Former Introduction Thread Showing 2,301-2,350 of 6,846

[John]

Thanks for the welcome, Richard. The quote about ultimate truths is one of my favorites. I like those you have on your profile, also. More of mine are on my website under "Uncle Luis."

[Lars]

Hi,

my name is Lars, 36, I'm living in Munich, Germany. I am working as an editor for an IT-Magazine. I prefer Science Fiction to Fantasy. Nevertheless I am currently enjoying very much the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin (momentarily A Clash of Kings).

In SF, I prefer the classics like Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein but also contemporary authors like Alastair Reynolds. Concerning the classics, I am always trying to find (especially in antiquarian bookshop) 'forgotten gems' like Clarke's Imperial Earth.

Feel free to contact me if you like to discuss some SciFi or Fantasy topics or if you have some tips for me.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome John and Lars :)




Pamela wrote: "Ooh, that's a tough one! The one I've probably re-read the most is Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. An oldi..."

I'll have to give both of those a go then. Thanks :)

[Ethan Jones]

Greetings - I'm 32 and live with my husband and two kids (one cat, one dog) in sunny Portland, Oregon. I'm a paralegal and aspiring author, with three half-written novels that I'm completely failing to work on.

The biggest influence on my life, my sense of humor, and my outlook on the world is Douglas Adams. Apart from DNA, I enjoy quite a variety of authors. I enjoy stories in which the author creates an immersive, intricate universe to draw the reader in - for example, the Dune books. Now, granted, God Emperor is awful, but all of the rest of them have something good to offer, and Herbert's sprawling, detailed, and absolutely fascinating universe is a treat to read.

I have of course read quite a bit of Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and many of the rest of the sci-fi greats, and I'm now delving more into fantasy. I'm in the 2nd book of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series - she's an author who really impresses the hell out of me - Lathe of Heaven is a masterwork. I'm also going to start reading Game of Thrones, and I might check out the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Steampunk also interests me, although I think it's a bit overplayed.

I could go on for a while about what I like to read, but I think you'd rather read books than read my ramblings, so I'll leave you to it.

[Sandy]

Hi, Kate and everybody new! I'm charging along, trying to get caught up after vacation. Found 1500 emails in my inbox!

Kate––Check out my The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy. This is really a political book about a revolution and the consequences of not working together (we blow up the planet). I've been dying for someone to get its political nature. I flagged the 99 cent Kindle, but there's a print book, too.

Best to everyone!

[Lars]

What I forgot to say: although I like big space operas and epic fantasy novels, I enjoy very much reading novels which don't exceed about 350 pages - I think that it is a much more difficult task for an author to pack his story in a certain frame. Besides I lack the time to read only books of 600 pages and more. So if anybody knows good SciFi (and fantasy) novels with a pagecount less that 350 - let me know.

[Andrea]

Hi everyone
I've been a sci-fi addict since my mid teens, and now over 30 years later have amassed a nice little collection of over 1000 of the best in the genre. It's hard to physically fit in more without moving house - so I have recently bought a Kindle. I love space opera & hard science fiction. I am very discerning about fantasy - only enjoy a few authors. (LOTR obviously, Tad Williams, Stephen Donaldson, Raymond E Feist's earlier works, Terry Pratchett).
My favourite book of all time is Ender's Game.

I've been lurking on GoodReads a while, and thought it's time to say hi to the community!

[Sandy]

Hi, Andrea! 1000 books! That's a lot. Kindles are great for storing lots of books. Plus there are a lot of good ones for not much money.

Greetings!

Sandy Nathan

[Marion]

Hello Everyone! I am a *huge* fantasy fan. I love the big long, fat fantasy novels with tons of character interaction and lots of world details and history and mythology and... Yeah. Those books!

I tend to be reading several books at a time, which can make it slow going getting through them! I'm currently reading Gardens of the Moon by Stephen Erikson, The Book of Taltos by Steven Brust, Wolf at the Door by J. Damask, and The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede.

[Sandy]

Welcome, Marion!

[Sharon]

Lars wrote: "What I forgot to say: although I like big space operas and epic fantasy novels, I enjoy very much reading novels which don't exceed about 350 pages - I think that it is a much more difficult task f..."

Hi Lars,

Frank Herbert is good for that. A lot of his books are 400 pages or less. I'd suggest checking out the below site for a total list of his works. Good luck!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/f...

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Marion :)

[N.R.]

Greetings Jenn and everyone:
Life has gotten hectic so I don't even remember if I introduced myself or not. I don't consider myself a nerd. I'm not to savvy with technology. But I do love a good fantasy and I also write fantasy. I am still learning the ropes around Good Reads, partly because I have so little time to devote to it. I look forward to participating more in this book club, but please bare with me, we are moving and as with all changes, life is chaos right now.
Cheers,
N. R. Williams

[[deleted user]]

Welcome N.R. :)

Just checked, you haven't posted before in the group, so you're all good with the intro.

[Marion]

Thanks for the welcome! I've barely been able to scratch the surface, but this looks like a great group!

[N.R.]

Thanks for the welcome Marion.

[Words]

Hi,

I walked into a bookstore one day and, after spending a while browsing through the books there, I walked back out with nothing. Same thing happened when I went browsing online bookstores. There are too many books, but so few quality ones, and meanwhile I have so little money to spend.

I joined Goodreads soon after in search of reviews and recommendations as well as a place to talk about books. I enjoy scifi and fantasy, although I read more fantasy. Lately, I've been reading books by Ilona Andrews, Shannon Hale, and Scott Westerfeld - all of them are quite good in their own ways. ;)

I'm mostly a reader of (vs contributor to) these threads - I look forward to reading everyone's recommendations.

[John]

Words wrote: "Hi,

I walked into a bookstore one day and, after spending a while browsing through the books there, I walked back out with nothing. Same thing happened when I went browsing online bookstores. Th..."

Words: I understand your frustration in finding something interesting to read. I'm a long-time science fiction fan, and fall victim to the same problem. So I wrote a science fiction adventure novel, and shopped it around to a bunch of agents. Nobody expressed even the slightest bit of interest.
So I wrote a nonfiction science book: "48 Hours to Chaos: An Engineer Looks at Life and How the World Really Works," which contains many science-fiction-like concepts. While we SF fans understand that all the ultimate truths are to be found in science fiction, true science can also lead us to greater enlightenment.

Later, John.
P.S. Please excuse my decline into shameless commerce.

[ayanami]

Hi everyone! I've always been a huge fan of science fiction, particularly dystopian stories, hard sci-fi and space opera. In the past I've always watched more sci-fi than read, but now I'm trying to rectify that. I didn't really get into fantasy until this year so now I'm trying to catch up on all the classic fantasy novels. I'm hoping I'll pick up a lot of recommendations here. :)

[Terry]

Hi.

I'm a reader and writer both. Fantasy is my love but I also read scifi and thrillers. I've also dabbled in the horror genre off and on. Currently I'm reading A Dance with Dragons with a little The Warded Man and Brent Weeks on the side.

When I'm not reading, I'm writing or in the gym here in New York City.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome new folks :)

[Sandy]

Hi everyone! Went to Borders yesterday. What a sad scene. Drove home the economy to my daughter and I. On line is where it is.

[[deleted user]]

I'm not bothering with Borders stores. I'd probably end up broke :P

[Sandy]

All there was left was junk. It looked like they'd emptied their back storerooms. We left in 2 seconds.

[[deleted user]]

Ouch. Must've been one helluva weekend.

[Sandy]

They're shuttin' down . . .

[[deleted user]]

Yeah, I know. Just didn't think they'd go through that many books in a weekend.

[Sandy]

They did. The was the Borders in Oxnard CA. They'd previously closed their store in Santa Barbara, along with Barnes & Noble.

[Jon]

I've been a member for a little while, but I haven't been active lately, so I wanted to re-introduce myself.

Hello!

[Marsha]

Hi!

I'm Marsha A. Moore and I write fantasy romance. I've been lurking for a while, but wanted to say hello since I just purchased White Cat so I can join the August book club discussions. I'm really hoping the added motivation of reading with a group will focus me on a daily reading habit, something that sadly diminishes to make time for writing.

Look forward to getting to know some of you with the August read!

Marsha
Marsha A. Moore

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Marsha :)

And a re-welcome to Jon :P

[Helen]

Hi, I'm Helen and I live in the UK. I've been reading fantasy books since I was 16 and found Terry Brooks. I love sci-fi films and tv series so I intend to expand that side of my reading.

[Richard]

Hello Helen,
More Brits the better, familiar face from another group as well.
Welcome to the Big One.

[Sandy]

Hi, Helen! I always love to meet and chat with people from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Must be the accent or something. But there's no accent with typed words. Hmmmm.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Helen :)

[DesertBreeze]

Hi,
I lament the eclipsing of printed books by the digital format, but nonetheless plan to embrace the change soon-ish (must decide which e-reader).I doubt printed books will ever cease to be in my "to be read" stack and on my shelves.

I've read SF and a small amount of fantasy since I was young. I am drawn to SF because it allows such unfettered exploration of ideas. I look forward to discovering new authors and good books here.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Ladybug :)

I'm with ya, Pia. Don't care how it's packaged, just gimme the books! :P

[Helen]

Thanks for the welcome, have to confess I'm a recent convert to kindle and find myself reaching for it in preference.

[Sandy]

Hi, Ladybug! I wander around with my Kindle in hand and read from it constantly. Only time I don't like it is for books you want to leaf through a lot, like or my book club where you make notes to discuss things later. I know that the Kindle has ways of doing this, but I haven't mastered them. Saying that, my book group is reading Wind in the Willows this month––yes, the classic. I bought an illustrated version done expressly for the Kindle for a buck plus change. Fabulous! Beautiful illustrations. Highly recommend it.

[Veronika]

Hello everyone, I am 22 year old student and I started reading fantasy and sci-fi when I was 10. I am an international member of Goodreads-I am from the Czech Republic.

I am currently reading "The Color of Magic" by Terry Pratchett, "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende and "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare.

Even though English is not my mother tongue, I find reading in English more fun and interesting.

[Sandy]

Welcome, Veronika!

[Michael]

Hello everyone! I've been a big SciFi and Fantasy reader for years. I read Ladybug's post and also have had issues with switching over from the printed book to my Nook. We are getting ready to move again and I started to look around the place and saw all the books we have. Over the past many years and many moves I have moved at least 20 boxes of books each time and I'm running out of space. Laugh.

Anyway, just wanted to finally introduce myself.

Have a great (HOT) Tuesday!
Mike

[DesertBreeze]

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I do like the idea of having an e-reader handy for easy reading anytime.

Good to know there other SF fans here. I just voted for top SF & F novels at:
http://t.co/SXsHMZs

Good reading!

[DesertBreeze]

Welcome, Veronika!

[DesertBreeze]

Welcome, Michael!

[[deleted user]]

Welcome new folks :)

[Pamela]

Welcome to new people!

[Chris]

Hey everyone, I've just found this site and am enjoying looking around at the moment. My name is Chris, and I'm from Devon in the south west of England. I'm a big SF fan. Favourite authors are Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, Jack McDevitt. Also a hugh fan of Jasper Fforde and the YA authors Patrick Ness and Phillip Reeve. Favourite book is Rendezvous with Rama. Working through some of the S.F. masterworks. Impressed with Non Stop by Brian Aldiss.

Anyway, just thought I'd say hello!

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Chris :)

[Joan]

Greetings to everyone. I've been reading fantasy and SF since grade school (which ended in '68!) and have had mostly my own kids (ranging in age from teens to 30's) with whom to share my love of the genre. It's great to see the growth in popularity over the past five to 10 years and I look forward to hearing about everyone's favorite books and authors. I'm still adding all my books to my home page but am focusing on F/SF first!