Who Reads my Books? Aaron Spuler

Joining the ranks of those that have submitted to Neal's question of who reads his books.  Not sure what the relevancy is of the pattern, but there defintely seems to be a pattern of folks with beards featured here...

I've been a fan of science fiction for as long as I can remember.  I am a voracious reader, averaging 40 - 60 books a year for over three decades. 

I've dipped my toes in to Arthurian legends, Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft, Stephen King, David Weber, John Ringo, Joe Haldeman, Robert A. Heinlein, Ben Bova, Ursula K. Le Guin, Dan Abnett, JRR Tolkien, Robotech, William H. Keith, Norvell Page, David Gemmell, Andy Remic, Graham McNeill, Louis L'Amour, Travis S. Taylor, John Ringo, and hundreds of other authors. I defnitely read much more SF than other generes, but do enjoy horror, fantasy, military, zombie apocalypse, mystery, crime, and western generes as well.  Given the option, I would prefer to read than watch something on television.

Part of the big draw to me for science fiction is the promise of the future.  It really is neat to read something set decades or centuries in the future, then start to see the inklings of those imagined technologies in every day life just a few short years later.

Another part is just simple escape.  Escape from the dullness of everyday life, a getaway to a different place/time where your problems/concerns can't follow, or just something completely different.  There's plenty of times that the inside of my head may be 30,000 - 40,000 years away from the present day.

At the end of the day, I'm just a regular guy from Texas who loves guns, listens to metal, and has a deep love of reading.  To pay the bills, I have worked at one of the 'big four' credit card companies hacking their applications for the past 15 years. These days I don't get as much time to get my hands dirty as I lead the global internal hacking group.  A personal side project for the last 11 years has been sharing my love of firearms as founder and editor in chief at The Weapon Blog -- Neal, you did mention that self-promotion was permitted! I get to share every day with my wife, two boys, two dogs, four donkeys, four chickens, and two goats, especially now more than before with the times we find ourselves in."

In closing, I'll echo what Mr. Waters stated: "My name is Aaron, and I read Neal Asher!"