Stuff I Like

It's been two years (minus one week) since I've posted to my personal blog. Since then I had to finish another big web project that ran about six months overdue and have been busy with a new 10 month-old daughter Julia (and 5 y.o. Fianna). Lately though, I've been migrating the old site to a new CMS and hoping to catch up. The recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie fired up my interest a little too much and I popped out a little summary of the Team's history.

I couldn't stop. Completed four more science fiction classics since the last article. These three were worth extra notice: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1976), Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1977) and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974).

Roughly a year ago, I obtained a 30-book series called "Masterworks of Science Fiction". Not a series in that each book continued the same story, but a series of what some consider the best Science Fiction novels since 1950. Many of these classic books had gone out of print, and the creators of the collection thought this a good way to bring them back... to the attention of a whole new generation of readers. Since then I've been tearing my way through them. Fortunately, the version of the collection I stumbled on must have been about 10 years old. Since 2000 the complete collection has expanded from 30 to 73 books.

I've been recommending some TV/Netflix watching lately and I have a perfect record so far. I don't watch a lot of 'first run' TV. Typically, I'll just find whole seasons of something interesting on Netflix and watch a couple episodes. If it's good I'll watch the whole season, then wait for the next season to be available. Other times, I wear my pirate hat... Here are a few of my recommendations.

Back when the Forum was active, members used to report on what we had read, make recommendations, etc. For lack of that outlet, thought I'd catch up here on some recent favorites... just for posterity's sake. These are not the only good books I've read. Their just ones from the last couple years that stick out and that I would generally recommend, regardless of your taste in genre. I tend to prefer a lot of Fantasy, Cyber-Fiction & History, which makes for an odd mix.

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