As you can probably tell from the other links on this page, I have several favorite authors who make up most of my top ten list.
My top list doesn't contain classics - I am always skeptical when someone exclaims , "Oh! My favorite author is Charles Dickens!". Yeah. Right. I was a lit major in college and I've read most of the classics at one time or another and unless you live locked alone in a drafty castle, you aren't reading these things for fun.
Don't get me wrong, I have a very special place in my library for a copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales -- in Middle English, and I love David Copperfield, but they are not on my Top 10 list.
So, let's be completely honest -- when you want entertainment, you aren't reading Moby Dick , you're pulling out the latest bodice ripper with Fabio on the cover, or the latest murder mystery, or a Star Trek novel.
Yeah, admit it. [pat pat, nodding sympathetically] That's it
I read for pleasure, and these books are the ones that I curl up with on a rainy day, or hide in the bathroom and read over and over again:
- Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
and Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager, and... well, you get the picture. - War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
- The Diamond Throne, David Eddings
and the rest of the series' books - The Palace, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
- Kushiel's Chosen, Jacqueline Carey
- Harry Potter, JK Rowling
- Harry Potter, et al, J.K. Rowling
- Meredith Gentry series, Laurell K Hamilton
- The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
sounds obligatory, doesn't it? Nope. - The Killing Dance, Laurell K. Hamilton
and the entire Anita Blake universe.
- New History of the World, J.M. Roberts
- Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman
- Mammoth Book of English Kings and Queens, Mark Ashley
- Flu, Gina Kolata
- History of Europe, J.M. Roberts
- The Iliad, trans. by Robert Fagles
- Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Lynn Truss.
I also have a boatload of travel books from recent trips that I'm referencing as I build the website, which are linked here: Egypt.