I am a voracious reader and write a bit under a nom de plume.
| Title | Author | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert A. Heinlein | Should be required reading in school. Everyone should read this if they want to understand why humans are the way they are. |
| Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien | The source of modern fantasy. The Silmarillion is worth reading too, but it’s like the bible of another world aside from Beren and Luthien. |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson | The source of CyberPunk. The Sprawl Trilogy really kicked things off and was creepily accurate fortune telling. |
| Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | Brutal truths about life at a young age helped me stay driven through conflict. Ender’s Shadow and the Bean series are also great. |
| The Elenium | David Eddings | I read this in one sitting on a two-day Greyhound ride in my teens, and it stuck with me. Sparhawk is a fantastically flawed hero. |
| The Dark Elf Trilogy | R.A. Salvatore | Hello Fellow Nerds! Best of The Realms right here. Salvatore uniquely describes melee combat. Welcome to Menzoberranzan! |
| All the President’s Men | Woodward & Bernstein | I DO read non-fiction as well! Fascinating story of the political process and investigative journalism done right. |
| The Dresden Files | Jim Butcher | Definitely trashy fiction — basically Harlequin romance novels for men — but hot DAMN they’re fun to read. |
| He Who Fights with Monsters | Shirtaloon | Isekai delivered with Australian charm while dangerous stuff is happening — a delight. |
| A Wind in the Door | Madeleine L’Engle | A mind-bending novel for young readers about what may or may not be possible in the universe. Love this author. |
| The Name of the Wind | Patrick Rothfuss | Recommended by a brilliant friend — and an absolute bullseye. Beautiful prose and rich storytelling. |
| The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | Dry British humor at its best, mixed with sci-fi absurdity. The whole series is gold. |
| Dune | Frank Herbert | It’s Dune. If you haven’t read it, you probably should. The series as a whole is incredibly thought-provoking. |
| Differently Morphous | Yahtzee Croshaw | Wonderfully delivered British humor with absurd subject matter. Croshaw excels at flipping genres on their heads. |