sff books that meant the most to John Scalzi

[Tamahome]

Interesting list. Not typical. Fall of Hyperion? Time Enough For Love? Speaker For The Dead? Sherri S. Tepper?

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/10/14...

[Phil]

It's funny, the 3 books you mention by name are among my favorites. The Hyperion and Ender series would be in my top 5 and Time Enough for Love is my absolute favorite book of all time and has had a huge impact on my life.

[Tamahome]

It just suprised me that he picked the 2nd books in the series instead of the first. Doesn't the guy in 'time enough for love' go back in time and have sex with his mother?

[Alan]

I read Time Enough for Love in high school and loaned it to a friend. When he hadn't returned it a few weeks later, I asked what was up and he told me that his mother had seen the book, read it, and threw it away so he couldn't read it.

[Phil]

Tamahome wrote: "It just suprised me that he picked the 2nd books in the series instead of the first. Doesn't the guy in 'time enough for love' go back in time and have sex with his mother?"

Yeah, if you think about it too much that part's a little creepy. Maybe not a little.

[Rick]

I like his list not so much for the books but because it was what meant the most to him, not a 'best' list. I'd love to hear this from T&V on a podcast... Often the books that have meant the most to someone aren't the classic masterworks in a field.

[Noah]

I like that Bridge of Birds was on there.

[Trike]

Rick wrote: "I like his list not so much for the books but because it was what meant the most to him, not a 'best' list. I'd love to hear this from T&V on a podcast... Often the books that have meant the most ..."

I agree. A lot of people demean some books as unworthy or call them "guilty pleasures," but if it meant something to you then it was a worthwhile way to spend your time.

I also like his rationale for the first book on the list, Always Coming Home. I've read encyclopedias and wikipedias about fictional worlds just to see the worldbuilding. I've been doing it with the Mutants & Masterminds and Shadowrun for the same reason he reads D&D stuff: I just like the worldbuilding and lore.

[Kevin]

I can see Speaker for the Dead was a huge influence for Scalzi when he wrote his Old Man's War series.

[Daniel]

Perdido Street Station. I felt like that about Perdido Street Station. Then I read the end of the story and lost it all.