Yeah, yeah, but besides fantasy...

[AE35Unit]

Well my list of stuff i like to read is very diverse. I like biographies,natural history books,books on the railways,one on the history of the simple microscope,photography books,books on plants and botanists,books on trees etc etc. Be easier to list what i don't read!

 

[Connavar]

I will mention just a few authors i like and read/will read often in other genres.

Hardboiled crime fiction : Westlake/Richard Stark,Jim Thompson,Ross MacDonald,Raymond Chandler,Elmore Leonard,Ken Bruen,George Pelecanos,Dennis Lehane.

Other Crime : Michael Connolly,Arthur Conan Doyle.

Historical Fiction : C.S Forester,Conn Iggulden,Simon Scarrow,Jan Guillou.

Horror : Edgar Allan Poe,Richard Matheson,Stephen King.

Thriller: Frederick Forsyth,Ian Fleming,Barry Eisler,Mario Puzo,Robert Ludlum

Classic lit : Alexandre Dumas,Charles Dickens.

I do read the so called mainstream lit at times but not enough.

When its about non-fiction i read historical bios,social commentary books like John Dickie's Cosa Nostra. A scary book in that how horrible,powerful they are in real life. Much more dangerous than the romantic views of hollywood.

 

[ratsy]

I am pretty much addicted to Fantasy only. I have read Grisham, and enjoy Dan Brown though. I have been meaning to try Kathy Reichs though. I love the show Bones.

 

[Vladd67]

I am pretty much addicted to Fantasy only. I have read Grisham, and enjoy Dan Brown though. I have been meaning to try Kathy Reichs though. I love the show Bones.

Just don't expect the books to be anything like the TV series, they are so much better. In fact other than the main characters name you would be hard pushed to find any links between the two.

 

[BookStop]

Just don't expect the books to be anything like the TV series, they are so much better. In fact other than the main characters name you would be hard pushed to find any links between the two.

Not necessairly better though, just depends on what you are wanting at the time.

I read lots of stuff that is neither sf or f.

Amy Tan fiction
Tess Gerritsen thrillers
Patricia Sprinkle mysteries
Kathy Reichs Bones
Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon books are great
Sometimes Patterson or Deaver thrillers too

 

[HoopyFrood]

I am a completely omnivorous reader (good job, I'm sure, otherwise my course would've killed me off...) It's only since coming here that I've really got into SFF and although they are my favourite genres (well, after horror), I love books from all areas. My favourite authors include Evelyn Waugh (I adore Decline and Fall), P.G Wodehouse (legend), Thomas Hardy (best endings ever), Jane Austen, the Brontes, Shakespeare; some favourite books/plays include The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, Epicene by Jonson, Metamorphoses by Ovid, The Secret Garden, Kafka's short stories (especially Metamophosis), Behind the Attic Wall and a shed load more that are evading me at the moment...

 

[Clansman]

I am a huge fan of historical novels like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books, C.S. Forester's Hornblower books, Follet's Pillars of the Earth, etc.

I also like the cold war spy thrillers, like Le Carre, less so with Ludlum (too formulaic, and he resolved everything in the last three pages every time), and I read all of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan books, though I wish I had stopped at Debt Of Honour.

History books generally.

I have to read legal stuff all the time, so that doesn't really count.

 

[Connavar]

I am a huge fan of historical novels like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books, C.S. Forester's Hornblower books, Follet's Pillars of the Earth, etc.

I also like the cold war spy thrillers, like Le Carre, less so with Ludlum (too formulaic, and he resolved everything in the last three pages every time), and I read all of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan books, though I wish I had stopped at Debt Of Honour.

History books generally.

I have to read legal stuff all the time, so that doesn't really count.

Have you tried Frederick Forsyth ? Who i think is the best spy thriller writer. He has realism,reaserch and alot excitment in character,action. Something beteween Le Carre's at times mundane stories and Ludlum too melodramatic,cliffhanger like stories.

How about Ian Fleming ? Im a big fan of spy thrillers.
I liked the realistic ones. More like James Bond books and not the movies.
I dont mind Clancy but Ludlum has only impressed with the first Bourne.

 

[Clansman]

I agree on Ludlum. I read the Aquitaine Progression, and stopped. I read the first Bourne, and thought it was good, and that it would make a good screenplay. What vision I had in those days!

I'll pick up Forsyth, and I've been meaning to hunt down the original Fleming novels (not the ones adapted to match the Bond movies). Thanks for the pointers, Conn.

 

[AE35Unit]

Have you tried Frederick Forsyth ? Who i think is the best spy thriller writer. He has realism,reaserch and alot excitment in character,action. Something beteween Le Carre's at times mundane stories and Ludlum too melodramatic,cliffhanger like stories.

How about Ian Fleming ? Im a big fan of spy thrillers.
I liked the realistic ones. More like James Bond books and not the movies.
I dont mind Clancy but Ludlum has only impressed with the first Bourne.

Hey Conn, did you know John Wyhndham used to write detective stories? I found that out today!

 

[Connavar]

Clansman: For Forsyth begin with his classic The Day of the Jackal. Not similar to that crappy hollywood movie. It was so strong that impressed me alot.

I read first Bond book Casino Royale. Bond is so hardcore,proffissional that it makes the Craig one look like Roger Moor,Brosnan Bond. Totally different from the movies even CR movie who is the closest to the books.

AE35Unit: Suprisingly many SFF writers has written detective and other crime stories. Roger Zelazny,Jack Vance,Asimov and thats only the ones i know about.

 

[Vladd67]

Talking of Forsyth I was having a clearout and discovered I had six copies of Dogs of War. However I only remember buying one from a book shop, the others look like they had been picked up in carboot sales or jumble sales, but I had no recollection of buying them. My wife jokes that I'm like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory buying copies of Catcher in the Rye when ever he saw it. Personally I think its a case of poor memory not some sinister example of mind programming. Of course maybe they just want me to think that. Or maybe, they want me to think that maybe they want me to think that, so I will think that is actually true but it is actually a double bluff to hide the truth. Or maybe I need to get out more.

 

[mirinda]

If it's not fantasy for me it's ususally a mystery. Lois Duncan and Joan Lowry Nixon would have been my favorites a few years ago but I've read all of theirs. James Patterson is okay but I think I could find something better. Of course I'll randomly pick out books to read when there's nothing else to be found too.

 

[Yuoaman]

I enjoy History and Mythology... and anything written decently XD

 

[dask]

Besides science fiction and fantasy? I don't understand the question. Oh, you mean mundane literature.

Agatha Christie
Will Durrant
Richard Adams
Herman Wouk
Daphne Du Maurier (just discovered)

 

[DeepThought]

Like many posters here, I've read very little (a select few) outside the genre.

Most of these authors I've read, some I plan to read in the future:

Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, Edgar Allen Poe, Jeff Lindsay, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, Raymond Chandler, John Keats, Lord Byron, Franz Kafka, William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Homer

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I love to read fiction outside the realm of fantasy, and frequently hop from one type to the other. Some of my favorite authors are: José Saramago, Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Eça de Queiroz, Dino Buzzati and Fernando Pessoa.

 

[GOLLUM]

I love to read fiction outside the realm of fantasy, and frequently hop from one type to the other. Some of my favorite authors are: José Saramago, Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Eça de Queiroz, Dino Buzzati and Fernando Pessoa.

Well several of those are magic realists and do fall into the borad category of fantasy for me anyway. If you haven't sampled Italo Calvino, Pablo Neruda, Umberto Eco or Salman Rushdie do so now without hesitation....

OK, time to declare you sound like a kindred spirit, a lot of good reading you're doing there friend...

 

[BookStop]

I've recently become a big fan of Joanne Harris. Just love her stuff.

What Rushdie book would you recommend, Gollum? I've got a couple in my to-be-read pile, but htey've been there awhile.

 

[GOLLUM]

What Rushdie book would you recommend, Gollum? I've got a couple in my to-be-read pile, but htey've been there awhile.

Umm..can I make it easy and say all of them?...

No, they're all pretty good but certainly the controversial Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea Of Stories and Midnight's Children all of which are fantastical in nature. I haven't got to purchasing or reading his latest, Enchantress Of Florence yet.

Cheers.....