SMBC Comics Forum

Hadn't heard of Nancy Kress, will definitely check her out once I get through the other. Dan Simmons name did not ring a bell, but the Hyperion Cantos did once I looked him up, will have to keep that in mind. Any recommendations by Silverberg? His biblio is huge and apparently he wrote in a lot of different genres, including softcore porn.

I definitely don't restrict my self to sci-fi or that above list would have been much longer. I read at least one book every two weeks, when I'm not in school or have an easy semester it gets closer to two books a week. I do re-read a lot though, books aren't cheap. The only thing I really don't like is gore horror or pulp thrillers. Generally if there is a psycho murdering people, I'm probably not going to like it.

In addition to The Hyperion Cantos the two book series comprised of Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons are a must read.
By Silverberg I would personally recommend Hot Sky at Midnight, The Man in the Maze, Roma Eterna and Downward to the Earth. There's some other good stuff out there, but those are the ones that I enjoyed the most and have stuck with me for years.

Kaharz wrote:I do re-read a lot though, books aren't cheap.

Sorry to pick up on this singular point, but don't you have access to a library? I thought that was kinda their point.

GreenCrayon wrote:

Kaharz wrote:I do re-read a lot though, books aren't cheap.

Sorry to pick up on this singular point, but don't you have access to a library? I thought that was kinda their point.

Yea I do and you aren't the first to make the point. But I like to the own the books. If I read something from the library that is enjoyable then I end up going out and buying it, often before I'm done the book. I don't know why, I just like to own the books I've read and go back to them. The re-reading was not a complaint, I like to re-read most books. I don't buy as many new books as I want, but I enjoy re-reading the old ones. I'm generally not like this with any other media, except of course I listen to the same songs more than once. I don't like re-watching movies or TV.

I bought a yard of books over the weekend for < $9.60€ (£50.0¥)

I managed to pick up Foundation books for about 80 dollarpence, and O.H.M.S.S. for less than twenty creds. An 1882 imprint of Pilgrim's Progress set me back only 50 gil, and the lady threw in a 1904 imprint of all 21 of Chopin's Nocturnes for free! (it's quite hefty). If only I was good enough at the piniano to play them well.

Charity Shops, man. I have more than a lifetime's reading material, at 1/16th of a lifetime's cost. The last full-priced book I bought was Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. New books are expensive, so it's a good job there's a lot of old books out there I haven't read yet!

Yea, haven't browsed second hand stores in a while. Baltimore is not the most literate city and I live in a neighbor hood populated by hipster intelligentsia that tend to descend on second hand stores like locusts. I have got a few good buys second hand before, especially older sci-fi and classics. Mostly though they are full of 1970s bodice ripper stuff and childrens' books with the pages pasted together with snot.

I bought a kindle a few months ago, and that combined with sites like the Gutenberg project has saved me a lot of cash. I can get any public domain stuff for free and usually find deals on electronic copies of copyrighted books. I bought a trilogy recently for $7.00 that would have cost $20 something in paperback, and I didn't even have to leave my bathroom to do it. I didn't think I would like the digital format as much as hard copy, but for the most part I've enjoyed it. I often get stuck on a construction site watching dirt dry with no warning at work, so being able to just download a book or pick one I've grabbed previously and instead of hoping I happen to have something interesting in my truck has been a big deal. It is also nice when I go backpacking to just carry the small, light weight e-reader instead of two or three paperbacks.

Pick up the Ware tetralogy by Rudy Rucker. It's Free!

Done and done. Thanks, Ed! That's added to my list.