Charles Dickens' 200th birthday
 

As Google reminds us, today is Charles Dickens' 200th birthday.

I am a HUGE Dickens fan, in fact, he is one of my top 5 favorite writers. Definetely the best of his era, and to this day, the characters he has developed remain some of the best personas ever created in fiction. I also really like his style of prose, now, I have heard a lot of people criticize him "padding" the length of his novels (he was paid by the word), but I think it only makes the books better...

For those of you who are also Dickens fans, what are your favorite works?

My favorite would have to be "A Tale of Two Cities". I think its one of the best books ever written, everything is intertwined so perfectly, all the characters are (as usual for Dickens) well developed and the story is great. I remember reading it the first time and struggling (I was back in, I think, sophmore year of High School) and despite the difficulty of the text, I would sit and work it out because I so totally wanted to know what happened next.

My second favorite Dickens book would have to be Little Dorrit.

I am not so partial to Dickens' best known works (Oliver Twist & David Copperfield), but maybe its because they have been overexposed, from academia to film and etc.

So, any other Dickens fans?

The Dickensian Aspect
 

Actually, I think he died a while ago.

who are your other top 4 authors? Dan Brown?

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

I'm surprised you don't read the "Hank The Cowdog" Series and masturbate.

Definetely the best of his era, and to this day, the characters he has developed remain some of the best personas ever created in fiction.

Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, RA Salvatore, Richard Knaak...

Its easier to seperate inro modern/classical top 5s tho...

And no, I dont read Dan Brown...I only read modern fantasy lit...

On a par with Dickens, IF NOT better.