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San Francisco, 5:25 PM
Mon Nov 30
21 posts in the last 24 hours

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    The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them

    One Author's List Of Quite Possibly Essential Science Fiction Includes William Gibson — And Event Horizon

    Your Personality Is Being Rewritten On The Fly
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    Image of ♠ Final ♠ ♠ Final ♠
    10/25/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    1984
    The World that Jones Made
    Stranger in a Strange Land.
    Flow My Tears the Policeman Said #books
     Reply
    ♠ Final ♠ was starred ♠ Final ♠ was unstarred
    Image of gorehound gorehound
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    there are a tone of books i like to or will read again and again.
    to many to mention as i own a huge amount of good ole paper based books...like around 1100 plus 150 or so pulps
    1.My WW2 Stalingrad books...will read em many times.they are very detailed....see leapinghorsemen books and i own more

    2.dune books
    3.LOTR
    4.Foundation Trilogy
    i can keep on going on.books are great entertainment and better than most films or tv shows out #books
     Reply
    gorehound was starred gorehound was unstarred
    Image of ovenmitt ovenmitt
    10/23/09

    @gorehound: My husband is sitting ten feet away from me reading Dune. His whole life he'd only known the movie, until I bet him a hundred bucks that he couldn't finish the book. It will be the best money I've ever lost. #books
     Reply
    MISS MERCY STREET promoted this comment ovenmitt was starred ovenmitt was unstarred
    Image of Smeagol92055 Smeagol92055
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    The last book that really stuck with me was Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World.

    Before that it was The Road.

    Before that it was Battlefield Earth (for reasons to horrible to go into here,) and before that... Marienbad My Love. *shudder* #books
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 was starred Smeagol92055 was unstarred
    Image of EBone EBone
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    A Canticle for Leibowitz #books
     Reply
    EBone was starred EBone was unstarred
    Image of limber limber
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    "Neverwhere" sneaks up on me sometimes. Messrs Croup and Vandemar's descriptive little passages, mostly.

    Oh, and "His Dark Materials". Marzipan and lights turning on in houses, and the minutiae of omelet-making, and frost on cola bottles.

    And in "Bel Canto", the moment when everything happens all at once. There's a single line of dialogue that's so perfect that it gives me shivers just thinking about it. It's the entire book, in that one line.
     Reply
    Edited by limber at 10/23/09 11:22 AM limber was starred limber was unstarred
    Image of Chuck Chuck
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    Keith Laumer's "Retief" stories have stuck with me for ages...

    I find it hard to watch any diplomatic news without thinking of the CDT's "Ritual Grimacing" or characters like "Ambassador Grossblunder" #books
     Reply
    Chuck was starred Chuck was unstarred
    Image of Chuck Chuck
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    It isn't always the best stuff that sticks with me. A recent example of that is I'm fairly fond of Iain (M.) Banks' science fiction, and not so much his non-sci fi, but the one I have trouble shaking is "The Wasp Factory", which I pretty much detested... #books
     Reply
    Chuck was starred Chuck was unstarred
    Image of larry_832 larry_832
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke. I first read it when I was 8 years old, and it has had more of an influence on me than any book I have ever read. Still in my top 5 favorite books of all time. The rest are:
    Dune, Frank Herbert
    Ilium/Olympos, Dan Simmons
    Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
    Startide Rising, David Brin

    Paradigm shifters, all #books
     Reply
    MISS MERCY STREET promoted this comment larry_832 was starred larry_832 was unstarred
    Image of Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    Also, flame me if you must, but I think of Roland leaving a trail of bodies through the town Tull at the oddest moments. It's an image I can't get out of my mind. #books
     Reply
    Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. was starred Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. was unstarred
    Image of jeremyhardin000 jeremyhardin000
    10/23/09

    @Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.: I agree with you. I am rereading the Dark Tower Series right now, I am on the final book. This series will always stick with me. Ka is a wheel.
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 promoted this comment jeremyhardin000 was starred jeremyhardin000 was unstarred
    Image of NorthernWhistle NorthernWhistle
    10/23/09

    @Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.: I got you. The Dark Tower series is one where bits of language and certain images are almost viscerally inscribed in my mind. It's not that the themes or storyline of the books themselves were necessarily so life-changing (at least for me), but there are certain phrases and scenes that remain just incredibly vivid to me. #books
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 promoted this comment NorthernWhistle was starred NorthernWhistle was unstarred
    Image of Smeagol92055 Smeagol92055
    10/23/09

    @Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.: Ah, yes, the Gunslinger Mescaline shootout scene. That one stuck with me, but not as much as Jake dropping out of sight while saying "Go then; there are other worlds than these."

    That line still gives me shivers sometimes. #books
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 was starred Smeagol92055 was unstarred
    Image of therewasadoor therewasadoor
    10/23/09

    @Smeagol92055: I love that line!
    That, and another from the Dark Tower books: "Ultimately, of course, there was a door."
    Along with a quote from Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale -
    "I have been to another world and come back. Listen to me." - they are three lines that pretty much sum up why I read and watch SF. #books
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 promoted this comment therewasadoor was starred therewasadoor was unstarred
    Image of FrankN.Stein FrankN.Stein
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    quite obvious lookig at my nick and avatar - 1984 and Frankenstein.
     Reply
    Chuck promoted this comment Edited by FrankN.Stein at 10/23/09 10:21 AM FrankN.Stein was starred FrankN.Stein was unstarred
    Image of Chuck Chuck
    10/23/09

    @FrankN.Stein: I must have been assigned to read 1984 at least four times in school, and never did make it through it. On the flip side, "Down and Out in London and Paris" was brilliant... #books
     Reply
    Chuck was starred Chuck was unstarred
    Image of ExtensionOfBob ExtensionOfBob
    10/23/09

    @Chuck: I never got assigned 1984 but I read it my senior year when my AP English teacher recommended we read other books from the time period we would have to write about on the AP test, so I read 1984 as a relief from the [crap] she made us read and it became one of my favorite books. (I also love Down and Out.) #books
     Reply
    Chuck promoted this comment ExtensionOfBob was starred ExtensionOfBob was unstarred
    Image of Chuck Chuck
    10/26/09

    @ExtensionOfBob: I was quite the polarity responder as a teenager -- I'd have probably read it and enjoyed it if they hadn't told me I had to :-) #books
     Reply
    Chuck was starred Chuck was unstarred
    Image of Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    Slaughter House 5 #books
     Reply
    Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. was starred Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny. was unstarred
    Image of ManchuCandidate ManchuCandidate
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    SF books that haunt me still:
    Starship Troopers
    The Forever War
    The War Against the Chtorr Series
    Make Room! Make Room!
    I Am Legend #books
     Reply
    ManchuCandidate was starred ManchuCandidate was unstarred
    Image of LittleDragon LittleDragon
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    There are so many but one that comes to mind right now is Good Omens. God does not play dice with the world and Earth is a Libra. #books
     Reply
    LittleDragon was starred LittleDragon was unstarred
    Image of RandomFrequentFlierDent RandomFrequentFlierDent
    10/23/09

    @LittleDragon: I've found a lot of Terry Prachett's novels umm . . . I guess you could say "touching" or "moving" but that doesn't really cover it. I really like his view of the world and what he thinks of people. I find that especially with his more recent books they always get me thinking as well and laughing. #books
     Reply
    RandomFrequentFlierDent was starred RandomFrequentFlierDent was unstarred
    Image of LittleDragon LittleDragon
    10/23/09

    @RandomFrequentFlierDent: Prachett has the effect. I gave my mom two of his books, ended up having to buy all of them for her. Him and Gaiman working together or apart are amazing. #books
     Reply
    LittleDragon was starred LittleDragon was unstarred
    Image of Mount_Prion Mount_Prion
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    Yeah, Gravity's Rainbow is without a doubt the book that I understand least but think about most. #books
     Reply
    Mount_Prion was starred Mount_Prion was unstarred
    Image of AmishJohn AmishJohn
    10/23/09

    In reply to The Books That Stick With You Long After You Read Them
    There are too many for me to name; by definition, almost any I could name would be because they 'stick with me'. Even the awefully awful ones serve as a warning to 'Stay Away'. That said, I cut my first SF teeth on 'Doc' Smith's Galactic Patrol and Heinliein's Starship Troopers. Since then there have been additions from Sector General to the Honorverse, from Amber to Dune. Each serves to color those which came before, and those that come after. #books
     Reply
    AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred
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