Top 10 Fiction in 2011
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… and I haven’t read any of them.
Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books
Over 60,000 people voted and NPR has posted the results for the Top 100 Science-Fiction & Fantasy books.
Here’s a preview:
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- Ender’s Game
- The Dune Chronicles
- The A Song of Ice and Fire Series
- 1984
- Fahrenheit 451
- The Foundation Trilogy
- Brave New World
- American Gods
Some of my all-time favorite books and series were listed in the Top 10, so I am pretty happy with this list. Here’s the FULL ARTICLE
Top 10 Books for High School (and beyond)
In this article from the TODAY show, Jennifer Worick gives us a great list of books that we should have read in high school and why.
The list includes:
Saving our books
Brewster Kahle is famous for founding the Internet Archive, which saves a monthly copy of all websites, is now saving our books as well. In an article for CBC News, Kahle discusses how he has already collected more than 500,000 books and is ready for more.
A new Dark Tower novel?
Cemetary Dance was kind enough to notify me of something that I had no idea about. Apparently, Stephen King is writing another Dark Tower novel.
Here’s what their email told me:
Stephen King’s brand new DARK TOWER novel has officially been announced!
King wrote THE DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE because he realized
he had at least one more story to tell:
“I realized there was at least one hole in the narrative progression: what
happened to Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy between the time they
leave the Emerald City (the end of Wizard and Glass) and the time we pick
them up again, on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the beginning of
Wolves of the Calla)?
There was a storm, I decided. One of sudden and vicious intensity. The kind
to which billy-bumblers like Oy are particularly susceptible. Little by
little, a story began to take shape. I saw a line of riders, one of them
Roland’s old mate, Jamie DeCurry, emerging from clouds of alkali dust thrown
by a high wind. I saw a severed head on a fencepost. I saw a swamp full of
dangers and terrors. I saw just enough to want to see the rest…”
More of the article can be found here: http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/PROD/o_king77 I can’t wait to read it!
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Fantasy Series
I started reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin after watching the amazing HBO series based on the first book, Game of Thrones.
Sometimes I love, but most times I hate getting into these huge series. I’ve read all the Dark Tower, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Alex Rider books to name a few, but I try to steer clear of them because I often switch gears unexpectedly and get torn between finishing a series or starting a new adventure.
A Song of Ice and Fire is no joke. So far, 5 of 7 books have been written and they average over 850 pages each. These books have become very popular, thanks to HBO, and have other people thinking about the length as well. That’s why some people over at Gamma Squad (never been to their site) have devised this cool little chart to put A Song of Ice and Fire into perspective.
Have you read any of the series or started to read them?
Technology, Society, and Culture
One of my favorite classes in college was called Technology, Society, and Culture. It was a bit of a history class that showed how technology has made an impact on society and culture. This interest in technology’s impact still lingers with me today.
Recently, I’ve been reading books that use modern technology. I’ve been highly impressed by what I’ve found and plan to continue reading these books (usually sci-fi) for awhile. Here’s a sample of what I’ve been reading.
Ender's Game
Ender’s Game has been voted by many on Good Reads as the greatest science fiction book of all time. It has won Hugo and Nebula awards. However, it took me a long time to get into this novel. My wife had taught Ender’s Game to her students when she was teaching Middle School English and didn’t care for it much. There were two strikes against the book before I even knew what it was about.
Since then, I’ve seen Ender’s Game made into a comic book adaptation from Marvel and noticed it on the top of the Sci-Fi list on Good Reads. I felt kinda crummy about not reading the book when I was in middle school, but I’m not stranger to being an adult reading books written for a younger audience. So, I picked up Ender’s Game on my iPad and had a hard time putting it down.
If you haven’t heard of the book, here’s a quick summary. The government trains child geniuses to become the next war heroes with special schools and video games. They are afraid of an alien attack that almost wiped us out many years ago. Ender Wiggin is an exceptional student soldier and must battle his own coming of age while dealing with the hardships of the training and memories of an evil older brother.
I highly recommend reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. 5 of 5 Stars | MORE | BUY
The next book on my science fiction journey was another classic that also ranks highly on the aforementioned Good Reads list. It was
Neuromancer
amazing for me to see how much of The Matrix was obviously inspired by William Gibson’s Neuromancer. The novel was the first to win sci-fi’s triple crown (Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards). It was first published in 1984 and coined the term “Cyberspace.” It has also been credited for starting the Cyber-Punk phenomenon.
Neuromancer moved at a slower pace than Ender’s Game, but was very good. It’s hard for me to describe the novel, but most of it revolves around a man named Casey who is a hacker mercenary of sorts who is working on a mysterious project for someone he can’t seem to figure out. The book is intriguing, especially given the date it was written, and I recommend it for anyone who is interested in computers, hacking, or cyber-punk. 4 of 5 Stars | MORE | BUY
Lastly, I’d like to mention the book I’m currently reading. It’s newer than the previous books in this post, but I have a feeling that it will also be considered a classic one day. Daemon has elements of science fiction, horror, and mystery wrapped up in a technological thriller that is right for today’s world of cloud computing and information security issues. I’m really enjoying each night as I return to the story. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of outside influences making me sleepy before I even get around to opening the book, so it has taken me a few weeks to read. Without knowing what happens in the last 1/5 of the book, I’m ready to give Daemon by Daniel Suarez 4 of 5 Stars | MORE | BUY . Basically, this is a book about a game programmer who has created some incredibly dangerous programs to launch upon the notice of his death and hacks society into helping.
It’s interesting for me to see how fiction writers are imagining the future world and how we interact with technology. If you share a similar interest, these books are a great way to indulge in it.
Daemon
Sonny Barger’s Books
For those of you who don’t know, Sonny Barger is an American Legend. Opinions vary on if he’s a good or bad legend, but there’s no doubt that he’s a legend. Sonny is most known for being a Hell’s Angel. He’s not just a Hell’s Angel, he’s the Hell’s Angel. However, he’s also an author and an expert on motorcycles and riding. I’ve recently read 5 of his books and loved each of them.
Hell’s Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club is an autobiography that gets you behind the doors of the life of an infamous biker and the most famous motorcycle club in the world. There are two sides to every coin and at least as many to every event. This book does a great job of sharing his side.
Freedom: Credos from the Road is less about the events in Sonny’s life and more about what he stands for. Freedom is a term used by many people, often with different meanings. Here you’ll learn what it means to him.
Ridin’ High Livin’ Free is a collection of stories from motorcycle riders around the world. While I doubt they’re all truly factual, the stories are still fun to read.
Let’s Ride: Sonny Barger’s Guide to Motorcycling – is where I started reading Sonny’s work. This book covers many good-to-know things about motorcycles and riding. This book answered a lot of questions I didn’t know I would have about riding.
Dead in 5 Heartbeats is the only piece of cover-to-cover fiction from this list. I say that because some of the previous titles may have included a few tall tales. This book is about a man, not so different from Sonny Barger, as he tries to leave the 1% MC culture he was so much a part of in the past, only to get reeled back in under unfortunate circumstances.
If you like motorcycles or are curious about the culture within an outlaw motorcycle club I recommend checking out Sonny’s books. They’ll give you a perspective that popular documentaries and other media won’t show you.
2010 Book Bawk Year in Review
I read 38 books last year. I didn’t make my goal of a book per week, but I’m still pretty proud of 38. Reading is still my biggest hobby. It might not always be the one I enjoy the most, but it is the one that I spend the most time with and the one that I keep coming back to .
At the start of the year, I finished off the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I recommend these books to anyone who enjoys Greek Mythology. The books offer a different approach to learning about the myths. They might not all be correct, but the books make learning about the myths fun. After Percy, I quickly read a couple of non-fiction books that I would recommend to most people. Around this same time, I created Book Bawk and wrote posts about them. You may find them here (Linchpin and Crush It).
In March, I started reading one of my favorite series, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Since reading this series, I’ve convinced my wife, brother, mother, and father-in-law to read the series and they all loved it. Around the same time, I read On Writing and Blockade Billy by Stephen King. On Writing should be required reading for anyone who is interested in writing novels or even writing blogs. At the end of the month, I was welcomed to the world of Stieg Larsson and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I enjoyed The Millennium Series, but sadly only read the first book. I turned to the films for the rest of Lisbeth’s adventures.
In the late spring, I got hooked on Star Wars again. It happens from time to time, but this time it included the Star Wars books. I really enjoyed Drew Karpyshyn’s books about Darth Bane (start with Path of Destruction). I also read an amazing classic novel that I wrote about HERE. I’m happy to see that many schools add Alas, Babylon to their reading lists. Once my passion for Star Wars diminished, I got back into the Narnia books by the master, C.S. Lewis. I wrote a post about my adventures in Narnia HERE. From there, my excitement for Norse Mythology was re-kindled while I read a great book by Kevin Crossley-Holland and jumped into The Sea of Trolls.
In the Summer, I finally got around to reading Donald Miller and I’m forever changed because of his writing. He writes a bit of Christian non-fiction, but it’s not preachy. I posted an article about how he can change a person’s life. I also found the value of Trust Agents thanks to Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. I read a bit more on Mythology thanks to Edith Hamilton and found Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde after it had sat on my to-read list for many years. Thank you Robert Lewis Stevenson for this masterpiece.
The slowdown in reading during the summer came with a general stoppage of writing in the fall and winter. I apologize for letting this blog go stagnant.
With the changing leaves in the fall came a resurrection of my passion for motorcycles. I still don’t own one, but I am ever so much closer and have a plan to rectify the situation. This passion for motorcycles was present in my choices of literature for the fall and winter as well. I really got into Sonny Barger‘s books. I read Let’s Ride, Hell’s Angel, Freedom, Ridin’ High Livin’ Free, and Dead in 5 Heartbeats (the only fictional one). I’ll recommend these books to anyone who loves motorcycles or the motorcycle club culture. I also picked up a book titled Shop Class as Soulcraft. It was an amazing book about philosophy that really got me thinking differently about life and my choice of careers. Pick up this book, but be warned that you may spend a few hours re-evaluating a lot of things in your life while reading it.
2011 made it here in a blur and I have yet to complete an entire book. Currently I am in the process of finishing 7 different titles. This means I’ll probably never finish a few of them. Here’s what’s on my iPad now, The 4-Hour Work Week, Enter the Kettlebell!, Neuromancer, Riders of the Purple Sage, In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks, The Land of the Silver Apples, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I’ll probably finish the 4-Hour Work Week first and pick up the 4-Hour Body because I am really enjoying the teachings of Tim Ferriss. He was recommended to me by the CEO of Tupperware Brands and I’m more than happy with his pick.
I’ll end this post with the blog’s stats, because they are the most boring (except to me). We finished the year with 2,425 views to our site. Our busiest day was April 19th, were we had 75 views. Most of them were for our most popular post, which was Favorite Books of Celebrities. The post had 456 views last year, thanks to being mentioned on NataliePortman.com. Thank you to everyone who read our blog in the past and to all of you who are reading it now. Without an audience, we’d simply be a journal.
Levi Muller
War Over Pizza
