Boulder Book Club discussion

I've been running across inteeresting lists of books to read, and given that we've posted them before, I figured I'd make a thread for them.

Most recently (and apropos of our discussion of what defines Sci Fi), I've found Forbidden Planet's 50 SF Books You Must Read. Shockingly, The Windup Girl made the list early on. Boneshaker, on the other hand, did not.

And given the time of year it is, it's really no surprise that there's an NPR compendium of summer books for 2011. If we're ever short on suggestions for books, we can always peruse these lists for the hidden gems among them.

I keep seeing references to British sf writer, China Mieville; especially to a book called "The City and the City," which tied The Windup Girl for the Hugo Award, won the World Fantasy award, and also won several other awards.

Ursula LeGuin (multiple Hugo Award winner and one of the best damned writers around) has predicted that Mieville will eventually win the Booker Prize, too.

So I'd like to nominate "The City & the City" for consideration next time. That is, if y'all are into sf. I know it's not for everyone.

Thought some of you sci-fi geeks would like this: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

Handmaid made #22!

Put this one on your list and smoke it!

Etidorhpa

But, he's got No PENIS!

Mark wrote: "But, he's got No PENIS!"

Your keen powers of observation and subtle modes of expression never cease to amaze me!

I'm on a magic carousel. I discovered "Etidorhpa" through reading "Mutants and Mystics," by Jeffrey Kripal. I make my post here. Mark makes a phallic reference. I continue reading MaM, and come across a picture of Doctor Manhattan, reprinted from Alan Moore's "Watchmen." But he's wearing black underwear! So I think, dammit! U. of Chicago Press has edited out Dr. M's penis! Ten minutes later, I find my copy of Watchmen, and discover, to my disappointment, that MaM reprints the one page where Doctor Manhattan happens to be wearing anything. It looks like black Speedo swimwear. WTF was Dave Gibbons thinking? Dr. M is emasculated during his most He-Man moment: while he's marching through the fields of the Viet Nam war.

Whoa, magic carousel...I think its more like magic mushrooms!

Kripal's "Mutants and Mystics" is definitely a magical trip: especially if you are into comic books and sf pulp magazines; and if you don't mind thinking in rather sophisticated ways about UFO's, other dimensions, artistic creativity, and "paranormal" phenomena. If nothing else, the book is a great exploration of themes that have come up again and again in religious traditions, and in certain kinds of popular fiction, speculative non-fiction, comics, and film. Kripal reveals common threads of shamanistic and mystical experiences that run through the putatively "lower" or "trashy" domains of pop culture.