I haven’t had much time to read but now I have all the time in the world :D

-Cough cough Marlowe is way better then Chaucer and Shakespeare-

Hmm of all the authors I like they tend to be very dark. Not Dark in the twilight sense where, silly people just can’t keep their hormones to themselves but Dark as in, dealing with social issues. Robert Cormier is among my favorite. Nothing ever ends happy in his novels and I enjoy that realistic aspect of that. And if you prefer realist fiction with a slight fantasy element to it I would also recommend Gogol. I also love Speak, and Winter girls by Laurie Halse Anderson. (( In case you can't tell I do love my fallen heros and my dastardly villains))

I’m currently reading some scott Westerfeld. I don’t like his previous novels but Leviathan is pretty good and I want to get my copy back of the child thief by Brom. It is also another dark novel that I seem to enjoy.

Never read Marlowe I'm afraid. He wasn't one of thsoe 17th century guys was he? Not all that fond of those, John Donne aside.

My favorite author is Patricia Briggs. I love her novels, really beautiful and well thought out work. It has plenty of twists and turns and keeps you switching the pages. I would recommend her to anyone who is interested in mythical creatures like Vampires, Werewolves, and witches.

My dad's a fan. I haven't read much of his stuff outside of the obligatory lit overview of the time period but Holy Sonnet 10 (my textbook says 6 but online references say 10 so I'm not sure) is one of my favourite poems. I considered it for recital in one of my first year poetry courses but ultimately went with Shakespeare's "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" (I forget the number).

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

I should take the time to memorize it. That's not something current poetry teachers seem to care all that much about and first year teacher, who brought up that point, was the only one who ever asked us to recite anything from memory.I did have one english teacher in high school who asked us to memorize and write a passage from Macbeth, but we never had to read it aloud.

I'm not reading a lot of books than back in the school days and I am picky of my authors, the way it's written, the plot, and whether or not it would be a waste of time.

I like by far Stephen King and Lois Duncan

Yasmine Galenorn hands down is my favorite author. I've been reading her series 'The Otherworld Series' since Freshman year and I'm still reading the series.

I liked reading Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman, they wrote what I thought was wonderfully, especially the original Dragonlance Trilogy. I bought most of the Death Gate books because of them but I never got around to reading them >>

R.A. Salvatore had some good stuff and it was quite enjoyable to meet him in person back when I worked at Waldenbooks. But I have to agree with Quiet's original post, most of his stuff is too similar to each other.

I also quite enjoy Mercedes Lackey, epecially the Gryphon stories. I ate those up way back when :3

Piers Anthony was up there too, his were the first risqué type of books I read. Plus his puns were stupid but very funny the way he used them.

Currently the only author I'd probably go out of my way to buy is Robert Asprin. He wrote the Myth Adventure books, and well as the Phule's Company books, and they are my favorite genre, humorous fantasy xD

I always liked Weis and Hickman's characterization. I thought they did well, given the sort of fantasy they tend to write. I loved the Death Gate Cycle, but I haven't read it in over ten years, so I'm not sure I'd like it now. The first two Dragonlance trilogies were pretty good, especially the second one.

Salvatore I just have no time for anymore. Let it die, man, (Though he's probably not to blame for Drizzt's longevity as a product. I blame WotC. They're so easy to blame. :p)

I remember my friend was big on Piers Anthony, and he was the first "fantasy" author I heard about. I started reading A Spell for Chameleon but never did get very far. The last I remember was the character trying to ride a hippocampus across a moat to a wizards tower.

It was that same friend who got me interested in fantasy novels, and the first one I grabbed (literally since I picked up a fantasy book on the spur of the moment while heading out on a camping trip) happened to be Salvatore's Homeland. I bought it because the cover, to my surprise, was the same as the cover of the Menzoberranzan computer game I had that had this awesome ass kicking character in it called "Drizzt" :D. I scanned the back of the book and sure enough, his name was there. I was all of 11 and thought this was the coolest thing ever. I read 10 chapters into the book that trip but didn't finish it until much later, my sister having burned her way through that trilogy and the next one already. She read Garfield like crazy and I made a deal with her that if she read Homeland (since she liked the game too) that I would stop bugging her about not reading anything.

Menzoberranzan is an old computer game based on Salvatore's novel The Legacy. It was my first go at a first person rpg since Dungeonmaster when I was 5. The attack style was fairly basic. Put the mouse on the monster and click as fast as you can. Well, more like click then the proper icon comes up or when the time comes aroud but that more thought than I wanted to put into it at the time.

I have one of Mercedes Lackey books on my eReader since I decided to look at her stuff only to discover it's been really hard to find. I read a piece of fanfiction that was a crossover with two of her books. Can't remember the precise titles but they are popular trilogies. Arrows of the Queen, I think is one, and the other is First/Last Mage of something-or-other. I'm told the latter trilogy is pretty much an exercise in angst.

I got started with Salvatore from playing Icewind Dale on the PC. The strategy guide mentioned his books and I liked the game so much I went to the library the same day I found out to borrow The Crystal Shard.

I still contend that Homeland makes a better entry to the series, and is the best book in it, as well.

Yeah, but Drizzt's fame was a product of the Icewind Dale Tirlogy. Wulfgar was supposed to be the star and Drizzt someting of an exotic sort to be there and supposedly Salvatore found he really liked him. He then wrote out his backstory in Homeland and the other two (Legacy of the Drow?).

EDIT: Nope. Dark Elf Trilogy. Too many book groups.

Yeah... why he ever felt that Wulfgar would make a good main character is a bit baffling to me. The guy's pretty two-dimensional. And cliche.

Well one can assume he got demoted in later books. I liked him best in the early books when he was young, and that might show the shift over to Drizzt. I found later that I was caring less and less for what the other characters where up to when it was a divided viewpoint. That may either be bias on my part of Salvatore's, but either way I found the other characters dwindled a bit in later books.

I think, by the end of his storyline, even Salvatore was sick of him and regretted resurrecting him. The way he just heavy-handedly wrote him out of the story seems to suggest so.

And I think the real problem is that all the characters stagnate in the later books. They stop growing, almost completely, some time around Siege of Darkness.

mm. I remember when it was announced that he would be putting Drizzt and company on haitus for a while and that may have been when when the Spider Queen series came out, but I was a little surprised when The Thousand Orcs showed up. Didnt feel to me like much time has passed.

I liked the War of the Spider Queen a lot, despite the inconsistencies between the books. Seeing more of Menzoberrenzen was cool, and Gromph was in it, which is automatically awesome.

I adore J.K. Rowling, Anne Rice, Edgar Allan Poe, Jim Butcher, Gregory Maguire, Bram Stoker....I like a lot of authors..

I am just going to post my ultimate favorite. I read a lot of books, but these are the authors I tend to look forward too when they write new stuff. And then I will post three authors who impacted my reading experience.

1. Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. Alyssa Day
3. Christine Feehan
4. Gena Showalter
5. Lynsay Sands

Here are my most inspired writers
1. JRR Tolkien
2. Madline L'Engle
3. CS Lewis
4. Carl Sagan
5. Anne Rice
6. Sherrilyn Kenyon (she defiantly has to go on this list)
7. JK Rowling (simply because she created a universe that inspired a generation to read)

Not many but that is because I don't like collect millions of books or start new stuff without finishing what I started. I already started way to many series to really keep up.

My favorite authors are

Sherilyn Kenyon
Kresley Cole
Yasmin Galenorn
David Weber (I am somewhat addicted to his Honor Harrington series)
Jean Johnson
Jacqueline Carey
Mercedes Lackey
L.E. Modesitt (The Imager Series)

I know there are a few more but those are the one's I remember at the moment.

My favorite author is Ann Aguirre. :3
The best I have read in a long time and it seems like nothing compares.

Wow. I've heard of only a few authors in the last three posts, and I'm sure most of them are fairly common knowledge anyway. (I still have that Mercedes Lackey book on my eReader to look through).

I've started to read Steven Erikson based on Suzerain's recommendation and I find I'm really liking the writing so far. It's not fast moving, but then I'm not reading it all that fast either, but I find I like the writing enough that I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere. I need to remind myself to a dictionary handy though. I'm beginning to suspect this might be in part where Suze gets his rather extensive vocabulary. -.-

Egregious?

My top favorites are probably Douglas Adams, J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, and Lewis Carroll.

I have some pretty childish tastes in reading, for an English major, apparently.

Started reading Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Only read the first chapter or prologue, not sure what it was. Didn't read further than that but I remember what I read quite well. It's still on my shelf in the pile of books that I've read a little of before other things grabbed my attention.

I never really found Erikson's vocabulary to be troubling. I don't remember having to look much up whilst reading him... likely because I came to him off of a complete read of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Donladson has such a ridiculous vocabulary that there's actually a site called Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary that defines all of his obscure words. :p

Heh. Haven't hit that problem yet but then I'm only a far as the car crash and Lord Foul's little "no point" speech.

I did say somewhere that I was a fickle reader. ;)

The author of my favorite books is Naomi Novik so I guess she deserves a place on top . <3
Although I had to get used to her writing a little . I've read so many books in English now but she uses it in a really strange way which makes it hard to read at the beginning xD

However one of my very favorite writers ever , the one who can always makes me laugh whatever he writes , is Terry Pratchett . If I could just get a glimpse at where he gets his inspiration and his fantastic way with words ... :D

I've heard a lot abotu Pratchett. He does the Discworld novels, yeah? I've never read any of his stuff myself, but I see the books around in stores all the time.

I'm assuming English isn't your first language then, Darjeeling. What language do you normally speak, or read?

Pullman actually reminded me a little of J. K. Rowling, along with a friend of mine who's drafts i've been reading. Makes me wonder if it's something to do with British writing.

You've seen his books but you haven't read them ? You should , Quiet Man :)
I promise you , you'll be hooked in no time ;D

My home language is Dutch , though as for culture , it's one of the most horrible languages . Acting in Dutch seems to be impossible , it's just not credible . Subtitles in Dutch are very funny but usually are hard to take seriously . Songs in Dutch ... well , far to grave too tell . Books in Dutch are just 5% of the fun . I think I haven't read a Dutch book in about ... 2-3 years ? I only speak it because I have to . xD