Over the past few years for some reason or another I have not had time to read as much as I used to. Either I have been too busy at work, too busy with the children, or too busy with the PC to make time to pick up a book and give it the attention it deserves. Recently however I have made a little time to read and am I glad I have. I have rediscovered old favourites and made new friends, in that time I have re-read a couple of my all-time favourite books. Re-read I hear some of you say...yes re-read, and in the case of one of them, for about the fourth or fifth time. You enjoy reading a good book, the mark of a really good book is that you enjoy it more the second time. Well, this prompted me to put this page together and share with you some of my favourite books.
The main type of books I enjoy are science fiction and science fantasy. I also enjoy the occasional pure fantasy, horror, and action/adventure novels.
My all time favourite author is Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 - 1988), in my mind the greatest science fiction author that has ever lived. I have around 32 novels or short story collections by Robert Heinlein, most of which I have read more than once and I have also read all of his other work I can beg steel or borrow. I am sure that this visionary author could actually see tomorrow, or at least the various options for tomorrow that may exist. His work is truly exceptional, I can say no more than that.
If you want to find out more about RAH then try one of these links:
The Robert A Heinlein
Homepage
The Robert A
Heinlein Boondock Page
I am currently working my way through my Heinlein collection and trying to fill in the missing books that I either gave away, lent to friends and colleagures and never got back, or only every borrowed from libraries. So far I have read: Stranger In A Strange Land, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, The Number of the Beast, Friday, Time Enough for Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, The Past Through Tomorrow Vol 1, Glory Road, Assignment in Eternity, Job, I Will Fear No Evil, The Puppet Masters, Tunnel in the Sky, and I have also read have also recently finished Sentenced to Prism and The Tar-Aiym Krang, Neuromancer, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Amtrak Wars series, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings and many others.
Is anyone out there interested in sponsoring a "Fan" lead project to make a Film of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
If you have read this book then you will know that it has tremendous possibilities to be turned into a really great film. However if "Hollywood" gets it's hands on it, it could well end up going he same way as Starship Troopers seems to be. Anyway, if you are interested then check out this page:
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Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance
This is truly an amazing book, even more so for being a true story. Even though I think I will need to reread it at least a dozen more times before I understand it, I must say that had I read it when it was first published I would now be convinced it had influenced my life. I can relate to so much of it, and found I already followed much of it's philosophy without knowing it. |
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Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein I am sure there is nothing I can add that has not already been said about this incredible novel. It is only on this my 4th or 5th reading that I think I even appreciated what all the issues it explores are, let alone got anywhere near understanding them. I am only an egg, waiting is... |
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The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert A Heinlein On the surface a simple plot about a computer that becomes self aware, but it is the social interaction in a society with a sexual imbalance (considerably more males than females) that makes this book Learn the rules quickly and live by them, or you don't live very long. |
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The Amtrak Wars (Series of 6 Novels) - Patrick Tilley I read these as each novel was published waiting for each one like a child waits for Christmas. I actually wrote to Patrick Tilley care of the publishers as I did not agree with the way he ended the series and he was kind enough to send me a personal hand-written reply that now lives in the cover of the first book. On my re-reading of this series however I changed my mind, he was right about how the books had to end. Sorry Patrick. |
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Sentenced To Prism - Alan Dean Foster This book has an incredible introduction, and one of the most original alternative life forms in any sci-fi book I have ever come across.Again, it is personal interaction that makes this book for me, only this time between a man with an exoskeleton and a blue glass caterpillar. |
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The Tar-Aiym Krang - Alan Dean Foster I bought this book purely because of it's title. It covers a much used sci-fi subject, that of the ultimate weapon of destruction, but it does it oh so well. |
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The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson What a fool I was, I lent the whole series to an acquaintance and never got them back. Possibly the most totally real, believable and fantastic world ever created in the mind of any fantasy writer along with the most reluctant hero you will ever meet. |
Notice: I am sure that the book covers I have reproduced above are subject to copyright and that they really shouldn't be reproduced without the copyright holders consent, but if you are one of those persons then please accept my breaching of said copyright in the spirit that it has been done.
Page last revised on 9th October
