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Favorites Reading List

10.23.2012

I've been reading more over the past couple of months. That was one of my goals after cancelling the cable TV. This morning on my way in to work I started thinking about how slow I normally read and how few books I've read multiple times. "Hmmm, I wonder what my favorite books are? I bet the easiest way to figure that out is by which ones I've read more than once." From there, I started making my list of favorite reads based on what I've read multiple times, and what I would like to read again.

• Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1959). The first book I actually remember reading more than once, introduced to me by Jer at some point in high school. Since then, I've had multiple copies (I tend to force people to read this book if they haven't) and ended up joining the Science Fiction Book Club so I could get a hardback edition. Although most people think of the 1997 movie, the movie has little resemblance to the book beyond the surface. The movie even has 3 sequels and a CGI-animated series that most people don't know about. The book, though, is where I first discovered my love of a "boot camp" story. The underlying theme of patriotism is also one that appeals to me since it isn't as blatant as I would have though. I still read this book every 5 years or so.
• Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974). Another book I enjoy re-reading, and the 2nd book I wanted in hardback when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club. The first chapter is a favorite short story in many sci-fi collections, and it was this chapter appearing in another book (I think Armor) that convinced me to read the original source. Although it contains a good dose of space opera, I find the depth of character development and relationships to be what brings me back to this book over and over. The sequels to this book (Forever Peace, Forever Free) didn't hold me as well, unfortunately.
• Killerbowl by Gary K. Wolf (1975). Another Jer provided book. The story is basically a football version of Rollerball. It's not the most original story, and to be honest it moves a little slow, but I originally read it at a time when I would mentally convert the story into a role-playing/board-game and I would actually get inside the story. I still do that on subsequent readings. For the hardback edition of this book, I went to half.com and purchased an edition from a library in Washington.
• Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard (1982). I'm not sure when I got sucked into L Ron Hubbard's sci-fi, but in the early 90's I was reading a lot of it. I've read this 1000+ page behemoth twice, which at my reading speed takes around a month. The movie version had to skip too much story to fit into 2 hours, so a lot of people look poorly at the book to begin with. I enjoy the story and character development of Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, which is what keeps this book on my favorites list. It's been a long while since I last read this book, so I'm not sure how long it will stay on my list - I get a feeling over time the story that goes along with the characters I enjoy may not hold up well.

These other books are waiting to see if they make it on my favorites list. Time plus an additional reading, and I enjoyed the books enough to warrant another reading at some point, will tell if they make it. So in no particular order:

• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (1999). My first Neal Stephenson read outside of the cyberpunk genre. The way this story flipped between WWII and near-future was well handled and kept me intrigued. A lot of the details of the story have faded in the almost 15 years since I read this book, but I still remember getting into the story and not being able to put the book down. I would like to muster up the courage to dive into 900+ pages again, but I'm afraid that same level of enjoyment won't be there any more.
• Empire by Orson Scott Card (2006). I like Orson Scott Card books (the Ender series, even his non-fiction on how to be a better writer). Empire was a book I bought because I liked the cover and it had his name on it. It turned out to not be sci-fi (except for some mechanical walkers) but instead was a really good, fast paced Tom Clancy story. I honestly could not put this book down because I wanted to see what happened next. Halfway through the book I thought I had things figured out and everything went topsy-turvey. It was awesome! Unfortunately the sequel, Hidden Empire had neither the story, pacing, or interest of the original and has managed to mar my view on the first. I would still like to read this again later when more of the details have faded from memory.
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011). This is the last book I read that I enjoyed with no qualms. The right blend of character, story action, and as a bonus 80's trivia & references. I'm the target nerd for this story because for all the 80's references that were thrown in, I knew all of them. The only part of the book I skimmed over was a 5-page description of techno-babble that could be boiled down to "V/R Immersion Machine". This is the book that I wonder how well it will hold up over time.
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (2005). I'm entering this book on the "maybe" list early as I'm still reading it, but I'll finish it tonight. Yesterday I ordered 2 of the follow-up sequels. Old Man's War has a lot of Forever War in it, but it is it's own story. I'm not sure exactly what it is about this one that keeps me from putting it down, but I just want to know what happens!

Next I may make a list of favorite non-fiction books, but I doubt that would be nearly as interesting.

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Assembled

09.25.2012

Today may have been the shortest time for a movie to go from being delivered on my porch to playing in the DVD player. Today was the release date for The Avengers, a movie which I thoroughly enjoyed at the movies and I've been looking forward to a second viewing at home once the DVD came out.

I found out I still enjoy it.

I think the biggest reason that gets overlooked as to why this movie is so good is that it avoids the pitfall so many super hero movies spend anywhere from 25% to 90% of the focus - there's no origin story to tell in The Avengers. That's been done in 4 other movies. Here we have a bad guy (fronted by the bad guy from Thor) with a story that's been set up primarily by the end of Captain America and Thor. So all we need now is action. Lots and lots of action. And a helicarrier.

SHIELD and the helicarrier put the movie over the top for me. Ever since the Nick Fury VS SHIELD comic series I've loved SHIELD stories, and that's what Avengers is to me.

I think it took 10 minutes from the UPS man knocking at my door until I was watching the movie. Afterwards I watched all the bonus features, and I'm not sure of the last movie that had more than a gag reel that I watched extra. Odds are by the weekend I'll watch the movie again with the director's commentary.

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19 Comics

12.20.2011

Today I received a little Christmas present to myself (I know, big shocker that I'm getting myself something for Christmas). Today from the Amazon I received 19 comic books.

You may notice a proliferation of GI Joe comics. It's also not a big shocker that I'm a big GI Joe fan. I get most of the GI Joe titles currently in print, but I tend not to read them. I know, it's stupid, but I've gotten spoiled reading the collected trade paperbacks of all the other series that I read, I've just gotten in the habit of reading comics that way. Instead of picking up part of the story every month, I just wait 6 months or a year and get a collection in one easy to read volume.

Huh, come to think of it that's how I watch TV now. I just wait for the current season of whatever I'm interested in to be released on DVD. If I don't mind watching the ending of Smallville 14 months after everybody else it's not too bad.

But I digress. After visiting one of my local comic shops this past week, I saw that the collection of the classic GI Joe series from the 80's was up to volume 13 (usually with 10 issues per volume). I remember some hullabaloo causing a pause in the printing back years ago, so I wasn't sure where I had stopped. When I got home and looked, it turned out I had stopped at volume 5. Rectify!

That got me to looking at the other Joe series. Some of them are a discreet collection - GI Joe Origins ran for 23 issues, now available in 5 easy to read collected volumes. I may actually have those 23 issues, but if I do they're scattered amongst boxes in a closet that I never go through, and I'm too lazy to dig out 23 issues in the proper order to read when I can just get 5 books that do all the hard work for me. Plus, they fit on my bookshelf so neatly.

Those single issues that I get, I do so to help support my local comic book store. Trust me, they need the help most of the time. If I want to read the stories I've got bad enough, I can suck it up and dig through those boxes.

Now I've got bathroom reading for months!

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