Ravenlofter's bookshelves

[Malus Black]

Edgar Allan Poe - Just about everything. His short stories are brilliant, and his poems are beautiful. He is also the only author who's ever managed to scare me. If I had to pick a favourite it would be The Fall of the House of Usher from his short stories and Dream Within a Dream from his poems.

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray. An excellent book.

Terry Pratchett - I actually read very little fantasy, but Pratchett is the exception. Even his weakest books are good reads, and at his best he's a master. If I had to pick three favourites, it would be Small Gods, Reaper Man, and Night Watch.

Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Last Chance to See, and especially Dirk Gently's - the part where Michael gets possessed is amazing and eerie.

Odds and Ends - Books on anything from black holes to archaeology. My bookshelves are sagging under the weight of books on pretty much everything.

Of course, the problem with a list like this is that it'll probably have changed by tomorrow.

[Le Noir Faineant]

"Der Hexer von Salem" - cycle by Wolfgang Hohlbein

Seems no German speaking reader can escape the mighty Hohlbein...

[Sunstar]

Sources of my inspiration...
Well, let me look around a moment...

...

...now, I see the complete works of Tolkien, Lovecraft, Poe, Coelho, Gaarder, Eko, D.Brown, R.Bloch

leaving asides the score of RL novels, I proceed adding to the list of prefferences

Doyle Arthur Conan "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" & "The Valley Of Fear"

Moorcock's Elric series

R.A.Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy

Sun Tzu "The Art of War"

J. Milton "Paradise Lost" & "Paradise Regained"

The Bible

Dante's "Divine Comedy"

These are my library's prefered - like the good old wine. You always want to go back to them no matter how many times you've read them.

I hope I gave you a new spin to work on

Always glad to help,
Sunstar

[Dominique]

1.) The Elvenbane (author's name escapes me--world ruled by elves who enslave humans; prophesy exists that a half-elven/half-human child would one day destroy the elvish way of life; one human slave finds herself pregnant with the child of an elvish king and must flee his wrath)

2.) Saberhagen's "Book of Swords" series--excellent ideas for magical weapons, including some that can... and do... kill gods.

I've heard of both books, but never got the chance to give them a look. Can someone detail it a bit more to me? Most important, is it the usual fantasy crap or can it aspire to be called *literature*?

Elvenbane was Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey. I liked it a lot, but I haven't read it since high school, so it might be one of those "good when I was in high school" things. The sequel, on the other hand, was awful.

My favorites:

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, which I can't believe hasn't been mentioned yet.

"Sword-Dancer" by Jennifer Roberson--possibly the most flat-out entertaining fantasy novel I've ever read, about the adventures of one of the world's finest swordsman and the world's finest swordswoman on a desert quest for the woman's missing brother. The sequels are darker and probably technically better, but the first one is just so dang fun . . .

The "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury

"The Stand" by Stephen King

Dante's "Divine Comedy"--gotta agree with Sunstar there

"Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady" by Florence King

"The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis

[Dark Whisper]

"Der Hexer von Salem" - cycle by Wolfgang Hohlbein

Seems no German speaking reader can escape the mighty Hohlbein...

Well, I did start reading in German and did it for several years, before I swiched to english books (and believe me, starting with Stephen King for an English book was not the best idea ).

[Dr Bloodworth]

Horror stuff by E.F. Benson, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft, J. Sheridan LeFanu, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as The Ultimate Jack The Ripper Companion by Stewart Evans and a collection of Sherlock Holmes - is it any wonder I dig MotRD? Otherwise, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the China Mieville Bas-Lag books (Perdido Street Station and The Scar) stand out as some of my faves.

Currently, I'm reading The Book of the New Sun series.

[Shoon VII]

the confessions of saint augustine
the aneid
harvest of empire
the war with hannibal
tales of edgar allen poe (franklin mint edition)
the pearl
trial of the templars
the disenchanted island
unfinished tales

[Mortepierre]

Lots of good books have already been listed.

I would add Those Who Hunt The Night and (its sequel) Travelling With The Dead, by Barbara Hambly.

They provide much info about vampires in the 1890-1920 era in the Europe (UK especially) area. The plot of the first one would make a frightening module for MotRD for mid-level (6th-9th) level PC

[Blackpaws]

George R.R. Martin - Whom I revere as the writing god. Not too much gothic in his works, other than the horrible nature of some of his characters and The Others.

H.P. Lovecraft - Enough said.

Ray Bradbury - See above.

Bram Stoker - I still have to break out Dracula at least once a year.

Tim Lucas - The Book of Renfield is a must read by any Dracula fan, flows perfectly with Dracula, and gives us a much needed closer look at ol' Renny.

Miguel Cervantes - Once again not a gothic author, but amazing none the less.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Fave books...

Complete Tales and Poems - Edgar Allan Poe

Dhampir - Barb & J.C. Hendee
Thief of Lives - Barb & J.C. Hendee

The Stake - Richard layman

The Women of the Otherworld series - Kelley Armstrong

The Word and the Void trilogy - Terry Brookes

Dead Witch Walking; and The good the Bad and the Undead - Kim Harrison

The Mallus Malificarum (The Hammer of Witches)

The Encyclopedia of the Undead

Celtic Folktales

Nordic Folktales

Siberian Folktales

Haunted Heartland/America/Historic America

Encyclopedia od Ghosts and Entities

Encylopedia of Spirit Guides

Interpreting Dreams and Visions

Training Precognition

etc... note I did not give authors nexxt to many of the books, to do so would take far to much time to list each author

[sawbones]

Books I have used for Ravenloft adventures:
MacBeth and Hamlet by Shakespeare
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

Books I have used for Masque of the Red Death adventures:
Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Pit and the Pendulum by E. A. Poe
Notes from the Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky

Other Gothic/Horror Books I read at least annually:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Other authors I read and/or have used for Ravenloft has been Oscar Wylde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Aleister Crowley, Anton Levey, HG Wells, Bram Stoker, JRR Tolkien, Steven King, Dean Koontz, Richard Layman, Shakespeare, Mary Sheeley, Victor Hugo...

I think that should be enough for now.