Oddly enough my top horror pick is by the guy who wrote "Watership Down." It starts out as a modern day Jane Austin-ish story where an average lonely guy falls for a mysterious beauty. Slowly, and with masterful delicacy, the author inserts little details here and there... Actually gave me chills.

The first Dan Simmons book I read just blew my mind (It's about mind-vampires).

Fantasy + Japanese shogun-era politics = hours of blissful reading. Read the entire Empire trilogy!

Mega popular for good reason. Fun to read and lovely Brit humor. For me the first two books of the series are best.

Classic fantasy that's appropriate for children as well as adults.

Mr. Pullman, apparently miffed at the popularity of the Christian based allegory "The Lion,The Witch and the Wardrobe" set out to make an anti-religious one. Perhaps a bit too "subtle" because there were only a couple brief passages in the first two books that caught my attention. While the first two books are enjoyable, the third commits the sin of being boring.

I read this around the same time I read the Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke. Between them I think this is the better read. Appropriate for pre-teen/teens.

If you love dragons, dwarves and quests you'll like this. Not terribly innovative, but a good read.

Like Stephen King's movies (Stand By Me & Dolores Clairborne - great; Christine & Cujo - ugg), his books are sort of hit and miss for me. My first read was "The Dark Tower I" and I didn't bother with another until this one.

Dean Koontz is a good, if not great, writer. His character Odd Thomas is his most accomplished.