Now reading...

[BruceH]

At the height of my Vonnegut phase my favorite was Cat's Cradle.

Isaac Asimov Presents the Best Science Fiction Firsts

Collection of first stories to deal with major science fiction themes. Some very readable stuff here.

What are some of the stories in this anthology? Amazon won't tell me a thing.

John D Clark, "Minus Planet" (1937)

Fritz Leiber, "Yesterday House" (1952)

Larry Niven, "Neutron Star" (1966)

Lester del Rey, "The Faithful" (1938)

Don Wilcox, "The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years" (1940)

- that's as far as I've got!

Gee, the only one of those I'm familiar with is "Neutron Star."

How do you shape up with the rest? (The last is the only one I've come across before.)

Edgar Allan Poe, "Cosmic Disaster" (1839)

Murray Leinster, "A Logic Named Joe" (1946)

Fitz-James O'Brien, "What Was It?" (1859) and "The Diamond Lens" (1858)

Richard Matheson, "The Test" (1954)

Isaac Asimov, "Reason" (1941)

H G Wells, "The Land Ironclads" (1903)

I've read the Leinster, Asimov, and Wells stories. None too thrilled with any of them, although as I recall "Reason" was part of the I, Robot collection, which means I read it several times growing up.

[BillF]

Always liked Sillitoe's "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" from the 1950s, but hadn't realised he'd continued to write novels into the 90s until I read a recent obituary.

[jazzbo]

[ejp626]

Coincidentally, a copy of Mahfouz's The Mirage showed up at the library through interlibrary loan, so I'll basically read these together, and this seems a good pairing.

I'm just about done with this. It is a long novel (nearly 400 pages) and while each chapter is easy to read, the cumulative effect is kind of wearying. Mahfouz has come up with the ultimate mamma's boy, milksop character who only occasionally rouses himself to action and then usually regrets it afterward. I do find it hard to read such an unsympathetic character. Now I wasn't crazy about Ignatius (Confederacy of Dunces) or Ed (a near cousin in Guy Vanderhaeghe's My Present Age) in the sense that I would have hated to be next-door neighbors. But they were interesting characters to read. This guy, even if he ends up snapping, isn't very interesting. He's basically just the most pathetic man who ever lived. So I wouldn't recommend The Mirage unless that's your thing.

Next book up appears to be Karinthy's Metropole.

Actually, there are some parallels between Metropole and Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. I've skimmed a bit of the Bradbury; it was fairly droll. Perhaps I should take the opportunity to read it first. Hmmm...

Edited June 2, 2010 by ejp626

[BillF]

Returning to this one after about 40 years! Yes, it's true what they say - it's a classic!

[jlhoots]

Peter Guralnick: Dream Boogie

[Swinger]

Returning to this one after about 40 years! Yes, it's true what they say - it's a classic!

It's a real classic for sure!

[alankin]

Returning to this one after about 40 years! Yes, it's true what they say - it's a classic!

It's a real classic for sure!

And remarkably prescient about the advertisement industry culture!

[Bright Moments]

the girl who kiscked the hornets' nest

[Brad]

Just started reading the White Tiger, for my book club

[jazzbo]

A Cornell Woolrich novel (written under one of his pseudonyms).

[ejp626]

Just started reading the White Tiger, for my book club

That's a good one, though I actually thought Between the Assassinations (by the same author) was better. Something to look for later perhaps.

[alankin]

[paul secor]

Ulysses in Paris, a pre-publication excerpt from Sylvia Beach's memoir, Shakespeare and Company.

Picked this up in a local book shop - makes me want to read the whole of Shakespeare and Company plus the edition of Sylvia Beach's letters that was published recently.

[Jazzmoose]

Pheonix by Richard Cowper. I read his book Clone back in high school and swore I'd try something else by him someday. Thirty-seven years later...

[Brad]

Just started reading the White Tiger, for my book club

That's a good one, though I actually thought Between the Assassinations (by the same author) was better. Something to look for later perhaps.

It almost reminds me of the picaresque type of books that I read back in college. Kind of like Lazarillo de Tormes. Regardless it paints a less than flattering portrait of modern India.

[B. Goren.]

[BruceH]

Returning to this one after about 40 years! Yes, it's true what they say - it's a classic!

It's a real classic for sure!

And remarkably prescient about the advertisement industry culture!

And the Supreme Court is trying it's best to make the book come completely true.

I must say, though, when it comes to SF, Penguin has a real thing for dull, drab, rather ugly, and utterly boring covers.

[BillF]

Returning to this one after about 40 years! Yes, it's true what they say - it's a classic!

It's a real classic for sure!

And remarkably prescient about the advertisement industry culture!

And the Supreme Court is trying it's best to make the book come completely true.

I must say, though, when it comes to SF, Penguin has a real thing for dull, drab, rather ugly, and utterly boring covers.

I couldn't find an image of the cover of the 1984 Penguin which I have. It's somewhere between Giorgio De Chirico and a Maidenform bra ad!

[Jazzmoose]

I must say, though, when it comes to SF, Penguin has a real thing for dull, drab, rather ugly, and utterly boring covers.

British SF books in general seem to have incredibly boring covers, at least from what I've seen.

[BruceH]

I must say, though, when it comes to SF, Penguin has a real thing for dull, drab, rather ugly, and utterly boring covers.

British SF books in general seem to have incredibly boring covers, at least from what I've seen.

I wonder why that is?

[Jazzmoose]

Probably the food...

[BillF]

Boring culture?

EDIT: With the exception of Tubby Hayes and Victor Feldman, of course!

Edited June 8, 2010 by BillF

[Jazzmoose]

Boring culture?

Nah, can't be that; what about Aldiss, Brunner, Ballard....okay, maybe depressing culture.

[BillF]

Boring culture?

Nah, can't be that; what about Aldiss, Brunner, Ballard....okay, maybe depressing culture.

It's the rain, you know.