To me, a good book is one that tucks away some of its best parts in my memory and those memories tend to define the entire book for me. I thought I'd share a few of my sci-fi / fantasy favorite memories...
1. From More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon - I learned about gestalt - and still have a mental picture of the baby and the twins in the story.
2. From All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury - I can see all the children laughing and playing in the sun while Margot is locked inside the closet. Tragic!
3. From The Hobbit by J. R.R. Tolkien - so many things... but, I always am reminded of seed cake, the goblin tunnels, Gollum and the giant spiders in Mirkwood. And... how wonderful it is to be home for Elevenses!
4. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - again - so many things - but. I love the pig and the pepper - and the Tenniel illustration of the sheep in the train car!
5. Dune by Frank Herbert - melange (didn't everyone want to taste it?! I know I did!)
And
6. The Worm Ouroboros and The Zimiamvian Trilogy by E. R Eddison - O.M.G. I wanted astral and time travel to be real!
What are some of your favorite sci-fi/fantasy book memories?
Sci-fi/Fantasy? Not a big reader of that genre, but I absolutely loved Neuromancer, by Willian Gibson. Stayed with me for years! Such vivid imagery. You ever read it?
ReplyDeleteAre you a writer? Then you MUST enter this CONTEST!
1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle -- when Meg must go back to IT alone to save Charles Wallace. Makes me tear up a little.
ReplyDelete2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card -- when Ender realizes, oh wait..that's a spoiler. Nevermind. :) Oh, and when I realized that the space station gravity worked by the floor being what from the outside we might view as the walls. That threw my young mind (at the time) for a loop.
I have so many more, but two is enough to list here. :)
Great choices--although I haven't read your #6, Julia. Will add it to my list.
ReplyDeleteWith Dune, I wanted to be able to fold space like the guild navigators (without, of course, mutating in the process).
I'd add Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney. The whole concept of a language that controls the speaker's thoughts blew me away.
Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks - so many things like the heartbreak of losing friends and the courage to carry on alone if you have to, and that sometimes you have to dig deep within yourself to find your magic.
ReplyDeleteFrom The Silken Swift by Theodore Sturgeon - I learned that being beautiful on the inside is worth more than being pretty on the outside.
And from The Saucer of Loneliness also by Sturgeon I learned that no matter how isolated I might feel, there might be someone in the universe lonelier than me.
LOVED "All Summer in a Day" but my memory's of Margot locked inside the closet, not the children outside.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I think for me, Meg in the garden in Wrinkle in Time; the dark tents in Many Waters; when Aerin pulls back her hood for Tor in Hero and the Crown; the dragons in Dealing with Dragons.
Great comments everyone! Thanks for stopping by! Like Bittersweet said - the things that threw our young minds for a loop! That has a lot to do with me loving sci-fi and dystopian lit!
ReplyDeleteThe most vivid memory of a sci-fi book I have is of The Giver by Lois Lowry. Jonas notices that something is different about an apple, but he can't quit figure what it is. I was blown away when I found out that everyone in that world is colorblind and Jonas was actually seeing the red color of the apple.
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