What else do you read besides scifi?

Sort of triggered by a thread in the Honorverse but just for fun and giggles what do you read between RFC fixes? And, yes, I am so looking forward to getting my hands on Shadow of Freedom real soon now. It is ordered. I'll read it in a day and be back to having to get my reading fix elsewhere for a bit.

Personally, I read other scifi, a trinity of subgenres of romance --romantic suspense, romantic fantasy, historicals --, historic biography -- William T.Sherman's Memoirs at the moment, very well written -- history, science, mysteries. Occasionally I stray into a spate of ufo books and their ilk, to me this is a form of very entertaining scifi or an occasional spate of some other subject that has caught my interest, but these are the enduring interests. Plus crafts I like and cookbooks but those are reference type books not fun reading of an evening.

What are yours? Between RFC fixes, of course.

I read sci fi, sci factual, mysteries, criminal investigation books (pat cornwall et al) fantasy (fro, tolkienish to 'hard fantasy' in terms of realism regarding the rules, autobiographies of enigneers and scientists (and the top gear crew), history that im interested in, science and engineering books, some drama, some dark comedic stuff, terry pratchett, and more..... (Terry's in a class of his own, like weber)

Much as already listed. Nonfiction regarding my wide interests - history - naval history 1800-1950 - astrophysics & string theory (nerdish I know) - motor vehicles (Top Gear included) - weapons from swords to modern combat aircraft to nukes - psychology - self sufficiency - management - finance - lots more. Fiction - all alternative histories (Stirling, Drake, Flint, Rosenberg etc) - some fantasy (Elizabeth Moon etc) - fairy stories (Elizabeth Bear, Mercedes Lackey etc) - some action novels (Wilbur Smith, Alister McLean etc) - comedy (Lindsay Davis) - occasional classics like Grapes of Wrath, A day in the life of - Dickens etc.

Over time, for me genre has become secondary compared to the simple quality of the writing.

Neal Stephenson and Louis de Berniers are capable of out and out beauty in their works, I can't praise them highly enough.

To continue in a somewhat eclectic vein:

Sima Qian (The Records of the Grand Historian) Wow ; Carol O'Connell (The Judas Child) A Must Read!; Minette Walters (The Shape of Snakes)= Twisty; Gore Vidal (historical for preference); G.M. Fraiser (Flashman) Bad Flashy!; K.J. Parker (he/she can WRITE!)- Just don't expect a happy ending; Nicholas Guild (The Assyrian, The Blood Star) "Such men as had done this, who had ventured onto my land in order to rob and murder, could not be suffered to live."

There are always more. Off the top of my head though, these sprung to mind.

P.S. Northstar - This is another fine post you got me into!

The last few years, i´ve read fanfiction more than anything else.

Like:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4155819/1/Fifth-Column By EvilAuthor, this is a crossover between Battlestar Galactica and Battletech.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5175006/1/Divine-Blood By Thrythlind, a massive multicrossover using Ranma 1/2, Oh My Goddess, Full Metal Panic among others, that is so good the author has since started rewriting it into an original story, first book of which can be bought (well worth it) for $1-3.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5612465/1/The-Prototype By DelVaro, an interesting story based on Elfen Lied (not for the faint of heart). Just wish he would get on with the sequel. ^_^

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5353683/1/T ... -Who-Loved By Darth Drafter, a crossover between HP, SM and R1/2. The cursed springs of Jusenkyo has a very "interesting" interference on the Harry Potter universe. Should be read, if nothing else just to find out the fate of mr big bad Voldy... *lol*

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6940744/1/A-Teacher-s-Glory A Naruto-fic by Larry Huss. Based on the stupid comment by Kakashi "If you don't come at me with complete dedication, with the willingness to kill even, you will certainly fail"... And so they do, one dead Kakashi later and...

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3566724/1/T ... -of-Nerima Claymade´s R1/2 and SM crossover is, amusing...

http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-28693/ke ... dariam.htm Kedrann´s rewrite of "Stars Reborn", SM+Buffy+multicrossover with some very interesting twists.

http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-4305/Arj ... unrise.htm One of the hoard of Buffy Halloween fics, this one of the very few that uses Dawn as the main character. She dressed up as Kirika from Noir, a nice choice.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7178946/1/A ... Switchover Cun is one of few who writes good "Railgun" fics, this one based off taking a cliche and playing with it for fun. Mikoto and Kuroko gets to make a little switch, oops.


Aside from that, i have a couple of bookcases filled with books on history, science, linguistics, military and technology.
And another 4 bookcases (doublestacked in depth and height) with mostly scifi and fantasy:
Elizabeth Moon
Tamora Pierce
L.E. Modesitt jr
Terry Pratchett
Agatha Christie
Patricia McKilip
Timothy Zahn
Lotta Olivecrona
Eric Flint
Janny Wurts
Maggie Furey
Alistair McLean
W.E.Johns
Terry Brooks
Raymond Feist
A few Stephen King
Katharine Kerr
James Clavell
All Don Rosa and Carl Barks Donald Duck stories in collectors edition format.
A few hundred comic albums, all/most/many of: Modesty Blaise, Nemi, Beetle Bailey, Yoko Tsuno, Herman Hedning, Rick O´Shay, Blårockarna (Les Tuniques Bleues), Spirou, Tintin, Hagar the horrible, Hälge, Gaston, Redeye, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Garfield, Scooby Doo, Ernie, Calvin & Hobbes...
And two encyclopedias, one from 1920s which is really interesting.

I read a great deal of fantasy (Mercedes Lackey, Christine Feehan etc). I also read a large amount of romance, the good stuff not the serials. I read some mystery but I don't care for graphic depictions of blood and gore, so I tend to read light mysteries.

Grabthar's Hammer wrote:Over time, for me genre has become secondary compared to the simple quality of the writing.

Neal Stephenson and Louis de Berniers are capable of out and out beauty in their works, I can't praise them highly enough.

To continue in a somewhat eclectic vein:

Sima Qian (The Records of the Grand Historian) Wow ; Carol O'Connell (The Judas Child) A Must Read!; Minette Walters (The Shape of Snakes)= Twisty; Gore Vidal (historical for preference); G.M. Fraiser (Flashman) Bad Flashy!; K.J. Parker (he/she can WRITE!)- Just don't expect a happy ending; Nicholas Guild (The Assyrian, The Blood Star) "Such men as had done this, who had ventured onto my land in order to rob and murder, could not be suffered to live."

There are always more. Off the top of my head though, these sprung to mind.

P.S. Northstar - This is another fine post you got me into!

Ooh some good stuff showing up in everyone's posts. I am, of course, fishing for author recommends, besides just chatting for fun.

Has anyone read 'steampunk'? I've downloaded some freebies or cheapies to my kindle but have't read them yet.

Patricia McKillip's Forgotten Beasts of Eld was great, ditto her Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy. I like Jayne Ann Krentz and her akas, Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle. Loved R.A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon. Like Tanya Huff and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's older work, Haven't read the more recent ones. Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy and others in that series. I enjoy Robin D. Owens.

For a trip into weird, John Keel's books. One got made into a movie. Mothman something or other.

I've read many sea story series; Dudley Pope, Alexander Kent, Forester. Dewey Lambdin, others I can't dredge up at the moment. Cannot stand Patrick O'Brian, though many adore him. bored me. shrug.

Julia Quinn regencies are fun, humorous and well-written. Some Jo Beverley and Stephanie Laurens but not the more recent ones so much.

History I have small collections on the civil war, WWI, WWII and various others and various eras. I tend to collect books about Churchill and ones about Eisenhower. Some Lincoln. Some Teddy Roosevelt. A couple on FDR. others. Some ancient civilizations stuff, Rome, Greece, Egypt, esp the Old Kingdom. Herodotus is a fun read. Norse sagas etc. Snorri's books and others. Hilda Ellis.

Anne Perry wrote a wonderful series set in WWI that explained Tolkien to me far better than any book I ever read that was intended to explain him. Shoulder the Sky, No Graves Yet, At Some Disputed Barricade, We Shall Not Sleep, Angels in the Gloom. Wonderful novels.

My fave Tolkien book is The Silmarillion.

Richard Preston's medical thrillers, semi historical sort of some of them are a good creep out scare. The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event, The Demon in there Freezer. that led into a bunch of non-fiction plague books I still have around here.

I went through a spate on The Knights Templar.

Have run down for the moment, there are scads of others.

ok try Peter v Bret's Demon Cycle and Brent Weeks's Light Bringer serious. Personally when i am in the mood for romance I just dust off my copy of Pride and Prejudice. I also have a smattering of Elisibeth Moon, Jack Cambell, Eric Flint, John Ringo and a bunch of other authors that have not convinced me to commit their names to memory....

Lots of SiFi over the years starting with the Edgar Rice Borrough and Jules Vern and progressing though modern. Then there is all that 18th 19th and 20th century naval fiction.
Lots of military historys (both ancient and relativey current (the ancient stuff in translation). Biography covering a wide range of people. You get on tangents like Alice Roosevelt and can find out so many things...big smile. Background and current books on a lot of industries and economic development. Geology and ecology.
Social and material culture with concentration on late 18th Century-lets just say that for 30+ years I have been activly chasing Redcoats for fun.

Pretty much Historical fiction and Fantasy in addition to my SciFi reading. In particular I've enjoyed Jack Whyte's A Dream of Eagles and its companion follow ups as well as his Knights Templar trilogy. Ages ago I found a couple entertaining series by Robert Shea I think but that was a long time ago.

Fantasy, I've really been enjoying Elizabeth Moon's return to the world of Paks and Gird, GRR Martin and Robert Jordan were old staples although I wasn't all that impressed by Sanderson's efforts to wrap up The Wheel of Time series.