talkmagic.co.uk

Well, this house has several tons of books in it, but I'm finding it hard to single any out for special notice.

My "if I was stranded on a desert island with one book" choice would have to be Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter. It's a collection of his 1980s essays from Scientific American, covering a wide range of ideas from letterforms to self-referential systems to the nature of mind and rationality. It's probably impossible for anyone to like all the chapters (I'm personally bored rigid by the Rubik's Cube analyses and the anti-nuclear propaganda), but it's guaranteed to make you think in all kinds of new directions.

The Helliconia Trilogy by Brian Aldiss is some of the most thought-provoking science fiction I've ever read. You should read it in the one-volume compilation, as this includes later changes and a generous dollop of notes and explanations in the back. Basically, imagine a planet where the seasonal variation is extreme and each season lasts for generations. How does the ecosystem work, and how does humanity survive when "winter" means an ice age so long and harsh that civilisation collapses?

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is hard to beat if you're looking for information and inspiration on this subject. It covers the history of pictorial communication, various ways of conveying story through image, and how comics are written and read around the world today. If you have any prejudice against comics not being "a real art form", McCloud will change your mind.

Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged

It's a beast of a book, but it's a great one.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes From Underground

One of my all-time favorites.

Franz Kafka - The Trial

This one resonates strongly for me, especially given the current PC witch hunts going on in my country. This is a true masterpiece, one I believe everyone should read.

William Golding - Lord of the Flies

Another "must read" in my opinion.

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

Everyone in the world flocked to The Da Vinci Code, but this is a far superior novel. Yes, it falls completely in line with the incredibly overused formula that Dan Brown employs - but since this was one of the first stories (Digital Fortress came first and uses the exact same formula), you can't use it against him. Despite the historical and factual flaws, I loved this book.

There's also the standards that I (and many others) have mentioned before
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Moby Dick

How shameful. After all the ribbing of Tomo for His Dark Materials, I'm depressed to announce that at the age of 21 2/3, I have only for the first time read Northern Lights. It took me a whole two days to read, I'v started The Subtle Knife which appears to be shorter than Northern Lights and my girlfriend doesn't know where The Amber Spyglass is.

I think I might need to take an embarassing trip to the bookstore on Wednesday.

One final thing, Final Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko is out now! (That's the one I said hadn't been translated yet). Not read it yet (as I've been stuck with Philip Pullman books, but I'll give you all the heads up when I've read it)