Adding to my collection...

Sweet, sounds good. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I'm personally a fan of most of Frank Peretti's work, but I just want to give you a note of caution. It's well written and is an enjoyable read, but some of it is really bad theology so don't expect that everything read in the book represents a good picture of what Christians believe or how things necessarily work in the Spiritual realm. Peretti himself has taken some heat for it and has simply responded that it's not supposed to be a theology text book. If you like that one, pick up "The Oath." It's been awhile since I read it but it used to be one of my favourite books.

The sequel (The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye) is worth a look as well.Edited to fix the title (since I found it while tidying my book case this afternoon ).This message has been edited by MangyTiger, 02-25-2005 20:25 AM

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Confused ? You will be...

If you like the Douglas Adams type of humor, then I recommend reading a book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett called Good Omens. Probably the funniest book I have read. As far as science fiction, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is a very good read.

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"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." ~ Douglas AdamsI wish more people would shave with Occam's Razor. Orson Scott Card

Cool, I'll have to check it out when I... hey wait! Did you actually read this book, or is this yet another of your second hand critiques?

I've read nearly everything Niven has put into print. And I'm reading all the Banks I can get my hands on.

Here's my recco's:Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which is supposed to be written at a young adult level but it is plenty dark, not dumbed down at all, and has Christian symbolism.Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World--Science as a Candle in the Dark is not a work of fiction but I found it quite entertaining.Oliver Sachs' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which is also not a novel but a somewhat philosophical and sensitive treatment of a number of very interesting case studies involving brain damaged people.

To add some bits.There is now a prequel trilogy to Cryptonomicon, "The Baroque Cycle".
I've read the first (Quicksilver) and enjoyed it more than Cryptonomicon.Oh, and on the SF side I recommend Alistair Reynolds - start with Revelation SpaceAnd Iain M. Banks fans ought to remember his mainstream (no 'M') fiction, too. My personal favourite of those is Espedair Street but others are good too (the TV adaption of The Crow Road wasn't bad either).This message has been edited by PaulK, 02-25-2005 09:08 AM

The other two books of 'The Baroque Cycle', are 'The Confusion' and 'The System of the World'.I would recommend 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman, also Neal Asher has written some interesting Sci-fi.TTFN,WK

And as soon as I can wrest it from the unwilling hands of my wife it shall be read....

Ok, I read descriptions of each of the books and found them all interesting, hopefully in due time I can get a chance to read them all. Today I'll be heading to the store and this is the list I compiled.^ means that I will decide when I get there.1. ^ This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
2. The Origins of the Bible: The Facts and Fictions Behind the World's Greatest Book by Samuel Graham
3. ^ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
4. Shadowland by Peter Straub
5. The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane FoxMy plan was to buy 2 Fiction and 2 Non-Fiction, However I can't resist a good book so I'll see how they "feel" when I look at them in the bookstore.Now to continue the book discussion.Well these are books I read a very long time ago but feel they must be mentioned.The Eight by Katherine Neville
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1894 by George Orwelland of course......All of Arthur C. Clarke's Spacey Odyssey novels. Actually, any novel by Arthur C. Clarke, once I pick them up I can't put them down. I read 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001 I think within a week and a half. Out of his other books I recommend, Rendezvous with Rama, and The City and the Stars.*edited for spelling errors.This message has been edited by Pradu, 02-25-2005 11:00 AM

If you like Clarke you must check out his collection Tales from the White Hart. And have you read Childhood's End ?This message has been edited by PaulK, 02-25-2005 11:07 AM

I looked at the description of Childhood's End, it looks very good. I once ran across a box marked "free" with I think just about every Arthur C. Clarke paperback in it. I greedily took the entire box, I actually believe I have both of these books, I'll have to find them. I couldn't find the Tales from the White Hart description but any book by Clarke is surely good.This is taking me down memory lane, I also would like to add The Mark: The Beast Rules the World by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Sadly, I have never read any of the previous novels in this series. I must admit it was hard to jump into the 8th installment but they do a good job of telling you in a few brief pages who the characters are etc...

Tales from the White Hart is a collection of (scientific or technological) tall tales told in a pub. The Amazon page has some sample text. hereThe first story starts
here:_{Edited by AdminJar to shorten links. Use peek mode to see how it was done. Thanks.} This message has been edited by AdminJar, 02-25-2005 10:38 AMThis message has been edited by PaulK, 02-25-2005 12:17 AM

Tales From the White Hart has long been one of my favorites. One major reason is that a place, very much like the White Hart played a large role in my education.It was called the Peabody Bookshop & Beer Stube and was located in a basement of one of the row houses on Charles Street just a ways north of Mount Vernon Place. It had a small black sign out front that had not been painted since the time that H. L. Menken hung out there. You entered down a short flight of stairs and emerged into a room with a wide assortment odd and varied book cases filled with a collection of cast off books from rumage and estate sales. At one time the books were carefully arranged in the order of space availablity but even that concession to system had been modified by those sampling what was there.At the rear of the room was a doorway, low enough that you had to stoop as you passed through with a step down into a long, narrow, dark room. The floor was made of old cobble stones and far away, at the rear, was a fireplace that covered most of the wall. On the left were the stairs leading to the living quarters of the house (and the perfectly normal kitchen where what passed for food was prepared), a small bathroom and a long bar with no stools. The room was filled with massive oaken tables, heavily annodated with carved initials and pithy comment.Sitting before the open fireplace was the one long table in the place, and it was there that the regulars gathered. They were made up of an odd assortment, musicians from the Peabody Conservatory that sat on the other side of Mount Vernon Place, students and professors from the Hopkins and Loyola College, retired vaudeville actors and even a few strippers from the Gaietey as well as bums such as myself.The attraction of the rear table was the flow of ideas that swept across the folk gathered. One night might be devoted to puns, another to science, or perhaps theology or philosophy, history or politics. The effects of the Great White Fleet were discussed as well as the fleets that set out to destroy Troy.Everyone should have the advantage of a White Hart. It is in places such as that, or here at EvC, that we really learn. It's not books, but the challenge to knowledge and perception, the anvil and hammer that temper our opinions that counts.This message has been edited by jar, 02-25-2005 11:23 AM

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion