*sentence involving witticism about lurking*
I've got a whole list of books and authors who are amazing.

Neil Gaiman- The Books of Magic (If you love Harry Potter read this(Be sure to note when this was first published and compare to the date the first HP book was published), Stardust.

Alan Moore- From Hell, Constantine, Watchmen.

Bill Bryson- A short history of nearly Everything.

But the important bit is books that changed my life and these are:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels (All of them)- Simply put they're pretty much what made me me. I can't really phrase it any clearer. They changed the way I talked, thought, acted. Now when I read anything I actually look for the meanings that the words try to convey without saying those things. (Most telling in advertising.) It was a bit of a shock when I realised that I did this. Commander Vimes from the City Watch novels is just the best character I have read to date and Night Watch is the best of those.

Dr. Zakaria Erzinclioglu- Forensics: True Crime Scene Investigations- This book helped me understand why I'm at college doing this. Turns out I'm not just absolutely insane and consider Grissom my hero. (Though that's true too.)
(Dr. Halpinstein, Tue 20 May 2008, 20:57, 2 replies)

I'm reading "a short history of nearly everything" at the moment.
I found it on my bookshelf at home, and I'm not entirely sure how it got there. I probably saw it at my dad's, asked him if I could borrow it then put it somewhere out of sight by accident. It is certainly interesting!
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Wed 21 May 2008, 10:34, closed)

Please tell me you're not doing Forensic Science as a first degree?
Do a pure science degree and then a FS masters.

If you don't get into the highly competetive world of forensic science, or you find out it's not for you once you try it, the years of that batchelor's degree will be WORTHLESS.

any Forensic Science company looking to employ you will have their own training courses and a good science degree will be virtually identical to a Forensic Science degree in terms of getting you an interview.

edit: I've been a bit mad there - if you want to do forensic science then by all means do the degree if you're sure, but I want to make sure you're aware of the future implications of having one. And if you have one from a course/university that's not on the approved list from the Forensic Science Society be warned that it might be a bit poo. A lot of universities rushed out courses with "forensic science" in the title to cope with demand but aren't actually any good. There's even one that did a dual honours in "Forensic Science and Food Preparation". Yes, really.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:44, closed)