ERNEST HEMINGWAY
     Although out of fashion today, Hemingway was one of the first serious writers I read and I still think he is one of the great short story writers of all time. His best stories, such as "Hills Like White Elephants," have an elegant simplicity that reminds me of Zen. He claimed that what is left out of a story is just as important as what is included. His novel, "The Old Man and the Sea," shows his writing style in its purest form.

               J. D. SALINGER
      Speaking of Zen, seven of Salinger's "Nine Short Stories" are jewels of satori, the sudden flash of surprising insight that ends each tale. But his most famous book is "Catcher In The Rye," which I consider the best book ever written about teenagers. It is painfully funny, profanely angry and Holden Caufield comes to life like no other fictional character in American literature since Huckleberry Finn.

             JOHN STEINBECK
      Steinbeck is most famous for his Great Depression saga, "The Grapes of Wrath," but my favorite of his books is "Of Mice and Men." The novella is beautifully written like a fable and tells the story of a simple-minded man and the friend who loves him too much to let him suffer for an unintentional act. "East of Eden" provided the basis for a great film with James Dean. Steinbeck also wrote the script for "Viva Zapata."

            D. H. LAWRENCE
     "Lady Chatterly's Lover" was considered an obscene book by many people who had never read it. In my opinion it is the best book ever written about sexual love between men and women. Lawrence thought of sex as a mystical experience and decried the lack of tenderness in modern relations. He also wrote a truly haunting short story titled "The Rocking Horse Winner."

    W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
      I was sixteen when I read "The Razor's Edge"and it started me on a quest to find the meaning of life. I trace my avid interest in eastern mysticism back to this inspirational novel. Maugham was also a very good short story writer and he authored "The Moon and Sixpence," a novel about French painter Paul Gaugin, as well as the autobiographical novel "Of Human Bondage."

            GEORGE ORWELL
     Orwell wrote two of the most important political novels of the twentieth century. "1984" is a chilling look into a totalitarian state that Orwell extrapolated from the political trends of his age. "Animal Farm" is a blistering satire of the evils of Stalinist Russia. These books came from a man who outgrew socialist dogma to warn of a new kind of tyranny. Newspeak is practiced everywhere today.

           GRAHAM GREENE
     Greene has a superbly smooth style of writing, a knack for capturing the atmosphere of places and a penetrating insight into human foibles. "The Quiet American" is an uncanny portrait of the mistaken U.S. involvement in Vietnam, written years before it actually happened. "The Heart of the Matter" is based on Greene's war-time experiences in Africa.

      RICHARD BRAUTIGAN
     The best writer from the 60s hippy era, Brautigan was a poet who wrote gentle, funny prose as if it were poetry. His most hilarious novel, "A Confederate General From Big Sur," is a rollercoaster ride of laughs. "Revenge of the Lawn" is a collection of short short stories that sparkle like gems of wit, wisdom and beauty. Another good novel is "The Abortion: 1966."

       HUNTER S. THOMPSON
     The inventor of gonzo journalism, Thompson writes books that read more like fiction. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is the funniest book I ever read. "The Curse of Lono" is about Thompson's prolonged stay in Hawaii, where he tangles with native religion, pot growers and fishing boat captains who turn into Nazis the minute he steps aboard.

       MARJORIE RAWLINGS
      Rawlings is most famous for her novel, "The Yearling," but I thought her autobiographical book "Cross Creek" was even better. Her dream like description of floating down the St. John River was pure magic. Love of place is captured beautifully in Rawlings' account of the remote citrus farm she operated in 1930s Florida.

               ISAK DINESEN
      Love of place is also explored in"Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen, another woman writer with extraordinary talent. Dinesen, whose real name was Karen Blixen, owned a coffee farm in colonial Africa and wrote about her relationships with safari hunter Denis Finch-Hatton and aviatrix/author Beryl Markham.

        CHARLES BUKOWSKI
      The author behind the movie "Barfly," Bukowski wrote outrageously sordid but strangely funny stories about life on skid row.His best books are the novel "Post Office" and "Tales of Ordinary Madness," a short story collection. You'll need a strong stomach to read a writer nicknamed Buke the Puke, but he's worth the effort.

             ALBERT CAMUS
     Camus was the best of the post World War II existentialist writers. His novel "The Stranger" is a masterpiece about an alienated man who commits a senseless murder. "After The Fall" explores the failure of a man to live up to the moral imperative he believes in intellectually. Camus also wrote some very good short stories in "Exile and the Kingdom."

             JIM THOMPSON
    Thompson was a happy discovery for me. A tall gentle man, he wrote blood-curdling crime novels that were made into films after he died. The best is "The Killer Inside Me." I also liked his autobiographical book, "Bad Boy," which relates how he grew up in the oil fields of Texas and Oklahoma during Prohibition and became a writer.

           ELMORE LEONARD
    Dutch Leonard breaks most of the rules of writing that we were taught in school, but his novels are more impressive than those of any other contemporary crime writer. "Killshot" is a skillful portrayal of ordinary people conquering violence and "Maximum Bob" is a bizarrely-funny novel about the seemy side of life in South Florida.