| Author | Message | ||
     Zane |
I was reflecting on more than a few things not long ago and realized I needed to re-read some of the classics I read as a kid. I went through the library's meager list of Heinlein and am currently reading Melville's Moby Dick. I plan on some Mark Twain too. Maybe Homer's ILiad? The Red Badge of Courage? I'm open to pretty much anything What else should I should read? I'm not interested in being "cultured" or "refined". I just want to enjoy some of the literature I was to immature to enjoy in my late teens | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Catcher In The Rye. Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters. 1984. Animal Farm. | ||
| Hootowl |
Iliad and Odyssey are good. A little hard to understand at first because of the dialect, but you get used to it. | ||
| Hootowl |
If you want a modern classic, give the name of the wind and the wise mans fear a try by Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent. | ||
| Tpehak |
Stephen King It | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.gutenberg.org/ ( free e books, out of print ) Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( Easier to skip the Antonius, Stoic hero, his greatest work ( arguably ) is his diary which he never intended anyone else to read, ( Like G'kar from Babylon 5 ) full of obvious observations on life and great advice. Obvious After you read them, rather. The SF classic authors I can re-read even years later. James H. Schmitz Christopher Anvil Randall Garrett Poul Anderson. You might find it helpful to read the works of Robert Heinlein and Poul Anderson. The hallmark of a truly great philosopher is that he never writes books on philosophy, and those two are the best. Anderson for how to get along with people who are conspicuously wrong, and Heinlein for when not to. Niven, Larry Harrington, Matthew Joseph. The Goliath Stone . Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. | ||
| Hootowl |
The Increasingly Misnamed Foundation Trilogy. Asimov labeled it increasingly misnamed after he wrote the 5th book. | ||
| Hootowl |
If you make it to the last book, you will need to read the robots of dawn, and the subsequent books in the robot series (and maybe I Robot) or you will not know the characters. | ||
| Aesquire |
Larry Niven, ( duh ) Jerry Pournelle ( And his legacy website is literally the First Blog Ever, and full of rare science stuff. ) ( Trivia, the original conference for SDI took place in Larry Niven's house in Tarzana. Quite the guest list, IQ "ruined the curve" types ) Eric Frank Russell Michael Crichton Harry Harrison Mack Reynolds L. Sprague de Camp A.E. van Vogt Stanley Schmidt Clifford D. Simak Issac Asimov. A bit newer... David Drake ( Hammers Slammers series ) ( Plus a LOT more ) David Weber ( Honor Harrington series ) ditto I could go on but these will keep you busy. | ||
| Hootowl |
I am unabashedly stealing some of these suggestions. | ||
| Aesquire |
I discovered Analog magazine in '72, then the school library threw out a big collection going back to'66, ( Which I got ) and then a local book store went out of business. When I asked the owner if I could sort through and fill in my collection, he instead sold me about a dozen heavy boxes of Analog and Fantasy & Science Fiction. Every one he had. Check out the Project Gutenberg site, which has a lot of shorts & novelas that were published in the pulps back in the 40-70s and Never collected anywhere else. Remember, Dune was first published in Analog, as were the Foundation series, IIRC. | ||
| Gregtonn |
For anyone willing to try some newer authors David Baldacci is hard to beat. G | ||
| Hootowl |
I had a subscription to it in the Ben Bova era in the late 70s. Good times. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Baldacci is a modern favorite of mine. I've read most of his series of books. The Jack Reacher by Lee Child books while not classics are a fun read. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Baldacci is a modern favorite of mine. Ive read most of his series of books. The Jack Reacher by Lee Child books while not classics are a fun read. | ||
| Zane |
I'm a science fiction fan and have read most of the works of the big three, Heinlein, Clark and Asimov. I've never read Catcher In The Rye so it will be high on the list. I read both Animal Farm and 1984. Both scared the hell out of me. Currently, I'm about half way through Moby Dick. I'm enjoying it more that I expected too | ||
| Ratbuell |
Appropriate for today, Time of Covid: Stephen King's "The Stand". Excellent book, not-too-hateful movie. | ||
| Crusty |
If you like Science Fiction; I recommend King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle and With the Lightnings and Though Hell Should Bar The Way by David Drake. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Appropriate for today, Time of Covid: Stephen King's "The Stand". Excellent book, not-too-hateful movie. Great book. The TV mini-series was pretty decent considering when it was made and that it was for network TV. We own it on DVD. The more recent remake by King's son was pretty awful. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I enjoyed the miniseries. Rob Lowe was good...as a mute, lol. | ||
| Aesquire |
Crusty, both of your excellent choices have space flight with relatively crude tech and high tech remnants from back slid cultures. King David's Spaceship is in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium series, which has as it's central theme, the crash/collapse of Empire. The Original CoDominium is the U.S. & Soviets, as the first grew more authoritarian Leftist and the second grew more Capitalist/Criminal gang, meeting in the hellish middle and ruling the world with an iron fist of technology suppression and media control. Imagine Obama and Putin crushing China and Europe and ruling the world for centuries... Utterly ruthless at eliminating any possible rivals. Both Drake and Pournelle are/were scholars of history and the fall of Empires is well understood by both. Drake openly talks about the historical context of his novels. Often Roman writers are novelized into modern and future times. The greed and corruption and motivation is no different today than Byzantine times. Which history book will discuss?... Incompetent Senator Hairus Snifferus, chosen heir to the throne, to appease his peers, then taking the throne in a coup run by loyal secret police from the outsider who ruled against the Establishment, wrecking the economy and military while using the Executive/secret police agencies to crush his enemies and protect his family who funnels bribes from foreign lands to support the enemies of the Empire... There's a Reason history buffs point to falling empires when complaining about contemporary politics. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I downloaded King Davids Spaceship last night and started reading. Just what I needed! |
