Amen! One of the most underrated books out there - you never, ever hear people talk about it.
I once traded books with a Canadian. I had one that she couldn’t find.
She asked what I wanted in exchange and I said “Surprise me”. She sent me a new trade pb of Little, Big – said it was her favorite book.
1)Wrack and Roll by Bradley Denton.
I have two copies. One I read from time to time. (about 3 times a year)
The other is a signed 1st edition.
A nice alternative world heading to the end days. Our heros are loveable and very flawed “wracker” musicians, a drunk rocket scientist, and my personal favorite Clifton “hack” Bonner". I like the characters, the writing is great, I love the fact that every time I read it, I see something different and entertaining.
2)The Devil in Loveby Jaques Cazotte A very old book, but an enjoyable read.
Osip
I love this trilogy! I literally spent years hunting down copies with the cover art that I really liked from various used bookstores. (This was when abebooks was Brand New and Shiny) If you’re curious, the art was the wacky 70’s version. I’ve heard some objections about the way that Morgon changes over the course of the books, and I can see their point, but I still love the books nevertheless.
I’ve picked up and put down some of McKillip’s more recent work, though, as they failed to sufficiently grip me.
How does this compare to Aegypt? I kept trying to wade through Aegypt, and finally concluded that I’d rather stick a spork up my nose than try it again. But then, I had a similar reaction to Foucalt’s Pendulum, which I put down for good after getting through… approximately 3/5 of the book by way of sheer cussedness, so my mileage might definitely be different from yours.
Well, thank you fellow Dopers. A great big facetious Thank You! I was planning to go upstairs and read a little bit tonight before bed. But what did I do instead? I opened this thread of course. AAAARRRRGH! Now I have another 16 titles to add to my "Books I want to read " list. When will I ever catch up? So many books - so little time.
So I might as well make a contribution while I’m here.
Fredrik Pohl wrote 2 science fiction books in the 1950s that have already become more fact than fiction. ***The Man Who Ate the World *** is a series of interconnected short stories that is conspicuous consumption on steroids, on steroids, on steroids. And in **The Age of the Pussyfoot ** he may have even gone too far into the future. The story is set in the 26th century and has the citizens of the planet carrying around portable hand held devices that provide instant communication, advice, and assistance. Ha! What a crazy idea, huh? Both are non stop page turners from beginning to end. Hard to find but well worh the effort. I gave away my last copy of TMWATW several years ago but you can probably find both by using your portable hand held device that provides …
The only people I know who have read either of these books are people I’ve made read them…
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
This book toes the line between over the top and disturbingly plausable. It’s a world that you tell yourself couldn’t exist, could it? Not to mention it contains probably the funniest scene I’ve ever read.
What Happened To Henry by Sharon Pywell
This book is pretty amazing for the first published work of the author. Great character development, as well as a strange and interesting plot.
Has anyone else read The Quincunx by Charles Palliser? It’s a huge and complicated novel, but its such a page-turner that I lost multiple nights of sleep to finish it?
My three favorite not well known time travel related novels: Timefall by James Kahn, Momo by Michael Ende (of Neverending Story fame) and The Green Futures of Tycho by William Sleator (a YA novel by an author who’s other works might be more well known such as “Interstellar Pig”).
I also really liked the YA coming out novel “Summer of the Blue Coyote”.
Michael Crichton and Douglas Adams are very famous for their fiction, but most people I know don’t realize they both wrote very good non-fiction travel books. Crichton’s “Travels” are mostly anecdotal essays but they give some interesting insight into the authors life and his viewpoints. Adam’s “Last Chance to See” charts his travels with a photographer on a quest to photograph some endangered species before they go extinct. Besides all the fascinating animal related stuff, the real life people Adams meets along the way are as quirky and interesting as his fictional characters.
doh! I meant four favorite, the most favorite of all being The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold of Tribbles fame.
“Age of the Pussyfoot” was republished as one half of the collection Bipohl back in the late 1970s/early 1980s. That’s how I got my copy. You may have better luck finding it at used book shops/sites under that title.
One of my favorite YA authors, although his last few books have been stinkers. My favorites are Singularity and House of Stairs.
Yeah, and I’ve been tempted to get another copy and read it again. Great book.
Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin ~ 100 years in New York. A horse that wants to fly, people dying/reappearing, and memorable characters. When I first read this book, I hated it. I’ve since had to replace it three times due to wear and tear.
Wolverine Creates the World by Lawrence Millman ~ Indian tales from Labrador. Very scatalogical and not for the faint of heart! While it was still in print, it was one of my favourite gifts to give.
Now excuse me while I go add another dozen of those earlier recommendations to my Amazon wish list. When will I ever learn not to read these threads? I just ordered a copy of “Hiero’s Journey”. 
The Drake Majistral books by Walter Jon Williams; The Crown Jewels, House of Shards and Rock of Ages. Humerous and bizarre, set in a future after humanity is conquered by the Khosali Empire and centuries later manages to regain independance. The resulting society is an odd combination of Khosoli custums and human ones, complicated by the fact that the “human” culture is mostly the rather warped official version mandated by the Khosali while they were in charge. Which is how the Church of Elvis became the majority religion, for example; complete with a priesthood of Elvis clones.
It’s a semi-feudalism, and the protagonist is an “Allowed Burgler”, who’s allowed to steal as long as he does it with style and records it for the media. He’s constantly getting involved with intrigue and adventure, despite trying to avoid it. And chaos, lots of chaos.
Der Trihs writes:
> Threshold and Emergence by David R Palmer, a good author who never wrote
> anything else, unfortunately; no one even knows if he’s alive.
I searched for information about him and found a message board where he was discussed. People there claim that he’s still alive and finally retired from his job as a court reporter. He decided that he couldn’t write and hold down a second job. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make enough money off his writing to live on, so he stuck with his job. Now that he’s retired, perhaps he’ll be able to write.
After you finish reading each chapter, you could rip it out and sell it to the highest doper bidder to remake your money.
Having made it through all three of the books mentioned (“Little, Big”,“Aegypt”, and “Foucalt’s Pendulum”), I can tell you that compared to “Aegypt,” “Little, Big” is self-contained. “Aegypt” is only volume one in at least a four volume novel (I’ve heard someone say seven, but that wouldn’t make any sense to me).
LB is meandering and spirally and almost never resolves exactly until the end, but there IS an end (and it is well worth achieving, IMHO). “Aegypt,” on the other hand, is only getting started. From there, you have to go to “Love and Sleep”, and then to “Daemonomania” that I know of. I haven’t checked to see if the fourth volume is published yet.
They both have lots in common with “Foucalt’s Pendulum”: a plethora of obscure references to things that most people don’t normally run across. For me, that makes them interesting. For others, not so much.
“Little, Big” took me four tries before I really got into it and finished it, but it is now one of my very favorite books. It’s just so gently out of the ordinary, but in a really nonstandard way…but it’s beautiful. It’s worth doing.
Since we’re on the subject of the OP, another book that I love which I have found no other readers of is The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season.
The basic gist of this book is that the tv show “Leave it to Beaver” was in danger of getting cancelled due to poor ratings, so they solicited script treatments from famous authors to save the show from its impending demise. Of course, the treatments are spoofs of the writing styles of various authors, not actual submissions, but they are hilarious.
It’s the “Dysfunctional Family Circus” version of “Leave it to Beaver.”
One of my favorite quotes:
Maybe it’s just me, but I find that hilarious.
How odd. I would assume they call Carl Sagan an atheist because he was, in fact, an atheist. From www.wiktionary.org:
- A person who does not have a belief that one or more deities or gods exist. (weak atheism)
- A person who believes that no god exists (strong atheism).
That certainly describes Sagan, and he made no bones about it.
Regarding his books, I loved the information content, for the most part, but the writing style was a bit off-putting on occasion. Haven’t read Billions and Billions, though. I might need to look that one up.
My nominees for favorite books that nobody else reads would probably include Silverlock by John Myers Myers and Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun tetralogy.
RR
Oooh! ooooh! I read that one, and tried to push it on the boards a couple of times.