The Amazing Colossal Science Fiction Ketchup | Hacker News Reader

The Amazing Colossal Science Fiction Ketchup

blog.fogus.me

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If you're into this sort of thing you'll probably like my side project, BestSFBooks:

http://bestsfbooks.com

It's basically a Ketchup list of award winners. I'm partially to the PKD award myself.

Very cool site.

Great site! Thank you for sharing.

Very nice. I'd been meaning to get back into reading novels, and I've already bought a few described here.

I tried something like this with the list of Hugo/Nebula award winners. That project derailed in short order - as soon as I read something I really enjoyed from a particular author I'd end up reading their entire body of work rather than continuing down the list.

Nothing wrong with taking some branches. It would stink if it turned into a chore.

1950s: The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke

I've read few works that are so broadly and extensively predictive. (Though it's been a while, so pardon any memory lapses on my part.)

Genetic engineering. Subsuming oneself in an immersive gaming culture. Crystalline memory stores. Probably several other things I'm not recalling right now.

> Edison’s Conquest of Mars

I read that a few months ago. What a hoot! It wasn't meant to be funny, but it's so distant from us that it is funny anyway.

I would highly recommend throwing some Stephen Baxter on there, especially "Light of Latter Days" (a collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke). Its examination of the death of privacy in the face of increasingly intrusive technology developments is absolutely fascinating and has some exciting parallels with the modern world.

Did you mean the "Light of Other Days"?

Fascinating list, I just finished reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Quite an epic. Everyone I know who has read it says that Cryptonomicon is a better book by Neal. Looking fwd to getting it!

Yup, Other Days. Crypto is a great book. Not really better, just different. I'd also recommend Reamde very highly. More modern, action thriller but definitely a Stephenson novel.

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books and recommend it highly. I felt less thrilled by Anathem however. I absolutely loved the first ~200 pages, but was disappointed by the rest.

This reminds me with my trying to catch-up on philosophy and its writers.

I began wit Aristotle (because you know, he was the first). I never finished his Organon since it was terribly, terribly boring. I never read anything else, so I ended with Aristotle.

I have a Philosophy Ketchup list as well, it's too bad that you halted at the start. Nothing is more painful than a boring book.

Well Aristotle is sort of important, he laied out the basis for today's logic and that sort of things.

But it's really terribly long (since he had the idea that he has to describe EVERYTHING) and, at times, it doesn't make sense from today's perspective of today's logic and set theory.

Hmm, Aristotle has some very hard-reading bits. Especially without someone/thing there to put together the contexts, or to let you know you can skip over the truly boring bits to the next bit of meat when the bogging down gets heavy into obscure ancient disputes without missing a thing.

Maybe try listening to http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/ . It is very good. Almost as good as, say, a giraffe.

Also, for easier reading in general, people that wrote in pretty much the language you are reading are good for working up some philosophical inertia before plowing into tougher soil. I always recommend Hume. Rereading something like his epic philosophical burn on the design argument is just fun but then, that's me.

Plato's dialogues are way, way easier to read than Aristotle; try some of these (Symposium, the Republic...). From Aristotle, "nicomachean ethics" is quite a good read IMO, I'd start with this.

I'm the fellow that's sooo tempted to add another 50 books to be read. But, that's an incredibly detailed list and more than enough to last. I will highly recommend 2 books though.

Anathem, Neil Stephenson. Have read this book at least a dozen times now.

Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler. This is one of only 2-3 books in my life that made me physically uncomfortable at times. It's not a happy story, but very well done. It'll make you think and feel.

(3rd book) The Road, Cormac McCarthy. Dark, stark, brutal prose. Not strictly sf, but is in an apocolyptic setting.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've personally read them all, but could go for a re-read of Anathem.

The PKD selections are curious. I would add "Time Out Of Joint" and "Man In The High Castle".

No Walter Jon Williams? "Aristoi" at a minimum, and "Angel Station/Voice Of The Whirlwind". If that pleases, add "Metropolitan/City On Fire"

Also, the original "Planet Of The Apes".

I almost forgot -- at least one Aldiss. My fave is "Report On Probability A", but it's an acquired taste.

[edit -- no Arthur C. Clarke? Not even "Childhood's End"?]

I caveat the list in the beginning with "If it’s not on the list then I’ve either read it already..."

In the cases that you mention this holds true.

When I first got into catch up, I used the list at wikipedia of joint hugo and nebula award winners: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hu...

Where I found one of my favorite books from a genre I generally don't like (alt history): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yiddish_Policemen%27s_Unio...

Children of the Mind is on there but none of the previous Ender Game series? I would say include all of the previous, but stop at CotM.

Step 1: don't call it "Sci-Fi". Its science fiction. No need to abbreviate it. It marks you as a noob.

Sci-fi, scifi, sf, speculative fiction, science fiction, probably more. He can call it whatever the hell he wants, it's all valid.

And do you call San Francisco, "Frisco"?

Actually, yes. When referring to an item inspired by it, such as a Frisco Burger (served on sour dough bread).

Consider me marked.

Welcome aboard, then.

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