I don't read books ! I don't have the time for it !!

Hmm.. to be honest, ... I read quite a lot actually.

I used to read hundreds of Science-fiction and Fantasy novels.
One of my favourite SF writers will always be Jack Vance, because he managed to be great at both genres. To me, his best works are "Tchai, The Mad Planet" and "Emphyrio", and his unforgettable fantasy novel: "The Dying Earth". Vance has this great writing style in SF which is typically known as Space opera.

I also started reading some of the Hugo awarded books : "Dune" by Frank Herbert, "The Foundation" by Isaac Asimov and "Stand on Zanzibar " by John Brunner. Until now I haven't read Robert Heinlein's " Stranger in a Strange Land". And as a self-respecting fan of the genre, one has to have read those classics like Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", Kurt Siodmak's "Donovan's Brain", John Wyndham's 'The Day of the Triffids", H.G.Wells "Time Machine", Philip K. Dick's "Ubik", Hoyle and Elliot's "Andromeda" and so on...

Over here I became very fond of the writings of our very own Eddy C. Bertin with his stories about the Membrane Universe. very intense SF indeed. I liked it so much I even wrote a poem about it in those days !!

As I was mainly into Fantasy in those days I read a lot of that stuff as well. There is this wonderful book by Poul Anderson "The Broken Sword", which is in fact totally inspired by the Nordic Mythology. My all time favourite in Fantasy is the British writer Michael Moorcock. He has created the Eternal Champion character, who appears in a different form throughout what he calls The Multiverse. I'm especially foud of Elric of Melniboné with his demon sword "Stormbringer", next to his more cyberpunk-like Jerry Cornelius novels.

One must also never forget the incredible talent of J.R.R. Tolkien who created the epic "Lord of the Rings" (which Ralph Bakshi began to adapt to screen as a full-length animated feature film, but never managed to adapt the complete novel)

Talking of cyberpunk, I've read some short stories,"Burning Chrome" by William Gibson. I also think that the only SF book by Paul Theroux "O-Zone" can be labelled as such. In my closet there's still something waiting to be read in that genre: " The Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" By Haruki Murakami.

There are also some worthwile east-European and Russian SF-novels out there: Stanislaw Lem's " Star Diaries" and "Solaris" (adapted for screen by Andrej Tarkovsky) and the Strugatsky brothers. In some obscure little store I also found an original Russian collection of SF-stories translated in English with the main story "Destination: Amalthea" by Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky. Great stuff.

In the more comical vein of SF and Fantasy, we have the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. These are really both very funny and absurd. Typically British humour!

Next to this I also explored some of the horror genre. Here, I only took a look at the works of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. It is perhaps rather strange to most of you, but I have never read anything by Stephen King. And frankly I honestly never will. Don't ask me why, it's just like that. Come to think of it, most of Eddy C. Bertin's SF tends towards real great horror writing!

In the purest tradition of the gothic novel, I only read one book which will stay etched in my memory for times to come: "The Gormenghast Trilogy" by Mervyn Peake, the story of a crumbling labyrinthine kingdom, seen through the eyes of Titus Groan, heir to the 77th earl, his sister Fuchsia and the main antagonist Steerpike, hungry for the power of Gormenghast. A truly remarkable masterpiece !!

I also tried reading the earliest true novel ever written, with an actual main character in it: "The Tale of Genji" (Genji Monogatari). It was written by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady of the Heian court in eleventh century Japan. But I have to admit, it's not all that simple to keep on reading this supposedly greatest masterpiece of Japanese prose. Because after Genji courts and marries his 5,834th princess, notwithstanding the beautiful descriptions and poetry, it felt like leafing through the white pages of a harem.

In recent years I became very fond of the typical writings of Paul Auster, best known for his "New York Trilogy". His greatest achievement for me is his book "In the Country of Last Things" in which he manages extremely well to portray his female main character Anna Blum, a woman trapped in some imaginary totalitarian country from which she doesn't seem to be able to escape. A haunting and claustrophobic experience, reminiscent of Kafkaesque situations and wartime Germany. One of his stories, "The Music of Chance" has been adapted for the big screen as well. Recently he has written the scripts for "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face".

Siri Hustvedt, Auster's ex-wife, very much in the same style as he, has written an extroardinary first novel "The Blindfold", yet slightly different and from a feminine viewpoint.

Next to novels, I have collected many comic books over the years.