Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Authors

So, I went to the bookstore yesterday. I thought it might be of interest to let you guys know the authors who are stocked in the English-language section of a major bookstore chain in Japan. The fiction section isn't huge - one row of books about four shelves deep.

I didn't take notes, but from memory, these are some of the authors I saw (aside from Dan Brown):

Thriller/Suspense

Linda Fairstein
John Sandford (If you haven't read his Prey series, check it out. It's absolutely awesome.)
Jonathan Kellerman (His Alex Delaware series is great.)
James Patterson
Robert B. Parker

Romantic Suspense

Linda Howard
Allison Brennan
JD Robb (Roarke...what more do I need to say?)
Sharon Sala

Historical Romance

Stephanie Laurens
Amanda Quick (I'm a huge fan of her early historicals and paranormals.)

Contemporary/Chick-Lit

Nora Roberts (interestingly, more of her reissued category titles than her single title work)
Sophie Kinsella
(There were more but I'm having brain freeze on this.)

Paranormal

Kay Hooper (scary but in a very cool way)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Laurell K. Hamilton
Christine Feehan

I'm guessing you've seen the theme - all big-name authors. The only one who could be categorized as a new voice, is Allison Brennan. I love a lot of the authors on that list, have read pretty much all of them at one stage or other, but given the speed at which I read when I get going, if I only shopped in the bookstore, I'd run out of reading material very fast. Which is why I get a lot of books online. It allows me to buy books that maybe aren't huge, but which sound interesting, or try out new authors.

Obviously the lack of choice in a brick and mortar bookstore is to be expected in a non-English speaking location, but what I'm wondering is - how good are the same types of stores where you live? Can you find what you want most of the time?

6 comments :

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Hi Nalini, In England so far, yes!
Even obsure European literature, Latin-American, translations of the Icelandic or the Japanese...Russian or the French .. just about anything you want under the sun. And there are also several specialist bookshops for crime (Charing Cross), romance and the like...(A few days stopover in London alone should satisfy.) And even music - albums that I haven't been able to locate in Melbourne or Sydney, Australia, have turned up quite nicely say, somewhere in Piccadilly...

Nalini Singh said...

Hi Susan - I saw a movie once set in Charing Cross road. And it was in a bookstore!

Sounds like you're in book heaven. I'm completely jealous!

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Oh, not at all Nalini. Just that England loves its books and things old especially pertaining to the classics and these are almost always treasured. Take heart that the next time you go in to London for a spot of book-buying, you know you won't be disappointed. warmest regards

sybil said...

You didn't take notes? LOL I am so sad I would have been there with pen and paper ;)

Kellerman is great in general but I think the last I read was Monster and that is due to lack of time. Romance, paranormal and historicals sort of took over everything else ;).

Nalini Singh said...

Sybil - I know, I'm such a slacker *G* Actually I did think about pulling out a pen and paper but timewise, it was a contest between taking names and buying books. Guess which won?

Milady - I wouldn't have guessed that. You're in Singapore right?

Susan - I haven't yet hit Europe but London's definitely on my list!

sybil said...

LOL well put it that way....