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Other Books You Like Besides Fantasy

Thaumicist

Dreamer
Being seventeen, I mostly read A-Level textbooks. Atomic physics, yay! :) That and War and Peace. Which is even more epic, in both senses of the word.

But my submission for all time best book ever! would have to be Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Retro soft sci fi tearjerker. Which does not do it justice. Brought it to school once to present to my English class and was sad just carrying it around.
 

Shockley

Maester
I actually don't read a lot of fantasy, so here's what I've been reading lately.

- The last three books of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
- I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Chamber Music by James Joyce
- Incendiary by Chris Cleave
- Summer Things by Joseph Connolly

I've also been reading a number religious works, primarily going over the Bhagavad Gita and the Selected Writings of Baha'u'llah.

This is not mentioning the stuff I'm reading to prepare for this coming semester. Let's just say it's very dry and very European.
 

Graylorne

Archmage
I haven't much reading time (or actually I have, but somehow I lack the patience atm), but next to fantasy I read history, Ellis Peter's Cadfael 18th century naval books like Hornbower, Aubrey etc.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I like reading factual books. Those on the bedside table at the moment are on siege warfare, gunpowder, early artillery, horses and european & north american wild life.
and then there is "Tracks of the Cat" by Nevada Barr - wildlife crime fiction!
So not always factual...
 

Chime85

Sage
Fantasy isnt the only genre I enjoy reading, not by a long shot. Ok, I enjoy sci-fi too, although I do wish bookstores would seperate the two.

I also enjoy crime novels, loved the Dexter series. If any of you have seen the show and are considering the books, I say go for it.
Horror would be another top dog for me, mostly stephen king and James Herbert.

Classics, I love the classics. Great expectations, Wuthering Heights, Alice in wonderland, can't get enough of them.

Finally, I read alot of factual books. Can never get enough facts.

I'm not much of a romance reader, nor do I particularly enjoy biographical books. However, I do try to read pretty uch anything someone puts infront of me, even leaflets hehe

x
 

grimreaper

Scribe
Mostly I read everything that comes to my notice , and I generally tend to finish it, no matter how poorly written it is.
However , I do prefer historical novels and horror . I also like humor(I love P.G.Wodehouse).
 

Aravelle

Sage
I love classics. Admittedly, my collection of classics is larger than my collection of fantasy stories. From Alice in Wonderland to Heart of Darkness to Phantom of the Opera.. you name it, I either have it or want it. Slowly I'm becoming a collector/librarian of sorts. xD

I enjoy the odd biography here and there. I also enjoy manga and teen literature [I'm picky with both of them, of course]. I've never had much of a taste for science fiction, I blame my lack of Star Trek and Star Wars as I grew up.
 

Aravelle

Sage
Classics, I love the classics. Great expectations, Wuthering Heights, Alice in wonderland, can't get enough of them.

Finally, I read alot of factual books. Can never get enough facts.

x

I love facts, especially trivia. It's a literal addiction, to information.

I also love classics! Nice to meet someone who doesn't hate Wuthering Heights.
 

MereIllusion

Dreamer
My greatest non-fantasy literary obsession would have to be anything by Agatha Christie. My favorite Agatha Christie mysteries are And Then There Were None and a collection of short stories called "The Listerdale Mystery." Another collection of Christie short stories, "The Mysterious Mr. Quin," is great as well, but that's technically fantasy.

Also, I like to read nonfiction books on whatever I currently find interesting, like little-known or bizarre facts. And some cryptozoology.:D
 

M.A.N.

Scribe
I too like to read crime novels and thrillers. I recently discovered Child and Preston's series about FBI agent Pendergast. Full of action and quirky characters. Brilliant.
I love Boris Akunin's books about Fandorin and the ones about the nun Pelagia.
Young adult books by Eoin Colfer, Herbie Brennan, J.K. Rowling and others are also books I enjoy. Perhaps because I want to write that kind of books.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
Lots of classics - pretty international, there, I like French, English, Russian, Japanese, Chinese. Vladimir Nabokov is one of my favourite authors. Bunch of Latin American authors, particularly magic realism and whatnot. Borges, Cortazar, Marquez. Horror and sci-fi, unsurprisingly. Westerns - particularly Cormac McCarthy. I also am rather fond of poetry. Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Frost, Algernon Swinburne, Alexander Pushkin. I own a few reference books on odd topics (near all related to my fantasy writing endeavors; I have a book on ancient warfare and weaponry, a book on pestilence, a book on mythology), but I wouldn't say I really read them. I just look things up in them if I need to know something in particular.

In the two years since I last replied to this thread, I've also started reading a lot of nonfiction, mostly political and biographical, as well as cheesy romance, some of which also is fantasy but only because werewolves are sexy. :p I read a lot fewer Westerns than I used to, too, and I've become a bit obsessed with hard science fiction.
 
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