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Voting Time - May the Fourth Be With You
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Laura, I only see 19 choices on the SciFi shelf. I'd like to nominate The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin and add it to that shelf. "The Lathe of Heaven is a 1971 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. The plot revolves around a character whose dreams alter reality....The title is taken from the writings of Chuang Tzu — specifically a passage from Book XXIII, paragraph 7, quoted as an epigraph to Chapter 3 of the novel:
'To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. (知止乎其所不能知，至矣。若有不即是者，天鈞敗之。)'
Le Guin has published her own translations of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, the traditional founder of Taoism. Chuang Tzu was one of the sages of Taoism.
The Amazon blurb says: "A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man’s dreams control the fate of humanity.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.
The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity’s self-destructiveness."
What's the criteria for being tagged with sci fi on the bookshelves? I spotted a few that have sci fi elements or themes though they're generally marketed as either horror or non-genre literature...
Frankenstein, The Road, The Giver, I Am Legend, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Stepford Wives, Anthem
Yes, I noted that Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are listed under classics. They would fit more appropriately under the SciFi shelf imho. Classics has over 200 books on that shelf, while SciFi has so few. Perhaps some could be moved from Classics to SciFi?Just a thought :-)
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I'm trying to think of a few more to add to the group's shelves, but it's harder than I thought it would be to come up with Sci-Fi books that are both short and that I think would appeal to more than just Sci fi fans.The one that I think would be great as a discussion book is too long by just fifteen pages in the shortest print edition.
Kindred was the one I had in mind.Come to think of it though, that's more fantasy than it is sci-fi, even though I think of Butler as a sci-fi author.
Is May the fourth Star Wars day? I didn't know that! In the Netherlands May the fourth is the day we commemorate the people who died (at first only the people who died in World War 2; later also people who died in later wars). At 8 o'clock in the evening we are silent for 2 minutes to think about them... I always think about my grandfather who died during a bombing of his home-village (it was a bombing by our allies, who thought they had reached Germany - his village was close to the border...), when my mother was only a few months old... And on the fifth of May we have our Liberation Day! Because on the 5th our liberation treaty was signed and we were free from the Nazies at last!
So you can imagine I tend to read stories about the Second World War around this time of year...
But I haven't read many Sci-fi yet, so I'm willing to try it!
So I think I'll second Brave New World, it sounds interesting (and I think a classic like that, I should have read...)!
Elsbeth wrote: "Is May the fourth Star Wars day? I didn't know that! In the Netherlands May the fourth is the day we commemorate the people who died (at first only the people who died in World War 2; later also pe..."It's a pun. Say "May the fourth be with you" out loud and you'll get the joke.
In the US, May 4th isn't anything officially, that I know of.
May 5th is Cinco de Mayo and the anniversary of some battle in Mexico. It has something to do with the end of colonialism, I think? Basically, it's just day to celebrate being Hispanic if you're Hispanic and an excuse to have a party even if you're not.
The US Memorial Day is the last Monday in May. It started out as honoring the soldiers from our Civil War and is now all fallen soldiers.
US Veterans Day is Nov. 11th and that more or less coincides with a few days marking the end of WWI.
Then Pearl Harbor Day is Dec. 7th and that of course marks the time we were bombed in WWII and joined the fighting.
So the US tends to do more reflection on both World Wars in November/December.
Thank you for sharing Elsbeth. I love learning about other's cultures:)
Mod
Hey John, Thank you for nominating. but the book is more than 250 pages. Do you have a sic fi selection less than 250 p in mind you'd like to choose?
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Thank you, Melanti! I like how you explained it!
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The Lathe of Heaven
Time Shifters
I just want to make sure the book suggestions weren't also nominations. Just make sure you let me know what you'd like to see on the poll!
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Got it! Thank you, Melanti!!!
Hi everyone! I'd like to nominate The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Hi everyone! It's interesting to see the unusual theme for May! I'd like to nominate
Wool by Hugh Howey and add it to our Sci-fi shelf.
Hmm--I know the novel of WOOL is over 500 pages on Amazon's site. At 49 pages, this Silo 0.1 is more of a short story, imho. I'd love to see it in a short story thread, which is being considered. I dropped my classic nomination for A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift for that reason, since it's only 48 pages, but I'd like to put it in a "Short Story" or "Short Shorts" thread.
Julia - The Wool you're thinking of is an omnibus of the first five novellas of the series. Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1). The Wool Lamilla nominated is the first of those five novellas.On my own behalf, I'd like to nominate High-Rise. I've been meaning to read more Ballard.
Melanti wrote: "Elsbeth wrote: "Is May the fourth Star Wars day? I didn't know that! In the Netherlands May the fourth is the day we commemorate the people who died (at first only the people who died in World War ..."Thanks for sharing this! In the city where I live, Nijmegen, we also have some memorials in september and februari. September because at that time Operation Market Garden took place at our 'front yard' - the 'bridge too far' was not the bridge at Nijmegen, but the next bridge to the north, Arnhem (so our bridge was just far enough...). And at the end of februari 1944 the Allied Forces made a mistake: they thought they flew above Cologne and so they dropped their bombs on Nijmegen: thousands of people died... (well of course if they really were above Cologne thousands of people would also have died, but at least it would have been their enemies...).
And yes, I did get the 'force/forth'-joke...
I haven't read many sci-fi books, so I'm very curious about it!
Since Julia mentioned it in her post I would like to nominate Fahrenheit 451 It has been on my TBR list forever.
I agree that The Lathe of Heaven would be an excellent choice. The Secret Sharer Would also be good. I would recommend that for other lists also.
Sorry, I didn't use the list for the second one. In that case The Lathe of Heaven. Although The Illustrated Man is a good one too.
Julia wrote: "Laura, I only see 19 choices on the SciFi shelf. I'd like to nominate The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin and add it to that shelf. "[book:The Lathe of Heaven|59..." I agree, that is a good book.
OK, folks--we have a three-way tie so far! Only 20 of us have voted, so hopefully others will join in :-)The Lathe of Heaven
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Alicia wrote: "When is voting finished?"When you click on 'comments and details' you can see it.
It ends the 18th.
In case anyone wants an e-book copy of The Lathe of Heaven in case it wins, just saw in another group that they're just now releasing the ebook, and it has a promotional price for the next few days.https://ganxy.com/i/92734/ursula-k-le...
Currently $4, and the news article said it would be at that price for just one week. The article was dated 4/15, so I'd think you have until about the 22nd to decide.
Julia, I'm pretty sure that's not an authorized publication by the author.It's not a reputable website, it's HORRIBLY formatted, there's no cover, the copyright info is still the old Avon copyright info, etc.
And if you look at the front, there's a note saying "eBook scanned & proofed by Binwiped 10-20-02 [v1.0]"
There's no way it's legit. Someone just scanned in their physical copy and uploaded it to the internet.
Thanks, Melanti--once again you save me from copyright infringement! I'll stop posting those free online sites, and I've deleted the one I mentioned.
Your links to My Man Jeeves and The Waves were great.Things like that - where a University is willing put their reputation on the line by offering it are fine, as are well known public domain sites like Project Gutenberg or book sellers like Amazon, B&N, etc.
But anything else, a good rule of thumb is if you didn't get it through the publisher or author and no one is willing to stake their reputations on it by putting their real names on the site, it's probably not legit. Especially if it's newer than the 1930's.
Really you can find a pirated copy of practically everything online fairly easily - especially in the sci-fi/fantasy community.
Julia wrote: "Thanks, Melanti--once again you save me from copyright infringement! I'll stop posting those free online sites, and I've deleted the one I mentioned."Talking of which: does any of you know if this site is legal?
http://bookos-z1.org
It has so many contemporary books on it - I asked on of the writers on Goodread about it, but he didn't answer me...
Hmm--it asks me to sign up, which I don't do, so hope someone else knows, Elsbeth. I usually go to Project Gutenberg, which offers over 45,000+ free books to download (but The Lathe of Heaven isn't one of them).
I'm not familiar with bookos but from the fact you have to get an invite from an existing user before getting any info at all and a quick google search about it, it's probably not legit. Generally, anything with a large number of well-known contemporary books available isn't going to be legit.A pretty good test is to look for To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee is adamant that she does NOT want e-books available for her work. So if you ever see that book available, it's a good indicator that the site isn't legit.
Sometimes the pirating sites have those logins right at the front so that sites like google can't catalog them, and there's generally a reason for them wanting that.
Melanti wrote: "I'm not familiar with bookos but from the fact you have to get an invite from an existing user before getting any info at all and a quick google search about it, it's probably not legit. Generally..."I didn't get an invite from an existing user, I just somehow got there - so probably through google...
I just looked for 'To kill a mockingbird' - it is on the site! So now I now it can't be legit.
Thanks for the info!
I just googled bookos and came up with this discussion about whether or not it is legal:http://www.ebookanoid.com/2012/11/14/...
So more people seemed to doubt. But, judging from the comment of some writers, it is illegal. Good to know!
What must be an legal site, is:www.storycartel.com
On which you can download new books for a short time, in exchange for your review on Goodreads, amazone etc.
I downloaded The Last Human there. I'm reading it now, so I can tell you that so far it is a great, very exiting book! And by a Goodreads-author.
A quasi-legal site is: https://openlibrary.org/borrowBasically, here, the website is sent physical copies of the books from participating libraries and/or publishers. They then scan the books and then offer the scans or an OCR conversion to text on their site with the same sort of DRM'd time constraints that you get on the ebooks you borrow from your local library. The website does not return the physical books once they're scanned and it will only lend out one copy at a time, so it keeps the 1 physical book/1 reader link, which is what's kept them out of hot water so far.
The scan quality isn't great (the one book I tried was pretty terrible, actually) since the files aren't proofread, but the selection is huge. And they only give pdfs or epubs so it won't work with the e-ink Kindles. And it's not available everywhere - it depends on if there are participating libraries in your state/country.
The legality is still debatable, but at least it's more morally sound than outright pirating. They've been around for 3 or 4 years so far, and though I see some grumbling, they haven't been sued or shut down yet, so that must count for at least a little bit...
Short & Sweet Treats
Books mentioned in this topic
The Last Human-xled (other topics)To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
The Lathe of Heaven (other topics)
The Waves (other topics)
My Man Jeeves (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ursula K. Le Guin (other topics)Jonathan Swift (other topics)
Ursula K. Le Guin (other topics)
Welcome to our Nominations for May. In the spirit of Star Wars Day, May Fourth, we will read some Science Fiction!
Nominate one book from our SciFi Bookshelf.
Also, please refer to our shelf of Books Already Read so we don't nominate previous selections.
Nominations end on the 8th at which point voting begins.
Feel free to elaborate on why you nominated your choice!
May the Fourth Be With You...