#26 December 1st, 2005 10:18 AM

blissed

Member

Re: recommended reading

Gosh how can you have gotten this far and only have read 2 books? ............................it widens our perceptions of life and can give us perspective that we otherwise may not be privy to.

All true. and I know I've probably got the attention span of an 8 year old But,  I'm much more visually stimulated. I love looking at images and that fires my imagination. I think it's the b/w printed page that looks so dull, and turns me off. When I read a magazine, sometimes there are some stunning visuals and graphics. So I read them.

I've been experimenting with words and images in the most unlikely place I can think of

Here 
http://forums.abbywinters.com/vbulletin … #post56236

(I like chain stories, as your writing them, there alive. We should do one here.)

I'm sure a book doesn't just have to be adapted into a film, it could be creatively adapted into all sorts of things that more people would find easier to read, or perhaps originated in a new type of format.

Merricat

Member

Re: recommended reading

Lately I've actually been reading lots of young adult fiction. It's something I've always loved, there are lots of amazing writers out there that write for that audience and some of the stories are just classic.

Things I'd recommend in this category of writing:
Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn (currently reading)
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (I think that's the right name)
Anything by Francescia Lia Block, in particular Necklace of Kisses
Waterbound by Jane Stemp
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (this book is AMAZING)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (a must read for any age)
and
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares. They made a crappy movie of this but the first book is lovely.

voyeur2

Member

Re: recommended reading

I do like Kurt Vonnegut quite a bit. My sister recently found a book written by someone using the pen name "Kelgore Trout", and said it was actually a very bad book, which I found histarically funny. (For those non-Vonnegut fans, Trout is a Vonnegut character who is a bad writer).

I read a book called "Trout fishing in America"  I think the author name was given as Kilgour Trout.  There was a hilarious scene in it where there was an entire trout stream warehoused in a dusty old building.  Straight bits racked up against the walls in ten foot runs, and the waterfalls in a separate section.
I statrted to read with intent at the age of ten, when we moved near to a library.  I would check out five books (the limit) for the weekend, and read one after school on the way home.  The library threw me out at 6 when they closed.  That is 50 yrs ago and that is 2500 weeks.  I still go through 3 or so a week (do not own a TV)  So I calculate almost 10,000 books and hundreds of authors have passed by my eyes.

Favorites:

Speculative Fiction:   Asimov, Ian M Banks, J Blish, Bester, CJ Cherryh, AC Clarke, SR Delaney, R A Heinline,  Roger Zelazney, Cecelia Holland, Jerry Pournell, and more

Historical Fiction:  Cecelia Holland, George Shipway, Patrick O'Brian, CS Forrester, many more

History:  Barbara Tuchman, many more

Adventure, Crime, Spy:  Robert K Tannenbaum, Robert Crais, Michael Connery, Ian Banks, George Pellecanos, Joseph Heller, K Vonnegut, so many more.

I love radio movies and video.  Worked in themedia genre.  But they do not render books well.  They have a time imperative to hold attention, so a book needs to be condensed to be a good film.  When you read a book you can pause and think, imagine the scene, flip back a page to refresh.  I often re-read a well crafted bit of description for the pleasure of it.  If you saw Master and Commander the movie, it bears absolutely no resemblance to the book Master and Commander  By Patrick OBrian.  The movie was excellent in conveying the claustrophobic nature of life at sea, and its dangers, the relationships that need to be mediated for the good of all  but it was a combination of two books in a series of 20, neither one the book M%C.

"nuff words for now,  If ya want a recommendation - contact me

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Have I ever lied to you before?

SCSIgirl

Member

Re: recommended reading

>>> snipped for brevity <<<
Favorites:

Speculative Fiction:   Asimov, Ian M Banks, J Blish, Bester, CJ Cherryh, AC Clarke, SR Delaney, R A Heinline,  Roger Zelazney, Cecelia Holland, Jerry Pournell, and more

Historical Fiction:  Cecelia Holland, George Shipway, Patrick O'Brian, CS Forrester, many more

"nuff words for now,  If ya want a recommendation - contact me

It's interesting that the single most often listed author in this thread is Clarke.  No other author even comes close.

I'm glad you reminded me of Forrester; I should have mentioned him.

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"Apple of my Eye", "bated breath", "brave new world", "caught red-handed" - all coined by Shakespeare.

jdudley76

Member

Re: recommended reading

When you read a book you can pause and think, imagine the scene, flip back a page to refresh.  I often re-read a well crafted bit of description for the pleasure of it.

My favorite example of this has to be in Frankenstein. Mary Shelley was so wonderful at describing the various environments it was almost cinematic, and really set the mood for the story.

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"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."   - George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

cynicism

Member

Re: recommended reading

Whenever we get onto books, it becomes apparent that members of ISM (well, contributors to the forum) are to a disproportionate extent fans of science fiction.  So am I.  But I wonder how that comes about.  Is there some link between love of naked women and sci-fi?  I can think of a few tenuous ones, but I'd like to read other views first.

Perhaps the ability to think outside the box? Or do I mean outside the clothes? Or...

Hmm. Better stop before I completely embarrass myself (too late!).

For some reason I just thought of the Sigourney Weaver deleted scene on the GalaxyQuest DVD.

cynicism

Member

Re: recommended reading

Sci fi  is about thinking about the possibilities of the future. The more successfully people can model the future the better they are at taking decisions that effect them.
Most horny sites are dumb (see lightspeed) and this one has quite an intelligent approach. If you have an active mind your going to post. So I think it's a mixture of practical intelligence and where the site is pitched (that includes the site design) nosing from porn into art and stuff that's cool.

The Vulcans don't do it for me. Give me Seven of nines Borg implants any day

While I like 7 of 9, I'd rather trace Jadzia Dax's spots...

gala

Member

Re: recommended reading

also: steve martin's fiction is quite excellent.  he has written two short novels, shopgirl and the pleasure of my company, and they are great quick pleasure reads.  shopgirl was recently made into a film, which i haven't seen, but the book is very witty and thoughtful.  and kind of LA.  but he writes LA well.

cynicism

Member

Re: recommended reading

Now to address the subject - reading...

I'd like to recommend most of James White's books, including all of the Sector General works, and The Silent Stars Go By.

Also James Blish, James Thurber, and PD James. Wonder if there's a pattern there?

mzungu

Member

Re: recommended reading

I'm usually really not into sci-fi (literature), but I read Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17 a few years back and it knocked my socks off.  Has anyone else read this book/any of his works?

YES!  I had forgotten-  many years ago I read quite a few of his, he seems to have an intriguing fascination with characters with only one shoe...   “Nova” and “Dhalgren” were some of these…

Anyone read Theodore Sturgeon?  If I recall correctly, he examines some very interesting ideas of human sexuality and culture.

How about Larry Niven's captivating Ringworld books?  I came across a relatively recent one this summer and was not disappointed!

I have also recently re-discovered Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight  series- she is still at it!  They may not be as deep as some of the others mentioned, but the complexity of the world and characters that have evolved over the decades of her writing are truly captivating.

By the way,  this is the only site I have ever “joined” and it was actually the discussions of sci-fi and the general level of these discussions that pushed me over the edge- and I have of course not been disappointed by either the discussions or the wonderful folio contributions!   

mzungu

Member

Re: recommended reading

Now to address the subject - reading...

I'd like to recommend most of James White's books, including all of the Sector General works, and The Silent Stars Go By.

Also James Blish, James Thurber, and PD James. Wonder if there's a pattern there?

(Blish's "Cities in Flight" !!)   -  Hmm you may have something there... 

last summer (for us in the northern hem) a friend loaned me a book by Jim Harrison, and I was blown away-  he is contemporary, though has been around a while.  Notable is "Dalva" which is actually written in the first person of the woman of that name!  His treatment of human sexuality is often "graphic" but somehow matter-of-fact and simply acknowledging that part of life (not the less erotic for it!)

and just for entertainment, James McClure- quite Politically Incorrect as his murder mysteries take place in the Old South Africa; the protagonists are an  Afrikaner cop and his Zulu ("Kaffir") assistant - but if you can get past the setting and language you realize that the stories (in a ribald and slightly satiric manner) actually give the various characters quite a bit of credit for their various cultural foibles and skills...  Well, you would have to read one to see what I'm trying to say I suppose.

Then there is James Clavell...

If anyone is looking for an out of print, collector first edition, or just an easy way to pick up a cheap reading copy, check out ABE.com - it is an international network of used book dealers- I just typed in "Samuel Delany" and there are nearly 5,000 choices!  The first several hundred are only $1 US, plus a few bucks postage depending on where you are-