OT: Favorite Books.

[AndyC]

I can't get enough classic sf. This would be the stuff from the 50s to the 70s, by guys like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, Piers Anthony, Alfred Bester and a whole bunch of others. I'm currently reading Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke.

I read every night at bedtime, and generally go through a book every week or two, depending on the length. When I go to the gym with any consistancy, that increases, because it's a great way to pass the time on the stairmaster.

Can't decide which I enjoy more, the short story compilations, from the old sf magazine days, or the novels. Novels allow more depth, and more involvement in the stories, but the shorter pieces have a lot of punch, and can usually be read in a sitting.

I think I like the sf novels of the 70s the best. There just seemed to be an explosion of it in that decade. People were beginning to take it seriously, and I think the average person's knowledge of science and technology was increasing. Real technological advances and scientific theories were coming faster, society was changing, and writers had a lot to inspire them. At the same time, many the leading writers came from the old magazine tradition, in many cases mentored by John W. Campbell himself, and the flavour of 50s and 60s sci fi was still there.

Hard to list just a few favourite books, but the top ones for me would have to be:

Man Plus by Frederik Pohl - brilliant book
The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle
Ringworld by Larry Niven
John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy

[raj]

Yes, Aikido is Japanese.

[ulthar]

 "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King.  This is a non-fiction work in which King analyzes, or at least describes, the horror genre.  He covers books, short stories, tv, radio and film.  It is an interesting read, and I think many of the denizens of this phorum would find it so.

As a brief example, he does discuss why older horror movies, with their 'primitive' effects and cinematography, fail with modern audiences while they were extremely scary at the time.  On the other hand, he also discusses why other older movies remain scary after a generation or two.

At the very least, he mentions many authors that some of you may enjoy exploring.  Within the general "horror genre" descriptor is included some science fiction and fantasy.

[Bmeansgood]

The DragonLance series (original chronicles and such by Weis and Hickman) are probably my al time favorite books.  I bought them when I was a kid and lost track of them through the years, or more likely my mom probably sold them at a garage sale.  So a couple years ago I got the itch to read them and I had to buy them all over again!

[Eirik]

Lord of the Rings
Catch-22
Huck Finn (best novel I have ever read)
and...
Favorite Children's Book: Miss Suzy (I know that sounds gay coming from a guy, but the book featured a kickass battle between toy soldiers and evil squirrels).

My main reason for posting that is to extend this thread longer than "I hate nudity."

[ulthar]

Since you all have opened the Children's Books door, and I have in the past year or so started reading them (I have a 16 mo old daughter), here's my amended list of Favorite Books, all by Sandra Boynton:

The Going to Bed Book
Opposites
Horn To Toes and In Between
A to Z

There are others we read ... you get the idea...

[Susan]

The Velveteen Rabbit was a favorite children's book of mine, somewhat of a pinnochio story but if you ever re-read it it's very touching.

Where the red fern grows was a book I really enjoyed when I was 10.

The Giving Tree I recently read at the bookstore and really liked it, even tho there is a picture of the author's head fully blown up covering the back page....quite scary.

I bought Miss Spider's Tea party because of the awsome illustrations, I am big on illustrations that really cater to a child's imagination, and after going into the children's sections and finding very few books that had solid sketches or illustrations, I decided when I see one I'll buy one for a child I know. Illustrations used to be an artform, and a great many of the books in stores today are very mediocre. In fact "the velveteen rabbit" has the rabbit looking very...dorky (and I so hate using an 8th grade term like that)

Lastly but not leastly, Puppies are like that. I loved this book when i was 3, it was one of the books I could read myself. I don't have any of my childhood books, except a book of children's verses by robert louis stephenson I think and various comic books. I guess they don't sell it new anymore.

[raj]

As for kids books, probably my favorite was Richard Scary's (how is that for a kid's authors name?) Busy Busy World.

[AndyC]

Sounds a lot like the sort of things my wife enjoys, Susan. In fact, just this week, she quoted out of the Velveteen Rabbit in a funeral sermon - the part where the skin horse describes what it means to be real. I was getting teary just proofreading it. I'm told it had that effect on everyone.

[Susan]

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

[Eirik]

"As for kids books, probably my favorite was Richard Scary's (how is that for a kid's authors name?) Busy Busy World."

raj - is that the one with the gold bug hiding somewhere on every page?  I think that was like the original Where's Waldo - there were all these big scenes of animals running around a town, and on every page there was this little gold bug.  Sometimes he was hiding really well, and sometimes he was hiding in plain sight.  I think it was Richard Scary - am I right?

Another one that rocked at a slightly lower reading level was Go Dog Go.  The art was excellent - I WANTED that houseboat!

[Evil Matt]

Hopefully this'll push the number of replies higher than those in that damned "I hate nudity" thread.

"Breakfast of Champions" - It's tough to pick just ONE Kurt Vonnegut book, but if I had to, this would be it.  Makes me laugh every single time I read it.

"The Stand" - I'm a big King fan, but this is the only one of his books where I felt like every word counted while I was reading it, and nothing really seemed like padding.  And I was really depressed to not be able to spend any more time with the characters after I finished it.  Then I hated myself for being such a weiner about a book.

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" - I was reading this to my kids a few years back, and it suddenly dawned on me how weird the whole thing was.  Not just "Oh, look.  That fish is driving a car" weird.  Full on bizarre.

Look what we found
In the park
In the dark
We shall take him home
We shall call him Clark

(Accompanying illustration shows two kids toting some hideous walrus creature home in a tank full of water).

God I love that book...

[Neville]

I'm a restless reader. I've read about a book per week since I was 10 or so. Most of the stuff I read are best sellers, but I also read lots of crime (James Ellroy is a personal favourite, specially "Blood on the moon" and "The black Dahlia"), sci-fi (mostly Bradbury, Windham, Heinlein and Phillip K. Dick) and horror (Peter Straub and Lovecraft). Probably my favourite novels right now are "Captain Corelli's mandolin" (can't remember the author right now), "The talented Mr. Ripley", by Patricia Highsmith and Paul Auster's "The moon palace". My present reading is the first book in the naval series that inspired "Master and commander".

[Mofo Rising]

I can name two books that literally changed my life.  WATCHMEN by Alan Moore broadened my mental horizons and taught me that comics can be so much more than what they had previously been.  THE ILLUMINATUS TRILOGY by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson didn't broaden my horizons, it blew them up and replaced them with technicolor backdrops of manic hilarity.

I love the work of Philip K. Dick.  I used to read mainly science fiction, but have recently gotten into a "literature" kick, mostly prompted by the guys I work with.  Recently read POSSESSION by A.S. Byatt, which is a love story for nerds.  Also, SILENCE by Shusaku Endo which is a fascinating novel about the arrival of Christianity on Japan's shores.

My pick for the year is probably BLANKETS by Craig Thompson.  It's a huge graphic novel, a coming of age biography.  It's also exactly what comics needs right now.

Also, I just thought I'd mention Daniel Pinkwater's ALAN MENDELSOHN, THE BOY FROM MARS was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

Finally, I just thought I'd mention DARK TIDE: THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD OF 1919 is a fascinating account of one of history's stranger events.

[Scott]

I read a great Robert Anton Wilson book about 14 years ago. He can blow your mind away. Well, it was one of my favorite at the time. Can't remember the name of it anymore.