Like Laurie S. my obsessive series-reading began in childhood with The Bobbsey Twins, anything Enid Blyton, the ‘William’ series, the Louisa May Alcott series, and the Anne of Green Gables books.

Later on I would grab anything by Richard Bach, Erma Bombeck, and best of all Gerald Durrell (whose books probably helped to hone my conservation/environmental bent). I read Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals as a child and collected many others over thirty or so years. Lately I’ve become a Michael Connelly fan; there’s something about his Harry Bosch character that I can’t seem to get enough of. And although I’ll pick up anything by Grisham, it’s the non-legal A Painted House that I love the best. Judy Blume. I’ve read her children’s books, her YA and her adult’s, and loved all. In the romance genre, I think Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer ensured that I’d read anything with her name on it.

Lately, I’ve read one each of Bill Bryson’s and Edward Abbey’s and I want to read the rest of their stuff.

Her books focused on the relationship between
the heroine and hero. They are stories which
have a little spice in them. And yet, this very
grand lady helped redefine the romantic fiction
genere. She will be dearly missed.

Then Madeline L’Engle, yes, and as a teen I had to barrel through all those “Flowers in the Attic” books!

But as an adult, I read a million years worth of literary novels and didn’t really have that kind of experience again until I stumbled upon SEP about a year ago and began reading her Chicago Stars books. After Dan Calebow, I had to read every one with a character mentioned somewhere else. It brought back all those fun feelings of being a kid and having an entire “set” on the shelves.

And then I stumbled across Suzanne Brockmann — somewhere right smack dab in the middle of the series — and had to go back and obsessively read every single book about SEAL Team 16. (Like CrankyOtter, it took me awhile, because military stories didn’t sound appealing at all, but holy cow, those were good books!) I now own 9 of those, all together on a shelf, and will surely reread them (probably in order, since I read them a bit willy-nilly the first time). (Which, incidentally, was not an entirely unpleasant way to read these. Kinda fun. Like meeting someone and then going back and learning all their history…)

Anyway, I’m thankful for those women’s ability to make me feel like I did when I was a kid — waiting for that character to show up again, looking forward to the next time you’ll see him/her. Great stuff.

I’m thinking of jumping into Ward’s Brotherhood next …

Jennifer Cruisie’s books…just love them all!

Anne Bishop’s Jewel trilogy is wonderful. A bit sci-fi/fantasy/romance but not too complicated to follow. It remains fondly on my all-time favorite list.

And Suz Brockmann’s Team 16 Troubleshooter series. She pushes all the right emotional buttons with me.

Suz Brockmann, Julia Quinn, Jenny Crusie, Mary Balogh, Barbara Kingsolver, Catherine Mann, Neal Stephenson, Robert Asprin, DAvid Brin, Janet Evanovich, J.K. Rowling.

Suz first and foremost because I didn’t buy romances before I read the first 3 of her Team 16 books. I got my books from the library and never re-read them unless I checked one out again by accident, and if that happened I would stop reading. After borrowing TUH, TDH, and OTE from a friend and letting them sit in my TBR pile for a couple months because the military does not hit any fantasy buttons for me, I read them and fell in love. I had to re-read them! Something I hadn’t done since Madeline L’Engle in the 4th grade. And now my home is overflowing with books, mostly romance, and it’s her fault. Because I now re-read books. Because of Suz Brockmann.

Julia Quinn was just such a fresh voice and so *fun* that it made a tired genre entertaining for me again. Although the last couple have been sadly lackluster, I own the whole backlist and enjoy them.

Crusie is another author I can re-read and laugh out loud every time. There are a couple books I reaalllly don’t like, but Welcome to Temptation is my favorite romance evah. She writes about average people and makes them extraordinary fun to be around rather than superheroes we have no hope of connecting to in daily life.

David Brin just has an excellent vision of a future where the heroes believe in equality against overwhelming odds. And his science is good.

Neal Stephenson, up to Cryptonomicon, wrote some wonderful near-future fiction that is a joy to read and think about happening even if he has trouble ending his stories.

Mary Balogh never met a big misunderstanding. After book on book with those, MB was a breath of fresh air – even in her smaller works she throws our H/H together again and again until you believe in the end that their conflict resolution skills are strong and their HEA will stick.

Janet Evanovich. I pretty much only like her Plum series. Even when I think I’m kind of done with it, I can re-read it at still guffaw over grandma Mazur shooting a chicken in the gumpy. Same with Robert Asprin’s Myth adventures.

Rowling for all the reasons you say. I particularly liked book #3. Coincidentally, I found her on book 3 like I had Suz. I have issues with some of the later ones, but for opening up the fantasy publishing market for tweens and getting people to love reading again I will love her forever.

Basically, I love authors whose books I can re-read because I either get more out of them the second or sixth time, or the language/prose/dialogue is so clever it grabs me every time, or I just want to live in that world they created for a little longer. Even when I already know how it ends and who does what.

I love books and movies that create a hunger for more. Great post!