The best thing I found in those letters I've mentioned here and here, is a list I made in January 1961 of my twenty favorite SF books. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.) I make no apologies for this list. I still love those books, even #6, Hunters out of Time, which isn't strictly a book but a novel that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1959. Number 9, Starship Soldier, is obviously a reference to the serial version that appeared in F&SF, and I probably hadn't read the novel version in 1961. You'll notice there's a lot of Heinlein on the list. I was obviously a big fan. You might also notice that there are several short story colections on the list. I came to SF reading through short stories, and I read a ton of them. There's one book on the list that I don't remember at all: Harlan Ellison's The Man with 9 Lives. I must have liked it a lot since I put it on the list, and it's embarrassing to me that I have no memory of it. I have a copy, so I'll have to check it out.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Top Twenty
The best thing I found in those letters I've mentioned here and here, is a list I made in January 1961 of my twenty favorite SF books. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.) I make no apologies for this list. I still love those books, even #6, Hunters out of Time, which isn't strictly a book but a novel that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1959. Number 9, Starship Soldier, is obviously a reference to the serial version that appeared in F&SF, and I probably hadn't read the novel version in 1961. You'll notice there's a lot of Heinlein on the list. I was obviously a big fan. You might also notice that there are several short story colections on the list. I came to SF reading through short stories, and I read a ton of them. There's one book on the list that I don't remember at all: Harlan Ellison's The Man with 9 Lives. I must have liked it a lot since I put it on the list, and it's embarrassing to me that I have no memory of it. I have a copy, so I'll have to check it out.
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4 comments:
I haven't read Heinlein's older titles, but I sure enjoyed his later books.
I was born in 1941 and read all of those books in the 50s. I think I liked Russell the best.
I think Ellison's Man with Nine Lives was part of an Ace Double, but I can't remember anything else about.
I had a book a day habit for most of my life, so memories of books get buried.
Heinlein's Door Into Summer I consider one of his lesser books. But the image of the cat looking for the door into summer is a great one. I have had quite a few cats that did that.
Rick Brooks
You and I are the same age, Rick. I still like most of those writers, and I've re-read some of the books in my adulthood and enjoyed them. Eric Frank Russell remains a favorite, and I've read a lot of his short stories in recent years.
THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES was also an AMAZING novella, published by Cele Goldsmith under another title I'm too tired and lazy to look up right now, before making its way into the Ace Double you have and Rick remembers.
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