if i could do anything with my life, i'd like to do what this woman did (but maybe with a different book genre):

write mediocre yet wildly lucrative books?

bad form!

her books are mediocre - how is pointing that out bad form?

Because I'm completely biased For a really shitty part of my life those books were the only thing to make me laugh, let alone smile. I'm protective of the memory.

I love Total Eclipse of the Heart, and it makes me feel great, but I'm not going to tell people that they'll ruin my day or anyone else's if they totally disagree.

I had a snap reaction, not a ruined day

that's great and that kind of comfort is one of the great things about books. even crappy ones. :-) if you like the genre, have you read: Tolkien (obviously) Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series Lloyd Alexander's books based on welsh mythology(i'm spacing on the names) Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (first x books) C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia i haven't read much in this genre since my teens, but i loved these books. and they truly are better than the Harry Potter. i can think of more if you'd like.

I'm a Tolkien whore But otherwise I'm a big fan of R.A Salvatore. I've been reading John Irving lately, too.

at least the irving is branching out....... which ones do you like?

I'm an escapist, i admit it I've been reading entirely too much Fantasy/Sci-fi for years since school. I totally loved The World According to Garp, and now i'm reading The Cider House Rules, but i don't like it as much. I read Woman On the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, recently too, does that count as sci-fi?