Top Ten Authors I’ve Read the Most Books By

Top Ten Tuesdays is a meme currently being run by the blog That Artsy Reader Girl. Put simply each Tuesday has a theme assigned to it and participating blogs have to come up with a top ten list around it. Last week I shared my Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020 and looking ahead at the next few topics I hope to take part in two themes from August.

I decided to do my list a little bit differently and, in a sense, have done more than one, and in the form of graphs. Firstly, I decided to look at the ten mystery writers I have read the most books by overall, (and completely nerded out by comparing how many of their titles I had actually reviewed on my blog.)

I don’t imagine anyone will be shocked by the first-place winner – Agatha Christie, for both number of overall reads and number of blog reviews, but some blog readers may be a little surprised by some of the authors that made the list. Though at this stage I ought to emphasise it is quantity not quality, which is being assessed. So yes, I really have read 17 novels by P. D. James, (majority of which I have now re-homed), 25 novels by Ngaio Marsh and 15 Gladys Mitchell novels. In fairness, I have enjoyed the odd book by these three writers, but the majority of my reads were more meh or downright duds. Interestingly, blogging has helped me to steer clear of authors I am less keen on, perhaps because it simply reminds me how bad the previous read was! Whilst I think I had quite a wide mystery reading taste pre-blog, (which is probably not reflected in this list), I still think blogging has helped me to read more diversely, as well as notice what writing styles work for me and which ones do not.

I hope it is not too unusual that my top ten list of most read authors is not completely filled with authors I really love. The fact that a lot of my favourite authors wrote less than a handful of books has unfortunately meant the likes of Juanita Sheridan and Joan Coggins did not make the cut.

So having looked at my overall reads, I then decided to do a top ten around the authors I have reviewed the most. I was interested to see which authors from the first list cropped up again, and which new writers joined the ranks.

Naturally Christie tops the charts, but Ames, Berkeley and Carr have all shot up the list into prime positions, which I think shows how this top ten reflects my reading preferences more accurately. This is continued with the new writers in the list: Anthony Gilbert, Conyth Little, Christopher Bush, Leo Bruce and Ethel Lina White; a mixture of intricate puzzle plots, comic crime and atypical suspense fiction. Somehow Marsh has still made the list, (just). However, I imagine if I re-did this list in a year or two’s time, other authors may have pushed her off her perch.

So what about everyone else? Which authors would feature in your list? Are these authors all firm favourites?