Brad’s bookshelf: February 2011

Its 2012 ...

That being said, I'd love to have the time to read some books! maybe I should do that instead of forum serfing

Should check out a few of those titles, sounds neat.

Brad .....it's called 'sleep'.  You should try it some time...;)

Terry loves her Kindle too ....;)

Brad, as a sci-fi fan, have you read any of Gene Wolfe's books?  He's a virtuoso of the English language.

I'm not familiar with Gene Wolfe.

I tell ya, I really enjoyed Post Human and Trans Human.  99 cents!

Gene Wolfe has won a nebula award for one of his books in the dying sun series or whatever it's called.  Innovative fantasy/sci-fi author indeed.He's not exactly James Joyce though so i wouldn't go as far as saying "virtuoso" of the english language.

Simon R Green -Deathstalker collection

Honor Harrington Collection : Great scifi books if you managed to not get annoyed with all the references to horses. Though this author had great many other scifi books like Vattas war etc....

Saga of the seven kingdoms?

 If anyone like these kind of books send me a msg and I´ll dig up a great many other books in the same genre...

During different seasons of the year I try to do different types of books.

Spring and early Summer: Fantasy

Mid to late Summer: Business and Science Non-Fiction

Fall: History

Winter: Sci Fi

I change it up each year but it's just a weird little thing I like to do to make look forward to "the next season".

You know me. I enjoy sleeping. I just don't stay asleep long. So I use books to fill in the gaps between getting to be around people again or waiting for people to wake up.

My UK buddy, Neil (lead on WindowBlinds) can only put up with chatting with me so many hours of the day.

They are not books unless they have paper pages.

They are not books unless they are handwritten on parchment. Book market has been completely ruined by Gutenberg's "innovation".

Unknown author, found in Melrose Abbey 1660

Lol.

 They're not video games unless they come in a cartridge.

Gene Wolfe is a wonderful writer, but if you're reading Scalzi, he's probably not your speed.

[edit] Not that theres anything wrong with Scalzi. Im just saying. Different strokes.

You should only know of one book, and that's the Bible.  All other books contain untruthiness that taint your soul and your taint.

It's a fair remark. A game is still a playable game no matter what format it comes in. The word book references a specific physical object, though, not the text. A text file is not a book. Though it could still be a novel.

But then, we still refer to musical releases as "albums", even though that term originated specifically in regard to vinyl. So it would probably be fairly pedantic to make an issue of.

I too have seasonal reading genres. That's really weird. 

Although for me, summer is sci fi, and fantasy happens more in the winter.  That's because of flashbacks to reading Dune on summer vacation out on the freshly cut lawn as a kid, and because so many Fantasy novels have strong winter themes or episodes. Fantasy is always so much "colder". It's easier to get into talked of drinking "spiced wine" to ward off the cold, when it actually is cold, and you're thinking, "man, I could really go for some hot spiced wine."

Non fiction is whenever.

It's too bad you're not in your fantasy season. I could give you a lot of good fantasy recs. I don't think much of the Sci Fi I read would be up your alley, though.

i agree with this but if one wants to risk their place in gods holy land they might do it in the company of a Gene Wolfe novel.

Phillip Jose Farmer - The Riverworld series.     Love it!!!

No, pedantry is making an issue of ending a sentence with a preposition .... JAFOCHECK

/me .... the Lord of Pedantry ....;)

I just got a curbside beat-down by the grammar cops.  Luckily there's video.

Winters Tale - Mark Helprin (On my 5th copy - I LOVE this book and either lend it out or just read it to pieces and have to get a new copy)

Up Til Now - William Shatner

Angelology - Danille Trussoni (Read it and discovered it was Part I of a series. Still waiting for Part II)

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - Seth Graham

Hugh Laurie The Biography

The Thirteen Clocks - James Thurber (Princess Bride 'like' but even more wickedly funny)

The Practice Effect - David Brin

Gene Wolfe is probably best known for his Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, and Book of the Short Sun series.  Since we're moving into Spring, and Brad's fancy turns to fantasy, you might want to try "Latro in the Mist" and "Soldier of Sidon", which feature an ancient soldier cursed by the gods to have no long term memory (yes, the movie Memento ripped off this idea).

For more hardcore science fiction, how about Ian M. Banks or Vernor Vinge?

I was looking for a cheap Kindle book while we were traveling back in December and got Beyond Armegeddon by Anthony DeCosmo for $0.99

Enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and picked up the next 3 in the series for $1.99

Another good cheapy I ran across was Wired by Douglas E. Richards.....have to wait for the next one in the series tho.

Brad: I just bought Post Human and Trans Human on your recommendation...... cost me the princely sum of £2:04.........

I am 99% sure you are a robot. I think the bees made you to rule them. Frogboy is how bees refer to HU-MANS...

Grab The Hunger Game triology!