favorite non-King read

[divemaster]

I think my favorite non-King books are:

--The Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe)
--Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
--Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)

[somekindofstranger]

I may be in the minority on this site, in that Stephen King isnt actually one of my favourite authors! I actually stumbled across TDT whilst looking for some Gaiman forums, and I havent been able to find the way out yet!!

My favourites would be:

Neil Gaiman - pretty much anything but if I had to pick then Good Omens, Smoke and Mirrors and Stardust are my top 3 (at least for today).
Terry Pratchett - I have a huge TP collection (only a few collectibles though). Favourites would be Good Omens (cowritten with Gaiman), Mort, Soul Music, Night Watch, Wee Free Men. I Am surprised he doesnt get mentioned here more often to be honest. I might post some pictures to the other authors thread and see who else shares my liking!
Anne Rice - Specifically The Vampire Chronicles. The first three books are 3 of my favourite books of all time. I think the series did lose its way a little over the years, but I am currently reading the latest 'Prince Lestat' and its like revisiting old friends!

Aside from those, other random liked books would be :
-Complete Sherlock Holmes
-Complete Edgar Allen Poe
-Alice in Wonderland/Through the looking glass
-The Box of Delights (an old childhood favourite!)

[Ben Mears]

Summer Of Night- Dan Simmons

[Phalucha]

Forgot to mention - Tana French. Her ongoing series of police procedurals are beautifully written and compelling stories. I heard that there are plans to begin bringing them to the small screen in the UK as well. Can't recommend her enough.

[surly]

Finally got around to reading READY PLAYER ONE.
By no means is it great literature - its really just a bunch of 80s geek references tied together with a familiar story - but boy was it a lot fun.
It was one of those instances where I couldn't wait to get back to reading it, but tried to draw it out because I didn't want it to end. I think its safe to say that I loved it.
If 'Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.' means anything to you, this one might be worth picking up.

[Aronstg]

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Those are probably my two favorite books. Gaiman is a master storyteller. I haven't encountered anyone like him. Rothfuss is a beautiful writer. Even if Fantasy isn't your thing I think you could appreciate his writing.

Just picked up A Boy's Life on audio. Really looking forward to reading that as many have said it is one of their favorites.

[swintek]

-American Gods
-Song of Kali
-Anubis Gates
-On Stranger Tides
-Summer of Night

-Carrion Comfort used to make the Top 5, but it's the only one of the bunch I've never re-read so I'm not sure if it holds up. I need to read it again!

[Dave1442397]

Thinking about adding Swan Song on my read list. Seen it here I think... good guys?

A McCammon I have not read yet. Judging by everything else I've read by him, I'm sure I will like it a great deal though.

I had thought the same thing when I read Swan Song, but I was disappointed. I know that it is a highly regarded book from McCammon's body of work, but my personal opinion is that Boy's Life is McCammon's true masterpiece. Boy's Life was woven very well and came 'full circle' in the end. Swan Song's story, in comparison to the 'circle' that Boy's Life made, was more like a long wavy (almost jagged) line whose point A and point B were pretty far away from each other in the end. In other words, there were a lot of loose ends at the end of Swan Song. That's not always a bad thing for a story, but for me, most of the loose ends at the end of Swan Song weren't the fun type of loose ends that keep me thinking about the story and pushing it further beyond the writer's end to the story in my own mind, but more like the type of loose ends that make me think WTF?

Just my personal opinion. No offense meant to McCammon fans who love Swan Song. It just obviously wasn't my cup of tea.

I have to agree with this review of Swan Song. I read it again a few months ago and didn't find it any better than the first time around (back in the '80s). I then re-read Boy's Life, and had forgotten just how much I loved that book.

[surly]

I just finished THE FORGOTTEN GIRL by Rio Youers which Joe Hill was endorsing. I don't always like the books that he recommends, but he seemed to be pretty enthusiastic about it so I decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. I didn't know anything about it going in and thought it was just going to be a typical thriller so I was surprised to notice a King influence, with definite shades of FIRESTARTER . It was a quick, exciting read an I ended up loving it; would recommend it to anyone here.