What Books do you read?

[Revanael]

I choose to read mostly fantasy/scifi. In practice, I read whatever I can get my hands on when bored enough.

Sometimes I get even get bored enough to do some work...

[SekoETC]

There are people who read things from this world you know? ...But I ain't one of them!!! If a book doesn't have elves, I'm basically not interested. I don't know how it happened, how I slipped this way. Some years back I was reading Carolyn Keene and all the other girlie detective stories, then came indians, a slight period of pirates and other sea related, then horses, then science fiction. Somewhere in between I was tangled in Babysitters Club, different sets of paranormal and descriptions of young people's lives, what a coctail. Anyway, now I'm totally hooked on fantasy, though I would slide towards vampires if there were more Anne Rice books available.
About fantasy, I think I know them all. Well, exaggerating... I've read (in the order they bump into my mind)
J.R.R. Tolkien (the king),
Tad Williams (laaaaaaaag!),
Raymond E. Feist (what a wonderful style!),
R.A. Salvatore (drow society shocked me when I was 12, but did he have to ruin it by making Drizzt so goody-goody..!),
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (very skillful but morally bound by the TSR firm),
Terry Pratchett (the first books were funny but then...),
David Eddings (I hate his fantasy, but I must admit he has some skills),
Orson Scott Card (I love the way Alvin manages to survive troubles without using a sword!),
C.S. Lewis (somewhat touching),
Ursula Le Guin (somewhat old, but close to earth and I like the idea of a secret name),
Don Perrin (too.. *frown* masculine for me),
Jean Rabe (now that's lame, one of the writers no one remembers),
Elayne Cunningham (was my idol for a while),
Neil Gaiman (I don't know if he really counts as a fantasy writer, but he's my favorite!),
Philip Pullman (his atheism really disappointed me),
Robert Jordan (seems like the Wheel of time keeps spinning on forever...)
and the few Finnish fantasy writers no foreigner has ever heard about , Viivi Hyvönen who was my first contact with fantasy, Taru Mäkinen and damn I cannot remember any more names! I only got this far because I managed to spend all my turns today.

And then there is this new term "magical realism", like Michael Ende and J. K. Rowling.

[Albatross]

What about Terry Goodkind? The best fantasy writer since Tolkien IMO.
I also read :
Terry Pratchett
Weiss and Hickman
David Eddings
Mickey Zucker Reichert
Joel Rosenberg
H. Warner Munn
Robin Hobb
Douglas Adams

They're all fantasy writers.
I also read books on magick and the occult, such as those by Aleister Crowley or David Conway.

[SekoETC]

Yes, I'm just reading Wizard's first rule by Terry Goodkind. I think I like his style but I'm not very familiar with it yet. Before I have read only one short story by him, it was in some anthology.

[Darth Tiberius]

A bit exclusive. I read basically everything. I love the Narnia books and all sorts of novels. But unlike many I cannot stand Harry Potter. That sort of tripe makes me sick.

[trage]

I read Fantasy and Sci-Fi. That's it. I'm snobbish about what I read. I only will read things from specific authors.

The only one I'll say is R. A. Salvatore (Forgotten Realms series. And NO! I did NOT start the 'DoUrden Empire' in Cantr. But whoever did also reads the Forgotten Realms series, obviously.)

Isn't it pretty dang obvious who started the Do'Urden Empire . Anyways I read Fantasy, Science Fiction and a few others. Some of my favorite authors are R.A. Salvatore, and William C. Dietz, best Science fiction military writer yet in my opinion.

[west]

I'm abducting Seko's list and making comments.
J.R.R. Tolkien--Still the king
Tad Williams--never got into him
Raymond E. Feist--the John the Baptist of modern fantasy (to Tolkien's Messiah)
R.A. Salvatore--teh suck. Try coming up with a FEW new ideas, R.A. Orcs attacking over the Spine of the World? *yawn* Oh, okay, drows were cool for like a few seconds.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman--The royalty of generic fantasy

Terry Pratchett--good stuff
David Eddings--his Belgariad and Malloreon are good
Orson Scott Card--prey' good.
C.S. Lewis--quite good. His nonfiction is superb as well
Ursula Le Guin--a bit kitschy sometimes, and "Tenahu" sucked. but the Wizard of Earthsea was good
Don Perrin--who?
Jean Rabe--who?
Elayne Cunningham--who?
Neil Gaiman--sounds familiar
Philip Pullman--has issues. The "His Dark Materials" books were good until the 3rd one--
Robert Jordan--Very good, but needs an editor sometimes (concise, Rob, concise!)

Some you forgot:

Piers Anthony--a hack. 100%.

Lord Dunsany (pre-Tolkien High Fantasy)

Peter S. Beagle's "Come Lady Death" is a fantastic (duh) piece of High Fantasy

AND SOME SCI-FI
Isaac Asimov
Stanislaw Lem
Poul Anderson
Heinlen
Herbert (Frank)
etc. etc.


_________________________-

I've mainly gotten out of sci-fi/fantasy, though I've been rereading some of my old ones again.

Just finished Poul Anderson's "Ensign Flandry" again. Oh, for the Golden Age. *sigh*

[trage]

Philip Pullman--has issues. The "His Dark Materials" books were good until the 3rd one--

Ok I actually agree with that one, He wad doing a good job with that series until the third -.-.. I just stopped half way through that one.

[Mavsfan911]

I'm a big Clive Cussler fan
I think he's an excellent writer.

[Anthony Roberts]

I read Fantasy and Sci-Fi. That's it. I'm snobbish about what I read. I only will read things from specific authors.

The only one I'll say is R. A. Salvatore (Forgotten Realms series. And NO! I did NOT start the 'DoUrden Empire' in Cantr. But whoever did also reads the Forgotten Realms series, obviously.)

Isn't it pretty dang obvious who started the Do'Urden Empire . Anyways I read Fantasy, Science Fiction and a few others. Some of my favorite authors are R.A. Salvatore, and William C. Dietz, best Science fiction military writer yet in my opinion.

No. It's not obvious. Not to me, anyway. And it wasn't you, you wern't around when it started o.O;

[Báng]

I feel so left out! My reading habbits are limited to whatever books I have to read for homework purposes, and thats usually sports related/physical activity books. Not the type of books you just can't put down!

I don't even have the excuse that I watch TV to subsitute for reading...and I'm not on the internet all that much either lately...umm...what do I do!?

[SekoETC]

Piers Anthony--a hack. 100%.

Ha, somebody's having trouble inventing names to a character.. mayor of Alenz hills. There will be no CR-breachy revenge but still.. he ordered my charrie to death without a trial! Grr! *Grits teeth*

[kronos]

im halfway through a new series, the wheel of time by jordan roberton, quite good even if there is 10 books, the belegarth series of eddings is great. i dont mind robert ludlum

[The Crazed Sheep]

So much fantasy! I usually just read whatever Dean Koontz paperback that I can find.

[The Hunter]

I prefer to read both fantasy and sci-fi. Just cuz I like my mind to wander off this world, tho Fantasy seems to drown in clichee's.

Other than that i read about anything if bored enough.

Favourite's:

Siddharta. (Manfred summing... Mann?).
Discworld series. (Especially Small Gods).
Baudolino. (Hilarious, by Umberto Eco).
The tailor of panama (?)

Also, Anything form Tais Teng. An unkown (underground) writer of mostly short stories. Wrote sci-fi and fantasy, as well as other stories and is now fond of Norse saga's etc. Tho their short stories you have the feeling of having read a 1000 pages minimum. Blilliant.

Apart from those, I won't buy anything that has less than 1500 pages.

I hate: Anything from Dean R Koontz.