Jim's Cafe - Tuesday - Sept 3, 2024 - books!

[Angie]

Hello SF lovelies! I hope today brings you good things and the night peaceful sleep!

I have a simple question today:

What is your favorite book or series of books, and why? If you have favorite books in different genres go ahead and share that too!

I look forward to discovering new books!

 

[Angie]

@Harrow @Livelife @JDot @charlietgirl @Lisa the Goatgirl @Baywasp @Acy @Sunspots @Road to Nowhere @mosaic hearts

just a few tags (help me if you would like) but remember EVERYONE is invited, tagged or not

 

[Harrow]

My favorite book is hound of the baskervilles (read it about a bazzilion times)
But honorable mentions. Catcher in the Rye, of mice and men and Dracula.
Also Les Miserables really stuck with me but don't think I'll ever read it again.

My favourite series of books hmm, I love Agatha Christie, but still have a ways to go.
Spud, which is four books (but I think because it's South African)
Inheritance Cycle, just because it meant a lot to me a teenager.

But what I've read that I think about the most, the diary of Anne Frank.

 

[Road to Nowhere]

 

[Aurelia]

 

[Atreides]

My favorite book is Dune. It's a great sci-fi and revenge tale

 

[Ash600]

Series of books would be those based on the football (soccer) team that I support be it biographies or behind the scenes accounts of trophy laden seasons.

Spy/Cold War thrillers I do tend to enjoy but as for a particular book, that would be a departure from that genre and be a toss up between Gates of Fire and Musashi.

 

[Livelife]

Women Who Run With Wolves is number 1
Then
The Outlander series

 

[AmberMarie]

Wonderful questions and idea, Thank you for opening @Angie
Favorite books of all time are "Golden Books". Children's books with fun great stories i loved as a child and enjoyed reading to my children. As an adult... i rarely have time to read books. However, when my children were teens, we loved listening to audio books due to Always being in the car... and our all time favorite has been "The Sister's Grim" series.

 

[Lisa the Ferrociraptor]

Hey @Angie, really love this question. People's favourite books can really say a lot about their personality and priorities. Thanks for opening and for tagging me.

What is your favorite book or series of books, and why? If you have favorite books in different genres go ahead and share that too!

The Metro books. The first one, 2033, being the strongest. I feel a bit embarrassed that my favourite books also got adapted into games, and that's how i first encountered them, but the books just have so much to offer that the games never could. They're a series of odyssey tales chock-full of philosophy, personal meditations on life and identity, and cosmic/existential horror. Oh, and reflections on the futility and cyclicality of the human impulse towards violence. That's a big theme of the books, which makes sense for a post-apocalypse story to get into.

I particularly love Khan's musings on how time is a purely subjective concept, because how long is a day underground, or in the void of space? What time is it on the International Space Station? Probably depends which crew member you ask. And in the station where Artyom encounters him, society operates on the same principle. One man's morning is another's afternoon, which is another's middle of the night.

The books definitely aren't everyone's cup of tea, cos they're extremely bleak in setting and plot. But for people who are down for contemplative if grim odyssey tales, i'd say they're actually some of the best out there.

 

[Livelife]

Hey @Angie, really love this question. People's favourite books can really say a lot about their personality and priorities. Thanks for opening and for tagging me.


The Metro books. The first one, 2033, being the strongest. I feel a bit embarrassed that my favourite books also got adapted into games, and that's how i first encountered them, but the books just have so much to offer that the games never could. They're a series of odyssey tales chock-full of philosophy, personal meditations on life and identity, and cosmic/existential horror.

I particularly love Khan's musings on how time is a purely subjective concept, because how long is a day underground, or in the void of space? What time is it on the International Space Station? Probably depends which crew member you ask. And in the station where Artyom encounters him, society operates on the same principle. One man's morning is another's afternoon, which is another's middle of the night.

The books definitely aren't everyone's cup of tea, cos they're extremely bleak in setting and plot. But for people who are down for contemplative if grim odyssey tales, i'd say they're actually some of the best out there.

We could talk about time concepts for days! Especially when it has to do with dimensions beyond the 3 most are aware of......there's several.....

 

[SillyOldBear]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams

 

[1Lefty]

Hi @Angie

Great topic! I used to love to read, but all I read now is the internet

My overall favorite is Das Energi, by Paul S. Williams.
It's basically his observations (in a hippie way) of the nature of humans and their relationship to God/god, each other and the modern world around them, including ecology. I've read that some passages have been used in marriage ceremonies, as well as funerals.
I've found it in book stores in the philosophy section, but also under spirituality, and self-help
I bought extra copies, I liked the messages so much that I wanted to share them

As for a series, I like the books written by Raymond Chandler, in the detective/action genre of pulp magazines from the 1940s-1950s. The character Philip Marlowe is in several of them, as a hard-boiled private eye. The plots are good, with plenty of twists and surprises. Justice wins, but only after some action (violence). They are well-written and descriptive, another writer said of him "Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence"
The movies The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, and others were based on his stories.

I've read The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings trilogy several times, also

I hope everyone has a great day!

peace

 

[Livelife]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams

I just now ordered this, can't wait to read it after reading the synopsis. Thriftb**ks had a heck of a deal too Thanks for the awareness of the book.

 

[AnHeroTransGirl]

Hello SF lovelies! I hope today brings you good things and the night peaceful sleep!

I have a simple question today:

What is your favorite book or series of books, and why? If you have favorite books in different genres go ahead and share that too!

I look forward to discovering new books!

I don't read books often but so far I really like first volume of Sailor Moon I got awhile back

 

[Aurelia]

This book had me legitimately frightened when I read it. The picture that the author paints with his words are unlike anything one could possibly imagine. He only describes the actual vision of hell for the first 50 pages or so, but 50 pages was enough to utterly terrify me.

 

[SillyOldBear]

I hope you enjoy it. @Livelife

 

[FFurry]

Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series always delivered -- more swashbuckling than you could ever swash a buckle at! 👍 Same for the various spin-offs, like Kurt Austin and the Oregon.

 

[Angie]

Watership Down is a favorite.

I think my all time favorite book/series is The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. They are an extensive read, but worth it.

In the sci/fi category, it has to be Neuromancer by William Gibson, written pre internet, it predicted the internet with chilling accuracy.

I am loving hearing all about your favorite books!

 

[Witty_Sarcasm]

I like the Chronicles of Narnia series, and that even inspired me to start my own series when I was younger. Still working on expanding that now.