Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Beginning

Hello readers,
A few months ago I started reading the Box of Paperbacks Book Club in the Onion AV Club. The premise is pretty simple. AV Club writer, Keith Phipps, bought a big box of 75 paperback books and is slowly reading his way through them in hopes of finding some new authors and undiscovered gems. Here is link: 

http://www.avclub.com/features/box-of-paperbacks-book-club/

So I thought why not do the same thing myself? Since I don't have a big box of books I decided to read through every Hugo Award novel since the prize's inception in 1953. For those of you who don't know, the Hugo is an award given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best sci-fi or fantasy book published that year.  A causal glance showed me that the award was initially dominated by science fiction with fantasy becoming more and more common by the 1990s. Even though all the winners are science fiction or fantasy, the titles alone hint at a great variety of work. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress sounds pretty different then American Gods.  
There are 4 main goals of this blog. 
First and foremost is to find a good book to read. Just a step into a Barnes and Noble or a public library shows that there are a bewildering large number of books. It's hard to judge a book by its cover so hopefully this list of award winners will lead me (and you as well) to some good reads. 
Second I am a writer myself and hope that I can learn something from best genre novels published over the years.
Third, I want to trace of the evolution of science fiction and fantasy of the years. I'm a history buff as well as a sci-fi nerd so it would be interesting to follow the changing ideas of the future and technology in each year. 
The final goal is just to have fun. Reading a good book and sharing it with others is a pleasure. On the flipside going on about why you dislike something is also great fun. 
The first book on the list is the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. I have never read any of his works or even heard of him before. I have no idea what to expect. 
A quick note about this blog: It will not have a regular posting schedule. The books are all of varying lengths and some are difficult to find. 
Happy reading!

David 

1 comment:

  1. Hey David,
    I'm a huge fan of SF/F and of the Hugo. I'm making my way through the Hugo list too and am a little over halfway there. Some really great reads in there. I've got a SF/F website dedicated to the top awards in SF/F including the Hugo that you may find useful in your quest: www.WorldsWithoutEnd.com

    Good luck with your blog and keep up the good work.

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