I love reading. On average, I read 3 books per week, generally between the hours of 10:00 pm and midnight. And, while I enjoy biographies, autobiographies, mysteries, and get a big kick out of humor, my real love is science fiction.

Don't go getting upset with me on this next statement: Science fiction is the greatest genre available today. I even write some myself. Check out my World of Tom Swift Fan Fiction pages.

In what has become loosely classified as science fiction and fantasy—but usually not those horrid books that lonely and strange authors write about, featuring dragons and knights and maidens that require both rescuing and ravishing—you will find everything that you would find in other, more restrictive genre. The great thing about Sci-Fi is that is frees the mind from many preconceived ideas.

I'm not going to try to convince those of you who have your cursor hovering over the BACK button. I've read the classics; you know...the meaningful books. I've read just about every conceivable type of book. Nowhere outside of Science Fiction can I find all of those elements together in one genre. "Nuff said! "

Want to read a book by someone who could bore a slug? Read Moby Dick. Want to read something by an author who not only was prolific but knew next to nothing about proper sentence structure, read anything by Bulwer-Lytton. He was so bad that a famous bad writing contest is named after him.Want to read books by an author who hated her contemporaries and insists on telling the reader about insignificant details? Read anything by Jane Austin. By the way... her stories make great movies and extended television programms, just lousy books.

But if you want to read finely crafted stories by authors who actually apear to not wish to insult your intelligence, read science fiction. I have many favorite authors, and I thought that I would share some info about them, some links that have been brought to my attention concerning these authors, and links to some places where you might purchase their works. Everyone knows about the Heinleins and the Asimovs and the Clarkes. I want to let you know about some others you may not be aware of, yet.

The authors are in "random" order to avoid implied favoritism (as if!):

Ron Goulart	Terry Pratchett
Douglas Adams	Robert Rankin
Tom Holt	John DeChancie
Tom Sharpe	James Bibby
Reginald Bretnor	Lionel Fenn
Red Dwarf books	Other Authors and Books

I also have become very fond of several mystery writers. Their books are offbeat and quirky and always fun:

Throughout these linked pages you will find the scanned covers of almost every book mentioned. I just want you to know that my scanning them and presenting them here in no way should be interpreted as an attempt to claim any kind of ownership or rights. The copyrights on each and every piece remain that of the individuals and companies who have registered those rights. If you are someone or some entity that hold these rights, please don't have your attorneys or barristers write threatening letters.

My only hope in presenting these is that some people will be intrigued enough to go looking for them in bookstores. And it's a heck of a lot easier to go looking for a book when you know what it looks like.