Becker Book Club

If you happen to have read and liked Starship Troopers, I'd recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War saga, one of the best modern sci-fi series I've read (I haven't read a lot).
 
KingMC said:
If you happen to have read and liked Starship Troopers, I'd recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War saga, one of the best modern sci-fi series I've read (I haven't read a lot).
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I'm actually reading the first of that series right now. A little over halfway through. Cool ideas.
 
JWheel said:
I'm actually reading the first of that series right now. A little over halfway through. Cool ideas.
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I found the third to be the best of the bunch, but overall a very entertaining series. You can certainly see the essence of Heinlein in it.
 
KingMC said:
I found the third to be the best of the bunch, but overall a very entertaining series. You can certainly see the essence of Heinlein in it.
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I've read very little hard sci-fi with the exception of "I, Robot," so it's all a little new for me. I've gone the other way with a bunch of 1930s-60s hardboiled detective fiction. So the future is an interesting change of pace.
 
JWheel said:
I've read very little hard sci-fi with the exception of "I, Robot," so it's all a little new for me. I've gone the other way with a bunch of 1930s-60s hardboiled detective fiction. So the future is an interesting change of pace.
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A couple others I could recommend for military sci-fi include Forever War by Joe Haldeman and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Asimov as a good political sci-fi book. I recently got into sci-fi so I'm still exploring.

My main genres are sci-fi and fantasy, so I've not read a lot of books set in the past.
 
KingMC said:
A couple others I could recommend for military sci-fi include Forever War by Joe Haldeman and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Asimov as a good political sci-fi book. I recently got into sci-fi so I'm still exploring.
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I recently watched the movie of Ender's Game, so it's tainted for me. The guy who recommended Old Man's War to me is a huge Orson Scott Card fan. I'll check out Forever War.

Oh, I remembered one other sci-fi book I read and liked. Wool. Might have to read the other two in that trilogy. First I have to finish Old Man's War, the SAS Survival Guide, and Bushcraft 101. I somehow ended up reading all three at the same time.
 
JWheel said:
I recently watched the movie of Ender's Game, so it's tainted for me. The guy who recommended Old Man's War to me is a huge Orson Scott Card fan. I'll check out Forever War.

Oh, I remembered one other sci-fi book I read and liked. Wool. Might have to read the other two in that trilogy. First I have to finish Old Man's War, the SAS Survival Guide, and Bushcraft 101. I somehow ended up reading all three at the same time.
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I wouldn't call it 'tainted' just by watching the movie, the book is a lot more in-depth and thorough in telling the story, plus the movie cut a lot. That is, if you actually liked the story, it's not for everybody.

Interesting group of books, I still need to read the SAS guide, it's sitting on my shelf waiting for school to be out for the rest of the summer.
 
Recently started reading Bravo Two Zero, but I'm honestly a bit disappointed. Way too descriptive and not in an interesting way. East of Eden is also very descriptive, for example, but in a much more enjoyable way.

Anyway, my 3 weeks of holiday are coming to a close (1 week left) and during my trip to Croatia I plan on reading some Brett Easton Ellis.
 
KingMC, if you watched the movie, try Ender's Shadow next. It's the same story told from the perspective of a different character, and it's pretty amazing.
 
Noswad0208 said:
How have we gone this far without someone mentioning Tolkien? :D
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Tolkien is a great read. His lesser works are good too. When I was younger I liked a lot of R.A.Saltvatore. My personal favorites don't really range by authors but by genres. I like non fiction kinda stuff.... Bushcraft books have been a focus the last four years. I've always been into meditation and martial arts my whole life so anything related to that... Energy working, astral projection, different forms of internal arts, acupressure, self healing, psychology...Also some arcane/occult stuff. (Occult just means hidden people) I'm strange too, I like reading patents that have been bought but can't be mass produced
 
NJBillK said:
House of leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Will add info in an edit
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House of leaves is CRAZY!
There's a band called circa survive that made an album based on the book and also the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
 
granitestateofmind said:
During my little walk in the woods today I got to thinking about how astonishing it is that the earliest humans managed to survive winter....without Gore-Tex and fleece; that they not only survived but apparently thrived (hey, we the descendants had to invent fabrics made out of recycled soda bottles to survive). I'm going to suggest Shaman: A Novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a book about a young man coming of age and becoming a shaman. The author did a lot of research (as well as using his imagination) and one of the best things about the book, IMO, is that KSR paints a picture of what life might have been like 10,000 years ago that is quite vivid and believable. The opening of the book is the survival story of the protagonist as he enters the wilderness naked and without tools on his rite of passage to manhood. If you aren't hooked after that......then maybe this book isn't your cup of tea.
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I just screenshot this so I can find it somewhere and buy it. I have a large amount of knowledge on this stuff so it IS my cup of unidentifiable tea. Carlos Castaneda did a good amount of books dealing with shamanism. He's a bit more of a colorful autobiographer, because I've heard that he edited some of his work
 
I am a aircraft engine rework grinder so I am at my bench for 8hrs a day and I used to listen to a lot of podcasts and music. A friend turned me onto audiobooks and got me hook line and sinker. I am going through audiobooks like crazy. About 1-3 a week. I have listened to The Walking dead series (5-6 books) Brad Thors Entire Scott Harvath series (13 books) Vince Flynns Mitch Rapp series (8 books) Dean Koontz Odd Thomas series (8 books) Chris Kyles American Sniper. The game of thrones series ( 5 books) My daughter got me listening to the Eregon series right now it's ok fantasy dragons and whatnot. I would have to say out of all of these that I have listened to in the past month or so my favorite is Brad Thors Harvath series. The white house down and Olympus has fallen movies were derived fromBrad Thors Transfer of power book, basically stolen after the man died from cancer. All of the above books were awesome and anyone has any recommendations along the above lines id love to hear about them.
 
Just finished another Kim Stanley Robinson book: 2312. Excellent read. Interesting how he integrates sci-fi with some very humanist perspectives as well as his obvious love of the natural world.
 
omenwolf said:
I am a aircraft engine rework grinder so I am at my bench for 8hrs a day and I used to listen to a lot of podcasts and music. A friend turned me onto audiobooks and got me hook line and sinker. I am going through audiobooks like crazy. About 1-3 a week. I have listened to The Walking dead series (5-6 books) Brad Thors Entire Scott Harvath series (13 books) Vince Flynns Mitch Rapp series (8 books) Dean Koontz Odd Thomas series (8 books) Chris Kyles American Sniper. The game of thrones series ( 5 books) My daughter got me listening to the Eregon series right now it's ok fantasy dragons and whatnot. I would have to say out of all of these that I have listened to in the past month or so my favorite is Brad Thors Harvath series. The white house down and Olympus has fallen movies were derived fromBrad Thors Transfer of power book, basically stolen after the man died from cancer. All of the above books were awesome and anyone has any recommendations along the above lines id love to hear about them.
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There are five more books in Vince Flynn's series. You'll also like W.E.B. Griffin's Presidential Agent series. You may also like the Splinter Cell books, and the Rogue Warrior books by Richard Marcinko. And there's always Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger books. If you like those, you may also like Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, or Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series, which is usually classified in the horror section, although it's pretty similar to the others you mentioned. That should keep you going for a while, after which I can give you more recommendations.
 
I was mistaken about the count on the Vince Flynn, I got all the way trough to The last Man. Only one I haven't read of his is the new one that I don't thinks out yet "The Survivor". As far as the other ones I am writing them down right now. Thank you Crimson.
 
OW - for a change of pace, you could try getting CDs of the old radio show serials - I've got several - The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, etc. A lot of TV shows of the 50s were rooted from the Radio shows. Just did a fleabay search and there are almost 13000 options (obviously some duplicates).
 
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