[mjolnir1989]

The genres I love the most are science fiction and fantasy (The Wheel Of Time series has been a great journey for me, for example). Within science fiction, I enjoy cyberpunk and dystopian books the most; authors like Philip K. Dick, George Orwell and William Gibson.  

 

[PalJoey]

  I'm a Murakami fan too but I've heard from several sources that the English editions/translations of his books really don't do them justice.  Any native Japanese readers who can confirm or deny this?

I have found some Murakami books much more readable than others, which may be down to the quality of the translation. I'm also a fan of Jorge Luis Borges, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Ismail Kadare and other non-Anglophone writers and it does make me wonder whether I am missing much, due to this.
 
I gave into the inevitable (lack of shelf space) and bought a Kindle Fire last year. I still buy print books, but there's so much good free stuff available for Kindle, and that instant delivery has its own attractions.

 

[Ankaret]

Im also a fan of the real physical book still. For school, especially expensive and heavy textbooks I will do on my iPad. But other than that, I recently found for example a 2 book vintage version of Proust's entire In Search of Lost Time (7 books) for $15. It's the original Montcrieff translation I believe.

 

[JoeDoe]

Top 3:
 
Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Timeline, ER, Micro, Andromeda Strain)
 
Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, Blink, What the Dog Saw)
 
Marcus Zusak (The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger)

 

[PalJoey]

By Hook or by Crook by David Crystal. An enjoyable jaunt through the meanings of Welsh and English place names. If you enjoyed Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue, you'd probably enjoy this.
 
 

Then, Another Self, a thoroughly scandalous and only partially fictional autobiography by historian, diarist and early National Trust pioneer James Lees-Milne. Short but very funny! A mother who eloped by balloon, a father whose driving habits could have employed the attentions of a dozen psychiatrists and the incident when he marched a troop of the Irish Guards off a cliff.

 

[gepardcv]

JM Coetzee is one of my favorite modern writers. (The Nobel in literature still counts for something, thank goodness.) I read Disgrace in pretty much one sitting.

 

[PalJoey]

Labels, by Evelyn Waugh. A journey round the Mediterranean. Offensive, contrary and disgraceful, with the occasional (surely accidental?) outburst of praise. Lots of fun!


 

 

[StrangeDazed]

I'm not even going to pretend to say I'm an avid reader. I actually don't read much, but I will say that I've read almost all of Stephen Hunter's books and love most of them.  He's an amazing writer and I highly suggest reading at least one of his.
 
My favorite is "Point of Impact"... AMAZING book.  If you've seen the movie "Shooter" (stars Mark Whalberg, great movie which is why I read the book), it's based on the book.
 
I've also recently read "No Easy Day", the book by the SEAL member about the Osama Bin Laden raid.  "American Sniper" by Chris Kyle (RIP), read that years ago, good read.  And also "Lone Survivor" when it first came out.  The last two I highly recommend if it's your type of book, "No Easy Day" was just ok.  The movie "Lone Survivor" was very good, but also very different from the book.

 

[siberianman]

His needs, her needs. I'm also into Sidney Sheldon and Stephen King books.