Martin, what about something like Ringworld? The first book came out in 1970 and I still consider that new, do you? No wrong answer, of course, I am just curious.

Like Lord of the Flies- it's like a time capsule.

I do not re-read that much, I really like to but I have about 200 books I have not read (i am not kidding, 150 star wars paperback novels and the rest are either big paperbacks like my cherished Penguin TN books and hardbacks like the Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul)

I am a big fan of British writers (Fforde, Adams, Rowling) I have been re-reading the first Hitchiker's Guide (by some freak of nature I have not read the other four yet, even though I own them)

And even though I just read TN I am starting the read LIAGB again. Harry Potter because I have only read some of them once when they came out and barely remember some of them.

I wish I could say Terry Pratchett because the Discworld novels ROCK But I am still working my way through the saga for the first time! (being 16 and being relativly new to the greats like Pratchett and Fforde has its ups and downs)

OC Not: True enough, but then it has not really dated. Things set either far enough in the future, or at a nebulous time in the future do not date as badly.

Even 20000 Laegues has dated well, simply because he was not making predictions about the future, but talking about something at about that time (1800 and something).

I am thinking more of stuff that has us with flying cars in 2010 for example. Or if the science in it is really, really bad and/or out of date, like befalls much 50s writing.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

HI - newbie here!

I'm a huge rereader...which is an anathema to one of my friends, who can't understand why I would want to reread at all!!

Aside from the Fforde books, I reread the Brontes (JE and WH) regularly, J G Ballard (esp his short stories - brilliant), Philip K Dick (his books are like a comfy old sock for me...reassuring in their nutiness), Hardy (Tess/FFTMC - even JTO!!) and Dickens - particularly GE and DC. Around Christmastime I like to reread A Christmas Carol too...gets me in the Yuletide mood. A book I reread immediately after finishing it recently was 'A Factory of Cunning' by Philipa Stockley...what a great book, I would definitely recommend.

Dick. Very odd stories on the whole....

I like a lot of his stuff....

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I've read nearly all of his ouvre, but I have problems with books like Valis and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - I find them very difficult.

Welcome Mrs! Enjoy the fforum!

I must admit I have only read Electric Sheep but I liked it very much...

"Often people claim to remember past lives; I claim to remember a different, very different, present life, I know of no one who has ever made that claim before, but I rather suspect that my experience is not unique; what perhaps is unique is the fact that I am willing to talk about it"
-from a speech given by Philip K. Dick

His stories are among the most paranoid I've ever encountered, very compelling reading-
you've just made me get out my copy of his biography:
I AM ALIVE & YOU ARE DEAD: A JOURNEY INTO THE MIND OF PHILIP K. DICK...

Forgot that I had it & haven't read it yet- the disadvantage to having overloaded bookcases-
now I'll have to read it soon (after I get through the latest batch of books from the library)...

HI! I think there is also a new book out about him which are transcripts of interviews he gave about each book, a lot of religious themes are present.

Actually, in a kind of skewed version of 'book jumping', Philip K Dick in his short stories definitely mooted the idea that Sci-fi writers like him and Pohl Andersen were time travellers who had been to the future and were just writing or 'channelling' what they had experienced.

His best books IMO are The Man In The High Castle (about what would've happened if WW2 had a different outcome - thirty years before 'Fatherland'), Ubik (about cryopreservation and half life), A Maze of Death (can't explain what happens without giving the plot away) and Time Out Of Joint (kind of like Groundhog Day) and of course Do Androids....Ridley Scott did encapsulate the 'Dickian' world very well with Blade Runner, IMO.

I disagree with Bunyip about Golding too, and I'm not a big P.K.D. fan - hadn't realised he was living quite such an alternative reality though!

I re-read all my favourite books whenever I feel inclined, as I think if I like them enough to make them my favourites, they're good enough to re-read and probably deep enough that I'll find more in them every time I read them again. It's also an interesting reflection on how I change, seeing which ones I like less, which more and which just as much on another reading.

Very hard to say which are my absolute favourites though. Have you ever tried to list your favourite 50 books? It's quite difficult, and the problem comes not in naming 50 favourite books, but in restricting your favourites to 50 and working out the order, when they all have different strengths and you like them for all sorts of reasons.

Thanks, Skidmarks. *Sits down hopefully waiting for some port*

Man in the High Castle was enjoyable.

Need to track down more of his stuff.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Knock not the flying car, my friend. 2015... We can do it yet!

Heh. This is time to quote Tom Smith again....

I Want My Flying Car -- Tom Smith.

I'm a twenty-first century man
With my twenty-first-century stuff
But my GPS and PCI-Express
Are never gonna be enough

I got a toothbrush that turns the mattress,
Got a phone that'll walk the cat
My plasma TVs record DVDs
But I don't care about that

I want my flying car
I want my flying car
I want this two-bit Dodge the hell out of my garage
Hitch my station wagon to a star
I want my flying car

They told us we'd have robots and portable fusion,
Clone our bodies so we wouldn't stay dead,
But I have to doubt 'cause it didn't come out
The way Mr. Asimov said.

My coffee brews itself every morning,
My shower cleans itself every night,
But twice a day I'm caught in a traffic knot
I'm growing older at every red light.

I want my flying car
I want my flying car
You know it just ain't fair, I wanna hit the air
Bid the street life au revoire,
I want my flying car
I want my flying car
If I make a mistake I can use my air brake,
Or grab a phone line with a spar,
I want my flying car

No more waitin' and hatin, and jerks tailgatin'
When I'm levitatin' over the town.
Parking fees wouldn't matter, I'd drop a rope ladder
Over side and climb right down.
No barrels or cones or construction zones,
No blasting radio in the next lane,
I'd put on a Stetson and make like George Jetson,
If I've got a flyin' car, I can get a girl like a
Jane!

... Jane, stop this crazy thing!

A thousand miles to the gallon,
It never rides bumpy or loud,
When the weather gets nasty, I make a real fast Z-
Postive climb through the clouds,
I never worry 'bout signs or signals,
'Cause who's gonna take me to jail?
Wait, what's that siren? Is someone else flyin'?
I got pigs on the wing on my tail.

Up in my flying car
I want my flying car
Why stay on the ground when you can drive around
In a Chevrolet Shooting Star?
I want my flying car
I want my flying car
Well, I don't care how, 'cause I'm ready now,
The future can't be that far,
I want my flying car.

Where I got it.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

A belated "Hi there", Mrs Majolica. Please forgive my bad manners and help yourself to pie.

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Hello! Mrs Majolica (I do like Majolica glaze decorations!)

I like Philip K Dick, must admit thought that The Three Stigmata of palmer Eldritch was almost impossible to understand! I like A Scanner Darkly (only been able to see the animation of that one) and Do Androids Dream of ELectronic Sheep. I was about to read Minority Report, but I decided I wasn't sure I could handle imagining Tom Cruise...






YAyayayayayayayay!

HI guys! I got the name from The League Of Gentleman...there is a very sinister character called Dr Majolica in their Christmas Special, and I just loved the name!

Minority Report is quite different to the film, it's a short story - although I thought the film wasn't too bad. We Can Remember It for You, Wholesale (Total Recall) is actually not a terrible adaptation either. I think he wrote Palmer Eldritch when he was at the height of his schizophrenic delusions, and it shows - although I reread it recently and really enjoyed it.

Welcome 'Mrs Majolica', and have some pie or cake, if they've left any.

Any recommendations on good books are recommended, although I still think LOTF is a much less good story than almost anything else mentioned. The only consolation is that it was written when sequels were not in vogue - I would hate to have Lotf 2: Revenge of Piggy, or lotf3: the attack of the killer maggots, or lotf4: the destroyer hits the reef and sinks, etc.

PKD is an interesting writer, and I think that one needs to be in a certain mental state to read him. The Game Players of Titan is sanity itself compared with some others. I enjoyed his collaboration with Roger Zelazny in 'Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming' ******* about which I have almost forgotten everything except that it is in larger format and didn't fit the bookcase wtih the others.

Might I recommend Lord Dunsany's 'The King of Elfland's Daughter'.




***** amended much later. It was Robert Sheckley not PKD who wrote this with Zelazny. I just found the book while sorting out boxes of things. My apologies to anyone who was misled.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2007 01:17AM by bunyip.

Malazan Chronicles of the Fallen anyone?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Ever read The fellowship of the sock? that wasn't bad. (Unpublished, online- from the pencil show)