The Library
All about books and stories

Top Ten Book and Magazines
Authors
Wanted
Reading and Me
Links


My Top Ten List
1. Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams (see also The Stone of Farewell and The Green Jade Tower)
2. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
3. Harry Potter all five books, J,K, Rowling
4. Dancing Wu Li Masters, xxx, Quantum Physics
5. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
6. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
7. Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
8. Thrice Upon a Time, James Hogan
9. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
10.


Magazines
1. Star Trek Magazine
2. Bon Appetit
3. Wired
4. This Old House
5. Quest Magazine
6.

Other Notable Books

Dracula, Brahm Stoker
Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
Land That Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Secret Doctrine, H.P. Blavatsky
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
Celestine Prohecy
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
G�del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter
Burnt Offerings, Robert Marasco
The Prince, Niccol� Machiavelli
Meditations, Rene Des Cartes
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
1984, George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury



Authors
1. James Hogan
2. David Gerrold
3. Tad Williams
4. Isaac Asimov
5. Jules Verne
6. Leo Buscaglia
7. Edgar Cayce, psychic healer, channeler
8. John Brookes, garden and landscape design
9. Douglas Adams
10.



Books needed for the Library
Tom Swift - #33 Galaxy Ghosts
Tom Swift - #32 Cosmotron Express




Dark Shadows -
#9 The Foe of Barnabas Collins
#15 Barnabas Collins and the Gypsy Witch
#17 Barnabas, Quentin and The Avenging Ghost
#18 Barnabas, Quentin and The Nightmare Assassin
#19 Barnabas, Quentin and The Crystal Coffin
#20 Barnabas, Quentin and The Witches Curse
#21 Barnabas, Quentin and The Haunted Cave
#25 Barnabas, Quentin and The Magic Potion
#26 Barnabas, Quentin and The Body Snatchers
#27 Barnabas, Quentin and Dr Jeckyll's Son
#28 Barnabas, Quentin and The Grave Robbers
#29 Barnabas, Quentin and The Sea Ghost
#30 Barnabas, Quentin and The Mad Magician
#31 Barnabas, Quentin and The Hidden Tomb
#32 Barnabas, Quentin and The Vampire Beauty
Dark Shadows Cookbook





Dr. Who - Missing Adventures
#14 Managra
#15 Millennial Rites
#22 The Sands of Time
#23 Killing Ground
#24 The Scales of Injustice
#28 The Plotters





Dr. Who - New Adventures
#31 St Anthony's Fire
#38 Human Nature
#51 Godengine
#56 So Vile a Sin
#61 The Dying Days



Dr. Who - BBC
04 Business Unusual
09 The Witch Hunters
10 The Hollow Men
12 Mission: Impractical
46 Byzantium!
Blue Box
Loving the Alien
Scream of the Shalka
Empire of Death
Eleventh Tiger
Synthespians (TM)
The Algebra of Ice
The Indestructible Man
Match of the Day

7 March 2005 The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin (Eighth Doctor)
11 April 2005 The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards (Ninth Doctor)
2 May 2005 The Death Players by Jac Rayner (Ninth Doctor)
6 June 2005 Monsters Inside by Stephen Cole (Ninth Doctor)
4 July 2005 Island of Death by Barry Letts (Third Doctor)
1 August 2005 Future Nostalgia by Gary Russell (Sixth Doctor)
5 September 2005 Fear Itself by Nick Wallace (Eighth Doctor)
3 October 2005 TBC by Terrance Dicks (Second Doctor)
7 November 2005 The Time Travellers by Simon Guerrier (First Doctor)
5 December 2005 Atom Bomb Blues by Andrew Cartmel (Seventh Doctor)


Eighth Doctor
02 Vampire Science
03 The Bodysnatchers
Sometime Never
Half-Life
The Tomorrow Windows
The Sleep of Reason
The Deadstone Memorial




Reading has always been part of my family's general behavior and activities. When I go visit my relatives in Minnesota, my grandmother's house is full of books. Until just a few years ago during a great house cleaning event, every available shelf was filled with books. There were college text books, classics, fiction, non-fiction, stories for every age.

Growing up, my parents always read to my sister and me. There were many evenings when Pam and I would be all curled up with my Mom or Dad in a big chair, or all sprawled out on the sofa, listening to the stories, looking at pictures, trying to make sense of the words. In time, my mom took us to the library to pick out our own books, first to be read to us, and later to be read on our own. In grade school, the whole class made the weekly trip down the hallway to get a book out of the school's small library.

I read all the usual things as a kid like Harold and the Purple Crayon and a host of others I can't even recall. But when I watched Disney's classic movie, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, I was enthralled with the thought cruising the oceans in the Nautilus with Captain Nemo. In third grade, I took up the challenge to read the book. The whole, complete and unabridged book. I read it everyday; I had to check it out four times - it took me all month to read. Sure, I could probably read the whole thing in a day or two now, but then I was 8 and I don't think Jules Verne wrote for a third grade reading level.

Our school had the Bookmobile stop by the first few years I was in grade school. Buying a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was an easy choice see the Media and SciFi rooms for more of why. But I agonized over which Star Trek Volume series to buy. It was just the novel adaption of several Star Trek shows, but... it was Star Trek.

They were some of the first books I bought, and just the start of a collection I am scared to count. I saved my hard earned allowance for the quarterly book list sale at school. We could order books and they would be sent to school for delivery. I drooled over that book magazine, trying to whittle down my list to something affordable. It was hard because I wanted them all, but the experience taught me the importance of working towards and for a goal. I learned the value of earning and handling my own money, the double feeling of accomplishment from saving money and from reading the books I bought.

The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift led me into all kinds of adventures. My parents even managed to get me every volume of the Hardy Boys (blue spine, early to mid 70's) and I managed to buy many volumes of Tom Swift on my own at flea markets. Ebay has been a great way for me to fill in my collections of all kinds, but especially in tracking down those few missing volumes of Tom Swift, and also for the Marilyn Ross series of Dark Shadows books.

Every trip, every vacation, and many spare hours found a book in hand. My family alternated summer trips between the shore at Brigintine, NJ, and family visits in Minnesota. Journeying the 2 hours or 1200 miles or even a handful of steps into the backyard, my sister and I had a book - usually not as thick as the ones our parents had, but still plenty to keep us entertained.

Many of the books I bought over the years have survived and journeyed with me from state to state. My subscriptions to book clubs have come and gone, and come again. My trips to the bookstores are limited only by willpower, and the library, thankfully, is close by. And now there is the internet for electronic versions of hard to find books, like the Shadow and there is Amazon to help me find book still in print. Project Gutenberg is a way of finding public domain books online.

What's on the stack to read now? Far too many things - that single stack is more like several stacks, all threatening to topple over and squash someone.

There's never just one book being read at a time - some I start on a whim, or because I can't wait, some are read mostly in bed, some read in any spare moment, and one, Gormenghast, is only read on Sundays during breakfast or when I camp out in front of the fireplace on chilly days. Some I finish the same day, others have literally taken years to get through.

Seth Speaks was a gift from my close friend, Randy , for Christmas years ago. it is good and thought provoking, and for awhile I read it every night. Then after moving to Seattle, I read a little less, not feeling a great need for it's spiritual discussions. And after moving into my house, it seems to have just disappeared. I 'm sure it is here, just waiting to re-appear when I need to start reading it again. Until then, there is The Gormenghast trilogy, which inspired me to create my own Castle and write stories about all the people and the history. While Gormenghast is long, and seemingly slow moving, it still fills me with wonder and anticipation, Peake drawing me further and further in with his writing style. I even bought the BBC movie so I could see their elaborate and lavish production. Always in one form or another is a Doctor Who book. There are the Missing Adventures, The New Adventures, and the newest BBC stories. Thanks to Ebay, again, I have been able to get most of the New Adventures, some of the Missing Adventures, and a whole bunch of the BBC books which I had a hard time getting locally. I went to the Twelvth Regeneration of Gallifrey One convention and managed to fill in the gaps there by visting all of the vendor tables.

Got books which need a new home? If they won't fill a spot on my library shelves, please donate them to people who can use them. Check with your local libraries, shelters and homes, and hospitals. Don't throw out books, someone, somewhere, will appreciate the gift.

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
From the Publisher
A war fueled by the dark powers of sorcery is about to engulf the peaceful land of Osten Ard - for Prester John, the High King, slayer of the dread dragon Shurakai, lies dying. And with his death, and ancient evil will at last be unleashed, as the Storm King, undead ruler of the elvishlike Sithi, seeks to regain his lost realms through a pact with one of human royal blood. Then, driven by spell-inspired jealousy and hate prince will fight prince, while around them the very land begins to die.

Only a small, scattered group, the League of the Scroll, recognizes the true danger awaiting Osten Ard. And to Simon - a castle scullion unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League - will go the task of spearheading the quest for the solution to a riddle that offers the only hope of salvation, a ridde of long-lost swords of power...and a quest that will see him fleeing and facing enemies straight out of a legend-maker's worst nightmares!

Tad Williams




Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake


Gormenghast Castle
Gormenghast Webring
Gormenghast on Yahoo
BBC's Gormenghast on PBS
Gormenghast BBC Production
Mervyn Peake site
Gormenghast Opera
Lady Groan's Gormenghastsome bad internal links, however
Gormenghast on Radio
Gisele Baxter BBC review
Gormenghast gothic architecture





Harry Potter Rules!
When Harry Potter was first published, I only caught some of the hype on the periphery of awareness. It was a kids book and I didn't pay much attention, and I didn't really care what the subject matter was. Then I heard some background on the author, J.K. Rowling, or at least what I came away with was "These are stories she told her kids while she was a single mom on welfare". While I was happy to hear that woman had made the successful leap from welfare to being self supporting, it didn't motivate me to go read her books.

My mom loved Harry Potter and tried to get me to read them, but I kept putting it off. They were kid's books, after all. I caught more of the hype, and thought, hmm, that's interesting.

It wasn't until the movie was being made, and I saw the first trailer online that I became interested. It started when I first heard the theme music coming from the office next to mine and I had to go find out what it was. The music was great, captivating, mysterious, inducing some awe and wonder. And then i saw the trailer... NOW I was interested.

There were some quick emails to Mom about what the stories were all about, checking on line to get more info, and then finally getting to see the movie. I was getting more and more hyped myself about it and wanted more. I had become a solid Harry Potter fan.

And why was that? Probably for the same reasons I love all the other books and movies in sci fi and fanatasy - it was creative, it pulled on basic story themes and elements, it told a good story, it was darn entertaining, and it was just plain fun. It made me want to be a student at Hogwarts, learning charms, potions and plants. And learning how to fly - now that would be fun, although sitting on a broom just doesn't seem that comfortable to me at all. Riding on a bicycle seat for too long is bad enough, but sitting on a stick...ugh.

Anyway, I thought the whole story idea was fascinating and loved Rowling's creativity, inside jokes and the way she pulled in myths, legends and stories from several cultures and countries. It all blended together very well, made sense as presented, and showed some very good moral and behavioral examples. Several characters make very good roles models, for children and adults alike.

Further entertainment and amusement came from all those groups trying to paint the books and author as tools of the devil, brainwashing everyone, and pushing their opinions that it was all very harmful, and was a subtle method of corrupting everything good about our lives. Can you believe that in this day and age that there were actual book burnings? That otherwise sane people called for the books to be removed from library shelves? That people apparently couldn't distinguish fiction from reality? It was all very amusing to hear and read that these people think that Harry Potter is a threat to people's lives (OK, maybe their wallets if they break down and buy all of the associated merchandise) more than the drug dealers around the corner, the identity thefts in their mailboxes, the invasion of privacy from all sectors, terrorists who blow up everything in sight, a country leader who unashamedly lies to citizens.... Well, if you are one of those people who thinks Harry Potter is evil, you can keep on thinking that. And I will keep thinking that you are an idiot.

So, how cool would it be to metriculate at Hogwarts? I had to think back to when I was 11 and what my life was life, the new school challenges that faced me. At least I didn't have to leave home, and I wasn't going to a whole new world and culture. And I didn't have any teachers like Snape, thankfully. With each book, there's something new and exciting in the world of Magic, and after the last book, I find myself wondering what will harry want to do once he is out of school, and more importantly, what would I want to do after graduating from Hogwarts?

Official page
HP Lexicon
HP WS
HP Realm
Patronus
HP Facts
Muggle Net
HP News Aggregator
Book Collection
scene locations
fan site 1
fan site 2
Movie scene locations
London Tours ala HP
UK HP Destinations
HP Article
Hogwarts heir
London Taxi HP Tour
HP Travel locations
HP in Glencoe Scotland
HP News
HP Travel article

Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy
http://www.sideshowtoy.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=0"> Sideshow toys




A Separate Peace by John Knowles

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-The volatile world of male adolescence provides the backdrop for John Knowles' engrossing tale of love, hate, war, and peace. Sharing a room at Devon, an exclusive New England prep school, in the summer prior to World War II, Gene and Phineas form a complex bond of friendship that draws out both the best and worst characteristics of each boy and leads ultimately to violence, a confession, and the betrayal of trust.

For me, at the time I read this book in high school, this story mirrored some items I had, and wished I had, in my own life. The was strong friendship, trust and dependance, some idol worship, and some of the underlying jealousy that often comes with that, a chance to destroy, a shot at being the best, guilt and remorse.

I loved this book at the time and still think it is one of the best books I have read, but it's ironic to think i haven't made the time to read it again. Or see the movie. The theme, I think, never dies in our lives, but only changes characters. Perhaps until the time when we no longer compare ourselves to others, when we can let go of friends and friendships easily without sorry, and when we can face ourselves nakedly and accept who we are.

Study Guide
Study Guide 2
Novel Guide
Classic Notes Guide
Web Engligh Teacher notes




Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Amazon.com review
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,


"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.


Also
a picaresque novel that illustrates the moral development and attitudes of its nonconformist protagonist.



Classic Notes
Brian Banks review
Rye website
Homework Online
Web English Teacher




Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
This is one of the funniest books I have ever read in my entire life. It was a Christmas gift that went on to be read by so many people that it was eventually replaced with a new copy. It seemed like I was laughing out loud every few paragraphs, so much so that my sister told me to go read somewhere else in the house, like outside and down the street.

The story itself is amusing - there is an all encompassing book about everything in the galaxy, the earth is blown up, hitchhikers catch a ride, poetry, new fangled star ships, and the finally publicized power of tea. Not to mention the interesting coincidences that can happen to a person throughout life's passage.

But also of interest is Adams' style of writing - descriptions in the negative; the silly, sometimes surreal banter between characters; non sequiters which actually lead to an outcome; and how perceiving one thing results in understand another totally different thing.

Douglas Adams
BBC Hitchhiker's site
Hitchhiker Links


Cyberpunk genre
My first introduction to this genre, typified by a dark future, corporate assassins, heavy-metal heroes, brain-burning cyberhackers, and technology which is closely integrated not just in people's lives but into people's bodies as well, was Neuromancer , by William Gibson.

Some of the prominent factors in a cyberpunk story are:
Near future (mid 21st century);
Pervasive networking;
Body modifications, especially digital;
Drugs, drugs and more drugs;
CorporateGovernment;
Guns. Big guns preferred;
Individuals versus megaconglomerates;
Disposable everything;
Extreme ClassStriation;
Advertising everywhere;
Japanophilia;
A withdrawn middle class (GatedCommunity).


One definition :
cyberpunk: /si:'ber-puhnk/ [orig. by SF writer Bruce Bethke and/or editor Gardner Dozois] n.,adj. A subgenre of SF launched in 1982 by William Gibson's epoch-making novel `Neuromancer' (though its roots go back through Vernor Vinge's `True Names' (see the Bibliography) to John Brunner's 1975 novel `The Shockwave Rider'). Gibson's near -total ignorance of computers and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate about the role of computers and hackers in the future in ways hackers have since found both irritatingly na"ive and tremendously stimulating. Gibson's work was widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived but innovative "Max Headroom" TV series.

And from MirrorShades is this observation:
Over time `cyberpunk' referred less to a sci-fi subgenre, and more to a movement that was the beatnik underside of the evolving digital culture, encompassing the countercultural fascinations of the 90s -- the computer underground, rave/house culture, zine culture, designer psychedelics, goth morbidity, etc.

One recommended reading list from Mark-Space .
Electronic Freedom Foundation list of arcticles and documents about cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk by Bruce Bethke , where the word first originated.
project.cyberpunk information and database.
HALO a cyberpunk story I started reading while researching.
CybRpunk with tips on writing cyberpunk, but not updated since 2000.
Meatball Wiki's page
Wikipedia
Cyberpunk the CCG


Links
Hardy Boys Unofficial page
Hardy Boys Unofficial Resource
Bayport Gazette
Complete Tom Swift
Unofficial Tom Swift
Tom Swift Catalog
Tom Swift Electronic Web
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew Sleuth
Unofficial Nancy Drew
Stratemeyer Syndicate FAQ

Ebay
Shadow
Amazon
Gallifrey One



Mike Bonnell Wallpaper

First Floor
Foyer Kitchen Living Dining Conservatory Greenhouse Garden
Media Game SciFi Collectors Library Gallery Computer Workout
Tower Lab Crypt Secret Garage Office Outside

Second Floor
Spirituality Power Gay Crafts Work Egypt
Bedroom Geneology HTML Tower Castle Misc
Family Mike Danny Randy
Jon Michael Garth Mark

This page last updated on October 31, 2004
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