OT: Books, Books, Books.

[Randallw]

Well the one i was reading was something about this Honour Harrington having been captured and her friends being worried about it. There was also something about some alien pet, a cat i think, and I just thought after 10 or 15 pages "so what". I will admit its probably more for people who have already read the previous books, so know about and care about the characters already. I once read a book by my favourite author and got half way through before i decided it was his worst and stopped. I also read nearly all the way to the end of a trilogy with maybe 20 pages left when i came to the conclusion that i frankly didn't care about the ending, in fact wished the good guys were defeated, so much i stopped reading. I still have the book on the shelf and have no desire to finish it (I did read the sequels though, don't ask me why, and was glad to see the good guys from the first books were made to look like the arrogant deluded idiots they were).

[Cipher7071]

There are thousands of science fiction anthologies out there. Some of the stories are only a couple of pages, some are novellas. It's an easy way to find out which authors you like best.

[Fyron]

you cant decide on wether a book is good or not only after a few pages. you have to read the whole thing.

That's just not true. It is quite easy to judge a book after reading a few of its pages. Maybe not the first few (a lot of books have slow begninnings), but just pick some in the middle and read them. Then pick a few pages at a different point and read them. You can get a good sampling of what the book is like from a few pages.

[gregebowman]

I don't generally like anthologies. I just have a general dislike for short stories. I mean, the story is over before you even get to know the characters or everything is just compressed to make sure it fits in only a few pages. I'd rather read a 1500 page Stephen King novel, where he'll take over 100 pages just for the characterization on the main character. I just prefer novels. Unlike Cipher7071, I still read fiction. I've just expanded my interests over the years. When I was a kid, it was mostly sci-fi and historical books on WWII. In my late teens and early 20's, when I discovered D&D, I picked up on fantasy. When I got into the Air Force, I started reading Stephen King and other horror authors. Somewhere along the way, I was also reading Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, and Clive Cussler. Then in the late 80's, I started reading Tom Clancy. Then interest in Star Wars picked up again, and I've read all of the SW books. I can't say that about Star Trek, though. something about the ST books and their lack of continuity bothers me.

Someone mentioned a library. Even though I work in a fairly big city which I'm sure has several libraries, there are none near me. Plus, I've always had this thing about owning the books I read. So yeah, as much as I read, I do have stacks of books at home and in storage. And everyone once in awhile I've traded some in for credit at my old comic book store. I'll probably have to do that soon again, as I got more books right now than space.

[spoon]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
just pick some in the middle and read them. Then pick a few pages at a different point and read them. You can get a good sampling of what the book is like from a few pages.

That sounds like manual foreshadowing...

[Narrew]

gregebowman, with some of the Authors you mentioned, take a look at Nelson DeMille, I have read a few of his books and really liked Plum Island and Lions Game.

[Will]

I just read Timeline by Michael Crichton... thought it was pretty good. And impeccably good timing on my grandfather's part, passing it off to me just a week after I heard of a movie of the same name, based on a Crichton book. Should be interesting to see that.