I never have time to read during the school year ... over the last few school breaks I've been reading bits and pieces of JRR Tolkien's works (Unfinished Tales, History of Middle Earth series -- early drafts of Lord of the Rings and stories that were not published until after he died), since I can just read a short story or chapter about a favorite character and not need to read the whole book, since I've already read Lord of the Rings a few times. I have about a month off before summer classes start; I'm not sure if I'll have time to read a novel or if all my scrapbooking, preparing for the class I will be teaching in June, and visiting my parents will keep me busy!
But in high school and in some college summer breaks, I read a book a week (two if it was a long, old classic or 1000-page Tom Clancy), I was a nerd!
My favorite authors include John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, and Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (they wrote a lot of books together -- similar to Michael Crichton but more character development, imo). I can appreciate the classics and read some on occasion, but I definitely prefer to read for pure entertainment, since during the school year I just read textbooks and articles to learn!
Hubby loves Stephen King, and while I haven't read any of his books he's told me a lot about them. A lot of them aren't even scary, they just deal with elements of the supernatural -- for example, he wrote The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis, both made into movies, and both focus much more on the characters with only a little bit of the supernatural (such as psychic powers) thrown in to make things interesting. Hubby is currently reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, a 7-volume fantasy story that also deals with parallel dimensions and such.
