Virtually all the prose books I read are comic history related.

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones. Probably the best comic history related book I've read.

Comic Wars by Dan Raviv. All about 3 corporate wall street moguls fighting for Marvel in the 90s. Sounds boring but the writer did a fantastic job of getting the inside scoop of what was going on. Explaining all the law stuff in a way that simple and made sense. The screwy personalities of the super rich and how they operate and react to stuff made for great reading.

Seal of Approval by Amy Kistie Nyberg. A fascinating history of what led to the comics code and beyond.

Comics: Between the Panels by Steve Duin and Mike Richardson. A very fun book featuring an encyclopedia of comic topics filled with funny/wacky stories from comic history. You need to take it with a grain of salt though because not all of it is true.

The Comic Book Book by Paul Sassine: One of my early chronological comic history books, other books might be better but this was an early resource for me.

The Lord of the Rings

My understanding of the book(s) changes from decade to decade. Back in the "Frodo Lives," sixties, I thought Sam was the hero. Nowadays I am not so sure. On reconsidering, it seems to me that Frodo actually believed that he would not survive his journey but set out anyway. Believing that it was more likely he would fail than succeed, he kept going until his final downfall. However you sort it out, it is still a wonderful tale. And I may change my mind about Sam again next decade.

My favourite book is Stephen King's The Stand. The book, for me, defines epic. It's not a gigantic, unending sprawl like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series which I also like, but is still a huge story of death and destruction on a global scale, and the stories of the survivors, as they draw battle lines between good and evil, for the battle to end all battles.

I actually don't read actual "books" much as there isn't a lot that captures my attention well. There are only two books that have consistently provided me with interested reading from cover to cover. Those are The Destroyer series created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, and all philosophy books I have read by Chögyam Trungpa.

I've read a ton of books. I have a miniature library in boxes at my house. Having to sit down and pick one book that I like best is pretty much impossible. So I'm going to pick a small handful of books and discuss them for you. Some of them will be familiar and some possibly not.

I'll start with the probably the most famous book in my favorites -- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I say it's probably the most famous because the movie made a ton of money and spawned several lesser sequels. And admittedly the second book isn't as good as the first. I love Michael Crichton. I adore the way he writes everything starting off nice and normal and then everything and I mean EVERYTHING goes to hell all at once. Jurassic Park is the ultimate example of this writing technique. My copy of Jurassic Park no longer has a cover and is battered and bruised. I've always loved dinosaurs. So the idea of someone cloning them and bringing them back for a Park/Zoo was intriguing and exciting. The movie is great and exciting but it doesn't hold a candle to the brilliance and excitement of the book.

Probably the second most famous book that I love is Stephen King's The Stand. I love Stephen King too. What I love the most about him is the way he just understands humanity so thoroughly. When news reports started to come out of the Superdome after Katrina, it was just like what happens in The Stand when humanity gets wiped out by the super flu. It was both creepy and further irrefutable proof that Stephen Kings gets people. The Stand is an epic book that follows probably close to twenty different characters on both sides of good and evil. The television mini-series was a decent representation of it, but like most celluloid it doesn't get into the characters heads the way the book does. It's an amazing book and it's only got a few scary parts, unlike some of his other novels.

The next couple books I'm going to group together because they're part of the same universe. The first book of this series is used in middle school and some high school English classes, but don't let that put you off. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is exciting and nothing like most books you were forced to read by your old biddy of an English teacher who thought Faulkner was the height of literature. Ender's Game follows a child named Andrew "Ender" Wiggins who was born to lead the government troops to victory against an alien race called Buggers. Ender is a very bright boy and the book follows him through Battle School. AS smart as Ender is, there's one little boy who's smarter than Ender and his name is Bean. In Ender's Game, Bean is more of a secondary question. However, in the book Ender's Shadow, we are allowed to follow Bean's time in Battle School with Ender. Personally, I think Ender's Shadow is the superior book, but you need to read Ender's Game to understand it's brilliance. Both of these books are the beginning of four book series which follow Ender and Bean respectively. Bean's is excellent up until the very end where Card drops the ball. Ender's series is kind of sluggish and ponderous throughout.

I love Hispanic literature, and one of the biggest literary devices that Hispanic authors use is called Magical Realism. It's not really a device we have in English writing that much, except for the next author. Neil Gaiman is king of English speaking magical realism. Magical Realism is when bizarre or magical things happen in an otherwise normal world. What I love about Neil Gaiman's novels are the knack he has for writing about a poor unremarkable sod who finds himself neck deep in something weird. My favorite example of this is his book Neverwhere. In Neverwhere the poor sod in question is named Richard and he's pulled into an alternate version of London by the simple act of helping a bleeding young woman on the sidewalk. It's an amusing play on words for London's famous attractions. The book was also a BBC miniseries, with all the cheesey bad special effects that come along with that.

Last but certainly not least is the best fantasy series ever written. No, not Lord or the Rings or Harry Potter. The series in question is Roger Zelazny's Amber Series, which starts with Nine Princes in Amber. The Amber series is a dizzying blend of imagery, action and the most dysfunctional royal family imaginable. The first five books follow a Prince named Corwin. When you meet Corwin, he's just been in a nasty car crash and he can't remember anything about who he is or what he is. All he knows is that someone is out to kill him. The second five books follow Corwin's son Merlin as he tries to navigate his way through the bizarre family dynamic and survive. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that the tenth book was supposed to be the last, unfortunately Roger Zelazny is dead, so it is. As much as I love Tolkien and Rowling, Zelazny is my main man.

And lastly I think a general shout out should go to the also unfortunately deceased Jack L. Chalker. Jack L. Chalker was an amazingly prolific science fiction/fantasy author. Most of his books deal with transformations of some sort. A lot of his work is out of print, but it is very worth poking around to find it. Zack and I always go over to the science fiction section at our local HalfPrice Books to see if there's something there by him that we don't own yet.

My favorite book is Cardan's Pod. Why? Because Eva and Marta told me I have to say that. No way do I want those two angry at me. :)

Julian May's Galactic Milieu/Intervention/Pliocene Exile books, David Weber's Honor Harrington books and related titles, anything by H. Beam Piper.

May's books present a cohesive and multi-layered universe that has interesting characters, fascinating story elements and a real philosophical dilemma. Can Man join the galactic consciousness and retain his individuality? Those who oppose the idea of "mind-melding" with the rest of the galaxy do so for plausible, well thought-out reasons, not some knee-jerk rejection of the alien. Likewise, those in favor have equally plausible reasons for doing so. The conflict never seems contrived.

Weber's books present a different kind of universe, but equally fascinating. There are no alien empires, just people, in the so-called "Honor-verse". The only non-human intelligences are the Sphinxian treecats and the Medusans, who are mired in a stone age level of technology. Weber writes solid adventure, with political intrigue and plenty of action. The series has grown beyond Honor, herself, in recent years and has lost none of its power. Honor Harrington is a character you can admire. She is strong, smart, witty and uncompromising.

One of the great strengths of the books is Weber's use of recurring supporting characters and his unparalleled word-building. He manages to create unique and interesting cultures on a dozen different human-settled worlds.

H. Beam Piper is different. He tends to write "smaller" stories. They usually involve a character type that I am drawn to, a self-reliant man. Piper was largely self-educated, but his stories show a man who thought deeply about a myriad of subjects and understood what it was he was thinking about. The perfect place to start with Piper is not at the beginning of his work, but near the end. The chronological order of the stories don't matter so much. Read "Little Fuzzy" and "Fuzzy Sapiens". If anyone ever makes a faithful movie of these books, they will have both one of the best sci-fi stories I've ever read (and re-read, multiple times) they will have, without a doubt, the cutest, most endearing aliens ever presented in visual media.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is my all-time favorite. It came along at a time in my life when I was fascinated by mythology and the power of belief, and it just swept me up. It dethroned what is now my second-favorite book, Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. I love the characters and the dragons, and the classic Michael Whelan cover, and the memories of being a teenager and falling in love with fantasy novels. And currently, I'm hooked on China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels, because I like his blending of sci-fi, fantasy, and a little horror for the perfect dark steampunk world.

My favorite single book is American Gods. Few authors seem to have the natural storytelling ability that Neil Gaiman demonstrates. The book's story is massively complex, and yet enough time is taken to make characters that could easily have been left as archetypes into 3-dimensional beings. Given the length of my reading list, it takes a very special book to cause me to take the time to read it again. This was one of those books.

If you were to ask me what my favorite series is, it would have to be "The Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. To me, it is the very definition of epic fantasy, and it is what I compare with all other books that make that claim. Martin has an incredible ability to make characters come to life, to the point that he can write a chapter from a minor character's perspective, and you know exactly who that character is without him even needing to mention names or describing him or her. His plots are immense and made of many threads, but follow a logical path. He isn't afraid to kill primary characters either, coupled with everything else this truly gives his series a sense of being alive -- that he's just describing events that he somehow has a glimpse of happening as opposed to a fantasy that he's creating. Unfortunately, all of his books work together to create this effect (the series is still in production), so I couldn't single out any one in particular.

American Psycho, because I admire the depth and style of the writing, the characterizations and the setting, and one day hope to be able to write as well. Not for the gruesome bits, though, but even Bret Easton Ellis put those in after writing the rest of the book, basing them on FBI reports of what real serial killers had done.

1984. I'm not really sure why this connected with me so much, but I definitely relate to the "trying to embrace what life you can because it's all doomed" ethic that Winston Smith has. Also, it's very well written like all of Orwell's work.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, because it's hilarious and we could all do far worse than learn valuable life lessons from Hunter S Thompson. I admire his writing style most of all.

I read a lot. I mean a lot. Anyone who interrupts me during lunch break usually hears a howl of 'It's not fair-- there was time now. There was time!' Still this is an easy question. There are few books I've been able to re-read and not get bored of them. I'd have to say the one I get the most out of with each read is Huckleberry Finn.

The Overstreet Price Guide. Not just prices, but great text pieces on various subjects including the history of comics. Every comic book collector and fan should own at least one recent edition.

One of the nice things about being Editor of this online rag is that I get to see what everyone has written before I take a go at it. If you do a little archive digging, you'll find my favorite science fiction books of all time href That was written years ago and I have a couple of new favorite authors.

Steven Gould. My favorite book by him is Wildside. Not only is it set in College Station, Texas, but it's a coming of age story that is very touching and uplifting. Plus, it's got a whole other universe where man never was. Considering the crackpot nature nut I have become in my old age, I find this very attractive.

Jack McDevitt. I love all of his books except one. He's pretty prolific, so that's a great recommendation. His books have characters that you can relate to, exciting plots that hold their mystery to the end, and happy endings. Yes, and people die, and you feel bad when they do. It's great stuff. Except for that one book, and I'm not telling which one it is. You might like it. I think I would have liked it too, if it had been the first McDevitt book I read.