I'm an avid reader (mostly monster mags) as I'm sure many of you are. Here are some of my favorite books. What are some of yours?
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland & Through The Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
all of Washington Irving's spooky stories, especially The Devil & Tom Walker (why has this never been filmed for TV or the movies, or has it?)
All of Ray Bradbury's story collections
Fahrenheit 451, A boy and his Dog, anything by Matheson, Anything by HP Lovecraft, most of RE Howards work. the Lucky Jack Aubrey series by Sullivan. Grapes of wrath, anything by MArk twain. Lord of the RIngs, all the Doc Savage books.
Ubik Philip K. Dick *
World Of Tiers (series) Philip Jose Farmer *
Radix AA Attanasio
Wild Seed Octavia E. Butler
Neuromancer William Gibson
Mind Killer Spider Robinson
Stranger In A Strange Land Robert Heinlein
The Illuminatus Trilogy! Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
An East Wind Coming Arthur Byron Cover
The Power Frank M. Robinson
both Dick & Farmer are the two authors I'll buy anything & everything by~
Stephen King (anything)
Dracula
H.P. Lovecraft (anything)
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
Matheson (anything)
Frankenstein
and some of the Star Wars novels.
Also like to read books on real hauntings and ghosts.
It really amazes me that people in their 30s to 50s can pick out TOP faves in ANY genre.
I go thru phases meaning right now I am taking 2 weeks to get 100 pages into a book I enjoy. Over winter holidaze I was off for 11 days and read over 2000 pages. I am REAL picky on novels and prefer anthologies. Always exploring new authors. Long time faves,King Robert Leslie Bellem,Hugh B Cave, John Saul, Bentley Little, Richard Laymon and a host of indie authors in Cemetery Dance Magazine. OH and some guy named H.P Lovecraft,heard of him? :P
To Kill A Mockingbird
Dracula
Camille
Treasure Island
Frankenstein
A Christmas Carol
Dumas's Musketeer Saga
Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
Chandler's Phillip Marlowe
Kipling's Short Stories
Bradbury's Short Stories
Classic Short Horror Anthologies
Classic Short Science Fiction Anthologies
In addition to all the great selections already mentioned, I also enjoy the works of Robert Bloch.
I'm currently reading The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte which served as the source material for the movie THE NINTH GATE.
Max Brooks also gets a nod from me.
Favorite novels? It will be pretty eclectic and in no particular order.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Twain)
No 44, The Mysterious Stranger (Twain)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne)
War of the Worlds (Wells)
The Time Machine (Wells)
The White Company (Conan Doyle)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Ron Hansen)
Desperados (Ron Hansen)
Good Omens (Gamin and Pratchett)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and most of the rest by Adams
Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (Adams)
The Sprawl Trilogy (Wm Gibson)
The Bridge Trilogy (Wm Gibson)
Snow Crash (Stephenson)
Three Man in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome)
Three Men on a Bummel (Jerome K Jerome)
Story Collections:
Sherlock Holmes stories & novels by Conan Doyle
Jeeves and Wooster stories & Novels by P.G. Wodehouse
Mr Mulliner stories P.G. Wodehouse
Guys and Dolls and any other story collections by Damon Runyon
Of these , my favorite authors are Wodehouse, Runyon and Jerome. All three are the masters of the English language. These writers could tell memorable stories in amazing styles. Enjoyable stories aside, these guys are so much fun to read because of the way they use language.
Genre related:
- 'Salem's Lot
- Night Shift (King)
- Dracula
Otherwise currently read/have read military history (WWII, Vietnam, American Revolution), Cornel West, Bell Hooks, Glenn Singleton, various Latino writers, Stephen King, etc.
Travis McGee novels by John D.MacDonald
The Man From U.N.C.L.E novels
The Avengers novels
Dracula
Salem's Lot
DragonLance novels
ForgottenRealms novels
Haunted by James Herbert
Louis L'amour novels
Conan by Robert E. Howard
Ted Dekker novels
Monster by Frank Perretti
Dean Koontz novels
Ivy Malone Mysteries
David Gemmel novels
I also enjoy reading books about myths and legends, which most focus on Sasquatch.
I really dont care for short stories, and I go through a great book in one day.
I am a voracious reader! My favorites are HPL,Robert E Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, HG Wells, Dracula, Original series StarTek novels, DrWho novels,booksabout movies and cryptozoology and UFO books,especially ones from the 70s.
Love to read. All time favorite author is Ray Bradbury. Another is Olaf Stapledon.
Others
19th century
Poe (anything)
Dickens (Great Expectations)
Twain (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer)
Wells (Time Machine)
Doyle (anything Holmes related)
Stevenson (Treasure Island)
20th century
Hoyle (Black Cloud)
Clarke (Tales From the White Hart)
Harbinson (Genesis)
Card (Speaker for the Dead)
McCaffrey (White Dragon)
Burroughs (Tarzan)
King (The Stand)
McCammon (anything)
Dickson (Dorsai series)
Piper (Fuzzy series)
Robeson (Doc Savage series)
Perry Rhodan series (multiple authors)
Garret (Lord D'Arcy series)
many, many more
The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe
I'll think of some others, later.
Quote from: Unknown Primate on December 03, 2011, 09:41:55 PM
The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe
I'll think of some others, later.
I love Poe too! I read the Complete works a few years ago and it was awesome!
How could I forget Poe and Conan Doyle?! two more of my favorite authors.
Pretty much any of H.P. Lovecrafts works.
The Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva
The V.I. Warshawski series by Sara Paretsky
The Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke
The Inspecter Wexford series by Ruth Rendell
The Skip Langdon series by Julie Smith
I've gone through phases of genres since I was a kid.
In Elementary school, it was Sherlock Holmes, Hardy Boys and folk tales/ghost stories like "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Ghostly Gallery" and "Haunted Houseful" among others.
Junior High started my interest in military history. Spent hours at the library. Bram Stoker's Dracula and Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot" and "Night Shift" were my favorites.
High School and College was Partytime. (Mostly reading for school, personal reading slipped)
My 20's was race and gender issues. Collections of essays. "Muy Macho: Latino Men Confront Their Manhood" is a favorite of mine. So was Cornel West's "Race Matters"and Robert Dean Pharr's "S.R.O.". Highly influential. Poetry became important to me as well during this time. "Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe'" and Pablo Neruda's "The Captain's Verses" are some favorites.
My 30's sent me back to military history, especially WW II, the Eastern Front and North African campaigns. "Panzer Leader" by Heinz Guderian and "Stalingrad" by Micheal Jones are some favorites. Recently at the end of my 30's I've thrown in some Philosophy, Hemingway and about to start "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
I often find myself going back to some favorite authors:
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
Robertson Davies
Philip Jose Farmer
William Kennedy
Eric Kraft
HPL
Also,
The Fletch and Flynn series' by Gregory McDonald
Perry Mason by Erle Stanley Gardner
Carl Hiaasen
I read a lot of non fiction, biographies and histories of subjects that interest me, and true crime. My all time favorite book ever is of course The Strongman by Joe Bonomo. As far as fiction goes I tend to lean towards horor and the macabre. King, Lovecraft, pretty much all classic horror literature like Dracula, Frankenstien, etc.
Another good one for this time of year is Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I read it first in the seventh grade for a book report and loved it.
I really like the Forgotten Realms series as well as any Star Wars books. Gonna try some old Star Trek books here real soon.
My favorite authors in the field of horror are HP Lovecraft and Stephen King. In science fiction my favorites are HG Wells and Isaac Asimov. My favorite book is Dracula and read it once a year starting in October (I have been doing this since 1980). I also enjoy the Hitchhiker "trilogy" by Douglas Adams and the Time Wars series by Simon Hawke. Cripes, trying to remember all the stuff I've read over the years. I also enjoy reading books of history, I have a book I bought at a library sale titled Modern and Contemporary European History published in 1925.
my favorite reading material is of course H.P.Lovecraft and August Derleth, also Edgar Rice Burroughs, Poe, and Rober E. Howard.
I love Victorian and Edwardian horror especially M.R.James.