Um...quick & crazy idea: A Geeknights group on Listal.com?
It seems their book recommendation feature is pretty cool, but the Sci-Fi & Fantasy groups on the site were pretty weak the last time I checked. (Update: Just checked again. They're much bigger now at ~50 members. I still think a geeknights group could be cool.)
Aside: I mentioned anime in another post, but geeknights is also not in your spellcheck dictionary. I'll stop pointing out missing words, now. I hope.
EDIT: Oh, yeah...I was going to recommend books. Gibson's been mentioned, but the Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive) are just way too good (IMHO) to be passed up. Starting with Johnny Mnemonic from Burning Chrome is optional, but if you end up liking Gibson, you'll probably want to pick up that collection later (and marvel at the unassuming beginnings of the phrase "cyberspace")
I'm also listening to the podiobook Singularity and I just recently finished the two books of the Inheritance trilogy that have been released (Eragon and Eldest). They are a bit on the generic fantasy side but they're pretty good nonetheless. I recently bought Foundation and that's likely going to be the next one I get into.
Still working my way through Singularity, still very good. To tide me over between episodes, though, I've started listening to 7th Son as well. Pretty good so far. Definitely has potential.
I was kind of hoping someone else would mention this, but since they aren't... Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and the associated books in the series.
I love them. Near the top of my favorites list, if not my favorite all-time.
By the way Mr. Period, what's the correct way to write book titles? Underlined? Italicized? I've seen all different ways.
Items placed inside quotation marks include article titles, direct quotes, parts of books, song titles, short poems, and television and radio programs.
Italics are used for book titles, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, proceedings, movie titles, works of art, operas, and other long musical compositions.
I'll throw out there my favorite book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
and also another really good book, that's good for anime/manga geeks, called Wrong About Japan by Peter Garey. It's basically a nonfiction book about how the authors son is really big on manga and anime, and sorta gets him into it too a little, so he decides to take him to Japan, and manages to setup these really cool meetings with like Miyazaki, the Blood: The Last Vampire director, the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, and some others.
The Director of Blood: the last vampire was Hiroyuki Kitakubo. Lot's of people think it was Mamoru Oshii, who was the creator of the original idea (director of Ghost in the shell). I think I have made the mistake before when talking about it, despite the fact that I know better. I mentioned him before when I was talking about Blood: The Last Vampire -Night of the beasts-, which I FINALLY finished reading last night. Its a kind of interesting read, it's problematic, though; I wouldn't really recommend it to people who haven't seen Blood: the last vampire, even though it would still be okay to read. On the flip-side, I wouldn't recommend it to a lot of the people I know who DO like the movie. Towards the end, there was a 40-50 page philosophy debate. Probably 5 of these pages were relevant to the story, and the rest were interesting, though a lot of people I know would be bored stiff. I was getting the that point, and the only reason I wasn't bored of it was that I hadn't picked the book up in 4-5 weeks.
After I finished that, I read The patchwork girl, by Larry Niven. It's a Gil the Arm story. I really like Gil. I think the thing I like most is that he has a TK arm, but that's not the point of the story. I think the arm was used twice in the story, and only once it was useful. Lots of authors that have a special ability like that use it every chance they can get, and the story becomes reliant on the ability. Though I will admit that it's often the arm that saved the day, it just FEELS different.
I wanted to say The Little Prince but it seems most of the books are sci-fi. Oh well. It's not even a hat...
I was kind of hoping someone else would mention this, but since they aren't... Ender's Gameby Orson Scott Card and the associated books in the series.
I was thinking the same thing. Oh well again. I remember that guy at the book fair who gave it to me for free since I didn't know what it was being a grade schooler at the time.
I like Steven Brust, and all of his novels. They take place in a fictional medieval/fantasy style world. Most of the books are written in first person, but he has also written a pair as a tribute to The Three Musketeers and is written in a very interesting way.
Most of the books aren't too long, taking less than a month to read (I read only an hour a day or less). And I'd advise picking one up to at least try it out. It would really only take the first chapter to know fi you like his style or not.
Oh, also, The Walking Drum is a book I had to read in high school. Everyone complained about it, but i thought it was really good. Basically about a guy in Celtic England during the late middle ages whose father gets killed and somebody basically conquers their land (I believe the father was a lord of some sort, owning a county or some such). The guy then escapes, ending up in the Mediterranean, and eventually the middle east. I actually can't remember a lot about the story anymore, but it ends in him going back to England and taking back his land.
In short, it's a story about getting totally screwed over early in life, escaping, building yourself up over the years, and returning home to set things straight. It's also pretty accurate about how much more advanced Islamic states were during the middle ages.
If you want a story about someone getting screwed early on, then coming back with a can of ass-kick, don't forget The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favourite novels.
If you want a story about someone getting screwed early on, then coming back with a can of ass-kick, don't forgetThe Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favourite novels.
Another one of my favorites actually, for exactly that reason.
If you like Alternate History, Harry Turtledove writes some of the best in the genre. Guns of the South and the World War series are really good.
And I can't believe none of the other members of the Crew have mentioned The Mountains of Madness or Shadows over Innsmouth. While none of them are full novels, the Cthulhu stories by H.P. Lovecraft are some of the best weird science stories from the previous century.
I'm Just Here for the Food, by Alton Brown is the best cookbook ever, especially for geeks. Since her goes into great detail as to how cooking works, scientifically.
I love Alton Brown! Just this past week his new show, Dining on Asphalt, started and it's very good. They're travelling across teh country on minor roads eating at local restaurants the entire way. No highways or national chains allowed. Very cool.
I'm Just Here for the Food,by Alton Brown is the best cookbook ever, especially for geeks.
AB is definitely one of the best culinary personalities on the planet, and his books are pretty darn spiffy (his book on kitchen gear is also teh amazing; it's like a hacker's guide to the kitchen). I would say the best cookbook you could own though has to be The Joy Of Cooking. It tells you how to make EVERYTHING. Including how to prepare a squirrel from the "I just shot it now it's freshly killed" state. Seriously.
Comments
It seems their book recommendation feature is pretty cool, but the Sci-Fi & Fantasy groups on the site were pretty weak the last time I checked. (Update: Just checked again. They're much bigger now at ~50 members. I still think a geeknights group could be cool.)
Aside: I mentioned anime in another post, but geeknights is also not in your spellcheck dictionary. I'll stop pointing out missing words, now. I hope.
EDIT: Oh, yeah...I was going to recommend books. Gibson's been mentioned, but the Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive) are just way too good (IMHO) to be passed up. Starting with Johnny Mnemonic from Burning Chrome is optional, but if you end up liking Gibson, you'll probably want to pick up that collection later (and marvel at the unassuming beginnings of the phrase "cyberspace")
To tide me over between episodes, though, I've started listening to 7th Son as well. Pretty good so far. Definitely has potential.
Singularity is good? I was worried, I've got it sitting in iTunes and haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and the associated books in the series.
I love them. Near the top of my favorites list, if not my favorite all-time.
By the way Mr. Period, what's the correct way to write book titles? Underlined? Italicized? I've seen all different ways.
and also another really good book, that's good for anime/manga geeks, called Wrong About Japan by Peter Garey. It's basically a nonfiction book about how the authors son is really big on manga and anime, and sorta gets him into it too a little, so he decides to take him to Japan, and manages to setup these really cool meetings with like Miyazaki, the Blood: The Last Vampire director, the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, and some others.
I mentioned him before when I was talking about Blood: The Last Vampire -Night of the beasts-, which I FINALLY finished reading last night. Its a kind of interesting read, it's problematic, though; I wouldn't really recommend it to people who haven't seen Blood: the last vampire, even though it would still be okay to read. On the flip-side, I wouldn't recommend it to a lot of the people I know who DO like the movie. Towards the end, there was a 40-50 page philosophy debate. Probably 5 of these pages were relevant to the story, and the rest were interesting, though a lot of people I know would be bored stiff. I was getting the that point, and the only reason I wasn't bored of it was that I hadn't picked the book up in 4-5 weeks.
After I finished that, I read The patchwork girl, by Larry Niven. It's a Gil the Arm story. I really like Gil. I think the thing I like most is that he has a TK arm, but that's not the point of the story. I think the arm was used twice in the story, and only once it was useful. Lots of authors that have a special ability like that use it every chance they can get, and the story becomes reliant on the ability. Though I will admit that it's often the arm that saved the day, it just FEELS different.
Most of the books aren't too long, taking less than a month to read (I read only an hour a day or less). And I'd advise picking one up to at least try it out. It would really only take the first chapter to know fi you like his style or not.
In short, it's a story about getting totally screwed over early in life, escaping, building yourself up over the years, and returning home to set things straight. It's also pretty accurate about how much more advanced Islamic states were during the middle ages.
PS. The quote linkys need to be made to work through the pages. To save me having to manually make a quote.
And I can't believe none of the other members of the Crew have mentioned The Mountains of Madness or Shadows over Innsmouth. While none of them are full novels, the Cthulhu stories by H.P. Lovecraft are some of the best weird science stories from the previous century.
If you mean something with the same name by a different author, please clarify.
And, yeah I saw the last half of the episode, it looks like it's going to be cool. Hopefully he'll make his way up to NJ and find some good places.