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Journal pythorlh's Journal: Ask /. - Reading Recommendations 28

Journal by pythorlh

I'm looking for some recommendations for reading material. I read a lot. I get depressed and anxious when I don't have reading material available. I'm looking to build up a good list of books that I can order from the inter-library loan to keep myself supplied.

I generally read science fiction and fantasy. I also read non-fiction, but not as much. In non-fiction, I tend towards science and technology as well. I read plenty of programming manuals, but here I'm really looking for more pleasurable suggestions. Technical non-fiction with a good story line would work (I'm thinking of "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll). Popular science books like GEB or "A Brief History of Time" are good, too. I occasionally branch out to military fiction, mostly when it's got a technological side to it as well.

Recently, I've been looking to read some of the older sci-fi classics. I'm reading a Phillip K. Dick novel right now. Luckily, when I was growing up, the local libraries were not well stocked with science fiction. I exhausted their supply (which is not much recovered, even now), but I did not exhaust all of the old masters. I'm also interested in new stuff, of course.

So... What have you read that you liked, and what would you suggest?

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Ask /. - Reading Recommendations More

Ask /. - Reading Recommendations

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  • What have you read? I mean hitchikers and dune and starship troopers are all great, but I'm guessing you've tried all of them. I'm a fan of the "Forever War" by Joseph Haldeman. Carl Sagan's "Contact" has some good hard science in it.... I'll come back if I can think of any other...
    • Hitchhikers, Dune and Starship Troopers, Yes. No to Dune Sequels, and I can't remember where I stopped reading Hitchhikers. I think I'm missing one there. Contact I've read, a few times, even. "Forever War" I'll look into.

      Thanks.
      • The second Dune book is slow and boring, but the setup for the third, which was good (but not as fantastic as the first).
        • I read "The Forever War" on FK's recommend a few months back. You won't be dissappointed, its a great read.

          I can also recommend the FOundation series by Asimov. Start with the Robot novels, move to the Empire novels, and finish with the Foundation ones. There's something like 14 books in all, so it should work well.

          I also enjoy Harry Turtledove's series. For fantasy there's the Lost Legion series (basically a Roman Legion ends up on a different world (where magic is real) through arcane Gaulic magic

          • Turtledove... read a short story of his... can't recall the name, but it was about what would happen if Ghandi had to deal with the Nazi's instead of the British. Last... or is it Final... something... can't remember. But his alternative histories are great!
  • i love to read too.
     
    i am really into anything by heinlein. i favor his earlier stuff though.
    the foundation trilogy by asimov is good i think
    i really liked mccafferey's pern books
    i like peter f. hamilton and his "night's dawn" series would keep you busy for a bit
    dune of course
    i'll read anything by c.j. cherryh pretty much- the chanur series i really enjoyed.
    if more stuff pops into my mind throughout the day i'll add responses to this post.
    • I read a lot of Heinlein in college, but not everything. I'm slowing trying to figure out what I missed and get back into it.
      I don't know if I've missed any foundation books. I 4 or 5, I think, plus the robot series.
      Pern, I think I've read all of the novels, except for the one about nomads, and the one about dolphins. Have to look into those.
      Hamilton's name sound's familiar, but not "Night's Dawn." I'll look into it.
      Dune, I've read.
      I read the first Changur book, but had trouble fiquring out what was the
  • I recently discovered Charles Stross. His Iron Sunrise and Singularity Sky are good. I have just started Accelerando, and that one is also good so far. Accelerando can also be downloaded for free, IIRC, but I do not remember the link.

    Ken MacLeod is also good. The Star Fraction, The Cassini Division, and The Stone Canal are good, among others.

    For military SF, David Weber is a good read. If you have not read any of the Honor Harrington books, you should probably give them a try. Lois McMaster Bujold's M
    • I actually downloaded Accelerando yesterday, but haven't read it yet. I'll see if I like it before looking at more Stross.
      I don't remember Ken Macleod. I'll look into it.
      I've read everything by David Weber that I can get my hands on. And some I couldn't... Thank Jim Baen for the free library!
      Haven't heard of Lois McMaster Bujold. Thanks.
      I read several Recluce books and liked them, but that's another series where I can't remember where I left off, to try to figure out where to start up again. I'll look
      • Bujold has won 5 Hugos and 3 Nebulas, most of them for her sci-fi Vorkosigan series. Start with "Shards of Honor" (or the omnibus volume "Cordelia's Honor"). I find her characters really interesting, and her plots give them plenty to contend with. Her fantasy novels are also excellent; start with "The Curse of Chalion". It's very theological.

        Connie Willis is another major award winner. If you want a piece of serious fiction, try her "Doomsday Book" about time-travelling historians. For a short light enterta
        • I will definitely look into these. I tried Red Mars when it first came out, but it seemed to go extremely slow for me. That may be a product of my life at the time, however. I recently read Cryptonomicon. I plan on getting into the Baroque cycle in the near future. I enjoyed it imensely. As far as Weber being a monarchist, you kinda have to be if your heros are all based on the age of sail. ;)

  • My wife has recommended Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files [jim-butcher.com] as a good read. I also just learned last night that a TV series based on the book series is getting produced, due out in '07, which Sci-Fi channel has picked up. So, I'm reading that now so I can say exactly why the series sucks. :-)

    Modern fantasy isn't really my cup 'o tea, but my wife has raved about these books for a long time, so I figure I'll give them a try.

    From the old classics, I'd recommend anything by Alfred Bester, particularly "The De

    • I've read Demolished Man, but none of the Dresden stuff. I see they've collected the first three books. I'll look for that. Thanks.

      Slow Down Cowboy... You aren't allowed to actually respond to posts in your journal at any reasonable speed. That would be silly!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I read the Space Trilogy. In high school for a science fiction class, actually. Very good.
      I cannot read Shanara, for some reason. I got about 2/3 of the way through SoS, and have never been able to finish it. I tried listening to an audiobook of HDoS, and couldn't even get through that.
      And I'll look through the Canon. Definitely. Thanks.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • The funny thing is, it's not that I didn't like it. I started SoS some time in high school. I read about 2/3s of it, and was enjoying it, but it was a very slow read. I ended up setting it down for a while to read something else. Once I tried to go back to it, I just couldn't find a place to read. Either it was to early in the book, and things I already read annoyed me, or it was too late in the book and I didn't understand what was going on. I tried again a few years ago, with the same basic results.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • You could give up and try the second book (Elfstones); I think the first one is pretty slow, but I liked the second one and loved the third (Wishsong) one. Keep in mind I read them quite some time ago (like, high school) so your mileage may vary. The later ones were slow and not as good IMHO. Oh and you might check out the "Magic Kingdom for Sale: SOLD" series by Brooks too; I found them to be pretty amusing :-)

              I really liked Ender's game, by Orson Scott Card; his later books not so much (again your mileage

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion
              • I may try Shanara again, but not soon. I've read all of the Ender's Game books. EG itself I've read several times. I love that book. I've also read a handful of OSCs other works. I've read the Earthsea trilogy, and re-read AWoE recently. I read several Berserker books, but I'm not sure if I've read all of them. The last time I went looking, I couldn't find one I hadn't already read. I've read some of the Book(s) of Swords. I think I may have done the same thing you mention, because several of the b
                • I don't know what it is about Ender's Game, but I read it over and over too (though I usually skip the Peter/Valentine storyline: not to slight it or anything). They are planning on turning Ender's Game into a movie (OSC is keeping control of things so far) so I am betting (hoping?) it will be damn good entertainment. Oh and I forgot to mention another OSC book I really liked: A planet called treason (or may just be treason, can't recall). One of his lesser known works, but I liked it quite a bit. And if yo
  • Did you like the Neanderthal trilogy?
    • Yes. Very much. I ended up packing the first one away while I was reading the second, and now I have to dig it back out so I can release the trilogy again. Thank you for them
  • These might be of interest. They're different enough to get you out of a "reading rut".

    "Charming Billy" by Alice McDermott
    "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
    "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell
    "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins
    "The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse
    "The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut
    "The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin
    "Small Things Considered" by Henry Petroski
    • I've read the Sirens of Titan, and a few other books by Vonnegut, but I never had the extreme reaction that others seem to have had to him. Sirens was good sci fi, but the other stuff was mostly blah to me.
      • Actually, it helps if you don't regard Sirens as sci fi, but simply as fiction.

        I used to read sci fi almost exculsively, until I began to feel like I had read it all. Every new sci fi book I picked up was vaguely unsatisfying, even good authors like Brin and Bujold and Turtledove. I'd re-read the masters (Heinlein, Asimov, Sturgeon, Simak, etc.) so many times that I knew them by heart.

        Breaking out of the rut, and reading other fiction and non-fiction, was ultimately very satisfying, because they were truly

  • I'm currently reading Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen [malazanempire.com] series. It's quite good, but it takes some effort to read. In all, there are 6 books of about 1000 pages each. That should keep you busy for a while.

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