My bookshelf holds many things. A bottle of glue, dust, a stack of blank paper, dust, several multi-sided dice, and, you've guessed it, more dust. Oh yeah, and some books, too.

Here's a list of the books I have the pleasure to own, and what my humble opinion on them is:

	Professional
	Sword & Sorcery
	Science Fiction

8086/8088 User's Manual, Programmer's and Hardware Reference, Intel Corp.

The real, one-and-only, definitive guide to the 8086, straight from the source. While this particular one is a bit, ehm, dated, it is a great companion to the freely available electronic 80386, '486 and Pentium Guides, available at an ftp-site near you.

Advanced MS-DOS Programming, Ray Duncan

Covers DOS, BIOS, XMS, LIM EMS, output devices, memory management, and process management. Basically all the regularly-used parts from the Interrupt List, with explanations and examples in C and Assembly.

ZEN of Graphics Programming, Michael Abrash

Part of the excellent Corolis Group Books' ZEN series, under Jeff Duntemann, this is the book to buy on Mode X and 3D programming. Based on his Dr. Dobbs Journal articles, this actually explains how all those neato 3D shoot-em-ups are done. If you buy can only buy one book about 3D programming, give this one a shot.

Programmer's Guide to the EGA and VGA Cards, Richard F. Ferraro

Currently in it's third edition, this massive tome tells you everything you ever wanted to know about your graphics card, and much, much more. Includes all the leading Super VGA cards, and VESA. The alternative to this one is Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 Video Systems, by Richard Wilton.

C++, The Complete Reference, Herbert Schildt

Part of Osborne/McGraw-Hill's Complete Reference-series, this is one of those thick 'C++ for C programmers' deals. Schildt has written a whole shelf of books about C, and you could do a lot worse.

Borland Pascal, The Complete Reference, Stephen K. O'Brien

Also part of Osborne/McGraw-Hill's Complete Reference-series, it's thick, it's filled with explanations and examples of almost every feature, and after the school tells you to buy it, all you probably use is the reference.

Graphical File Formats, David Kay, John Levine

There are several books with about the same title, all detailing a bunch of file formats. This one is a nice alternative to the $70+ encyclopedias you'll only use 10% of. Or, if you're on a budget, you could get the File Formats Encyclopedia off the SWAG site. Do realize you get what you pay for.

Graphical User Interface Programming, Steve Rimmer

Steve Rimmer is the man behind Alchemy Mindworks, of conversion utility fame. Together with Bit-Mapped Graphics of the same author, you'll be able to write snazzy windowy programs, which, unlike Winblows software, runs just fine on that '286/12.

Kill-o-byte, Piers Anthony

Imagine multiplayer Quake. With crystal clear, realistic graphics. Touch, smell, and visual feedback. The ultimate game. Until you're trapped inside by a cracker, and you need to defeat him to get out. While the pun in the title -is- horrible, and it sounds rather Lawnmower Man it actually is a good VR story.

Marion Zimmer Bradley anthologies

Bradley has published a huge stack of anthologies of high quality. Drawing on expertise from her magazine, each one contains great stories from beginning and sometimes no-so-beginning authors. These books were the kick-off point for people like Mercedes Lackey and Deborah Wheeler.

Palicroval, Orson Scott Card

Card has written some excellent Sci-fi, including his Ender and Alvin the Maker-series. Palicroval continues his switch to Fantasy, with a rather Vance-like story.

The complete works of Lewis Carroll, Lewis Carroll

I really like second-hand book stores. The smell of paper, the narrow corridors packed with books, and the occasional gem you find between the junk. On one day, I picked up all three DragonLance books, and this one. All his stories, puzzles and poems. Very dated, but still very fun.

Alchemy Unlimited, Douglas W. Clark

A somewhat less well-known author, this one tells the tale of Corwyn, the world's only aquatic alchemist. Includes some truly horrible French/English puns, the *real* reason why unicorns have horns, and rather familiar looking broom as familiar.

The Wiz Biz, Rick Cook

If, like me, you're a Speaker to Machines, you gotta read this. Silicon Valley nerd gets janked into magical kingdom, and learns that spellcasting is remarkably like programming. Loads of in-jokes. Can be read stand-alone, but there are several sequels which really should be read in order: The Wizardry Cursed, The Wizardry Consulted, and The Wizardry Quested. Also by the same author, Mall Purchase Night.

_Sword of Truth_, Terry Goodkind

The _Sword of Truth_ series is easily mistaken for a standard boy-saves-world fantasy epic. I've got the first four out of five books, Wizards First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, and Temple of the Winds. No blue stones, but great characters, and a fast plot. If you fell asleep while reading part umpteen of Jordan's work, give this a try. One word of warning: while not obvious at the start, this one falls into the adult category.

_Belgariad_, _Malloreon_, David and Leigh Eddings

The two quintets that made Eddings famous. Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game make up the _Belgariad_. The _Malloreon_ consists of Guardians of the West, King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda, Sorceress of Darshiva, and Seeress of Kell. Featuring a young boy called Garion, a blue stone, and a world to be saved. The two quintets can be read separately, but form one continuing story. There are also two, er, post scripts, Belgarath the Sorcerer, and Polgara the Sorceress which seem to be meant to explain several inconsistencies in the first ten books.

He also wrote another two sets, again featuring a blue stone, but this time a church knight called Sparhawk, and a child-goddess, together with Eddings' usual cast of greatly detailed sub-characters.

_The Drenai Saga_, David A. Gemmell

All I've got is Quest for Lost Heroes (the price was right), but I like the way he writes. Heroic, gritty fantasy, which reminds me a bit of the DragonLance saga.

_Swords series_, Fritz Leiber

This is the guy who coined the term "Sword and Sorcery", and he still is the undisputed master in the genre. I've got Swords of Lankhmar, Swords against Wizardry, Swords in the mist, Swords and Ice Magic, and Knight and Knave of Swords. There's more books in this series, and I've heard of a collector's edition containing all his stories, but I haven't been able to track those down.

Anything by Terry Pratchett

Even Asimov has written books I wouldn't recommend. Pratchett hasn't. I've read everything of DiscWorld I could lay my hands on, all the Johnny books except one, and most of his pre-DiscWorld work, like Strata. And I loved all of it. Currently on my shelves is Hogfather and the first DiscWorld omnibus, with the first three DiscWorld novels. Of course, all with Kirby covers.

The Wizards of Odd, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and others

A great collection of humorous short stories, by the greats from the business. Contains several stories never before published.

Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Inventor of '42!' and the Improbability Drive, this is the *only* five part trilogy ever published. Featuring Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent, and Zaphod Beeblebrox, a fish, some Vogons, and an infinite amount of monkeys. I don't own these, but I just -had- to mention them. Also by the same author Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Robot Visions, Isaac Asimov

A collection of the very best robot stories, chosen by the Master himself. If you're into SF, this is almost a must-read, since almost every author has been influenced by these stories. And while you're at it, take a look at the _Foundation_ books.

Murder at the Galactic Writers' Society, Janet Asimov

I dunno. This is either retro, or incredibly bad. Part of the Isaac's Universe line, our robot-hero is sent off to save the universe. Or at least a couple of writers. I think this is proof that writing talent isn't hereditary.

Han Solo at Stars' End, Brian Daley

You've seen the movies, now check out the *original* books. There's an large amount of Star Wars spin-offs, like for example the X-Wing books and the New Republic books, but this is one of the originals.

Neuromancer, William Gibson

Not hindered by any knowledge about computer systems whatsoever, Gibson started a whole new genre in the SF, CyberPunk, with this book. Personally, I find that the quality of his books fluctuates a bit, but when he's good, he's great. And Johnny Mnemonic is a good movie.

_Dune_, Frank Herbert

Again, I don't own these, but I just had to mention them. Basically, only the odd-numbered books are a good read, but SF doesn't get any more epic than this. Also, if you've ever seen the movie, read these to understand what was going on.

Tactics of Duty, William H. Keith, Jr.

FASA thought, 'What TSR can do, so can we'. And so, a bunch of tie-ins of the BattleTech RPG saw the light. And this one is really very nice. Roc also published a number of ShadowRun and EarthDawn tie-ins.

Protector, Larry Niven

Larry Niven wrote The Integral Trees and authored the famous Ring World books. Protector is another hard Sci-fi novel, set before the Known Space/Kzinti/Puppeteers time period. Also co-authored some very good books with Jerry Pournelle.

Vacuum Flowers, Micheal Swanwick

CyberPunk at it's best, and IMHO better than the later works of That Other CyberPunk Author. Then again, Swanwick's stories never got made into a movie. Also from the same writer, In The Zone, which is post-holocaust Sci-fi.