Book Nook... What are your favorite books...or short stories? (1194 views, 77 replies)
master
Yes,I have a few of his,and I like collections of sci-fi writers.My sister and I loved ROBOTS,so we read as many of the Asimov robot stories;and I have the beginning of "Foundation",which starts long before,as this earth detective in the novel"The Caves of Steel."
That refers to how all the huge cities of earth,went under domes,in future,and burrowed into the earth to save energy.--and there were TOO MANY HUMANS on earth. sounded terrible.Most "food"came from growing yeast as protein,and most people ate THAT.it was not appetizing.Only the rich has "real food."No one ever saw an apple or orange.No one went OUTSIDE the huge domes--so the detective had to do it,he had horrible "fear of open spaces"becuz of only living under a DOME.
Quite frankly, if I had lived then,I would find a different planet(like "Aurora"the Spacer;s planet)or i would X-myself out.The future in "Caves of Steel"was horrible--but from then,the following books, told how the detective tried to start a "trend" of Eartheans moving to other planets.it is quite a series,I recommend it.Very interesting.If you like robots,and very human-looking ones,its more interesting.I take it,bondojoe, you've read most of Foundation?The paperbacks are very economical.
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@clarachan1355 I'm not limited to syfy. When I was young... I read EVERYTING. I would walk through the house and read the ingredients on food packages. I've slowed down now...almost stopped. Something has to really grab my attention , for me to bother with it. I have HUNDREDS of books lying around that I never got to. Movies are easier to watch...but you know the movie is rarely as good as the book. The novels by Thomas Harris are a good example. Works of art...each one. They made good movies...but were lacking the depth, and the complexity. The SOUL!
guru
Hard to pick a single favorite, so I'll just post a few of many.
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
The Chronicles of Corum by Michael Moorcock
Steel Beach by John Varley
master
Each of these books knocked my socks off.
1: The Sheep Look Up is a science fiction novel by British author John Brunner, first published in 1972. The novel's setting is decidedly dystopian; the book deals with the deterioration of the environment in the United States. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972 and is celebrated in a 1988 essay by John Skipp in Horror: 100 Best Books.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_...
I read this when it was first published.
Clearly Brunner was channeling the future.
Wikipedia nails the storyline and description.
Eerie echoes that preceded 'now' by almost 50 years.
2) Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_i...
In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".
3) Sexual Politics,
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Mille...
4) Communion by Whitley Strieber
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_...
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@ThomasinaPaine Years ago my Dad gave me a book by Whitley Strieber - "Billy" - about an abducted boy. I loved that book, but forgot about it until I saw Whtiley's name here. Which then sent me off to Wiki to see what else he had written. Well - you learn something new every day - The Hunger is one of my Fave films, and I have just found out that he wrote that too.
@⭐️janerosity⭐️ Glad to have triggered a pleasant memory. :)
BTW, "Communion" according to Strieber was true story, actually happened to him.
master
I hated school but loved English. My English teacher ignited in me a love for books and I still prefer them over any film adaptation. LoTR being a great example, great films but the books give the details and you create the scenes in your mind...and nothing is more powerful than your imagination.
That being said...my favourite is HG Wells - war of the worlds. Still regularly read it.
@MarkRowley I went to a public primary school that was oddly progressive for the late 1950's. They had a small Library, which I burned through as quickly as I could. Like you, I love to read. They had the complete collections of HG Wells. Like you, when I read, I don't see words, I see pictures. The only difference between a book and a film is that usually the book is better. This school must have been an experiment of some kind. They regularly pulled us out for odball things [then]. We were all brought to the gym, and watched when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin first circled the earth. In 1959, they got a copy of the original "War of the Worlds, [reel to reel ] and again in the auditorium, we all watched it. We were between 6 and 10 years old. That was a gutsy..and dangerous move for them. But I loved it. We all did. Even though we probably had nightmares for weeks. That was some scary stuff, at that age. ...
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senior guru
In no particular order... just a few favourites:
J & G Reeves-Stevens - Star Trek : Deep Space Nine 'Millenium' (trilogy)
Carl Sagan - Billions And Billions
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit / The Lord Of The Rings (trilogy)
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001 : A Space Odyssey / 2010 : Odyssey 2 / 2061 : Odyssey 3 / 3001 : Odyssey 4
Spike Milligan - Adolf Hitler : My Part In His Downfall / 'Rommel?''Gunner Who?' / Goodbye Soldier / Peace Work / Monty : His Part In My Victory / Mussolini : His Part In My Downfall / Where Have All The Bullets Gone?
Douglas Adams - The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (a trilogy in five parts)
senior guru
Favourite books are:
The Night Listener - Armistead Maupin.
Has been made into a film but don't bother with that, the main adult character in the book is gay - as is Armistead so he always has gay characters - but it is really incidental to the story. They gave the role of that person to Robin Williams in the film, and he ruined it with his over the top all-about-how-gay-this-person-is acting. I am not an RW fan anyway but urghhh.
The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks.
From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz.
Weaveworld - Clive Barker.
Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd.
Stephen King - Misery (Green Mile is a very close second though).
There are way more books than this that I love but these are the ones I read and re-read.
@⭐️janerosity⭐️ I really loved the Wasp Factory. It made an impression as a teenager which I cherish to this day. Up until then I had never read a book like that. Wonderfully dark and sinister.
@..box.. Apparently there was talk some years ago of making it into a movie - would be hard to do it justice though- but I'd give it a watch if it was being made by Shane Meadows or Danny Boyle.
@⭐️janerosity⭐️ Actually I think I probably want to add a Dennis Lehane book to this list. But as I've yet to read them all (just really liked the ones I have - great moves too) I am going to reserve judgement on which ones best.
@⭐️janerosity⭐️ I have just seen the films so you have set me on a new road of discovery. Thanks jan.
senior guru
I like all books by James Patterson, he has so many and they are all good. Also has movies made from some of his books
Kiss the Girls
Along Came a Spider
Middle School, worst years of my Life
Alex Cross
Maximum Ride
Miracle on the 17th Green
Diary for Nicholas
thats all I can think of at the moment.
I also like alot of Stephen King books
@Rescue Dog Mama I like all of those. Stephen King really surprised me. Most people think of him as only a horror, or syfy writer...but he's really excellent at everything. All of James Patterson's books have made good movies, and he has created some memorable characters, like Alex Cross.
top expert
senior master
I would recommend 4 books (3 read recently and one from the 80's)
1. The Honourable Schoolboy - John le Carré
(Brilliantly plotted and morally complex)
2. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
(About a young woman in Glasgow, Scotland and that is all you should know as investigating more would ruin the book.)
3. The Outrun: A Memoir by Amy Liptrot
(Set in Scotland's Orkney island and London, it speaks of addiction and adjusting to life back home after a time away in the big city.)
4. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
(The Boss's autobiography - enough said)
God
master
master
Like y'all, I've read 1000s of books and stories over my lifetime. (I’d characterize most people who popped in to answer this question as having reading habits that are “voracious”.) Thanks for all the incredible tips for future stories on my reading list, and I’ll try to return the favor.
Out of those 1000s, though, the truly memorable stories for me have been few and far between, and they all had something compelling about them that made them stand out in my mind as a "cut above". A lot were my “firsts”, others were just standouts from authors I already knew and loved. A lot were SciFi, of course, but others, equally memorable, not. Since my list of memorable favs is (way too) long, I’m going to drop a couple a day for the next week or so. So here's my list of favs, and why.
Carrie – Stephen King
They say you always remember your first…Stephen King book. This was mine. My grandmother gifted me with it, and I was halfway into the book before I realized it was fiction, because of the interesting “documentary” studies embedded in the novel. I only twigged to the fiction aspect when I realized those studies had dates in the future.
The Stand - Stephen King
The first book to make me shout-out-loud ANGRY!!! after 500 pages of investing myself in the post-apocalyptic epic tale of good vs. evil and the lives and success of the protagonists. [SPOILER] ...
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@TRCIII I think Stepehen King could have written anything. Anything that someone hadn't already done...if he had an inclination. Sometimes it disappoints me that he has stuck almost solely to Fantasy..or Horror. Amazing writer. As you said .." well-written and had such depth of detail"
@TRCIII They made at least four (4)
movies about Carrie, (maybe more) but for me, there's only one: with Sissy Spacek and Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, a young bad boy/bad girl combo John Travolta and Nancy Allen.
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/Carrie_1976....
Carrie notwithstanding, my theory about turning most Stephen King books into movies is that the only really successful adaptations were mini-series, because his books are so..."rich" / textured, and you can't capture any of them, at least not well, in an hour-and-a-half. This was probably my favorite adaptation to film, and stayed pretty true to the book.
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/The_Stand_part....
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/The_Stand_part....
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/The_Stand_part....
@TRCIII Totally agree with you on that, very few of the movies do anything like justice to the books, the mini-series are always SO much better. Although I make exceptions for The Green Mile and Misery - they are my favourites of his books, so I was very happy that the movies were so good.
@⭐️janerosity⭐️ Gotta agree with you, there. "Green Mile" was a masterpiece. And "Misery" had some of the more chilling moments I'd ever seen on film, due largely to the amazing Kathy Bates.
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/Green_Mile_The....
dosmovies.com/watch_movie/Misery....
master
Dune – Frank Herbert
The most complete construction of a world and a culture I’d ever read to that time. Massive book, complete with glossary and a constructed language, telling the tale of Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides on his way to his destiny…and his legacy of many books that followed. I was entranced with the concept of feudalism in a spacefaring culture (long before Star Wars) and, of course, the Spice, which now has its echoes every Autumn. “Let the Spice flow!”
@bondojoe (GASP!) Read it. First. Now.
Before DragonRider series. :)
archive.org/stream/frank-herbert...
And because we ARE on a movie site...I've been adding links to screen adaptations.
dosmovies.com/search/?search_query=Dune&....
guru
Robert A. Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange land
Larry Niven, Ringworld, Mote in Gods Eye, Protector
My library is 80% SciFi,25% Science, 20% Classics, 20% Blood Sports activities
The best Science fiction is that which the author actually takes the time to use real science and not just toss around terminology, some are clueless and thus boring. Good SciFi uses science as the stage and weaves an age old story of love, adventure, heroics, danger, etc. when the opposite occurs you get Star Wars the phantom menace or Rogue 1; 4th grade nonsense with post grad obfuscation. 
@Tyrlarn I read Stranger in a Strange land when I wa about 12. It left a BIG impression...but then...I was young. I need to revisit it, and see what I think. I've forgotten mnost of it...but I'm sure it shaped my thinking for a long time. The name is like a neon sign in my mind. Or maybe I was just too impressionable.
@bondojoe I’ve read a lot of Heinlein. Almost all of it, in fact. But this was my first, and like you, I was immediately hooked. For me, it was because it asked the question, “What does human society look like to an “outsider”? And the answer is, as you might expect, pretty damned ridiculous. This book also introduced me to the concept of the “Fair Witness”, which I’ve tried to emulate for much of my life, because it’s a good idea to assume as little as possible about things you just don’t know. [SPOILER]
My absolute fav RAH was this one, though:
I Will Fear No Evil – Robert A Heinlein
(“Stranger”) was memorable, because it was my first, but this one stuck with me for some other unknowable reasons. The central question: How much of what makes you “you” is mind and how much body?
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@TRCIII I think ALL sex resides in the brain. It would teach your "new" body. When I look at an attractive wonam, it is my brain that sends the message to my body. A man with the brain of a man, but the body of a woman is still a man. until his brain adapts to it's new body. And I think it would. It's like learning to play a new instrument. Or learning to function with an artificial arm. But if my male brain wanted a woman...I wouldn't be sleeping with a man to START with. Gender is easy...there are only two. I don't know if I have seen Transcendence..I will check it out.
@bondojoe Speaking of transplants, I just recalled this cautionary tale, I read in one of the Dangerous Vision I was just talking to you about. You probably remember it. The Jigsaw Man - Larry Niven
It's a story about the consequences of the transplant industry, taken to its logical, if extreme conclusion. What happens if we decide it’s okay to mandate the harvest of the organs of people convicted of capital crimes for transplants? Cute, short story.
epdf.tips/larry-niven-the-jigsaw...
@Tyrlarn Good Science Fiction is good fiction first, and the best for me, not only use the science intelligently, as you stated, but they usually answer an "important" question, or pose a unique departure from today’s reality, asking “What if…”; they make you think, and then proceed to build a compelling story around that central question or premise. Two of my favorite "What ifs" were short stories.
Brain Wave - Poul Anderson
The Question here was, “What would the world look like, if everyone were suddenly 5 times smarter than before?” Then ask the obvious follow on: “What if the animals got smarter, too?” Neat premise for why it happens, neatly followed to (mostly) logical conclusions. [SPOILER]
the-eye.eu/public/Books/campdivi...
The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
Question: What would society look like if many/most people learned to teleport themselves? An amazing romp through the world of “The Jaunt”, where people travel by simply physically going to a place once, memorizing it, and then returning to it at will. How would you imprison someone who could jump to the other side of bars…or back home? What about space travel? What happens if you try to go someplace you haven’t actually been? [SPOILER] ...
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@bondojoe "Dangerous Visions" and "Again, Dangerous Visions" by Harlan Ellison (not written by him, just gathered and compiled into an anthology by him) was an amazing collection of stories, and my first introduction to the term, "Speculative Fiction". If you haven't sampled them, you should add them to the list as well. Many shorts you could consume in one sitting, when you're in the mood for reading, these days. Some of them are "period pieces", products of the times they were written, but most have aged well.
You're right about SciFi authors often peering into their crystal ball and being very good predictors of what's was to come. Star Trek is rife with things that became reality in our lifetime. Communicators (i.e. flip phones), tablets, integration...Roddenberry and the talented, visionary writers he engaged produced a lot of schlock, but also a lot of gems. ...
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@TRCIII You finally hit on something that I've read. Both of them. They were great. I also try to catch any collection or anthologyof various SYFY writers. Harlan Ellison. I can't say enough about him. I like them all...but he was really something special. "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" is more relevent today, than when I read it, and " I have no mouth, and I must scream" may soon be the condition of most of the world. Ellison stretched my brain as much as any drug ever did.
@Tyrlarn The amazing fact that's embedded in your statement, and that we all just take for granted is: you have a library. I have a library. I bet most of the folks on here have a library.
Mine is only hundreds or possibly a thousand-or-so books, but yes, it's enough it required a filing system, and multiple bookcases and shelving units throughout the house to contain it. There's the "to be read" section, a reference section, a "dead classic writers" section, comedy, King gets his own section as does WEB Griffin, John Sandford, and my guilty pleasure, the paranormal romance section. SciFi gets it's own bookcase or two, and many authors get an entire shelf to themselves, along with boxes of magazines and "collectible" items.
But I suddenly realized, I may have already added the last book to my library, since nowadays most everything I read is on my tablet with its Kindle app. And since the media is so "ephemeral"--just ones and zeros--I rarely even buy books anymore; I just check them out of the electronic library or read them online. So it occurred to me just now that we may be the last generation with personal libraries, actual bound books with real paper and that wonderful musty smell of ink and dust mites and deteriorating paper and bookbinding glue.
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@TRCIII My library was on bookshelves in my cellar, way too many shelves, tried to keep them organized; I've only purchased perhaps 20 books in the last 10 years. my kindle is my entire reading tool now; My computer organizes all my reading much better and I've downloaded most of my books to digital. I do like the feel of paperbacks and quite a few on the shelves show a $1 price or less. Spending 5 or 8 for a book I'll read once or twice in an evening gets prohibitive. Making sellers rich, not authors. I tried to donate some tech books to the library a few years ago software & network engineering, electrical, math, etc. Library said no to everything 5years or older. WTF? Algorithms don't change, circuits don't change. My paperbacks fiction & Science fiction were not pristine enough... So, while I've a pretty good library within 5 miles, I only show up when there's an interesting lecture or coed jello wrestling, otherwise I suspect libraries will become museums of the arcane in 30 years. ...
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God
@bondojoe Really? That's totally cool if you do.
Honestly, as a kid, it made me LOVE reading, that's why I mentioned it. :)
master
Monte Walsh - Jack Schaefer
At the ripe young age when I read this book, I was a hard-core SciFi guy. But a friendly librarian who recognized the “fellow reader” in me (since she checked my stacks of books both in and out every weekend!) recommended this book to me as I was preparing to leave one Saturday morning. It was a Western, and I most certainly did NOT "do" Westerns. But, she had never “steer”ed me wrong (I can’t stop myself!) so I gave it a chance. Always thankful to that nice lady; amazing characters, amazing story. [SPOILER]
archive.org/details/montewalsh00...
I've never seen either of the movies they've made from it, so I can't/don't recommend watching until after you've read the book, but the version with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance is going to get my first look. The one with Tom Selleck and Isabella Rosselini, though I like them also, maybe second.
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@TRCIII I'm a Jack Palance fan...but haven't seen this.... I don't think. I see it was 1970...I might have seen it, and forgotten. There's been a lot of booze, and drug clouded years. That was just my generation. When I was at Liberty, I would sometimes read 2 or 3 novels or boooks a day. Finish one, toss it aside, and grab another. I was always at the Library, a book store, or a rummage sale. Family and friends would funnel every book they found my way. I can't remember hardly any of their names...but I remember the ideas that they centered around. I remember thinking that if I found one book worth reading out of ten...that would be a good ratio. I just wanted more INPUT! I wasn't reading for pleasure....though it sometimes found me. I was reading for knowledge. I wanted to know everything. So I read everything. Now I know a lot of useless informatiuon! LOL!
God
John Saul. I started with his 1977 Suffer the Children and was absolutely hooked. I would say I've read about 50 of his books since then. I don't think that's an exaggeration, but it is a guess estimate. 🤓
@delamitri You've got me. ANOTHER author that I haven't read. Who else do you read? Any Dean Koontz?
@delamitri Read on-line using : calibre-ebook.com/ and store your books on your computer - an excellent system and can trans any documents into/out of. change fonts - Zillions of options - Thank me in my next life... calibre-ebook.com/ 🦅
currently I have accumulates 4733 books & docs - a wonderful system ... FREE
senior guru
@RandomOne I read all of Grisham's early stuff. Not much lately. I liked it all. Tom Cruise did a nice job in "The firm"...but my favorite was a little different for him..."A Painted House"
master
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. LeGuin
Question: What if you were a species whose sex was not fixed, but at different times in your life, you could end up as either male or female, for the purposes of procreation? What would your society look like, if anyone could end up being a mother or father—or maybe both—in their lifetimes? This is a story of an ambassador from Earth, visiting a planet where the dominant intelligent species is gender neutral, until they go into “heat” and have the urge to be fruitful and multiply. To ensure there is always a "match" that could result in children, when one "turns" female, others on the same cycle in the near vicinity "react" to their now-female pheromones and become male, and vice versa. Early feminist science fiction, and incredibly well-written. [SPOILER] ...
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master
The Monument - Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
Tale of an ancient space mariner marooned on an uncharted paradise planet, who creates a legacy that he hopes will allow his adopted people to survive the inevitable arrival of rapacious capitalists and despoilers, probably many generations after his death. (Bad guys reminiscent of “Avatar”… dosmovies.com/watch_movie/Avatar.... You know the type.) I was entranced by the cleverness and keen insight of the man—who turned out to be anything but a simple spaceman—and the plan he created. [SPOILER]
epdf.tips/lloyd-biggle-jr-monume...
Unaccompanied Sonata - Orson Scott Card
I’ll leave you with the saddest story I ever read. I still get a little teary when I try to tell people about it, because I couldn’t comprehend such a horrifying waste. It’s the story of a future society where we have gotten so good at testing aptitudes and abilities that we can tell practically at birth what a child/adult will be capable of or best suited for…and particularly, it seems they can recognize prodigies. This is the story of the life a musical prodigy, who is kept from birth from any other musical influences, and given musical instruments that can produce any sounds…and he builds music from the sounds he hears and knows, sounds occurring in nature and all around him. (Think “August Rush”, an amazing fairytale with Keri Russell and a moderatly-badguy Robin Williams and. dosmovies.com/watch_movie/August_Rush.... But I digress.) And then one day, some idiot slips him some Bach, and ruins his life. What happens next I’m not even going to leave a spoiler notice about…but don’t read this story if you’re feeling sad or melancholy, because it might push you over the edge.
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@TRCIII I took a few minutes and read Unaccompanied Sonata. It's a good example of the government's attempts to control us, and our spirit refusing to be subdued. When they took his instrument away...my first thought was...this guy is going to end up singing the blues. I did NOT see him doing what he did in the end...no matter HOW gently he performed his duties!That kind of disappointed me.
@bondojoe IKR? I know people have to do something to survive...but how is that life worth living? And how COULD he do it to others, knowing his own pain? I see that "profession" as having a very short career length for its participants, before ending it all...or ending a bunch of those Watchers first.
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God
Anything that you've read that you liked. Any Author you prefer. Maybe we we will want to read what you have. Thrillers, Romance, History...fiction, or fact. I'm a big SYFY freak. Speculative fiction. I like all of the old great ones. Asimov, Bradbury, Ellison, Clarke, Heinlein, Pohl, Ursula K. Le Guin...I'm a Dickhead too! One of my favorite short stories..."Fondly Fahrenheit". For some reason, it has always stuck in my mind. Written by Alfred Bester. Tell us what you remember...and what you like. Some of them have probably been made into movies, and are on this site.