Yeah, yeah, but besides fantasy...

[Marky Lazer]

I know it's a Sci-Fi and Fantasy forum (with a taste of horror), but what other authors do you like to read?

 

[Adasunshine]

Good thread!

I do like the odd biography, I've read a very interesting one on Groucho Marx, have started one on Laurel & Hardy. I've also read more harrowing ones like Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It, Lost Boy & A Man Named Dave.

Other than that, I like humourous books, Marijuana Time by Ken Lukowiac is also auto-biographical but funny as hell.

I also like mythologies, particularly Greek and British!

And things like Schotts Miscellany, The Moviegoer's companion, trivia stuff in general, is good brain fodder too!

Authors, I like Nick Hornby, Maggie O'Farrell, Lian Hearn, Alice Seabold, Kate Atkinson, Paulina Simons, Peter Ackroyd & am interested in Robert Nye but his books are hard to get hold of.

That's all I can think of for now.

xx

 

[HieroGlyph]

Aye, good question... Aside from SF&F?

Science in the real world. Especially biology and natural history and current proponents like Dawkins and Jones...
And physics from cosmologists and such. Magazines (for current news). But I dont make a point of seeking chemistry authors

I would read Dickens and Austin and all those others, too (honestly) but I can never make the time

So am I pidgeon-holed now?
Nah, hearkens back to 'passionate inquisitiveness', which means all things.
...

[Oh, so whats your reply, Mr Lazer?]

 

[Rosemary]

Travel books...especially Tibet, Russia, Nepal and Australia.

History...partiularly on anything Celtic & Anglo-Saxon.

Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Dickens, Bronte, Austen, Hardy & Hugo.

Anything by Edward Rutherfurd and other Historical Fiction writers.

Natural History.

 

[Marky Lazer]

Well, I hardly read Sci-fi and fantasy at all. My favorite authors are Chuck Palahniuk, Max Barry, Nick Hornby, Amy Hempel, Alex Garland, Chris Buckley, James Hawes, Katherine Dunn, Joey Goebel, Ken Kesey, Irvine Welsh, Blake Nelson, Haruki Murakami, Craig Clevenger, Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Douglas Coupland, James Gunn, Steven Graham Jones, John Irving, Joseph Heller, Jacqueline Susann, Jim Thompson, Louis Sachar, Albert Camus, Catherine Jinks, J.G. Ballard, Kurt Vonnegut, Will Christopher Baer, Jason Heim, Nick Walker, Steve Aylett, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, Jay McInerney, Jeff Noon, Hubert Selby.

These authors I own copies from and liked. And I bet I forgot a few.

Edit: I forgot a few more classic authors, and at the moment can only think of these: H.G. Wells, Jonathan Swifts, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, William Shakespeare, Homer.

 

[murphy]

Science Fiction and Fantasy will always be my first loves, but other than that I like a good historical novels such as those written by Sharon K. Penman, Roberta Gellis, Dorothy Dunnett and Diana Gabaldon.

Also like mysteries. Favorite authors are

Both Kellermans
Martha Grimes
Anne Perry
Patricia Cornwell
Kathy Reichs
and Last but not least Janet Evanovich for the humor

 

[dwndrgn]

Outside of these hallowed genres I read a bit of this and that. For mystery, my fave authors are:
Lindsay Davis
Elizabeth Peters
Elizabeth George
Martha Grimes
Anne Perry
Michael Jecks
Ellis Peters
Kathy Reichs
Diana Gabaldon

other than the above and several other related authors, I read contemporary romance, historical romance, humor...just about anything that isn't serious

 

[murphy]

OMG, how could I forget Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody. Love 'em.

 

[hedgeknight]

I enjoy reading Dickens, C.S. Lewis (his religious works), Stephen Ambrose, Max Lucado, Sheri Holman, Michael Crichton, and the Bible.
-g-

 

[cornelius]

David Normann ( paleontology, dinosaurs, the whole mish mash)

 

[WizardofOwls]

I enjoy reading the Bible, Dickens and Shakespeare (and commentaries on his works).

I enjoy reading Christian books. Some of my favorite authors are Tim LaHaye, Tommy Tenney, Bruce Wilkinson, Joyce Meyer, Grant Jeffrey, Graham Powell, Zola Levitt, Carol Heiden and Elmer L. Towns.

I also like Christian fiction. I love the Left Behind series and all 3 spinoff series - The military spinoff by Mel Odom, the political spinoff by Nessa Hart and the Left Behind: The Kids books. I also like the Nephilim series by L. A. Marzulli (can't wait to get the third book) and book called Ancient Lights by Ralph D. Curtin.

I also like Young Adult fiction. I am currently enjoying three series in this genre: The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky, The Warriors by Erin Hunter, and Dragons in Our Midst by Bryan Davis. I LOVE Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien and hope to find the other books in the series soon.

Besides these, I like instructional books on Scottish Gaelic (Textbooks, phrasebooks, dictionaries, etc.), books dealing with the hisory of Clan McKay, and anything dealing with Scotland in general.

 

[littlemissattitude]

First of all...All right, Murphy. Nice to see another Californian here, especially from the Valley. I grew up in Simi Valley, so I'm very familiar with your area. Unfortunately, I'm now living in what feels like exile in Fresno.

I also read both Kellermans. I like Faye's work a bit more than Jonathan's, however. I also like Kathy Reichs a lot. Patricia Cornwell, too, but not quite as well. Elizabeth Peters is great; love Amelia Peabody and family. Same with Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels; I don't think I've tried any of his others yet. On a bit of a darker note, I love James Ellroy's work.

I can't actually think of any mainstream literary writers who I read faithfully. Then again, I actually read a lot more non-fiction than I do fiction. I've always been a devotee of the late, great Stephen Jay Gould. He was just the most brilliant essayist, and he loved baseball, which is always a good attribute in a person. I also always liked Carl Sagan until he got too stinking preachy. The Dragons of Eden was always my favorite of his.

Aside from specific writers, I read a lot of anthropology and archaeology, since those are main areas of interest for me. I also read a lot about religions - not as devotional literature, but from an anthropological and sociological point of view. I'm delving pretty deeply into the whole evolution/creation/intelligent design controversy right now, so I'm reading a lot in that area, and have done for awhile, as it is a continuing interest. I like a good biography, but I haven't found too many lately. I do have David McCullough's bio of John Adams in my to-read list at the moment, mostly because I picked up a hardback copy on the sale shelf at the library for something like two dollars. I also like a good true-crime book; those also seem few and far between recently. History is also a continuing interest.

Although, when it comes right down to it, I'll read almost anything. It's an addiction, you know.

 

[Omega]

I like wrestling biographies.

I currently have Mick Foley's, Dwayne Johnson's (The Rock) and Darrin Matthews' (William Regal).

If you want to read how a sports entertainer battled through his drink and drugs addiction, William Regal's is a good one for that, my respect for this man has gone up now that he has beaten his demons.

 

[nixie]

History occassional thriller.I've read the David Peltzer books...very harrowing read.
Dennis Wheatley's black magic thrillers are amongst my favourite reads

 

[Foxbat]

My other literary likings are mostly biography and history. Authors-wise it's really anybody that seems to have written something that takes my fancy although I do have a liking for works by Simon Sebag Montefiore and Antony Beevor.

Recently I've been reading a lot on the Romans (probably an influence I picked up from here) I'm also particularly fascinated by Russian and Communist history...don't ask me why...I really don't know

 

[sanityassassin]

I like decent crime thrillers Stephen Leather inperticular some recent Irish history books (20th c) and a few random things like Adrian Mole

 

[Rane Longfox]

Don't read a whole load outside the SF and F umbrella... but Tony Hawk (the comedian, not the skateboarder) and Ben Elton write some good stuff

 

[GOLLUM]

Well I've read a number of works by Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, Emily Bronte, Thomas Harding, Kafka, Albert Camus, Umberto Eco, Ibsen, Dostoyevsky, Herman Hesse, Enrest Hemmingway, Joseph Conrad, Goethe, Twain, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Dante, Kurt Vonnegut and Emile Zola.

You know, just the kind of light bedtime reading one craves for....

Plus horror but that's already covered in these forums AND I don't read much but enjoy watching films covering thrillers/whodunits by Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, PD James, GK Chesterton, Margaret Doody, Ellis Peters etc...

 

[Loki]

There are so many great reads out there is some odd places. Christopher Moore's "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" (1999) is very funny and a fantasy spoof without being campy; Stephen glazier's "The Lost Provinces" (1981) is a fun world war one thriller. Both ate "light" reading. Both are written with skill and attention to detail.

 

[Teir]

Mostly historical or documentary based reads really..

At the moment I'm slowly going through 'Egyptian Mummies' and 'Darwin, his Daughter and Evolution'. At the library there is also a collection of letters written by Pliny the Younger, and a collection of Cicero's correspondence which i have to eventually finish.
hmmmmmmm...not fantasy eh? well.......

James Patterson's 'The Jester' was really good...
A Year of Wonders(which is based on the event of the black plague) by Geraldine Brooks is fantastic...
I love Laurie R. King cos she does a Sherlock Holmes Pastiche series. Oh, which reminds me, I'm Holmes obsessed and after reading the canon twice Ive devastated the ACT library system of fan fiction/pastiches D )

i love books on the unexplained and true ghost stories, mythology and events like the Titanic disaster or the Holocaust...umm, Books on past rulers or royal families,
OH and one last thing i swear , i love books on preserved remains and artifacts - bog bodies, ice mummies, tombs, Inca temples and human sacrifices, naturally preserved burial sites, Ancient civilizations - especially with pictures..... pictures are good for that sort of thing

Yeah so history i guess. *teir stops raving*