On Recommending a Book to Sam
Jul 29th, 2007 by craig
I’m getting ready to refer a book to Sam. It’s one I’ve finished, and I think he’ll enjoy most of it. It’s a retrospective from one of the authors I liked reading when I was younger, and includes much of his very early writing, including his first published short story, as well as later commentary on that writing.
When I was young, I read quite a bit, almost exclusively fiction, and very often science fiction. One book that was always on my radar was HG Wells “Time Machine.” Even though it is classic I never really got a around to reading it when I was younger. I always thought of it as old, almost archaic. I did read it later in life, and I would recommend it, but it was written such a long time ago. It was first published in 1895; in some ways, it is very dated.
Much of the time frame in the book I’m recommending to Sam strikes me as recent history; some of it is even, to me, contemporary. While I don’t recall actually living through some of the events depicted (like the post WW II political and social machinations) they certainly had direct influence on the world I grew up in. Some, like Man’s landing on the moon, I do remember. The author of this book, Robert Heinlein, was born in 1907. He published his first short story in 1939. I enjoyed reading his works as a teenager and well into my twenties.
HG Wells was born in 1866. He died in 1946, ten years before I was born. “Time Machine” was published in 1895, 61 years before I was born. Robert Heinlein was born in 1907 and died in 1988, three years before Sam was born. His first published story was in 1939, or 52 years before Sam was born. Holy Timeline Batman! Robert Heinlein is to Sam what HG Wells was to me at that age: OLD, ARCHAIC???!!!!??
Refer Sam to Robert Heinlein….? What was I thinking……?
I don’t know, but seeing as I didn’t actually know those dates, ‘old and archaic’ didn’t actually occur to me. Nor does it matter; J.R.R. Tolkien could possibly be viewed as old and archaic to me, too. Doesn’t change that The Lord of the Rings is awesome.
I wants more books.
What about dear old Shakespeare! No, I’m sorry; that sounds way too crusty English-teacher-ish. On the topic of science fiction, however, here’s some of my recommendations: Orwell’s 1984–a book everyone should read in their life, in my opinion. Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Anything by Italo Calvino, whose writing is sometimes sci-fi and sometimes all kinds of other strange and wonderful things–in my opinion, one of the smartes humans to have lived in the last 100 years. Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World. Any of the stories of Jorge Louis Borges. And, finally, anything by Philip K. Dick. I put Dick last because he’s the writer that’s most like what people think of in the standard notions of the sci-fi genre. In fact, most of his life he was considered as shockingly low-brow sci-fi–nowadays, however, many recognize his remarkably original contribution to American literature. He struggled with all sorts of personal demons, such as drugs and insanity (he believed the last 2000 years was a simulated reality set-up by the Romans to cover up their taking over the world with the help of various cosmic evil forces, and, while on speed, could write some around seventy pages in a two-hour span) but was nonetheless a startlingly creative thinker. Of course, most know him from the movies that have been made of his books–the Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Blade Runner and many more–but, as good as some of those are, the books are more subtle and more intricately illuminating.
That’s an interesting collection — Sam, you have more books to add to your list.
But Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World? What in the world is that about!! 🙂
Sounds… interesting.
Kind of like the restaurant at the end of the universe, maybe.
…and now for something completely different…
Craig, have you read any of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series? I really quite enjoyed those and wonder if Sam might as well….
I did read the first book or two of Pern… I might try them again, but they lost my interest after a while…