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Off Topic / Book Discussion
« on: July 15, 2011, 10:11:10 PM »
Tell us about your favorite books, bad books, books with good endings, etc.
I've got a few favorites, though I generally read sci-fi because everything else either has a stuffty storyline with simplistic unimaginative plots or no good literary elements and plot devices.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
It's about a man named Billy Pilgrim who becomes unstuck in time, causing him to move around his life and experience everything that happens to him, most of the events center around his experiences in WWII. Along the way he meets an alien species that teach him about the fourth dimension, allowing him to embrace his condition. Listen: the book is loving amazing. I've read it seven times in a year because of Vonnegut's amazing satirical metaphors that point out the flaws with society, war, and some political matters. You can't live until reading this book. I can't even begin to tell you how perfect this book is.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
A young boy is recruited by the military for space-based combat against an alien species. He is forced to do many things he doesn't want to, and eventually learns the value of an individual life. The ending made me cry like a baby.
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.
This is widely regarded as THE most popular science fiction novel ever, and I found it very interesting. A man born on Mars is taken to Earth and converted to a branch of Christianity, and then experiences life on Earth to the fullest. It's hard to comprehend, but to dumb it down, we are shown the effect religion and a few other of society's elements would have on someone new to Earth, thus with an innocent mind. Wonderful read.
I'd like to write about some others like Planet of the Apes or Franz Kafka's work, but I'm eager to see what you guys like.
I've got a few favorites, though I generally read sci-fi because everything else either has a stuffty storyline with simplistic unimaginative plots or no good literary elements and plot devices.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
It's about a man named Billy Pilgrim who becomes unstuck in time, causing him to move around his life and experience everything that happens to him, most of the events center around his experiences in WWII. Along the way he meets an alien species that teach him about the fourth dimension, allowing him to embrace his condition. Listen: the book is loving amazing. I've read it seven times in a year because of Vonnegut's amazing satirical metaphors that point out the flaws with society, war, and some political matters. You can't live until reading this book. I can't even begin to tell you how perfect this book is.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
A young boy is recruited by the military for space-based combat against an alien species. He is forced to do many things he doesn't want to, and eventually learns the value of an individual life. The ending made me cry like a baby.
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.
This is widely regarded as THE most popular science fiction novel ever, and I found it very interesting. A man born on Mars is taken to Earth and converted to a branch of Christianity, and then experiences life on Earth to the fullest. It's hard to comprehend, but to dumb it down, we are shown the effect religion and a few other of society's elements would have on someone new to Earth, thus with an innocent mind. Wonderful read.
I'd like to write about some others like Planet of the Apes or Franz Kafka's work, but I'm eager to see what you guys like.