Science fiction

Reading was my most treasured pastime from when i was able to read. I read fairy tales, myths, and all kinds of books from the library. Each week i went there. It must have been from my 8th, 9th. Sometime around that age. I bought many books. You can read my post about my teen books if you wish to know about those.

My favourite writer was Tonke Dragt. She is not in that post. That is because her books are still in my bookcase in the front room. I even bought one of her books in the 90s. Her books were my introduction into science fiction. I must have been around 12 years old. From that age until i was like 17-18 years old, scifi was the best!

So yeah, i did loose sight of the major developments in scifi from the 80s on. I got a bit more in fantasy, i bought some scifi books later on, some of them i liked, some of them i didn’t. It is a major escape for me, i can still pick up a book or a series and simply dive into it. Right now i’m reading The left hand of darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I came across her name a couple of times on brain pickings. So today i picked up the book once more and started to read.

I’ll give you a list of the books in my scifi and fantasy bookcase.

Top row, fantasy

• some warcraft novels
• Raymond E. Feist – ok books, basically exploration and magic and adventure books
• Robert Jordan – Wheel of Time series, i still need to read the last book!

Second row, fantasy

• L.E. Modesitt Jr – a favourite series, very specific magic system, not just bolts and whooshes, love the stories
• Robin Hobb – adventures with some magic and swords
• Eric Brown, Helix – quite new, don’t remember too much about this book tbh
• Tais Teng, Cepheide – from the 80s, no recollection whatsoever
• Amber Benson, Death’s daughter – Amber played Tara from Buffy the vampire slayer, i do like her books, and i do like her!

Third row, science fiction

• Frank Herbert, Dune series – one of my old time faves
• Asimov, two robot detectives – love these ones too
• Jack Vance – these have faded a bit
• Robert Heinlein – nice
• Russel – frankly, i don’t remember much about this book
• Ursula Le Guin – one of my faves, three books i have, like them all
• Kate Wilhelm – sort of a feminist scifi book, should reread it
• Ballard – like this one 🙂
• Turner – mwah
• Simak – ok
• A.E. Van Vogt – ok
• Ehrlich – this one had sex in it, enjoyed it 🙂
• Bradley – sort of generic scifi
• Coney – sort of generic scifi
• Thijssen – scifi adventure, whoosh!

Fourth row, fairy tales, myths and science fiction

• some books with games, some with cats, two old books and some fairy tales and myth books – ok
• Ian M. Banks – some more recent purchases, i tried to read these, but it’s hard, might try again soon, or other option: simply forget about them
• Neil Stephenson – also a book i couldn’t finish, sounds interesting, but sort of a bit too long for me
• Peter F. Hamilton – i bought these in London on recommendation of someone who lived in the same flat as me, very space opera, fun
• Zelazny – too long ago since i read this book, it is completely wiped from my memory
• Pohl – good
• Vera Chapman – more fantasy type books
• and then towards the end some short stories books
• at the end, Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy – i haven’t read this one yet! but i did see the movie 🙂

Sometimes when i’m in a bookshop, i wander over to the scifi and fantasy section. I might go soon once more, to get that last Wheel of Time book, which was released years ago. Reading is my most treasured form of escaping yes. Something about being all by yourself with just text which lets your imagination run wild with stories. More than watching movies and tv series. But i enjoy those too!

Ooh.. i did buy the first four ebooks of A song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I got into the second book. Maybe it is the ebook format which doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it is the long threads and many many many people in the books which keep confusing me. Not sure. But yes, not finished reading those either. Loving the tv series though.

And another ooh, at the bottom two rows of this bookcase, magazines. Which are not scifi. Still need to fill up these rows with some magazines which are still in the attic. I know, i am a hoarder. But! the pile of magazines on the right are going to be thrown away.

Bye bye!