A sampling of my finds from our yearly trek to the VNSA Used Book Sale:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick -- the inspiration for Blade Runner. I had a few others of his but had never picked this one up.
Sci-Fi
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester -- on most lists of the best sci-fi books of all time. I have not read this author yet.
Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks -- Banks is probably my favorite sci-fi author. I have almost all of his books now.
The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss
Science Non-Fiction
Wrinkles in Time: Witness to the Birth of the Universe by George Smoot
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
The Poincare Conjecture by Donal O'Shea -- nerdy math stuff. I love it.
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by Robert Zubrin
General Non-Fiction & History
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson -- After reading John Adams and now reading Team of Rivals, I'm kinda hooked on political history.
Code Breaking: A History and Exploration by Rudolf Kippenhahn
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte
Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain by Carl Zimmer
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” -- Jane Austen
5 comments:
Some good choices there. Totally agree about Banks. It's such a real shame he died so young with so many books still to pen.
I read never everything PKD produced back in the 80's. Have you read 'Man in the High Castle'?
Bester is very good. That's a true classic.
Your non-fiction looks interesting too. I *really* need to read more science and technology based stuff.
I look forward to your future reviews...
Surprisingly, I've yet to read any PKD. I have this one and Deus Irae but have never gotten around to them. Kinda silly, I know. Especially considering all the movies I've seen based on his stuff.
As for non-fiction, you certainly do your part in the history department. You have me beat there, though I am trying to rectify that.
History is definitely my 'go to' category ATM but I'm doing my best to vary things a bit (I'm far too interested in other stuff to be too focused on even such a large subject. I am starting to accumulate a few political books which will eventually filter through to be reviewed and I do have a longer term plan to improve the overall quality of my reading so there's definitely lots of work/reading to do. I hope that I inspire you from time to time... [grin]
Your selections do indeed inspire. I would have never have read Banks unless I had read your review of the Algebraist many years ago.
As for history, I like those stories that take a seemingly small or innocuous thing and explain how it influenced many other things. Kurlansky's "Salt" comes to mind.
Rather than rambling all over God's creation I'm definitely confining myself to British and European history - I think that's enough to be getting on with!
I'm also trailing something I call blitzkrieg reading where I'll read 3 books on a particular subject in quick succession. Coming up are Afghanistan, Ireland and Germany. I'm also planning on blitzing mirco-subjects (like The Battle of Britain) which should be fairly intense and [hopefully] informative rather than repetitive and boring [lol]
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