Does anyone read books anymore?

[thatdarncat]

Have you felt that Duane's latest works are missing something?

Ooh, see also this: www.youngwizards.net

I haven't felt that way, no.

and seen that see also: http://outofambit.blogspot.com http://www.youngwizards.com and http://www.owlsprings.com

(yes, I've been a Diane Duane fan for a VERY long time)

/fanboy hijack

 

[SemperJase]

Drop me a line, and I'll see who I can set you up with at a couple different publishing houses.

Great. I'll be contacting you.

 

[SemperJase]

Great to see I'm not the only person who still reads books.

Steven Brust is one of my favorites. Robin Hobb is good too.

Pick up Mitchell Graham's The Fifth Ring if you like sword fighting.
I have interviewed him too (for another site - I'm purely ENWorld now though). That article is here.

 

[Neo]

I havent had less than 3 books on the go for about the last 16 years lol

So add another "aye" to the "some of us do still read books" Chorus.

I love my books!

 

[ConnorSB]

I'm not really liking The Fifth Ring so much. I mean, its one of those books where I feel like its all "done before." Plus, I really dont believe the villain at all. He's just so rediculously evil and destructive. And why couldn't he have just called the Orlocks orcs?

As for authors I like, George RR Martin is high on my list, but i'm a fan of

Neil Stevenson
William Gibson
Terry Pratchet
Mercedes Lackey
Glen Cook
Patricia Bray (i like the Delvin series)
Phillip Pullman
Jack McDevitt
Frank Herbert
David Eddings
China Meivill
Jasper Fford
That guy who wrote Tales of the City (about San Francisco)
the War of the Spider Queen books
the new FR cycle about the Year of Rogue Dragons
Sting (his autobio is pretty good)
Rudy Rucker
Emily Dickenson (I think I will never get tired of reading her lesser known poems. That is, they are all good, but some of them I've been taught way to many times)
The Best American Science Writing 2003 (various authors, but all excelent nonfiction articles about everything from the facinating mating habits of Maine lobsters to the strange way music and memory interact)

 

[s/LaSH]

I read books... a good number, basically anything I can find in the city library that looks good. And is categorised as sf/f. But my horizons are not as broad as they might be, and I don't read many of the things mentioned here simply because I don't have time or exposure. So news about just about anything in the field would be at least passingly interesting to me, I guess.

 

[shady]

Relatively few fantasy authors, and definitely not the ones you mention ... it would however be worth tracking the SF and Fantasy Masterworks reprint series (and the similar ones from the likes of Gollancz). Other than that: Le Guin, Wolfe, maybe de Lint.

I'd be interested in tracking the game associated books for WoTC and for that matter White Wolf. But by and large I don't read them.

On SF (stares at shelves, and just picking ones I think are still alive) - Iain Banks, Ken Macleod, Jack McDevitt, Niven, Bear, Brin, Pohl, Williamson, Vance, Silverberg, Colin Greenland, Paul McAuley, Haldeman, Neal Stephenson, Cherryh, Aldiss, Kim Robinson, John Barnes, Dan Simmons, George Effinger, Bruce Sterling, Benford, Nancy Kress, Card, Wolfe, Ian Watson, Greg Egan, Stephen Baxter, Clarke, Alastair Reynolds. And so on.

And, while I'm staring at the shelf ... is William A Barton the same William Barton that used to write on Traveller for Space Gamer?

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Well numerous authors that I like have already been said so I'll keep my list short and sweet and to those I didn't see listed.

Vince Flynn, allot like Tom Clancy, and Robert Ludlum. (His real books, not book listed in his name after his death.) (Recommended books: Term Limits, Separation of Power, The Third Option, Transfer of Power)

Wilbur Smith, really hard to compare this man to others but I guess I would go with Clive Cussler but his books are very adventurous, (Recommended books: Birds of Prey, Monsoon, Blue Horizon, River God, The Seventh Scroll)

John Jakes, not sure if they require reading him in High School yet but they honestly should. (Recommended books: North and South, Love and War, Heaven and Hell.)

Michael and Jeff Shaara, Michael, the father, is dead but you really can’t mention the son without mention him. Together they tell a tale of epic proportions that shapes the world even to this day... They tell the story of the America Civil War. (Recommended books: Killer Angels, Gods and Generals, And The Last Full Measure) Note: The son, Jeff, has gone on to tell the story of the American Revolution, and the Mexican American War.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

That guy who wrote Tales of the City (about San Francisco)

Amistead Maupin

Tales of the City doesn't read the best, because it was written as a serial in the newspaper (one column a day). But I read a new one of his a couple of years ago (the night listener IIRC), which had me nearly in tears for much of the book.

Anyway, one fantasy author who hasn't been mentioned yet (which amazes me) is David Gemmell.

I usually have two or three books going at any time. I'm always reading something.

Duncan

 

[JoeGKushner]

I read a lot but it's mainly role playing books. I also do a lot of window reading at Barns & Nobles for thier various comic paperback collections. Ah, if only I had the space I once did!

I did however just start Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow and it's a nice entertaining read. I'm not an armchair historian or anything so couldn't tell you how accurate it is, but it reads well.