“It’s the most pointless book since How To Learn French was translated into French.” – Blackadder The Third
I finished three books during the quarantine. That’s A LOT of coloring.
Books.
I had a great-grand boss (three levels up in the company) once upon a time who was fairly philosophical in an industry not at all noted for philosophy. One day he showed up in my office, unannounced. We sat and talked for several hours about history and corporate strategy and got along very well. It probably didn’t hurt my career with that particular company.
One thing that my great-grand boss said during that meeting always stuck with me. I’m not sure if it was a quote that was original to him or not, but the quote was, “there is a way that minds can speak to each other through the ages. Books.” I thought that was pretty powerful, nearly as powerful as when The Mrs. mentioned she was going to kill off some of the characters in the book she was writing. The downside is that The Mrs. is writing her autobiography.
Books have been with us for thousands of years, but the earliest books were just a taking spoken word and carving it into a stone or writing it on papyrus or parchment. The true development of the written word came later, where complex ideas that transcended conversation were formed. The medium truly changed the message. The image of a frontier boy, book in one hand and plow in the other was formed. Heck, when I was working gathering with Pa Wilder I remember reading a book on anti-gravity, which was really hard to put down.
On the plus side, I did get a book.
We are on a journey as a world to becoming post-literate. We can still read, but the idea of developing longer, more complex ideas and widely sharing them has gone a bit the way of an endangered species. The ideas that were formerly expressed in literature seem to be passing by the wayside in many ways. The last time I picked up a Time magazine at the doctor’s office, it seemed like I was reading a magazine written for not-so-bright kids.
Is this on purpose?
But for me, books were a formative experience. They remain a part of my life. I had another post planned for tonight, but decided I’d throw out a few books that just came to mind. Were these the best books I’ve ever read? No, this isn’t a best-of list. But, arbitrarily I added some rules: the books have to be at least 20 years old, and no author gets more than one. It’s obvious I love The Lord of the Rings (Evil, With Hobbits And Ring Wraiths) since I wrote about that last week, so it’s not on the list.
It’s mainly a list of books I just want to talk about today. Why? Because. So there. Feel free to toss the ones you want to add in the comments.
The Starship that can’t pay back a student loan? The Millennial Falcon.
One of the first books that came to mind was Starship Troopers. Robert A. Heinlein was a favorite author of mine growing up – he wrote a series of “juvenile” books in the 1950’s that I think are his best work. And of those? Starship Troopers is my favorite. I read it in junior high, and it was thrilling and thought provoking. Mobile Infantry? An amazing concept.
Starship Troopers isn’t the parody movie of the 1990’s. Nope. It’s a real discussion of the tension in the world between liberty and responsibility. It’s a discussion of honor. It’s also a depiction of a world where there is, dare I say, a spirit of nationalism? It doesn’t have Heinlein’s later squishy and retrospectively creepy, um, “free love” ideas. I’ve made both Pugsley and The Boy read it, as I’ve made them read the next three books on this list.
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley was one my seventh grade teacher gave me to read. If she were still teaching in 2020, she would probably be shot for that. Huxley could see the future of conformity – the idea wasn’t that we ever had to ban books, we could just make them irrelevant by replacing them with amusements and intoxicants.
Into this world, Huxley injects a free radical – a handsome blonde individual that was born free and has awareness that the average citizen doesn’t have: John the Savage. Hmm. It’s almost like John was wilder?
Nah.
Anyway, the book for me was haunting. I got to the end, and had to do a full stop. And re-read. Then I got it.
Most babies are born at womb temperature.
I think that Brave New World was what we were living through in the United States from, say, 2000 until 2017. It’s a template for control through amusement. But what happens when the state runs out of other people’s money to spend? That’s the next book.
1984, by George Orwell. I read this one in eighth grade. I can recall reading about the rats while sitting in class on a warm spring day. Many people don’t know that Orwell was a committed socialist until he ran into actual communists during the Spanish Civil War, and at that point he was disgusted and repelled by what he saw. When exposure to actual communists makes you anti-communist, what does that tell you about the reality of communism?
Nah. Antifa® is sure it will work this time.
Dune, by Frank Herbert. The original movie was kind-of awful in many ways. The 2000-ish miniseries was okay. I’m sure it will be butchered in the latest adaptation that’s due out soon. But the book remains the book. It was enjoyable, but when I read it, it was confounding – it seemed like every decision the protagonist (Paul Atreides) made, I would have made the opposite decision.
The story is fairly rich in plot, and has truly wonderful villains. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was pure evil, but a smart, cunning evil. I always thought that Orson Welles would have been perfect for the role, since Baron Harkonnen was really fat, and Orson Welles had already eaten Ohio just to prepare for this role.
Some people call me the spice cowboy, some call me the Duke of love, some people call me Muad’dib, because I speak of the sandworm of love.
This is the novel that really exposed me to the idea of resource constraints, and spice is certainly a thinly-veiled metaphor for oil. Can a lack of resources bring down an empire? Certainly – that’s why China is working so feverishly to set up systems that bring it all the resources it needs. And why we’ve spent 20 years in the Middle East.
Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke. A mysterious space vessel shows up in the Solar System and is using the Sun to slingshot to a new trajectory. The astronauts sent to explore the vessel find lots of cool things, but no actual aliens, which remains part of the mystery.
I got this book when I was a kid of 10 or so. How? Some library sent us a catalog. Apparently, the Wilder Compound up on Wilder Mountain was viewed as so remote that they sent a list of books to us along with news that Teddy Roosevelt had been elected president. I put a checkmark by the three books I wanted and sent them the form, and they sent the books to me along with a prepaid return envelope and a new list of books I could check out.
Who paid for it? I have no idea, but they stopped doing it after two years or so.
The book? Not really great by the standards of today. The part that sealed the deal for me when I read it as a kid was the last line, which apparently was added in the very last revision. I’m not sure I’d recommend anyone read it in 2020, but when I was 11 years old and read it?
Magic.
Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm. I remember this book because I devoured it in a single fall afternoon – the first book I picked up and didn’t put down until I was finished since my victory over the Cat wearing a Hat. Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang takes place after an apocalypse occurs and for (reasons!) the people decided to reproduce through cloning rather than the usual way. But a boy is born who isn’t a clone, and manages to, well, be human. It won a Hugo™. I just wish my nomination for a Hugo® would have gotten me a better place than sixth out of a field of five.
Oh well.
Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. This is a deeply nerdy novel. It’s long. It’s dense. It’s fun. But it’s nerdy. Really nerdy. The novel revolves around codebreaking and looted WW II gold. It’s also the only novel on this list where The Boy and I met the author, twice. The first time, The Boy was seven, and I dragged him to an author reading.
The Viking longboats had bar codes on the side, so when they got home they could Scandinavian.
He acted like a seven year old. The Boy, not Neal. The next time I took The Boy to meet Neal Stephenson was when he was sixteen. The Boy’s favorite author in the world was at that time? Neal Stephenson. I made him apologize to Mr. Stephenson, who played along and said that he’d never recovered from The Boy’s previous antics.
Good times. If you like this book, Stephenson has several thousand pages of related books that are similarly Asperger-y .
So, what books do you want to add to the list and why?
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. More prescient today than when it was written.
Loved the ideas, but the *huge* speech in the middle – wow.
She certainly did predict the looters – but didn’t predict they’d be real looters.
Ah..a great list – or would that be grating? One add for me would be “The Stand” by Stephen King. I know he’s a Commie Ass-clown but the book itself is great. God – remember him Stephen? – pits good vs. evil. Spoiler alert…Good wins (or does it?).
“Battlefield Earth” by L. Ron Hubbard. I can pick ’em can’t I? Almost read the whole thing – i did say almost- in a single sitting, reclining , eye blurring episode on a Sunday. Not to be diminished by the incredibly bad cinema that was the movie with John Travolta. See what happens when you combine religion and politics and unleash it on the room temperature IQs of Hollyweird?
Anyway JW, your missives are the highlight of my week. That and Covid induced binge eating of eggrolls.
I did read Battlefield Earth in a single setting, I got it during a trip to the mall with my sisters in the early 1980s when it was first released. We got home in the evening and I was staying overnight with them, sleeping on the couch. I read it from cover to cover overnight, all 1050 pages of it (I still have the paperback). I reread it fairly recently and it still was pretty decent.
The movie? Uhhh…..
I thoroughly enjoyed Battlefield Earth. It’d make an incredible Netflix series if done right.
I enjoyed both of those! The Stand was very good (and I almost tossed it on the list, but it was already getting wordy). M-O-O-N spells COVID, at least according to Fauchi.
The Bible. It is the only book that I can read and the more I peer into it the deeper it gets. It’s His Story. But that’s a cop-out. I know you are looking for fiction.
You nailed it with Orwell, Huxley, Heinlein and Herbert. I read the entire Dune series in my adolescence.
Two other authors also left a deep impact in the fiction section; James Clavell; Shogun, Taipain and Whirlwind. And many of Michael Crichten’s novels. His “Eaters of the Dead” was chilling.
Two other authors besides Orwell and Huxley who seemed to peer into the future; Philip K. Dick and Jules Verne. Asimov and Clarke also expanded my horizon too. Ok, throw Welles in there too.
In my later teens and early 20’s I also discovered Rand after watching “The Fountainhead”. You can tell Atlas Shrugged was written by a woman because it’s about 600 pages too long. 😉
What is ironic now is that I rarely read fiction, much less science fiction. Most movies are boring. I read and watch far more documentaries or movies about actual historical events.
The last two movies I watched were when my wife and I went out for our anniversary we caught “Ford vs. Ferrari” and then this past winter we also watched “Richard Jewell”. I can’t remember another movie since those two that wasn’t something I’ve seen already, and probably made during my parent’s and grandparent’s generation. Great Escape, Kelly’s Heroes, River Kwai, Eldorado, etc.
What is the state of more current book fiction? Is it as empty and vapid as the current batch of Hollywood drivel?
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
I will nominate three additions: Gravity’s Rainbow, Accellerando and Dhalgren. All theee big complex books that I’ve read at least 4-5 times. I’m also partial to all the novels by Iain Banks featuring “The Culture”
Mr. Banks I really enjoy – I have two on the shelf I haven’t cracked. I have Dhalgren on the shelf, also uncracked. Accellerando is now on order. Is Gravity’s Rainbow good??
Since Neal Stephenson was already taken……Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (and fellow North Carolinian)
I love Mr. Card. My favorite from him was A Planet Called Treason, but I’d read a mustard label if he wrote it.
I am a huge fan of mega-genius author Neil Stephenson – at least his earliest works. His early Zodiac is a solid traditional novel that has a touching ending scene I will always remember. But if you’re gonna commit a chunk of your life to reading a Neil Stephenson book, make your first one Snow Crash. That’s by far his best novel and certainly the one he will be most remembered for writing. Then read The Diamond Age before Cryptonomicon. After that, good luck. I have tried to get into his Baroque Cycle books with little success. Same for Anathem. I guess I just have a shallow mind. He came back to writing for mere mortals with Reamde and Seveneves, which I thought were just okay; I haven’t read his two Fall books yet.
He is one of the premier author of our times and one whose works I think will ultimately be remembered as “literature”. He wrote a wonderful history on the foundation / creation of the Internet 25 (!?!) years ago:
https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
I wish he would update that article for today. It would take somebody with NS’s depth of insight and imagination to say where the current Google/Facebook/Twitter waterfall is taking us as we go over the edge into the void of the future.
I could write a book about what I think are the most important books. I will limit myself to three. The first is my choice as the single most important book that needs to be preserved for reconstructing civilization after nuclear war / the coming dark ages, a red, three volume legendary work revered by all scientists and engineers:
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Finally, after much reflection, I recommend two books on what is the deepest and most profound insight / discovery the human race has ever made. After thousands of years of religion as an attempt to understand how we and all around us originated, we finally have the beginnings of a true and definitive answer. There is no more fundamental topic. These two guys won the Nobel Prize for their combined proof of the Big Bang Theory. They started as teammates – they ended not speaking to each other. Worth blowing $5 for used paperback copies revealing the secret that millenia of humans have sought.
https://www.amazon.com/Very-First-Light-Scientific-Universe/dp/0465005292
https://www.amazon.com/Wrinkles-Time-Witness-Birth-Universe/dp/0061344443
And during those upcoming years of nuclear war / dark ages, we gotta eat. I look forward to seeing somewhat more “practical” recommendations for books than these by others here.
I was in a book club and got paper versions of the lectures great stuff.
Probably some of my favorite books from my youth were the Black Company series by Glenn Cook. Coincidentally I also got the first few books in the series from a Fantasy book of the month club. They look at a massive war featuring nearly omnipotent wizards but from the perspective of mercenary grunts who win battles not by overwhelming force but by being sneaky.
Another book I recommend is The Godfather. As great as the movie is, one of the best ever, it pales in comparison to the book which was surprisingly dirty for the time in was published (1969).
I’m a huge fan of Glen Cook’s Garrett, P.I. novels. Garrett is a hard boiled detective who just happens to live in a fantasy world at war. No, he doesn’t have any special powers.
That seems to be a theme with Cook, regular people in a world of magic.
Puzo was a great crime novelist but truth is WAY stranger than fiction. The Valachi Papers was my favorite dirty crime read as teen….
https://www.amazon.com/Valachi-Papers-Peter-Maas/dp/B000VZVPE4/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Today everybody can read Peter Maas’ source material from the original Congressional Hearings where Joe Valachi ripped the curtain of secrecy away from the Mafia:
https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/archives/JVPP/JVPP-FA.xml
I am not sure of the statistics but this might end up being your most commented on post ever.
Yup. It is.
I’ve never made it through the movie – Ma liked it and I was at an age when that was an “icky old person” thing to watch. Worth the time??
You never watched The Godfather? One of the best films of all time.
Okay. I’m in. Now to pick a weekend . . .
As I got older, I learned that the classics should be re-read. The experience is very surprising and often more relatable. Our state-run K-12 educational system can ruin the joy of reading and learning.
It’s a short story, but I’ve read “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy many times. It’s about the pointlessness of careerism (though it seems promising at first), not placing too much stock in professionals during ones final days, and a review of one’s life at the end.
I like Russian writers pre-revolutionary era because I also enjoy “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
My favorite Orwell book is “Down and Out in Paris and London”. It was his first one, but I enjoyed it the most and have re-read it several times. He runs out of money in Paris, and becomes homeless at times, other times he has cruddy jobs which barely keep body and soul together. I’ve also enjoyed “The Road to Wigan Pier” and “Homage to Catalonia”. “Homage to Catalonia” gave me the most respect for Orwell, because he lived by his beliefs, got shot in the neck for them, survived, and barely escaped his former allies, the Communists, during a subsequent purge in the streets of Barcelona. With friends like that…
I’m re-reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shirer now. I’m seeing our current circumstances in parts of that book through much older eyes. Being shut down by coronavirus / government edict is the same as temporarily losing capability as the result of war.
I’m reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” as well. For me it’s the first reading. Prompted by current events.
Yes, I was reading virology and public health books such as “Spillover” and “Betrayal of Trust” figuring the most pressing issue was SARS-2.
Prior to those two books, I had read others on the Yugoslav civil war, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and there was some relevancy, but SARS-2 was a greater problem.
Then late May happened, and I changed my reading focus again. I re-read Chittum’s CW 2 book and began re-reading Shirer’s book.
Maybe I’ll read something about the Russian Revolution or Rwanda next. Dunno yet.
I am really looking for a decent history of the Russian revolution but I am leery of getting some pro-Bolshevik propaganda so I probably need an older book. Would welcome suggestions.
A quick Google search yielded the following:
The best books on The Russian Revolution
Six Weeks in Russia in 1919. by Arthur Ransome.
A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution. by Orlando Figes.
The Debate on Soviet Power. by John LH Keep (editor and translator)
Lenin in Zurich. by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
History of the Russian Revolution. by Leon Trotsky.
Arthur Ransome was an excellent children’s book author. If you have children you should definitely get them Swallows and Amazons and then the rest of the series from there. However, I have no idea if he knew anything about the Russian revolution. That being said I will probably read it, now that I know he wrote it.
I have heard of Solzhenitsyn and Trotsky. I trust that both know what they are talking about. I suspect that you will get an honest analysis from both, albeit from different perspectives (although one might argue that in the long run Solzhenitzyn got the better deal).
I was reading “The Brothers Karamazov” when I was hanging out with my friend, an Orthodox Priest. He said, “Man, why are you reading that heavy stuff.” I’ve been (while driving) doing a lot of WWII and related podcast listening. Scary times, then and now.
I have to agree with what you said about today’s magazines. When I was young, and getting Boy’s Life magazine, it actually had articles. When my oldest son was in Scouts and subscribed to Boy’s Life, the “articles” were literally nothing more than a handful of paragraphs or sentences of no more than a single sound-bit in length surrounded by a bunch of photographs, many set askew to make them more interesting, I guess. There was nothing of substance. Last year, my father-in-law began subscribing to Popular Science. I opened it up, and it was just like the newer Boy’s Life–a few sentences at a 4th or 5th grade reading level trapped between photographs and drawings. I guess they assume readers do not have more than a 30-second attention span.
Anthem, by Rand, is a wonderful depiction of the collectivist mind. I would also suggest The Last Ship by William Brinkley for its treatment of group dynamic and the interesting solutions to common problems (Lucifer’s Hammer, by Dr Pournelle and Mr Niven, is also a marvellous example of these things).
The Belgariad & The Malloreon, by Eddings, are fine examples of philosophical fantasy with memorable, character-driven story. My wife & I are also big fans of a series of novels by SM Stirling and Shirley Meier (The 5th Millennium Series).
The rest of my goto books are non-fiction… but that’s another story.
Loved Lucifer’s and Ringworld series
I almost threw Niven on. But, you know, space.
Wait. Known Space?
David Eddings series were a big favourite of mine as a young man. Dragon lance series was also a fine read.
The first email I ever wrote to an author was to Stirling! Loved his Draka series, and told him so.
Paging Idiocracy?
Thud!, a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett (“Sir Pterry”). This is, to me, the very best of the Discworld novels, which are collectively the finest works of fiction in the English language. My rating for this novel is followed very closely by The Fifth Elephant, Going Postal and The Wee Free Men. But it is not a good place to start reading the series. Fun fact – Thud! spawned a good children’s picture book, Where’s My Cow?
Animal Farm, by George Orwell. I read this to my kids as a bedtime story several times, and they adored it. The live action movie is pretty good. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed”, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. This is easily the best book on English Grammar ever written. It includes various Elizabethan style woodcut creatures and people as recurring characters, and a narrative of sorts woven throughout.
I have two Pratchett books on the shelf – collaborations with Stephen Baxter, who himself is an amazing author of hard SF. Still need to crack those.
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire is on the way!
I suspect that Tom Kratman took many of the philosophical ideas for his Desert Called Peace series from Starship Troopers.
“I guess I just have a shallow mind. ”
I tend to think that if someone writes a book that is so complicated and difficult to read, the problem isn’t necessarily in the reader, but in the author. If you want to get your ideas across, you need to figure out a way to write them in a manner that does so. Stephensen is so damn convoluted and technical that I struggled to get through them, and I have an engineering degree and am very well read. I read Snowcrash (enjoyed but difficult at times) and then gave up on Cryptonomicon. Too much detail for anyone who is not a cryptographer/programmer is what I remember.
You can get the Feynman lectures here for your mobile reader. Not sure of the quality. I thought I had the books but can’t find them so did a quick search. I generally read epub for books not bought from Lord Bezos. https://archive.org/details/Feynman_201811
Loved Kratman’s “Caliphate.” Very readable.
Yeah, I think Stephenson is hit or miss for lots of people. I’m just impressed he writes all that longhand.
Thinner by Stephen King (before his communist years), Atlas Shrugged is taken above, but the fountainhead is also good by her. And last is “unintended consequences” I think you sent me that one when we were young….
I read Thinner because you recommended it, I think. And Unintended Consequences is worth a buck or two on the market.
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. It gives you a feeling for the vastness of space and time like nothing else.
Reynolds can write and convey that so very well. 100% agree.
Shogun.
I saw the miniseries – track along with the book?
The book was better. The mini-series failed to capture the grandeur of the book and the depth of the characters.
Okay, I’ve got that one, too. And a full dance card.
“The last time I picked up a Time magazine at the doctor’s office, it seemed like I was reading a magazine written for not-so-bright kids.
Is this on purpose?”
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/media-great-racial-awakening
Note the upswing begins BEFORE Trump.
Yup. Those are some dangerous data points . . .
Books? But muh attention span. Easily digestible hivemind soundbytes only, please comrade.
Don’t tread on me is now pwease no steppy and where is my sippy cup.
In high school we had to read Catcher In The Rye, Slaughterhouse Five, 1984, On Walden Pond, and this was at a public school in Red State.
Sadly it is undergoing the Fundamental Transformation improvementation and you can be sure those books are on the bonfire.
I hated Holden. I wanted to punch him for being a wuss. Perhaps my empathy was a bit low in high school?
LOTR nerd for years. I used to read it about once a year and no Trivia Night question ever left me stumped! The movie kind of ruined it for me – mainly because of a great distaste for Elijah Wood’s wet poodle eye closeups. I much preferred the LOTR movie I made up in my head from all those years reading.
Aside from a guilty secret affection for Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” which I admit to picking up on many a cold wintry day, I’ve mostly switched to history books. Currently working on Shirer’s “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, Mary Beard’s “SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome”, and just finished a rollicking good history of pirates by Colin Woodard, “The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down”. Admittedly, it took a couple sittings to get through the title, but the book itself in places reads almost like a novel.
I was reading Ludlum and Forsythe when I got Red Storm Rising. Ludlum and Forsythe would get the USSR and the US sooooo close to war and then sneak out of it. So, I was expecting that.
Nope. Full on war. How cool!
Got inspired by this post and went on eBay and purchased used copies of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and “Anthem”, Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm”, Huxley’s “Brave New World”, and Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. Back in school we read a couple of these, but the only one I even vaguely remember was “Animal Farm”. Gotta renew those brain cells, and also I’m on a REAL book binge because I’m tired of looking at electronic devices all day. Thanks for the post, John!
Atlas Shrugged needs to be held while you read it, otherwise you will never really understand what a great (large) book it is. Longer than Lord of the Rings, even with the LoTR appendices (being that it is an historical work and therefore non-fiction).
PS Stefan Molynieux and his daughter just read Animal Farm together and did a children’s review. I just started so we haven’t gotten into the meat of the review yet, but they start by talking about Blair’s (Orwell’s real name) views on socialism and defining some terms the way you have to with teenagers and other children. I’d recommend a listen, especially if you have kids.
Yeah, I kindled for a bit, but nothing beats paper. Oh, and you had a great post today. Thumbs up! (since I can’t say it at your place)
Thanks! I might relent and allow comments again. Hopefully the SPAM Hurricane has passed.
Oh man. Just talk about whatever books you want, he says. Heh. Fortunately, I’m re-reading The Last Guardian of Everness,, so I’ll probably exercise some restraint in order to get back to it.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Guardian-Everness-John-Wright/dp/B000C4SEXY
The Best of Cordwainer Smith. Short stories: They’ll go ’round and ‘ round in your mind forever. “Scanners Live in Vain”. “The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdahl” ( And I mourn man!). “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”. “Mother Hittuns Littul Kittens”. “The Ballad of Lost C’mell” (And where is the which not the what-she-did? “) Big ideas, brilliantly executed in vivid language.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Cordwainer-Smith/dp/1612423604
And James H. Schmitz. Heinlein without the pervy, a distinctive plot, intriguing characters, and, well, the first truly capable female action heroes who were recognizably female outside of kid’s fiction. Wonderfully re-readable, especially the short stories.
https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Store-James-H-Schmitz/s?rh=n%3A133140011%2Cp_27%3AJames+H.+Schmitz
And Andre Norton, for getting me hooked on SF in the first place. Dread Companion was such a weird and amazing read. Hard to believe how bad SF covers used to look, eh?
https://www.amazon.com/Dread-Companion-Andre-Norton/dp/0152242015/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=dread+companion+andre+norton&qid=1596866746&s=digital-text&sr=1-2-catcorr
Cordwainer is on the way. For some reason I had him confused with H. Beam Piper. I guess my memory must be fuzzy.
As I recall, Schmitz edited Analog forever. Lot of wisdom in his editorials.
Of course, John C. Wright is high on my list.
“Cordwainer is on the way. For some reason I had him confused with H. Beam Piper. I guess my memory must be fuzzy.”
I see what you did there. Those three novels were some of his best.
Opie Odd
I’m glad you saw it!!! Also: Space Viking.
Winds of War/War and Rememberance Wouk
Musashi
Gates of Fire Pressler
Outlaw Josey Wales
Once and Eagle Myrek
Okay, you’ve got me on all of those, though I love the Clint Eastwood movie. Pa Wilder read the Wouk novels, I seem to recall . . . .
Odyssey, the Iliad, and the Bible. All excellent studies on how to not be a sewer pickle person.
Now those, I’m familiar with. Lasting the test of time on all accounts. Well said.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , by Robert Perseig.
Why read it ? Well… because it’s quality personified.
A trait this current world seems to have misplaced.
My Father Loved to rebuild VW Bugs…
So of course he owned:
“Zen and the art of VW Maintenance”
I’ve been rationing that one out over the weekends. About halfway through. Don’t want to rush it.
I’ve re read it a few times. Every time gleaning a bit more of the details and still try desperately to define quality.
I’m enjoying it. Underlining bits as I go.
I loved Heinlein growing up, early on is:
“The moon is a harsh mistress”
And one of my favorite series is Niven’s:
“Ringworld”
and last but not least, my favorite of all of Frank’s work:
“God Emperor of Dune”
Three for three – I agree. I actually kept my spare money in God Emperor one year when I went to camp.
Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita”
Straub’s “Mystery”
Not familiar with Bulgakov. Good?
Favorite books? In addition to your fine list…
“The Hunt for Red October”, for the vision of a military service that’s competent, and one that isn’t.
“Foundation”, “Foundation and Empire”, “2nd Foundation”; for a fictional vision of civilization in collapse in most, but not all, places.
“How the Irish Saved Civilization”; for a historical vision of civilization in collapse in most, but not all, places.
“The Name of the Rose”, for advice on maintaining your library, in a “grid-down” (OK, pre-grid) situation.
“Collapse” and “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, to see some worst-case scenarios when tomorrow is actually not a lot like today.
Marks’ “Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers”; for when you need all kinds of numbers to go with your vision of building a better world.
“ARRL Handbook of Amateur Radio”; in case you want to communicate across hostile territory.
“Survival Medicine Handbook” (Alton & Alton); even if you never need to apply the advice, it’s nice to have some insight into what your doctor might be thinking when you present your symptoms.
“The Physiology Coloring Book”; because you can’t ignore the mind-boggling details of the ways our biology works when you’re trying to color within the lines.
I finished reading Dune one fine afternoon, sitting on a bench in a park while the rest of my family was touring a fair. After the last page, I looked up and saw light sparkling off waves in the harbor next to the park, and was emotionally overwhelmed by the existence of a vast pool of WATER right out there in the sunshine!
Yeah – it’s amazing how a book can transport your entire mind to a place. The Irish book good?
I can’t believe no one mentioned War of the Worlds. The musical is phenomenal as well. I saw a live performance and it was fantastic. Why no-one is able to produce a version for the screen is beyond me. Just follow the book and set it in Victorian England. The machines can be taken down by cannon and there’s no force fields (what a cop out).
I recall a spin off for young adults called Tripods. In this version the Aliens had won and had enslaved humanity.
Mentioned earlier was the Dragonlance series. Very enjoyable as a young adult
I did read *most* of War and Peace. The version I read had anglosised names. Anyway it was phenomenal read, I couldn’t put it down reading it during a lull at work where I had a few days off, then work got crazy and I was doing 12+ hour days 6 days a week and I just couldn’t get back into the swing of it. No idea who won in the end 😛
Currently reading the King James Bible. There’s a lifetime of study right there!
Loved the Dragonlance books and many of the spinoff books as a kid but they didn’t age well for me
Musical version . . . (checks) . . . wow. Have to give that a listen. Stephen Baxter did a sequel to War of the Worlds – it’s on the shelf, waiting patiently for its turn.
Since Stephenson (though the Diamond Age has not been mentioned), Gibson, Tolkien, and Heinlen have gone.
Add to your list.
Gulag Archipelago, A Day in the life of Ivan Densovich and the First Circle. All by my favourite Russian, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
The Master Li series Barry Hugart
Metzada series Joel Rosenberg.
Draka Series S.M. Stirling.
In addition Tom Kratman, John Ringo, and Vox Day — seriously. His high fantasy is better than Martin, because he can plot.
Love Alexandr. And Draka. I’ve not bought Vox’s fiction – good?
Brains Benton, Tom Swift, Hardy Boys. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn.
I have (from family sources) a raft of old Tom Swift books from the 20s on the shelf.
And who can forget Tom Swifties?
Redliners by David Drake. Veterans will understand and appreciate it.
I read a lot of David Drake – Redliners ordered. My wife is gonna kill me when the pile of books shows up.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, any of his books. Louis L’amour, Americana cowboy good guy always wins. Saddle up time to ride
The John Carter books are amazing – he defined adventure SF. Last of the Breed was a great L’amour . . .
Somewhat late to the game, but here’s my Recommended Reading List:
It Can’t Happen Here
Lord of the Flies
Brave New World
Animal Farm
1984
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Atlas Shrugged
Confrontational Politics
The Creature From Jekyll Island
Fahrenheit 451
Great list – I’ve read most. Probably time to re-read Lord of the Flies.
Hmmmmm. Share your reading list. Gee, I wonder if our host thought he might get a few replies to this?
Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. The Coens won Best Picture in 2007 for a fine film adaptation of this book. But as usual, the book itself is better. Or, I should say, “even better.”
Haruki Murakami. Quirky, infused with an affecting kind of Japanese sadness. A good starting point might be Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I think his best, though, is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I’ve read that one five or six times, and it’s lengthy, and there’s parts of it I still can’t explain to myself. Vastly worthwhile.
Solzhenitsyn’s already been mentioned. I’m limiting myself to novels here, so I won’t mention The Gulag Archipelago, which is a documentary in literary form, really. The First Circle, of course, as well as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I really think his best, though, is Cancer Ward. I know, the title is off-putting. Please allow me to treat you to what I think might be the most profound and beautiful passage to be found in a novel, from the chapter entitled “The Old Doctor”:
He saw her out, came back into the dining room and sank into a rocking chair of black bentwood and yellow wickerwork, its back worn by the years he had spent in it. He gave it a pushoff as he sat and let the movement die down. He did not rock it any more. He was sitting in the odd position peculiar to rocking chairs. It was almost off balance but free. He froze like that for a long time, completely motionless.
He had to take frequent rests nowadays. His body demanded this chance to recoup its strength and with the same urgency his inner self demanded silent contemplation free of external sounds, conversations, thoughts of work, free of everything that made him a doctor. Particularly after the death of his wife, his inner consciousness seemed to crave a pure transparency. It was just this sort of silent immobility, without planned or even floating thoughts, which gave him a sense of purity and fulfillment.
At such moments an image of the whole meaning of existence — his own during the long past and the short future ahead, that of his late wife, of his young granddaughter and of everyone in the world — came to his mind. The image he saw did not seem to be embodied in the work or activity which occupied them, which they believed was central to their lives, and by which they were known to others. The meaning of existence was to preserve unspoiled, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born.
Like a silver moon in a calm, still pond.
I had no idea. Greatly enjoying it, though! A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was great. Loved it, it all came home in the last paragraph.
Cormac can write.
I’m late to the party…
Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan (I read it BEFORE I turned 21…and 21 seemed very old and far away.) Movies, TV, and comic book adaptations took it in many different and interesting directions.
Ender’s Game by Card is also a favorite. (The version I bought has interesting foreword by the author that is well worth reading.)
Anything by Robert F. Parker or Lee Child (great characters and men are allowed to be men)
The Boys on the Boat by Daniel James Brown (Not sci fi, but a great true story of a young man overcoming incredible odds. We all had it easier than Joe R. Story of the US Olympic crew team at 1936 Games.
The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston (bioterror, bio warfare, spreading of pandemics, etc. – easily one of the scariest books I’ve read….actually listened to as audio book while driving)
I’m sure I missed some great ones, but this is a start.
Great stuff – and I have Demon in the Freezer by the bedside. Guess I need to read more?
Very late to this but 2 from my teenage years that really got me thinking back then were:
-The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov really drew me into reading Sci-Fi and got me thinking about what happens to civilizations down the road.
-The Forever War by Joe Haldemann still ranks as one of the best books I’ve ever read (and re-read). Take a look at it today and see if you don’t find parallels with our current world.
Then when I was a young adult, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. This made me take a deeper look into history and the West and how old age creeps up on us when we’re not looking.
I enjoyed Foundation. Forever War is great! Love how he brought it all home in the sequel. On Lonesome Dove? I’ve only seen the miniseries. Which is good.
Adding my 2 cents for science fiction:
John Varley – Gaea Trilogy. A group of astronauts is sent to Saturn. They are captured by a being inhabiting a satellite orbiting Saturn. Mayhem ensues.
Richard L. Miller – Dreamer. A marketing exec buys a vacation from a research facility. His plan was to mine his memories for ideas in advertising for clients. “No plan survives contact with the enemy…”
Loved Varley’s work on that. Wished he would have written more in that universe.
Miller -Dreamer . . . checking it out . . . thanks!!!