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10 books meme
Idea is, ten books that affected you somehow, don't overanalyse.
1) I am a nerd, and the 1983 "red box" Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set (published as a single volume, conventional book-size, not two thin US letter volumes in a box. Someone is going to tell me this never was printed in this form factor...) is much of the reason why I am a nerd. I borrowed it from the library in my first year of secondary school, some of my classmates had a D&D group, the rest is history.
2) The Lord of the Rings, because obvious.
3) The Happy Return, C.S. Forester. Anyone who knows me knows I think CSF is brilliant, but he also kick-started my general interest in Napoleonics and the Age of Sail.
4) The Engine Driver's Manual: How to Prepare, Fire and Drive a Steam Locomotive, Brian Topping. I think this is when I started to buy serious railway books.
5) Starship Traveller (Fighting Fantasy #4), Steve Jackson. This was the first Fighting Fantasy book I read, as it happened, and I ended up with _quite a lot_ of them.
6) Galactic Patrol, E.E. Smith. I was going to make some snide remark about "no-one said they had to be good", but the Lensman books are Smith on his best form - his earlier stuff's too obvious, his later stuff a desperate attempt to sex things up in response to the New Wave - he was good at what he did, and I was young. I have a diary with "baby's first fanfic" in; I must have read EES at a _very_ tender age.
7) We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Arthur Ransome. Of the Swallows and Amazons books, this is my favourite; set in the "real" world of the stories (two of the books, Peter Duck and Missee Lee, are fictional inside the fictional context, if that makes sense) but the most dramatic of those.
8) The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula LeGuin. It's hard to remember, of course, but I think this is one of the first SF/F books I read that wasn't straightforward but that I enjoyed anyway. Of course, LeGuin is very, very good.
9) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I am very glad I met Clarke before I read this, or I'd probably have flung myself at her feet with cries of unworthiness. Doesn't hurt that it's Napoleonics, either.
10) A complete volume of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, hence including The Premature Burial. I read this one when very young as well, and it certainly left a very lasting impression. (No-one said they had to do it in a _good_ way.)
1) I am a nerd, and the 1983 "red box" Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set (published as a single volume, conventional book-size, not two thin US letter volumes in a box. Someone is going to tell me this never was printed in this form factor...) is much of the reason why I am a nerd. I borrowed it from the library in my first year of secondary school, some of my classmates had a D&D group, the rest is history.
2) The Lord of the Rings, because obvious.
3) The Happy Return, C.S. Forester. Anyone who knows me knows I think CSF is brilliant, but he also kick-started my general interest in Napoleonics and the Age of Sail.
4) The Engine Driver's Manual: How to Prepare, Fire and Drive a Steam Locomotive, Brian Topping. I think this is when I started to buy serious railway books.
5) Starship Traveller (Fighting Fantasy #4), Steve Jackson. This was the first Fighting Fantasy book I read, as it happened, and I ended up with _quite a lot_ of them.
6) Galactic Patrol, E.E. Smith. I was going to make some snide remark about "no-one said they had to be good", but the Lensman books are Smith on his best form - his earlier stuff's too obvious, his later stuff a desperate attempt to sex things up in response to the New Wave - he was good at what he did, and I was young. I have a diary with "baby's first fanfic" in; I must have read EES at a _very_ tender age.
7) We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Arthur Ransome. Of the Swallows and Amazons books, this is my favourite; set in the "real" world of the stories (two of the books, Peter Duck and Missee Lee, are fictional inside the fictional context, if that makes sense) but the most dramatic of those.
8) The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula LeGuin. It's hard to remember, of course, but I think this is one of the first SF/F books I read that wasn't straightforward but that I enjoyed anyway. Of course, LeGuin is very, very good.
9) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I am very glad I met Clarke before I read this, or I'd probably have flung myself at her feet with cries of unworthiness. Doesn't hurt that it's Napoleonics, either.
10) A complete volume of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, hence including The Premature Burial. I read this one when very young as well, and it certainly left a very lasting impression. (No-one said they had to do it in a _good_ way.)