Books I've Really Loved
I came across a blog post by a Tolkien fanfiction friend of mine, Barb, that had a banner at the top saying: "100 Things Blog Challenge". I asked her about it and she sent me to the Live Journal page that explains it - http://100things-index.livejournal.com/. You are supposed to choose one subject and do 100 blogs about that one subject. She is doing "Creativity".
Well, I couldn't subject you to that.
Barb also told me that many people will divide their 100 posts amoung four, five, or ten different subjects.
I may do that.
For now, I'm using the idea lists others have posted to spur my thinking for this blog. I'm starting with Books I've Loved.
Oddly enough, I'm not starting with what many who know me would think is the obvious choice, something by J.R.R.Tolkien. I'm starting with a book written by the famous science fiction author, Isaac Asimov - "Pebble In The Sky." It was his first novel, published in 1950, four years before I was born.
It was one of the first scifi novels I read and it is still my favorite. "Pebble In The Sky" is a time travel story involving an Earth that has been ravaged by a nuclear holocost, which was a huge concern back in the Cold War era. The main character isn't young, isn't sexy, isn't your typical hero. He's Joseph Schwartz, a stout, gray-haired retired tailor living in Chicago. For me that was, and still is, part of the charm of the book. The person you come to care the most about is just an average guy. There is a young, good looking couple as well who provide romantic interest, but they are secondary to Joseph.
The story has a lot of depth and will get you thinking without being preachy or feeling like an academic lecture.
Somewhere in all the moves we've made over the years, I've lost my paperback copy of "Pebble In The Sky". Today, when I'm done writing this, I'm buying it for my kindle.
I hope you'll get it and take a trip both backward and forward in time.
Do you like science fiction? Have you read scifi or only watched movies and TV shows? What's your favorite scifi story?
A public domain image of the cover of the book.
I confess to not being a sci-fi lover. I've always felt oddly out of whack when I experience the movies. This is interesting because of your love for the book. I hope it encourages those who do love sci-fi to read. A fellow PenandPaper member.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Lucy, for reading my blog and commenting!
DeleteYou have a good point. I think a lot of people think of scifi as only TV and movies and don't realize there are often great books behind them.
I will admit, I don't like much of the newer scifi because it gets too vulgar and often is a poorly disguised diatribe against religion. But some of the older stuff is excellent.