Hard to remember. It may be the whole of Sherlock Holmes when I was a kid of 8 or 9. Foundation also at 9, Dune may have been a little while later.

I don’t know, I simply keep them on a specific shelf and read whatever tickles my fancy at the moment.

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.

Every single thing by Bukowski and Rand. Despicable people.

Two come to mind.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, which ignited in me the flame of science fiction. I was 7. It was so mind-blowing I read everything by him in a short time and then started seeking similar things, which brought me to Clarke, Clement, Asimov and many others.

Needle by Hal clement. I read it at 10 or 11 and it was oh so good. It was the first time I’d encountered so alien an alien and that made it one of my favorite books, status it holds even today more than 30 years later.

I read mainly SF but I think SF readers are by definition omnivorous: the genre lends itself to contamination and it’s seen its fair share of literally everything under the sun, from thriller to romance, so genre-hopping is not a big deal.

I enjoy fantasy, mistery, adventure, historical novels, horror and some other things, especially Uk stuff from the mid '800s onward.

I discovered many authors I still like when I was a kid - Conan Doyle, Wells, Verne, Asimov, others.

Now I’m 44 and revisiting some of them, because I don’t remember so well what I read more than 30 years ago. It’s a pleasure aking to that of visiting the house where you spent your childhood’s summers, or meeting an old, dear friend. It’s not the same for every author, of course: I love Bradbury but I don’t think I’ve ever read something of his twice, can’t explain why… maybe it’s just that, being his work so emotional, I want to keep in my heart what I felt the first time and not change it with new insights.

Furthermore, I’ve re-read everything by Terry Pratchett 4 times in my life and a fifth is incoming, because his books are so intelligent, funny, profound and have so many layers that every time I re-read them I find something new I didn’t know or remember.

I LOVE them.

Let me be absolutely, unequivocally clear: most of them are mediocre at best. Nearly everything I’ve ever read by him, mainly his SF, is basically the same novel with some variations, albeit intelligent and funny ones.

BUT.

They’re quick, outrageous, funny (the man was fond of satire and anarchic humor) and in every novel you can see the craftsman at work on another more-or-less identical, unrefined armchair, but what a comfy armchair it’ll be! I don’t know, I just find him immensely entertaining. He also was a pop culture historian with a lot of publications to his name and it shows in the best of ways.

His franchise work like the TekWar series by Shatner, which he ghost-wrote, a LOT of Flash Gordon and other things, is usually really good. The Groucho Marx: Detective series is a hoot.

If you read only one maybe try Hail Hibbler, it’s deranged :D

If you want to know how a book like that might be, read Ron Goulart. Specifically his science fiction, like The Hellhound Project or Hail Hibbler or Big Bang. The vast majority of his work (a whopping 180 novels in total) is like that, albeit not for that reason: he just had a knack for formulae and a liking for money!

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. The first time I read it I finished in the middle of the afternoon and I immediately went out to buy the sequel.

Terry Pratchett for the win! His use of language is masterful.

I think you’d be better off changing circle of friends, they seem not particularly bright or agreeable.

I always go for the original language if it’s a language I speak. I love SF and the vast mojority of it still comes from the USA/UK, so I read mainly in English.

Translating is finicky business: not many translators work with the idea of giving the foreign reader the same (or similar) experience of the native speaker.

If it’s originally in English, I read it in English.

If it’s originally in Spanish, I read it in Spanish.

If it’s originally in Italian, I read it in Italian.

For everything else I usually read the English translaton.

I don’t have any faith whatsoever in his ability to write interesting stuff, whichever name he chooses.

Iain M. Banks. I’ve read the first 4 books of the Culture saga and I really don’t understand the fuss. I’m not motivated in reading any more by him, I find him a barely competent writer of mediocre space opera.

I want to say something to Banks’ fans because this is not the first time I state I don’t like their favorite author and I usually receive always the same treatment: I don’t want to rain on your parade, I’m glad you love him, don’t try to convert me. Every Banks novel I read and don’t like someone goes “you need to read this or that!”… and this is why I’ve read 4 of them. I wish I hadn’t and therefore I’ll never do it again. Maybe it’s exactly that I “just don’t get him”. I’m fine with it. I don’t begrudge you what you like, show the same courtesy to me please :)

It was Terry Pratchett, now that he’s dead I have no more authors like that.

Not the first published one. Pratchett himself discouraged readers starting there because he was still finding his footing as an author at the time and he was right: the first 2 or 3 are not good as the others, even if they’re still better than a lot of things out there.

The whole of Discworld is comprised of 41 novels informally divided in “subseries” aka novels sharing roughly the same cast of characters, but they are more or less all readable without prior knowledge, so there are a lot of starting points.

Maybe try Night Watch, the beginning of the Watch “series” and one of the best overall, or Small Gods, which is stand-alone… but any starting book of a “series” is fair game. Here you can find a handy reading order.

You’ll love pTerry, I promise ;)

Nope. My favorite authors are still Pratchett, Herbert, Asimov and Clarke just as 30 years ago.

I’ve re-read the entirety of Terry Pratchett’s work four times over the course of my life and a fifth is approaching. He’s an author that changes many things in how you view life, morals and your fellow humans.

And he’s really funny.