I actually enjoyed all of the books, even though there are a couple that move at a glacial pace. I came to the series late, so maybe that's why...if I were reading as they were released (and waiting YEARS until the next), I might have a different opinion on the pacing. Brandon Sanderson is doing a great job of finishing of the series, I think.

As for myself, I'm currently reading Gardens of the Moon, the first book in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm working my way through it slowly...there is so much detail. For some lighter reading, I recently finished Jim Butcher's Ghost Story, which was fun. Next, I think I'll start Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing.

I have a copy of book 1 I picked up in I think it was 91... you could say it's been awhile coming the whole series takes place over 2-3 years!

That isn't as much as reading as wading through a heavy bog.

I recently bought a kindle and am working through some sci-fi classics I've never read. In the last 2 or so months I've worked through: Forever War, Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Neuromancer, and some other random books.

Planning on going through Endymion, and the sequel, Starship Troopers, snow queen, stranger in a strange land, a wrinkle in time.

In case anyone wants to give other suggestions, I've already read: enders game and sequels, dune, hitchhikers, foundation, fahrenheit 451, ringwold, rendevouz with rama, brave new world, snow crash, mote in god's eye, left hand of darkness, lord of light, reality dysfunction, and probably bunch of other ones.

I'm currently power reading through the Song of Ice and Fire series its really good, but soul crushing in some parts which makes it compelling.

I am on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Original Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I made a resolution to myself to read all those Boarders "Classics" reprint series, then they blew it out to over 100 books...

Anyone ever read the Time Wars series by Simon Hawk? I read the first three or four when I was a kid and loved them but I never saw any of the later novels in the series.

Currently I'm reading Bruce Campbell's autobiography "If Chins could kill - Confessions of a B movie actor". Very interesting and entertaining read, I hope when Burn Notice is over one day he'll write another one with anecdotes about the stuff that happened since "Chins". The productions of Bubba Ho-Tep, I am Bruce and Burn Notice alone should offer much great material for that.

I have a copy of book 1 from 1990 I think. The book's older than I am.

I highly recommend Samuel Delany for sci-fi. I'm not the biggest sci-fi reader, but I've been on a real Delany kick lately, and am currently digging through his most famous and convoluted book, Dhalgren.

The transformation of him as a writer is p. damn striking, starting off with a couple generic '60s sci-fi books when he was about 20 years old, then getting obsessed with ancient mythology and quest structure and linguistics, releasing really...odd classics like Babel-17, the Einstein Intersection (inspired on the movie Black Orpheus--also recommended) and Nova, and he started bringing his Harlem culture and bisexuality into his stories. Nova has implied homosexuality and the hero is black, which was pretty bonkers for sci-fi in '68, but that was tame compared to where he disappeared to after Nova. He wrote two porn novels, one never published until the '90s and the other quickly went out of print, and then released Dhalgren, which is a massive, sprawling book compared in difficulty to Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow about a midwestern US city that's suffered some mysterious catastrophe that cuts it off from the rest of space & time, where buildings burn forever with no change and two moons appear over the city, and the hero has some mental issues where he perceives things differently than other characters. It's really bizarre, complex, but also quite graphic in bisexuality. (The author grew a similar philosophy to Alan Moore, in trying to make porn literary. It's simultaneously off-putting and admirable.)

Delany's often been put on the lists of most important sci-fi writers, but...it kinda seems like he's disappearing in importance, which is just wrong. He's amazing, one of the best voices in the genre. He also wrote Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand and Aye, and Gomorrah story collection that are well-respected...I think most of what he's written after Dhalgren has fit more into that "porn lit," though, rather than sci-fi. He has a new monster of a book coming out that looks like it barely skirts the line into sci-fi territory.

SOME OTHER SUGGESTIONS, with less rambling:
-Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth -- http://www.librarything.com/work/125070 (His Sot-Weed Factor is also great, but not sci-fi--rather a lampoon of 18th century literature, mimicking the language with the most highbrow dick and fart jokes I've ever read, and about 10 pages devoted to two prostitutes exchanging insults and nothing else.)
-Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme -- http://www.librarything.com/work/29676
-In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan -- http://www.librarything.com/work/1842212
-Ratner's Star or White Noise by Don DeLillo -- http://www.librarything.com/work/971285 & http://www.librarything.com/work/4953 (WN doesn't need an introduction, but RS is horribly underappreciated. It was DeLillo's response to reading Gravity's Rainbow.)
-Tours of the Black Clock or Days Between Stations by Steve Erickson -- http://www.librarything.com/work/68067 and http://www.librarything.com/work/90046
-Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban -- http://www.librarything.com/work/44537
-Solaris by Stanislaw Lem -- http://www.librarything.com/work/18415
-The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus -- http://www.librarything.com/work/170865/ (Honestly, I can't tell how much I liked this. It was just...bizarre...very...difficult....)
-Easy Travel to Other Planets by Ted Mooney -- http://www.librarything.com/work/206965 (Barely hits into sci-fi territory, tbh. More of a mix between the drama of Jonathan Franzen and the themes and setting of Don DeLillo. About language, information sickness; our heroine works to bridge the language gap between humans and dolphins. Features sex with dolphins. :|)
-The Third Policeman or At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien -- http://www.librarything.com/work/7104 or http://www.librarything.com/work/58506 (Also fairly arguable as sci-fi. But they're hilarious, and brilliantly written...I wish I could remember them better, TBH...it's been a while...gosh, I'd love to re-read these. He's often compared to Joyce. Probably because he's Irish and wrote around the same timeframe, and--I think--was friends with Joyce, or at least Joyce loved his books. The TV show Lost took some ideas from the Third Policeman, like the room that created whatever you wished for. ASTB is--and I'll get this wrong--about a writer writing a story about his character writing a story about the author creating a story with the help of his characters from his story who are writing a story about themselves writing a story....or...some...thing...I...yes.)
-Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon -- http://www.librarything.com/work/10088 (IMO the best book ever written. His book Against the Day also features a lot of sci-fi, steampunk-y stuff, but along with western and thriller and 19th century boys adventure and everything else.)
-Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky bros. -- http://www.librarything.com/work/49011 (May have heard of this, from STALKER being based on it. Really, a damn fine book.)
-More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon -- http://www.librarything.com/work/20911 (The most sci-fi book here; basically Sturgeon's answer to William Faulkner. It covers a lot of the same territory as the Sound and the Fury. Brilliant book, story, writing, everything. Transcends what sci-fi was at the time of publication.)
-Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito -- http://www.librarything.com/work/35251
-Infinite Jest by David Wallace -- http://www.librarything.com/work/903 (Hey, this is sci-fi enough, right? right????)
-The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Schroedinger's Cat Trilogy and Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson (& Robert Shea) -- http://www.librarything.com/work/5999 & http://www.librarything.com/work/2681850 & http://www.librarything.com/work/2449031 (I haven't read any RAW since I was a teenager, but he was the most influential author at the time for me. Introduced me to a wealth of my current interests. No idea how much I'd like him today. Think Deus Ex, but with a bunch of dick and fart jokes, surreality, drugs, sex, occult ideas and whatever else in addition to the conspiracies and transhumanist philosophy and science and mythic symbolism.)

Pain in the ass to find, but an excellent book. Took me two years to find a copy that was at a reasonable price.
Holy crap, how did I miss this question? Sorry for the late reply. I've only read the first two stories, one by Steven Erikson (who I've never read before) and one by Glenn Cook (a Black Company story, I've read the first three). It is quite good so far. Further in there's an Elric story by Moorcock, there's some Gene Wolfe (Who I've never read), some Garth Nix, C.J. Cherryh and Joe Abercrombie, and like, a dozen others.

Oooh interesting. Always wanted to check out Glen Cook. Thanks for the intro!

Glen Cook is pretty good. I've read the first 3 of the Black Company series. I found his style a little odd at first, but after I got used to it, I was hooked. I got the rest of the Black Company books and a omnibus of the first 3 Garret P.I. books in the queue to read soon.

Just yesterday starting reading Andrzej Sapkowski's "The Last Wish." Figure if I'm going to play the games I should read the books first.

he already is and there was much rejoicing... he's also writting another of his fiction books :P

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin. It is the fifth book in the A Song of Ice & Fire series.

I hear they've butchered the entire story. It starts out before the outbreak, not afterwards.