As title really... Also any particular reason why?

For myself...

I'm currently picking up anything by the crime novellist John Connolly. He's got a series running about a PI called Charlie 'Bird' Parker. All of the novels have been really good so far, the first one, 'Every Dead Thing,' was slightly tinged by the supernatural and this aspect has been deepening as the series progresses. The Parker character is really good, he has a dark past that he seeks redemption for and he's not adverse to committing bad deeds for the greater good. I also like how he's great friends with two active criminals - the relationship between the three of them is one of the series' strong points. All of the books have a nice line in humour and the dialogue can sometimes be laugh out loud funny when dealing with Parkers sarcasm.

Connolly has also written a seperate novel 'Bad Men' and a collection of Short Stories. Bad Men was, again, a mix of horror and crime - it was good but not as good as the Parker books. The short story collection 'Nocturnes' is in my to-read pile.


Another one I like is Michael Marshall Smith, although he seems to have dropped the Smith on his later novels. He started out writing quirky sci-fi novels, which have mostly been optioned by Hollywood and languish in 'Development Hell.'  Oddly though the idea for one of them, Spares, sounds very similar to the upcoming movie 'The Island.' It'll be interested to see what happens there and Spares has been written and optioned for years. These sci-fi novels have always been shot through with a rich seam of humour - some of it even quite cute... Household appliances that think and talk - like alarm clocks and so on! He's moved on now to crime drama too and has got a series concerning the antics of a powerful 'Skulls'-like group called 'The Straw Men.' This series also has certain supernatural/uncanny aspects to spice it up some.


I'll also dip into Dean Koontz novels on a case by case basis... I really enjoyed the 'Moonlinght Cove (I think) series that startd with 'Fear Nothing' - I'm still waiting for  Koontz to finish of the trilogy. Whilst not the best written novels, they are always a fast, entertaining read with good characters and exciting set-pieces. I think he's sometimes given a bad rap by literary snobs, but each to their own, eh?

So, anyone I should look out for?

I read books by two specific authors only. Elmore Leonard... Be Cool...

And Stephen King... I'm currently reading Carrie. It is a very chilling novel he has written.

I'm not that much of a reader, but if anything I do enjoy the Harry Potter books, even for a kiddy book series, its not half bad.  Other than that pick up Jurassic Park the book, and even the lost world, both great reads and 10 times better than the movies.

Quoted from Alan_Holman I'm really enjoying GOLDEN CITY by Alan Holman.

Grats you Alan  :D HAHA

Lorenzo Carcaterra and most of the DS9 book series writers (Andrew Robinson aka Garak, David George and so on) Oh and Fred Saberhagen.

Okay here's a few off the top of my head.

Ian Rankin- The John Rebus novels. I got hooked on these a couple of years back. The most addictive series I've ever read. I'm not a big fan of detective novels but this sucked me in and wouldn't let me go for 12 novels and counting. It's dark, it's gritty, it's set in Edinburgh, the tales are full of mystery, the dialogue is sharp, and seeing the character (and author) develop as the series progresses is fascinating. I'd recommend this series to anyone. Read the first one and you won't stop.

Christopher Brookmyre- another scottish author. I've read all of his books. I forget how many, 7 or 8 maybe. His writing is hilarious. He manages to mix politics, die hard action, romance, and mystery while remaining consistently funny and satirical throughout. A couple of his books were slightly off the mark. I'd recommend "Quite Ugly One Morning", "A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away",  "The Sacred Art of Stealing", and "One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night"

Carl Hiasin- I read a couple of this since I heard he had a similar style to Brookmyre. Although not as good, IMO, they are still very funny books.

I'll check out some of those suggestions Requiem... What's the first 'Rebus' novel and I'll start there?

The first one is called "Knots and Crosses" but you can also get "Rebus: The Early Years" which contains his first three novels.

Cool... I'll look into that compendium... Thanks!

Where Star Trek authors are concerned, Peter David's books are good.  Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books are good.  I recommend Orson Scott Card's book about writing science fiction.

I enjoyed Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. There is a third chronicles currently in writing, the first book of which is out.

I also got a kick out of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I read books 1-10 before I knew there was a movie in production, and 11 before I knew much else. Book 12 due out October 18. It's a hilarious series, though it's a kid series. My only disappointment with the movie is that they seem to be stopping after one film.

That is a shame. It was a good movie I thought!

Stephen King Novels. But they are so long though.

King spends an inordinate amount of time setting up his characters and world. If you can survive his exposition, King is a great writer.

Yes, King is a great author.

But to be honest, I'm one of those readers that likes fast paced novels.

But I do hang on to Stephen King's books and try to finish it all.

King is one of my favorites, of course.

H.P. Lovecraft is also one of my favorites. In the past, I've also read a lot of Richard Matheson, Harlen Ellison, and Joyce Carroll Oates. Occasionally, I'll read Michael Chrichton.

Harry Potter is also an extremely guilty pleasure.

I like escapist reading (although I wouldn't call Oates escapism).

Stephen King and Michael Crichton mostly, but now I'm reading Cristopher Paolini's Inheritance and all the Dan Brown books.

Chuck Palahniuck, Daivd Sedaris, Mark Bowden, and Shakspeare of course

Steve Aylett, Raymond Chandler, and JJ Connolly.

Chuck Palahniuck, Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Stephen King, Janet Evanovich has a rather amusing series of novels about a woman named stephanie plum who is really girly but she is a bounty hunter. lots of laughs and plenty of mysterie and suspense there. I also enjoy Thoman Harris, The occational James Patterson and even (a very guilty pleasure) those trashy Harlequin romance novels. I like the Blaze series, and the Intrigue Eclipse series.

Christopher Paolini, Lemony Snicket, Ursula K. Leguin, and right now I'm reading C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia"

Chuck Palanhuik (i think that's how you spell it, too lazy to get the book out and check) i have invisible monsters and haunted by him and both are great books. I actually really really want to adapt invisible monsters into a screenplay as i think it'd make an amazing, albiet controversial movie. He wrote fight club if you don't know who he is and he got away with some of the more controversial stuff in that.

I also like John Grisham, the testament being my favorite of his.

I'm really into an author named Ted Dekker.  He is primarily a Christian artists, with his novel have a religious tone over them.

I highly recommed his books called The Circle Trilogy(Black, Red, and White).  They are about a man who expierances two realities.  When he falls asleep in one he wakes up in the other and he must use the resources in one reality to help him in the other reality.  Its kinda technical but interesting nonetheless.