books

Books I’m Currently Reading

Novels:

  1. ‘Elric of Melniboné’ by Michael Moorcock

Short Story Collections:

  1. ‘Neutron Star’ by Larry Niven (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Imperium or Ringworld campaigns).
  2. ‘The Complete Hammer’s Slammers: Volume’ 1 by David Drake (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).
  3. ‘Berserker (Saberhagen’s Beserker Series Book 1)’ by Fred Saberhagen (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).
  4. ‘The Man-Kzin Wars (Man-Kzin Wars Series Book 1)’ by Larry Niven et al. (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).

Books I Want To Read

I have these books in my reading backlog:

  1. Re-read ‘Ringworld‘ and the ‘Tales of Known Space‘ series by Larry Niven for the second time.
  2. ‘Ready Player One‘ by Ernest Cline.
  3. ‘Watership Down‘ by Richard Adams (reread as inspiration for potential Bunnies & Burrows game I might run at 2017 NTRPGCon).
  4. ‘The Name of the Wind‘ by Patrick Rothfuss (may wait for final novel to come out and read Trilogy together).
  5. Re-read ‘The Silmarillion‘ for the 3rd time
  6. Re-read ‘The Hobbit‘ & ‘Lord of the Rings‘ by J. R. R. Tolkien for the 5th time
  7. ‘Old Man’s War‘ series by John Scalzi
  8. ‘The Dresden Files’ series by Jim Butcher (read the first novel)
  9. ‘A Fire Upon the Deep‘ and other novels by Vernor Vinge
  10. ‘Riftwar Saga‘ trilogy by Raymond E. Feist (see G+ review)
  11. ‘Destiny’s Road‘ by Larry Niven
  12. ‘The Fifth Wave‘ trilogy by Rick Yancey
  13. ‘Divergent‘ trilogy by Veronica Roth (I’ve finished the first book in the series)
  14. ‘The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress‘ by Robert A. Heinlein
  15. ‘Belgariad‘ series by David Eddings
  16. ‘Coyote‘ series by Allen Steele (I’ve finished the first book in the series)
  17. ‘On Basilisk Station’ and Honor Harringon Series by David Weber
  18. ‘Armada‘ by Ernest Cline.
  19. ‘Leviathan Wakes‘ and the The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (watching the Sci Fi series)
  20. ‘Revelation Space‘ by Alastair Reynolds
  21. ‘Elantris‘ by Brandon Sanderson
  22. ‘The Coldfire Trilogy‘ by C.S. Friedman
  23. ‘The Forever War‘ by Joe Haldeman
  24. ‘WondLa‘ series by Tony DiTerlizzi
  25. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber
  26. The ‘Elric‘ series by Michael Moorcock
  27. ‘Steelheart‘ and the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson
  28. Re-read ‘The Mote in God’s Eye‘ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and read the other books in this series for the first time
  29. Short stories of Clark Ashton Smith
  30. The Conan and Solomon Kane stories of Robert E. Howard
  31. ‘Looking for Alaska‘ by John Green
  32. ‘Under the Eagle‘ and the Eagle series by Simon Scarrow
  33. ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events‘ series by Lemony Snicket
  34. ‘The Nomad of Time‘ by Michael Moorcock
  35. ‘Odd Thomas‘ and the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz
  36. ‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen‘ series by Steven Erikson,
  37. ‘The Thin Man‘ by Dashiell Hammett
  38. ‘The Skin Map‘ and the Bright Empires series by Stephen R. Lawhead
  39. ‘The Way of Kings‘ and The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson
  40. ‘Spartan Gold‘ by Clive Cussler

These articles have other books I might be interested in reading:

Favorite Books I’ve Read

Here are my favorite novels, ranked by preference, including how many times I read that book or novel series:

  1. ‘The Hobbit‘ & ‘Lord of the Rings‘ by J. R. R. Tolkien (4x)
  2. ‘Watership Down‘ by Richard Adams (3x)
  3. ‘Tarzan‘ & ‘The Return of Tarzan‘ by Edgar Rice Burroughs (2x)
  4. ‘A Princess of Mars‘ and the Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (2x)
  5. ‘Ringworld‘ and the ‘Tales of Known Space‘ series by Larry Niven (1x)
  6. ‘Childhood’s End‘ by Arthur C. Clarke (1x)
  7. The ‘Mistborn‘ trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
  8. ‘Ender’s Game‘ by Orson Scott Card (1x)
  9. ‘Byzantium‘ by Stephen Lawhead (1x)
  10. ‘The Martian Chronicles‘ by Ray Bradbury (2x)
  11. ‘The Winds of War‘ and ‘War and Remembrance‘ by Herman Wouk (1x)
  12. ‘I, Robot‘ by Isaac Asimov (1x)
  13. ‘Hyperion‘ by Dan Simmons (1x)
  14. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia‘ series by C.S. Lewis (1x)
  15. ‘The Hunt for Red October‘ and the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy (1x)
  16. ‘Conan‘ novels and short stories, by Robert E. Howard (1x)
  17. ‘Solomon Kane‘ short stores by Robert E. Howard (1x)
  18. ‘Foundation‘ series by Isaac Asimov (1x)
  19. ‘A Wizard of Earthsea‘ series by Ursula Le Guin (1x)
  20. ‘The Mote in God’s Eye‘ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1x)
  21. ‘Rendezvous With Rama‘ by Arthur C. Clarke (1x)
  22. ‘Starship Troopers‘ by Robert A. Heinlein (1x)
  23. ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy‘ series by Douglas Adams (1x)
  24. ‘In Conquest Born‘ by C.S. Friedman (1x)
  25. ‘Horatio Hornblower‘ series by C. S. Forester (1x)
  26. ‘The Bicentennial Man‘ by Isaac Asimov (1x)

The above are mostly Sci Fi and Fantasy but a few other genres appear. #1-2 are amazing ‘mileau’ classics which immerse you in very different worlds. #3, #7 and #8 are ‘meaning of life’ or morality tales which have compelling spirituality (Childhood’s End ends up being a sort of secular Sci Fi Theosis motif, which is interesting). Robert E. Howard’s and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ works are pulp, escapist novels which aren’t literary classics perhaps but are amazingly fun if you like the Flash Gordon pulp adventure feel (which I do!).

I’ve read Frank Herbert’s Dune and George R. R. Martin’s first Game of Thrones novel — amazingly well written but too dark or morally ambiguous for my tastes, so neither made it to my top novels list. I’ve read many other fantasy novels (by Roger Zelazny, Fritz Lieber, etc.) and sci fi novels (by Piers Anthony, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and many others), and while many were good, they didn’t make it to my top list above either.

Other Books I’ve Read

  1. ‘Star Trek: Vanguard #1: Harbinger’ (Star Trek TOS) by David Mack.
    Review: Was great reading, but one issue is the book ended with no plot lines resolved. You have to read it as part of a 7 novel series. I liked it, and will resume it hopefully sometime, butat the moment I’m more interested in reading some books that ‘end’ without committing to 7 novels.

Books I Started and Didn’t Finish

Usually because I got busy or distracted. Will add notes when I can as to why I abandoned them.

  1. ‘Star Wars: Aftermath‘ by Chuck Wendig.
    Reason: Was reading to ramp up for Star Wars Episode VII. Ran out of time, and also concluded that I am not so jazzed on Star Wars universe to want to read tons of novels in the universe. Hard SF is more interesting to me.
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