"Appendix N"... What are you all reading?

I recently read some Clark Ashton Smith collections (read = listened on Audible). He is quite good and under appreciated. In particular I like his descriptive text and his wild ideas.

Agreed. Audible released a 5 volume set (the same?) and I've listened to them all a couple times. Some real gems in there. And a few misses, the Audible compounds the problem a bit because they use a different narrator for each story and the narrator really affects the quality of a story on audio! The compilations each have several stories and are called:

The End of the Story
The Door to Saturn
A Vintage from Atlantis
The Last Hieroglyph
The Maze of the Enchanter

If you enjoy audio they are overall excellent collections.

All the ERB/Hollow Earth/sword & sorcery talk reminded me of another gem, The Warlord comics by Mike Grell.

Land of Always-Night, by "Kenneth Robeson". I picked this up because of the wicked cover art! And because I was curious to read another Doc Savage novel (other than The Man of Bronze). It starts out in the big city, where an organized crime group allies themselves with a SUPER CREEPY villain named Ool. Ool is a great character, a pale, inhumane assassin, with a love for chocolate. There's some back and forth between the criminals and Doc Savage & his crew, numerous half-assed attempts at Doc's life, etc. Then the action moves to the Arctic, where they discover an entrance into the Hollow Earth and a lost civilization! So, definitely on-topic The subterranean caves have giant mushrooms and some advanced technology. Ool, of course, is from this civilization. This is the book in a nutshell.

It's extremely fast-paced, over the top, often very ridiculous. There is tension, but never a sense of real danger (we know that Doc Savage or his friends cannot die - not even their pet pig (YES! They travel to the Arctic with a pet pig!)). Good silly fun.

I recently read a book of Clark Ashton Smith short stories and was struck by how some of them could have been a D&D session. Particularly the one where the two thieves go into the jungle to raid a temple.

Currently reading "Gloriana" by Michael Moorcock, set in a version of Queen Elizabeth I's England. The fantasy elements are fairly light so far, mostly consisting of hints of travel to other planes of existence, plugging into Moorcock's broader multiverse - there are references to "old gods" who are the Chaos gods of the Elric stories. Only halfway through, and I wouldn't be surprised if the fantasy elements start to ramp up. The author cites Peake's Gormenghast as an influence. I was also reminded of Wolf Hall (claustrophobic Renaissance court politics).

I'm reading the Tarzan series after doing an A to Z read of the John Carter books. Tarzan is quite interesting, though it hasn't stood the test of time as well at the Mars books obviously because it was written back in colonial times. If you put that aside, the stories and still highly imaginative and well-told. But I'll probably recommend the Mars books to my son instead when he gets older... Or, some of your more recent recommendations above.

I've avoided reading this book for a long time, but I finally broke down and started...The DaVinci Code. I can see why it was popular, it's a fast read, I'm already half way through. I could see some inspiration for a Raiders of the Lost Artifacts adventure in here.

On audiobook I'm reading Stephen King's new book Fairy Tale. I was hoping it would read like The Talisman or Eyes of the Dragon, but it's not anywhere near as good as those books. I'm a little over a 3rd of the way in and so far not loving it. For me Stephen King has two kinds of book: brilliant page turner or boring drivel. So far this is more of the latter.

Next in line I have one of Leigh Bracket's Eric Stark books I'm looking forward to.