**REMINDER**: With the new electronic catalog (<http://librarycatalog.lmxac.org/>,
which will redirect you to where
you can request your own inter-library loans. So even if the
other libraries
don't respond to the Old Bridge Library's request for copies, you can
order a copy for yourself.
07/23/09---[canceled]
08/27/09-THE
BEST OF FREDERIK POHL
pages: 306
copies in LMxAC catalog: 2 copies in the
system/1 in Old Bridge
suggested by: Charlie
Collection of stories published before 1975, although I think someone
observed that if a "Best of Frederik Pohl" were published today, it
would still have most of the same stories. [-ecl]
09/24/09-RED PLANET by Robert A. Heinlein
pages: 211
copies in LMxAC catalog: 4 copies in the
system/1 in Old Bridge
suggested by: Charlie or Richie
10/22/09--stories by Edgar Allan Poe
suggested by: Evelyn
The Pit and the Pendulum 29
The Fall of the House of Usher 34
The Black Cat 13
The Tell-Tale Heart 7
The Cask of Amontillado 9
The Masque of the Red Death 8
Hop-Frog 12
11/19--THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
(joint with original group)
pages: 216
copies in LMxAC catalog: lots in Old
Bridge (summer reading list)
suggested by: Dawn
"Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy
with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and
generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments
before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a
freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master
of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The
Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking
situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for
science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to
please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and
British sitcoms." [amazon.com]
12/24/09--[canceled]
01/28/10--TRUE
NAMES by Vernor Vinge
pages: ?
copies in LMxAC catalog: 3 copies in the
system/0 in Old Bridge
suggested by: Richie
This has been described as "the groundbreaking novella that invented
the concept of cyberspace." It can be found in David
Hartwell's VISIONS
OF WONDER and TRUE NAMES BY VERNOR VINGE AND THE OPENING OF THE
CYBERSPACE FRONTIER. (It is *not* in Vinge's COLLECTED
STORIES.)
(All quoted descriptions from amazon.com unless otherwise noted.)
02/25/10--STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHER STORIES by Ted Chiang
pages: 333
copies in LMxAC catalog: 5
suggested by: Evelyn & Charlie
"Here's the first must-read SF book of the year. Chiang has acquired a
massive reputation on the basis of very few pieces of short fiction.
This collection contains all six previously published tales, including
the Nebula Award-winning 'Tower of Babylon,' plus a new story, 'Liking
What You See: A Documentary.' It's rare for a writer to become so
prominent so fast. In this case, though, the hype is deserved. Chiang
has mastered an extremely tricky type of SF story. He begins with a
startling bit of oddity, then, as readers figure out what part of the
familiar world has been twisted, they realize that it was just a small
part of a much larger structure of marvelous, threatening strangeness.
Reading a Chiang story means juggling multiple conceptions of what is
normal and right. Probably this kind of brain twisting can be done with
such intensity only in shorter lengths; if these stories were much
longer, readers' heads might explode. Still, the most surprising thing
is how much feeling accompanies the intellectual exercises. Whether
their initial subject is ancient Babylonians building a tower that
reaches the base of Heaven, translation of an alien language that shows
a woman a new way to view her life as a mother, or mass-producing
golems in an alternative Victorian England, Chiang's stories are
audacious, challenging and moving. They resemble the work of a less
metaphysical Philip K. Dick or a Borges with more characterization and
a grasp of cutting-edge science.' [-Publishers Weekly]
Future possibilities:
Robert Sheckley
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Lathe of Heaven)
Poul Anderson (Tau Zero)
Roger Zelazny (Lord of Light)
Stanislaw Lem (Tales of Pirx the Pilot)
Hal Clement
H. P. Lovecraft
Wilmar Shiras (Children of the Atom)
2003:
02--Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
03--Time Machine, The by H. G. Wells
04--Perelandra by C. S. Lewis
05--Time and Again by Jack Finney
06--Ringworld by Larry Niven
07--Princess of Mars, A by Edgar Rice Burroughs
08--Acorna by Anne McCaffrey
09--Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
10--Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
11--[postponed]
12--Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
2004:
01--American Gods by Neil Gaiman
02--Contact by Carl Sagan
03--Fire Upon the Deep, A by Vernor Vinge
04--Day of the Triffids, The by John Wyndham
05--I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
06--Slan by A. E. Van Vogt
07--The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
08--Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
09--Time Patrol by Poul Anderson
10--Adventures in Time and Space by Raymond Healy & J. Francis McComas
11--The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
12--[cancelled]
2005:
01--The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
02--[postponed]
03--The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem
04--Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
05--Adventures in Time and Space by Raymond Healy & J. Francis McComas
06--The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
07--[postponed]
08--Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
09--Software by Rudy Rucker
10--SF Hall of Fame I ed. Robert Silverberg
11--Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
12--Ubik by Philip K. Dick
2006:
01--The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
02--Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
03--Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
04--Bellwether by Connie Willis
05--The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
06--The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
07--The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey
08--Coyote by Allen Steele
09--Remake by Connie Willis
10--A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
11--The Woman and the Ape by Peter H¢eg
12--[canceled]
2007:
01--The Lincoln Hunters by Wilson Tucker
02--Blood Music by Greg Bear
03--Eden by Stanislaw Lem
04--Frameshift by Robert Sawyer
05--Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
06--Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling
07--Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
08--Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
09--The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
10--The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
11--King and Joker by Peter Dickinson
12--[canceled]
2008:
01--Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
02--Diaspora by Greg Egan
03--Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
04--City of Truth by James Morrow
05--Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
06--Old Man's War by John Scalzi
07--"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson
08--"The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick 09--"The Upside-Down
Revolution" by a.k.a. "Weapon Systems of the Twenty First Century or
the Upside-Down Evolution" by Stanislaw Lem
10--SF stories by H. P. Lovecraft
11--Fatherland by Robert Harris
12--[canceled]
2009:
01--Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
02--The Enemy Stars by Poul Anderson
03--Worlds of Wonder edited by Robert Silverberg
04--Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
05--The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl
06--Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem
07--[canceled]
08--The Best of Frederik Pohl
09--Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein
10--stories by Edgar Allan Poe
11--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
12--[canceled]
