Books you can't live without
POSTED BY: BadgersHat
UPDATED: Thursday, May 12, 2005 14:58
VIEWED: 31206
PAGE 6 of 11
Quote:
Originally posted by sgtgump:
Well, I just got my first taste of Ayn Rand. I just read 'Anthem', took about 3 hours. I think that I'd have to put it right near the top of my favorite books list.
Anthem is fantastic, and one of my all-time favourites. I've read many others by Rand, but none have stuck with me the way this one did.
I'd also want to take my Frank Herbert collection, most especially the Dune series.
And I'd really hurt if I failed to take my various 'best of'-style anthologies from 1940 onwards. I *love* short speculative fiction!
BUT ... if faced with a fire, I would happily watch the Dune "prequels" burn to the last puff of flying ash. Pure crap, sadly. However, I'd have to watch them burn someplace else ... they're so bad I haven't bothered to purchase any for myself, LOL!
Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.
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Quote:
Originally posted by LadySilver:
the Bookman series (and the author's name escapes me! aarrgh!)
John Dunning. I'm not that impressed with the Bookman series, but I love 2am Eastern WarTime.
Keep the Shiny Side Up
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Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Folks, remember to read more than fiction. History is good. So are archaeology and the natural sciences. Mix up your reading diet.
P.P.S.
The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read. Life would be pretty unbearable without the prospect of great books to read for the remainder of my time here...
I would have a hard time saying I couldn't live without a particular book that I haven't read. And though a lot of the history, economics, politics, physics & mathematics that I've read is probably still in my library, the reason I'm not sure is I haven't felt the need to reread much of it. To put it another way, if it's already missing, reckon I didn't miss it.
What I would miss are the books I reread over & over again:
Neutron Star, Larry Niven
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter
the War in 2020, Ralph Peters
Keep the Shiny Side Up
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YT responded thus:
Quote:
I would have a hard time saying I couldn't live without a particular book that I haven't read. And though a lot of the history, economics, politics, physics & mathematics that I've read is probably still in my library, the reason I'm not sure is I haven't felt the need to reread much of it. To put it another way, if it's already missing, reckon I didn't miss it.
What I would miss are the books I reread over & over again:
Neutron Star, Larry Niven
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter
the War in 2020, Ralph Peters
Keep the Shiny Side Up
Hmmm... Your points are well taken; but I fear we've had a bit of a miscommunication, so I'll rephrase somewhat, to give my statement depth (width? height?).
My statement, "The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read", means that I'm really looking forward to Greg Bear's next novel, David Brin's next, Gregory Benford's next book, whenever these might come out, whatever they may be about. These are the books I can't live without. I am currently eagerly anticipating William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" in paperback; I don't buy hardcovers because I only like to read a book once (it's a long and boring story).
Suffice to say, it takes a special book to make me reread it, to warrant a hard-backed edition, and to make my elite list of books I can't live without. All 4 of my examples, above, fall into this category. Not many others do.
Having said that, I hafta get hardcovers for LoTR trilogy. Might want to lend them to the grandkids, someday...
Thanks for your list. Care to point out the reasons that make your list so re-readable? I dig Gibson, but I 'get' him on the first go 'round, and don't really see hidden depths in his work like Herbert's 'wheels within wheels' writing style, which can be interpreted at least three different ways, depending on how you set your mind to receive it. I suspect I could reread "Dune" from now to eternity and get something different, something revelatory out of it each time. In my evaluation, a great novel -- like a great movie -- doesn't just play over your eyes and capture your imagination (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with pure escapism). Instead, the great novel or film runs through you from brain, to heart, through your 'dangly (or moist) bits' and out your feet, like a thunderbolt from God; an intense packet of multi-dimensional information that changes over time, yet remains valid and instructive.
And lest we forget, I consider "Firefly" to be in that class of entertainment. So, right now, the movies at the top of my 'I can't live without' list are "Serenity", "Shadow" and "Firefly", even though I've never seen them...
Explanatorily,
zoid
P.S.
I am also eagerly awaiting Neil Gaiman's next novel, having read all of his work to date. I highly recommend him to anyone with a sense of humor. Not 'science fiction-y', more of a 'Harry Potter' for adults (sort of 'world mythology-fiction'), but with a wicked wit that had me laughing out loud in doctors' waiting rooms, which are generally not funny places. If anybody knows Neil personally, could they please drag his ass out of whatever pub he's enjoying and chain him -- Prometheus-like -- to his typewriter?
_________________________________________________
"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity
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The Kama Sutra 
and the Necrotelecomnicon 
"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."
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Star Trek books
Harry Potter series
Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles from Interview with a Vampire to Memnoch the Devil The rest of her vampire books are crap. She should listen to her editor.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Firefly books when/if they come out and are good.
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Anything that has to do with Harry Potter (I love fairy tales).
And stuff by Marrion Zimmer Bradley. Ooh! And Madeline L'Engle.
Sci-fi in general and tattoo magazines!
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Stephen King: The Stand: Dark Tower series, It, pretty much all of his stuff.
Richard Adams:Watership Down
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Harlan Ellison:Anything he has ever written.
Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca
Too many more to list.
*****************************
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
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ooooooooh! forgot about watership downs. and tailchaser's song.
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Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Folks, remember to read more than fiction. History is good. So are archaeology and the natural sciences. Mix up your reading diet.
P.P.S.
The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read. Life would be pretty unbearable without the prospect of great books to read for the remainder of my time here...
Great advice, Zoid.
I'd say that I read two fiction books per week (as nighttime reading), and anywhere from one to three factual books in any area of interest (which is everything except sports -- I just can't get into sport stuff).One of the more interesting factual books I ran across awhile ago is "Prehistory of Sex" by Doctor Timothy Taylor. And the Building Big series is great for us non-engineers to understand civil engineering issues and innovations.
If I could live forever, I'd really need access to a good library.
Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.
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