Robert Hyull

That's a difficult question as there are so many. I grew up in a house without a television until I was 18 so I listened to the radio some but mostly I read several books a week. And still do read at least one or two.

I'll try anyway:

Lord of the Rings - Cliche? I read this when I was 14 for the first time and it created my love of fantasy. A love which has continued ever since. It was written before the subject was mainstream and was one of the foundations of the whole genre with it's breadth and scope built on medieval legends such as the Elder Edda and the romance of the Victorian Era.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Another series of stories that created a genre. Even reading them again and again, they are still entertaining

Dwellers In The Mirage - AE Merritt - an early example of the lost worlds genre. There is something compelling about a time when the world wasn't so thoroughly mapped, photographed and spied upon by satellites. Authors could send their imagination out in search of hidden lands where dinosaurs and lost tribes lived; where King Solomon's Mines could be discovered, where tribal shamans could work magic and where women of unearhly beauty could be won by an interpid adventurer.

The Incompleat Enchanter - L Sprague De Camp - A wonderful combination of time travel and mythology. Where a college professor can visit the Orlando Furioso, meet Roland, and marry Belphebe of Faery.

The 1001 Nights - Not the kiddies Disney stories or the pantomime Ali Baba but the original translations by Sir Richard Burton (the Victorian explorer, not the husband of Elizabeth Taylor) and others. Tales of adventure and morality and happy endings in the fantastical world of Arabia where beautiful princesses, wicked Viziers, powerful Caliphs and magical Djinn live.

As you can see, they are all rather harking back to a romantic, imaginary past that is so much more wonderful and enticing than the modern world ;-)

I've been reading a lot of the archaeological adventures the past year or so. The type where there is a hunt for a mythical relic like the Spear of destiny or Excalibur, Atlantis or Noah's Ark. Indeed they have been sought and found so often by now that it gets a bit silly but the stories are still fascinating.

Then there are the authors like Clancy and Ludlum and De Mille who I can go back and read every few years. Spies, warfare and adventure. I love Gary Jennings book, The Journeyer, about Marco Polo. One of those that wouldn't fit in my top five. Lot's of lovely and explicit sex as well as adventure.

I don't read a lot of sexploitation novels even though I write them. Or maybe, because I write them! I figure my books are better than most and it's a turn on for me to read something I wrote a few years ago and have it still work for me. I do have a soft spot for the pulp sex of the 1960s and early 1970s though, often written by respectable authors under a pseudonym to cash in on the genre and the new freedom of that era. Totally politically incorrect stories where men screw around but their woman is expected to remain faithful. I guess that rubs off on my own writing.