Books And Authors I Like

I read. A lot. Mostly science fiction, but some historical fiction and biographies.

What follows is a list of the authors I tend to buy books of sight unseen - the ones I've been reading for years, and I know can write a good, entertaining book. I have plenty of other interests, but these are the ones I can flat-out recommend.

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• Science Fiction
  There are two British authors out there whose work I can unabashedly recommend, one of which you've heard of and one you may or may not have:
  
  • J.K. Rowling you've probably heard of. She's the one who wrote the Harry Potter books, which I held out on reading until after the 4th one came out and thereby deprived myself of reading an enjoyable series for several years. They're honestly good books, and while I don't wait in line at Barnes and Nobles at midnight the night the book is released, I do try and pick them up quickly. And the movies are good, too.
  • Sir Terry Pratchett is the one you may not have heard of. Pratchett writes of the Discworld, a flat earth carried upon the backs of 4 giant elephants, who stand upon a gigantic tortoise. Very well-written fantasy/satire. Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzhiemer's in December 2007, and has become very active in Alzheimer's research in the UK. This is a link to the L-Space website, a fan encyclopedia. Calling it a fansite doesn't do it justice. Note that this site has nothing to do with swimwear.
  
  Baen Publishing prints mostly science fiction and fantasy. After I realized I had a LOT of books withe "Baen" on the spine, and they were the ones I reread often, I started investigating the other authors in their stable. Some of these include:
  
  • David Weber -- space opera; writes the Honor Harrington series.
  • David Drake -- Science Fiction; best known for "Hammer's Slammers".
  • John Ringo, who blew up my house in his second major novel- and I've been a loyal fan ever since.
  • Eric Flint, who also runs Baen's Free Library(see below.)
  Baen's website is seriously cool. In addition to the usual marketing information - upcoming books, cover art, etc., Baen also has their Free Library, run by Eric Flint. It works like this. Baen Publishing makes available free to anyone who wants it and can get to the Internet, copies of their "backlist", which basically means things not in hardcover at the moment. You can sit there on the website and read the book; you can download the book in HTML and read it; or you can download it to your Palm, eBook, or other handheld device and read it. For free. As in "free beer" or "Free Lunch." And in a couple of cases, it's the only way to read out of print books.
  But wait! There's more! Baen writers have this annoying habit of being addictively easy to read. Which is the whole point of the Free Libary; get you hooked on the first one or two, in hopes you'll go out and buy the whole series. But what if you've done that, and you still want more? You can read novels before they show up in hardcover in bookstores at http://www.webscriptions.net. I won't go into the details; they've got a perfectly good FAQ, but this way you can read the book before everyone else.(Including the proofrreaders; you're reading the galley sheets that the proofers are correcting. See the FAQ.)
  And, it gets better. There's a discussion board at Baen's Bar (http://bar.baen.com), where you can discuss the books and talk to the authors.

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• Military Fiction
• W.E.B. Griffin

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• Technical Books

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• Historical Books
  • David McCullough is the author of several great biographies, including Truman, John Adams, Mornings on Horseback (Teddy Roosevelt), and others.