Saturday, October 16, 2004

Books

I love to read, always have. Over the years there have been periods where I concentrated on a particular type of book, but I like all kinds of stuff. History, historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, wildlife, humor... There's just so much out there, there's not enough time in a life. Not to mention that you sometimes pick up one you've read before, and want to read it again.

Steve is a marvelous writer, funny as hell. And a pretty good cook. I got his cookbook, and I'm not sure which it's worth more as; cookbook or humor.

I wrote about Peter Hathaway Capstick before, and his many works. All worth reading.

Science fiction, there's a lot: David Drake, Steve Weber, Eric Flint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, S.M. Sterling, John Ringo, Robert Heinlein among others. Drake has also written historical fiction/fantasy, 'The Dragon Lord' for instance.

Mysteries: James Doss, Tony Hillerman, Tamar Myers, James Maddox Roberts, Rex Stout.

Funny stuff: the above-mentioned Steve, who ought to make a book out of his blog writings, Patrick McManus, Bill Watterson(Calvin & Hobbes), Bill Amend(Foxtrot), Pete Abrams(Sluggy Freelance). Yeah, the last three are cartoonists; live with it.

History, I confess I have trouble remembering the author's names. One exception, Victor Davis Hanson, primarily because he writes a lot of columns that lots of blogs link to.

Fantasy: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber are my favorites. There are many others, and I'm shorting some fine writers by not being able to remember their names right now. Howard is best known for creating Conan, and trust me, the short stories and novels he wrote are far different from the movies and comic books. He also wrote humor and created other memorable characters such as Solomon Kane. Fritz Leiber wrote humor and straight sci-fi as well, his most memorable characters- to me at least- being Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; one of their books, happily 'Swords and Deviltry', first of the collections, introduced me to fantasy.

There are so many others, let us not leave out how-to and technical and, and... you get the point.



1 comment:

Kevin said...

Your tastes in science fiction precisely parallel my own. I might also suggest early William Gibson (Burning Chrome, Count Zero, Neuromancer). For mysteries, I love Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, albeit the more recent stuff leaves a lot to be desired. I also highly recommend Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" novels (A is for Alibi, etc.) I'm not much of a mystery reader, but these two I like.

John D. MacDonald's "Travis McGee" novels are a favorite of mine, as well. Between Heinlein, Parker, and MacDonald, my personal philosophy of life was pretty much formed.

I'm not much of a fantasy reader, though.

For humor, you MUST read P.J. O'Rourke! He and Dave Barry, but especially P.J. O'Rourke will make you laugh and think.