It's all about me today (and books, obviously)

[selenay]

Today I have been mostly feeling crappy. I had a fantastic night out last night with The Girls, eating Thai food and celebrating a friend's birthday. Really, really good night.

Except...

The chairs in the restaurant were pretty uncomfortable and by the time I got home my back was killing me. I went to bed, foolishly not taking any painkillers, and didn't sleep at all well thanks to the back pain. Even when I did get to sleep, I dreamt about the back pain. Bleh. So I spent most of the day feeling thoroughly zoned out and my back hadn't eased up at all either. My daily painkillers don't get rid of all the pain anyway on a good day, but the breakthrough pain today definitely wasn't good. I've been taking extra stuff to control it all day but that's left me feeling rather shaky and icky in addition to the zoned out from lack of sleep effect.

Hence, mostly crappy.

I plan on having an early night and then going out for coffee with historyterry tomorrow. It's going to be a quiet weekend, which is exactly what I need.

In less whiney stuffy, why didn't I know that Peter Jackson has optioned naominovik's Temeraire books? Damn, those are movies I'll be looking forward to tons if they get to screen. If anyone on my f-list hasn't read the books already, go and find them because they are fabulous.

Speaking of books...a colleague at work, on asking me how my sci-fi con went, said that he's never read any sci-fi and could I lend him one so that he can try it out? Except 85% of my SF&F books are on the F side rather than the SF. Does anyone have some good suggestions for good SF books for beginners that I can either lend (if I have or can track down a copy) or recommend to him?

Sadly, I don't have a copy of Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is what I initially thought of when he asked (it was where I started with LMB and she's become one of my favourite SF authors). Also, the only Asimov that I own is Nemesis - it's my father who owns all the Robot books. Neuromancer may not be the best choice for a first-time SF reader. And I'm starting to run short of SF that I actually own - most of my SF comes from the library and most of my book purchases are fantasy.

All suggestions would definitely be welcome.

And I plan to type up that book list from Redemption this weekend to go on the LJ comm.

Comments

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Ooh, books again!

I would highly recommend Isaac Asimov, though not The Foundation Trilogy--a bit too all-encompassing for a newbie. My favorites are The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun, which started off the robot series. I think the first one could be read stand alone. The Complete Robot is a collection of his best short stories about robots and is great as well.

Or another classic, Robert Heinlein, but his earlier books before he went too far over the top. Door into Summer, Double Star, Puppetmasters, or Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I love a lot of David Brin's work, but The Postmaster is my favorite--a much better book than a movie. But make sure they guy wants to read something post-Apocalyptic, though.

Also, James White's "docs in space" stories are absolutely fascinating to me. I like them all, and I don't think it matters much if you read them "in order." Names I can see from here are Ambulance Ship, Double Contact, Galactic Gourmet, and Future's Past.

Dang, I need to re-read some of the 400 books I have here in my library. I'm remembering how good they were and I probably haven't read most of these in 15-20 years.

[selenay]

I bobbled down to the local secondhand bookshop and picked up a copy of The Caves of Steel, remembering that it's a relatively easy intro to the robot thang. So thank you :-) And at least if my colleague 'forgets' to return the book, it was a second hand copy rather than one of my father's precious copies :-)

Thanks for the list. Even if my colleague concludes that one sci-fi book was all he needed, I'm going to be working through some of those myself :-)

[margec01.livejournal.com]

I hope you find something that you enjoy reading, or re-reading as the case may be. And I hope your colleague likes the Asimov.

I'm not too sure someone a bit older can discover that he enjoys science fiction. It seems to me that it might be a mindset you realize at an early age. On the other hand, with the plethora of fantasy stories filling the shelves these days, someone who is more into "pure" sci-fi would have a hard time finding it.

Not that there's anything WRONG with fantasy; some of my best friends read mostly fantasy. (VBG) It's just that males especially might be more into future science type stories.

[selenay]

some of my best friends read mostly fantasy

;-p~~~~~~~~~

I think you're right about males possibly being more into future science type stories. It seems to be as much about how people want to look at the world as anything else.

It seems to me that sci-fi (and fantasy) is something that you're either born into loving and being fascinated by or never really get. I'd love to hear from people who didn't discover a love of the genre until they were older, but every fan I've ever spoken to has been reading SF&F since they were kids.

To be honest, I don't think that my colleague will suddenly discover a hitherto unrealised love of the genre. He's looking it more as a challenge because it's an entire area that he's never considered before and wants to see what all the fuss is about. I do wonder, though, whether he might find that it's something that makes him think even if he never reads another one.

I think that SF&F fans have a slightly different outlook on life than others. What we read forces us to think about huge ideas that other people probably never even consider. We're forced to examine ourselves as well, so we possibly are more self-aware than we would otherwise be. It's a theory I've been working over the last couple of years :-)

I really need a book icon. Hmm.

[margec01.livejournal.com]

hermitsoul did some lovely reading icons for the 14 Valentine's project. You will see that I grabbed several of them. Here's the entry: http://hermitsoul.livejournal.com/29779.html#cutid1

[selenay]

Oooh, thank you for the link. There are some fabulous icons there :-))

[gaspodex.livejournal.com]

From newer stuff - Reality Disfunction (Peter F Hamilton) then the rest of the Nights Dawn trilogy ...

Or for something lighter the good old 'Stainless Steel Rat' (Harry Harrison) - Still one of my favorites after many many years and rereads.

[gaspodex.livejournal.com]

By the way - The Nights Dawn triology is the first time something recommended to me by someone in Hammicks has been a good read ..

[selenay]

Hmm, I've seen Hamilton in the bookshops and always confused him with another author whose books I intensely disliked. Except I don't know why. Looking at his booklist, though, I can see it's not the author I dislike. So I'll be looking out for him now :-) And that really made no sense...

I've never actually read the Stainless Steel Rat despite my father having all the Harry Harrison books somewhere in this house. So I've been down to the local secondhand bookshop and picked up a copy, except I'm now going to have to read it before I pass it on to my colleague!

SF books...

[(Anonymous)]

SF with a distinct element of F in it = Simon Green in my book.

Blue Moon Rising starts one series, Deathstalker starts another series.

The Stainless Steel rat books rock. Would also class anything by Anne McCaffrey. I know her Dragon books have dragons in 'em but they are still definitely SF in my book.

Re: SF books...

[selenay]

I'm loving the Stainless Steel Rat :-) I've never read them before and now I can't work out why!

I think one of the reasons why I like the Pern books is because they combine SF and fantasy ideas so well.

Thanks for the Simon Green rec - I will try to track his stuff down :-)

[historyterry.livejournal.com]

I started off with I, Robot and other robot Asimov books. How about those?

[selenay]

I nipped into the second hand bookshop on my way home from you and picked up a copy of Caves of Steel (the only robot book I could find), which I will re-read before lending to the colleague. And that way, if he fails to return it, I've not leant out Da's copies that he's had since he was a teenager!

I really need to make a proper, longer than three minutes trip there soon :-)