Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I Want to Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week, we were asked to share our top bookish people that we would like to meet, be they authors or bloggers. While there are a number of bloggers I would love to meet (you probably all know who you are), I decided to focus on authors because a mixed list would mess up my head. Also, I have excluded authors that I've already met, even if I would like to see them more, most notably Lenore Appelhans and E.C. Myers. I'm also excluding the dead authors rather than creating a time machine to visit them (Jane Austen, Roald Dahl, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Carol Shields would be my top choices for that).

Where possible, I've linked to reviews for the books I've read by these authors, but I read some of them pre-blogging (was there really such a time?).

10. Scott Westerfeld

Why? He's not one of my favorite authors. I've liked some of his books quite a bit and been sort of meh on others. BUT he's crazy, and I just feel like he would be really interesting to meet.

Books Read: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath

9. Daniel Marks

Why? Because this man is made of sass, and I love it. He loves food and drinking and dark humor. He wrote a kickass heroine who I just loved, and his vlogs that I've seen have all been great. He's also sweet on Twitter. He would be so fun to go drinking and people-judging with, I have no doubt.

Books Read: Velveteen

8. Karsten Knight

Why? Partial reason: I really liked Wildefire, and it's always interesting when a guy writes from a female perspective. Real reason: he's hot. Ngl, he's a good looking man, and I will take humorous bookish talk with an attractive guy any time.

Books Read: Wildefire

7. Barbara Kingsolver

Why? Her books are all marvelous. Well, all of the ones that I've read thus far anyway. She does something new and different in each book, and she makes me take interest in subjects I normally loathe, such as missionaries and babies. She's a brilliant woman and I would love to garner whatever wisdom she will offer me.

Books Read: The Bean Trees, The Poisonwood Bible, Prodigal Summer

6. Joss Whedon

Why? Is Firefly enough of a reason for you? This man is a nerd icon. So, yeah, he kind of has to be on this list.

Books Read: Buffy: Season 8, Volumes 1-6 (he wrote a couple volumes), also a couple other comics but I am too lazy to list

5. Margaret Atwood

Why? BECAUSE SHE'S MARGARET ATWOOD. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

Books Read: The Handmaid's Tale, The Penelopiad, Oryx and Crake

4. Elsie Chapman

Why? Elsie's an author I've talked with a lot on Twitter. She is sweet and kind and funny. Also, I liked her book and she said I totally got the main character, so yay for me. We could totally have a lovely conversation about YA dystopias. :)

Books Read: Dualed

3. Jay Kristoff

Why? Have you read his book? Followed him on Twitter? Read any of his interviews, like the one I did last month? Obviously not or you wouldn't ask why I want to meet this guy. He's so freaking cool.

Books Read: The Little Stormdancer, Stormdancer

2. Cara Lynn Shultz

Why? I've read both of her books and I really enjoyed both, even though it's the kind of plot line that I expected to drive me crazy. What really made them for me are Shultz's humor and pop culture references. If you haven't read them, I recommend them highly, especially to fans of Kiersten White's Paranormalcy series. Plus, I've talked to her on Twitter and we share a lot of nerdiness. I would love to meet her and discuss topics like 90s music, P&P adaptations and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Books Read: Spellbound, Spellcaster

1. Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire

Why? The Newsflesh Trilogy is one of my favorite book series ever. I haven't read any of the books she's written under her actual name yet, but I'm sure I'll adore them too. I love her writing so incredibly much, every sarcastic, cynical bit of it. I love her daring and her obvious love of Joss Whedon. She captures perfectly exactly how I feel about humanity, and I feel like talking with her would be both enlightening and hilarious.

Books Read: Feed, Deadline, Blackout

So, who do you guys want to meet?