Which book(s) left a lasting impression on you?
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Same, honestly. I think it was from the moment I got it in the afternoon at school all the way til past bed time.
I know Orson Scott Card is persona non grata these days, but his sci-fi is still some of the best for my money. His short story collections, the Maps in a Mirror series, are great stuff and would be a goldmine for screenplay writers.
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So much impact for so short a story. Great pick!
wrote on last edited by [email protected]::: spoiler spoiler
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Is that the one where the boy just up and decides to go live in a tree up in the Caskills and ends up with a pet falcon, or is that the one where the kid is stranded in the woods in a plane crash? I read those two books around the same time in later middle school and I think they ran together in my brain.
Plane crash
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Gave me fresh perspective on the state of America
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Learning Perl, 2nd edition
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Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they're funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry's view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
Going to add Dark Money to my reading list. Thanks!
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All Quiet on the Western Front
Tells you everything you need to know about war. First book which made me cry. Everybody should read it.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]That book is partly why I oppose all war. The film Netflix produced of it a few years ago is pretty amazing too. The cinematography is almost too beautiful given the subject matter.
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Definitely not the bible. That shit is unreadable.
Also kind of annoying how God keeps doing awful things but is never cast as the bad guy.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Witness.
(Not the book name, but if you've read the book, good on you).
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Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.
The main character’s reflection on his past and continuation of growth really resonates with me.
I flew through all the Mistborn novels recently, and I started The Stormlight Archive a little while back. I'm on the second book now and loving it. Really looking forward to all the rest!
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Fear of Small Numbers, by Arjun Appadurai
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Learning Perl, 2nd edition
There's therapy for that.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Enders game a it was the only novel I had finished in my life. Took me 3 years but disabilities like ADHD is horrible for me. I can read pretty well but any books like novels just can't do it. Also with aphantasia it gets even worse.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
The Lord of The Rings. This book changed reading for me. I always enjoyed fantastical themes, but this one really got me. Then, I found out there was more. More background, more world building, more why.
I've never turned back. I re read it occasionally and I've read much of Tolkien's other works. Next on the list is to begin working through The History of Middle Earth. I will be starting this in the fall. It may take me quite some time to get through.
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I flew through all the Mistborn novels recently, and I started The Stormlight Archive a little while back. I'm on the second book now and loving it. Really looking forward to all the rest!
Highly recommend sneaking in Warbreaker before you finish Words of Radiance if possible.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Grew up seeing it on the bookshelf and thought it was a horror book. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in book form.
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His Dark Materials
Singularity Sky (and its sequel, Iron Sunrise)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (a fanfiction novel that is far better than the original series)
What If (and What If 2, by Randall Munroe)
The Planiverse
The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Society After an Apocalypse
Sophie's World
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy
If you liked Stross's general style, I would also recomend the Merchant Princes (universe hopping smugglers/spies/couriers) and the Laundry Files (co.puter scientists and mathematicians as civil servants fighting against the occult)
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Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Gave me fresh perspective on the state of America
Foundation is great, have you also read the Empire trilogy? Also after reading Empire + Foundation you should read The end of Eternity, it's an amazing book whose impact is only felt if you've read the other books.
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Such a good book, I too went on a tear through his work after Fight Club and I think this and Choke are fighting for my top spot.
I don't think Choke is as good myself. Still a good read but Survivor has stayed with with more in the years since.
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Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer
It isn't just sci-fi, there's a lot of coming to terms with your limited amount of human influence on your environment and life, that there unknowns that will always be unknown, and that's ok, we're no different than the gains of sand by the lighthouse, as subject to nature as the grass, or birds.
There are also clones of people that have to come to terms with their identity as to what they are, even if they themselves don't fully understand it, and can't.
The universe is bigger than you, and your scope is limited, but that's ok. Find wherever you fit and try to find purpose in the chaos.
