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Journal trmj's Journal: Back to the classics 15

Journal by trmj

I've started rereading some books. Starting with Ender's Game. The next one I go to will be Xenocide, by far my favorite of the series.

To be honest, they are really the only two which stand out. They are truely above the rest of the series, not only in literary style, but in the entire universe they construct, right down to the most basic physical aspects.

Very few books left an impression on me when I was growing up. Some short stories did. I read the entire Narnia series, yet retained nothing from it because most of it was used material. A short story read to me in 4th grade, however, remains vivid in my mind, a story about a boat with the name "EMIT LEVART" carved into it.

Most of my reading is grounded in philosophy, physics, and science.

What's your choice of genre? What stories leave their mark and why? What books do you want to go back and read again, knowing that you'll taqke more from them this time than you have previously?

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Back to the classics More

Back to the classics

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  • A Wrinkle in Time, by Madaleine L'Engle is a great book. I read it in junior high, and it's still one of my favorites.

    I recently read "Out of the Silent Planet" by CS Lewis and I'm hoping to get the rest of the trilogy for Christmas, as I really enjoyed the first one.

    I have read all the Narnia books - Dawn Treader was probably my favorite, though I also greatly enjoyed THe Silver Chair.

    • I haven't read A Wrinkle In Time yet, but it's on my list of books to get to.

      CS Lewis really isn't high on my list of authors to read works of. A lot of his stories rely on the reader "just believing", and it really does fit his style of writing, his life, and his beliefs. The Dawn Treader was the best of the Narnia series though. There's something about that painting :-)

      Have you noticed though, that in all of the Narnia books there has always been a "portal object"? I'd get into the religious aspect
      • i think what you're missing about narnia is that it was something he'd daydreamed about all his life, so of course it had portals- you had to be able to get there. They really weren't developed in one fell swoop to be an allegory. He really just daydreamed and imagined as a kid, and eventually put it all together in a story. It really wasn't intended as a religious thwack on the head, just to tell the whole story of that world. And he liked the way the story went so much he used bits of it.
    • Ahh, A wrinkle in time. I remember that book.

      I think, alas, I've given all my "young adult" stuff away at this point. Sigh.
  • Travel Time indeed.

    Did I just ruin the story? ;)

    If you haven't the Thomas Covenant series is good.
    • I figured you'd be the first to grab that one.

      Unfortunately, the story itself didn't go into the fact that the information to unlock the future is always there, you just have to look at it the right way. I doubt I would have understood that at the time anyway, but for whatever reason the lesson was learned and stayed with me, thanks to that little phrase.

      I've never heard of that series. I'll have to look it up sometime soon.
  • Ender's Game is one I've re-read several times. I didn't get as interested in the others. The Belgariad was good. I particularly like the way it depicts families, both natural and adopted. I re-read that every 5 years or so, too. My recent taste runs toward military SF, so I've bveen reading a lot of David Weber. His Honor Harrington stuff is good, but not exactly epic. Fun light reading, though.
  • I don't really have a favorite Genre, though I do strongly dislike romance novels. I like mystery and crime drama books, and I do enjoy things with a bit of a supernatural twist to them. I really liked Ann Rice's Sleeping Beauty series... if you haven't read them, I suggest checking them out. I was never a fan of her Vampire series, but the Sleeping Beauty trilogy is beautiful and dark at the same time. She wrote it under a pen name.

    I also like the Greek tragedies and the Roman Dramas and philosophical w
  • What's your choice of genre?

    Sci-fi and fantasy for their exploration of just how far we can let our imaginations take us. I will and have read just about everything else. Romance novels, even the long ones, are little better than brain candy - easy to read lots of them and only have the fat to show for it. Historical novels are one of the best ways I know of to really learn about other time periods (as long as they aren't heavy on the romance or the single family dynasty). Mysteries can be a delight if
  • I will always keep these books handy: Ender's Game (Card), Dune (Herbert), and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (Heinlein)

    I love almost any book by Orson Scott Card*, Frank Herbert, or Robert A. Heinlein. But I hate most classic sci-fi. I'm able to get away with reading those three authors though because they write psychological/emotional sci-fi. They breath life into the characters and really let you inside the heads of the main people.
  • I am partial to minimalist and absurdist postmodern. Of course we can start with Hemingway (I'd like to go back and read Farwell to Arms and The Sun also Rises) though stalwart of the modern school, his work is "tendency" to pomo. I like Bret Easton Ellis, Don Delilo, Joan Didion who all come into the minimalist school. I like works that edge into other genres: the existentialism of Victor Pelevin and PKD which is both SF but have constructions beyond operatic resolution. I'm not much of a fan of postc
  • I'm a latecomer to sci-fi. I only started a couple years ago. I wasn't much into reading in my youth.
    So I have been very thrilled jumping into the genre at my late(r) age.
    Favs include most classics:
    Dune, by Herbert. Never have I ever read a more complete story. He creates an entire universe from top to bottom... planets to ecosystems and economics. Truely fantastic.
    Next would be Starship Troopers by Heinlein. The movie was a desecration to the story he created.
    And, of course, Hitchikers by Adams.
  • by Robert Silverberg is a longtime favorite of mine.

    Sadly I don't get nearly as much time as I used to for reading, but I'm game for just about any genre of book.

    ^_^

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