As you can see, one of my major hobbies is reading. I credit my parents, who read me books like Charlotte's Web, The Indian in the Cupboard and Paddle to the Sea, for my near-obsession. My personal book collection rivals those of some small libraries I've seen, in size if not in depth.

I'll read just about anything, as evidenced by the links below. Well, anything except romance (the kind where the women are about twenty pounds underweight and all the men looked like they've been taking steroids since birth). I have no objection to a romance within a larger plot line, like in Watchers, but plain romance makes me break out in hives. I think I'm allergic.

Click one of the links below to see my personal favorites.

My all-time favorite author in this genre would have to be Mercedes Lackey. The first book of hers that I read was The Oathbound, in junior high. I carried it cover-down because I got teased a lot about my reading tastes. Her Last herald-Mage trilogy had a huge effect on how I view the world and the people within it.

I also love Anne McCaffery. Her Harper Hall trilogy first introduced me to fantasy, and it was all downhill from there. Just kidding.

Hard sci-fi has very little appeal to me, but Margaret Wiess and Don Perrin's Mag Force Seven series is excellent. Other than that, most of my sf collection is Star Trek and Star Wars. On the ST side, I love most of the DS9 novels, The Big Game and Trials and Tribble-ations (the ep was hilarious, too). As for SW, I'd have to say that the Jedi Academy trilogy and the X-Wing series, along with the new Han Solo adventures are my faves.

Back home

I'm not a big fan of this one, but there are a few exceptions.

Mercedes Lackey has entered the "dark fantasy" arena with her Diana Tregarde series (Children of the Night, Burning Water, and Jinx High), and boy, are they excellent! Although you can read them in any order, I'd recommend reading them in the above order, to get a feel for the back plot.

NOTE: Thanks to the actions of some rather.. disturbed people, Misty has stopped writing this excellent series. Aftr reading her reasons, I don't blame her and I'm not going to campaign for more. Her reasons are posted somewhere on the Firebird website, I just don't have the URL handy.

Stephen King is not high on my all time favorite author list, but he has some excellent work. The Stand is arguably one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. It's a "novel of dark Christianity" in the author's own words, a classic tale of good and evil against a society collapsing and rebuilding. The Eyes of the Dragon is a great work of fantasy, another good vs evil story. The descriptions of Delain and it's inhabitants alone are worth the price of admission.

The only other horror writer I really enjoy is Dean Koontz. He, too, has two novels that stand out: Watchers, a beautiful story of the suddenly blurred line between animal and human. Ticktock is just plain fun, a smart and funny horror story with plenty of gore and just a touch of romance. (I've decided I want to own a house like The Great Pile at some point in my life)

Back home

The Mastenbrook love of murder mysteries seems to have skipped a generation, because my mother and grandmother read them like they're going out of style, but my sister and I only read them once in a great while. Rita Mae Brown's Mrs Murphy series is very good, and one of the few Sarah and I fight over.

Relic, by a pair of author's I whose names escape me, scared the living sh*t out of me. My adrenaline levels were soaring by the end of the book. Another great thriller is the venerable Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I actually had to put that book down and stare at the Chicago cityscape during the T-Rex attack. The Lost World was a bit of a disappointment, because it felt like he 'dumbed it down' a lot and felt like a screenplay. Oh, well, ya win some, ya lose some.

Non Fiction

My grandmother was a war bride from England, and like a lot of British, she loves Winston Churchill, and she's passed this love, nay worship, of Winston to her grandchild. There are two excellent books about him I've found. The Last Lion is an exhaustive, if slightly dry, biography. The Irrepressible Churchill is a huge collection of Winston's wit and wisdom, including his cutting remarks to Lady Astor (of the English Astors, of course).

Having lived in the South, I've picked up a bit of their Civil War obsession. Not hard to do, considering that half of the men in the HPA are re-enactors. The very best one volume history of the War is called The Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson. Read this book!!!!!! Even if you have little or no interest in the Civil War, it was the most pivotal period in nineteenth century America, and it still effects us today. Hell, most of the folks in the South are still fighting it!

Books Online

Amazon.com remains the ultimate online resource for books. They have the biggest database of books, from the popular to the extremely obscure, up to and including out-of-print books.

I'm still working on getting book resources. Most publishers have developed websites, look on the back cover of the copyright page of your favorite book.

My personal Top Ten