethe is interesting. Shakespeare, though, those sonnets... wow!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> about the same, including Derek and Clive


I'd quote it, but I'd get banned.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Rowling, definitely a great writer.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

SimonTemplar said:


> I'd quote it, but I'd get banned.


I'll tell you, the other day some bloke came up to me and ...........................................................


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

Off topic: I've noticed a little inaccuracy... As I understood, the word "which" may mean a single option as well as several options, right? How can I differentiate?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

wolkaaa said:


> Off topic: I've noticed a little inaccuracy... As I understood, the word "which" may mean a single option as well as several options, right? How can I differentiate?


You used the correct which and it can be taken either way; as a single or multiple option. I think most would read this to mean a single option (I would've just added something to indicate that you could pick more than one).


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> You used the correct which and it can be taken either way; as a single or multiple option. I think most would read this to mean a single option (I would've just added something to indicate that you could pick more than one).


I didn't thought about that because in German and Russian there are different words for single and multiple option. Next time I will add "up to 5".


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Shakespeare - for the versatility and superior knowledge of human nature.
Goethe - for the heart-warming Romanticism.
Twain - for the wonderful wit and charm.
Chekhov - for the humor.
Rowling - an honorable mention: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first book I read in the original English and a great encouragement to further learning. Without it, who knows if I would even be able to post here.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

wolkaaa said:


> I didn't thought about that because in German and Russian there are different words for single and multiple option. Next time I will add "up to 5".


Are you a Russian German - just curious?


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Are you a Russian German - just curious?


You probably know the terms "Russlanddeutscher" (German from Russia) and "Deutschrusse" (ethnic Russian in Germany). Well, I'm kinda both. Officialy I'm a Russlanddeutscher or a Volksdeutscher since I'm a descendant of a German (my great-grandmother), but I'm also a Deutschrusse since I'm mostly ethnic Russian. Are you a German Russian as well?


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

I vote Shakespeare. 

Is this a trick question?


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

wolkaaa said:


> You probably know the terms "Russlanddeutscher" (German from Russia) and "Deutschrusse" (ethnic Russian in Germany). Well, I'm kinda both. Officialy I'm a Russlanddeutscher or a Volksdeutscher since I'm a descendant of a German (my great-grandmother), but I'm also a Deutschrusse since I'm mostly ethnic Russian. Are you a German Russian as well?


Not exactly, since I am not an ethnic German. But I come from the same corner of the world as you (Weißrussland) and currently I am enjoying my newly acquired Germanness :angel:


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Not exactly, since I am not an ethnic German. But I come from the same corner of the world as you (Weißrussland) and currently I am enjoying my newly acquired Germanness :angel:


Gratuliere, aber übertreib bitte nicht. Ich dachte schon, du wärst ein deutscher Nationalist. :lol:


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

wolkaaa said:


> Gratuliere, aber übertreib bitte nicht. Ich dachte schon, du wärst ein deutscher Nationalist. :lol:


German nationalist? - it depends. German patriot - yes, and yes again. Sorry, but English is the language of this forum. You are welcome to PM me in German or in Russian as you please.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I picked Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Dickens, Twain and Shakespeare. I read lots of Russian literature — in English translation.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

Shakespeare. Decades ago, I discussed this with a German friend, then a fellow student at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who also was a Shakespeare admirer, but said he preferred the works in their original German. The English language versions he thought sounded a bit awkward to him, like a poor translation.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Shakespeare, even if he had only ever written Hamlet and King Lear. Dickens would have been my second, and then third Tolstoy (Prokofiev's opera _War and Peace_ got me into the book!)


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Goethe - Italian Journey knocked me off my feet. Thomas Carlyle wrote a great piece about him which sealed Goethe (and Carlyle) in my estimation as a genius.

Dostoevsky - About on par with Tolstoy as a stylist but I just prefer the topics Dostoevsky writes about.

Twain - If just for 'Life on the Mississippi'. Eternal wit.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I picked Dostoevsky but really it should have been Shakespeare.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

This one is too hard, too many A-listers present. But I can say who I would _want_ to like the most. And that is Dante and Goethe. Meaning, I like what these guys were _aiming_ to do the best. Did they succeed the best, when compared to others on this list? Maybe. I don't know. But I think I do prefer their _ideas_ to any others on this insanely impressive list.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Kafka is my favorite, also love Proust, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.  All great of the ones that I've read


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

I must go for Hank Janson.


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