I read a lot. However, I'm quite focused on a few genres – science fiction, fantasy, and some noir and horror among the moderns, and epic poetry (from the homeric poems to the chansons de geste, to the later chivalric poems like Orlando Furioso), tragic theater (Aeschylus and Shakespeare being my favorite authors), and some history and philosophy (mainly the great Latin and Greek authors, Caesar, Herodotus, Plutarch, Plato and Tacitus but also some lesser authors of miscellanea like Aelianus or Gellius).

On the other hand, I generally eschew modern mainstream literature – I'd rather let time sort the good and the bad.

Some recommended modern (and recent past) authors, by genre.

• J. G. Ballard
• Philip K. Dick
• William Gibson
• Neal Stephenson
• Bruce Sterling

• Robert E. Howard
• Fritz Leiber
• Michael Moorcock

• Neil Gaiman
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Roger Zelazny

• Stefano Benni
• Valerio Evangelisti
• Joe Lansdale
• H. P. Lovecraft
• China Mieville
• Tim Powers
• Clark Ashton Smith

I like some poetry, but not much. Here are some of my favorite authors (excluding epic/chivalric poetry):

• Ἀρχίλοχος
• C. Valerius Catullus
• Jaufré Rudel
• Guido Cavalcanti
• Cecco Angiolieri

I am a huge fan of the ”New Italian Epic” of the Wu Ming collective (and other authors such as Giuseppe Genna and Valerio Evangelisti).