What classics should I be reading?

[fuzzyoctopus]

I'm back in an odd situation in life where I do have quite a bit of time to read, and some ways to procure cheap books.  So, what ought I be reading?  I'd like some classic stuff to read I think, and I know there are "classic" sci-fi authors I've never read.  Case in point - C.J. Cherryh.  Had never read anything by her before.  Why had I never heard of her works?  (Because no one I know in locally reads sci-fi, anymore.  The major drawback of moving to Ohio.)  Her stuff is hard for me to read, btw - I really have to force my way through the prose, because my instinct is to scan and skip ahead and she seems to take a really long time to get things going.  Or for another example, I'd never read any Robin McKinley until this year when stacer and Chimera talked about a few titles that sounded interesting.

So recommend me some really fabulous books to read.  I don't mind working through some slow prose if the book itself is good.

I'm not off fantasy or anything, just coming to the dark realization that I've read a lot of the fantasy out there and not a lot of the sci-fi.

[Entsuropi]

If you do fancy some fantasy, look up China Mieville someday. A british author, he mixes cyberpunk, fantasy and politics in a very powerful and fascinating fashion. He's written 3 books in one setting, i've only read one (Iron Council). Very bleak stuff, but the city he sets out in his books, New Crobuzon, is amazingly detailed and vivid.

As for Sci Fi, try Schismatrix Plus. I reviewed it here. It remains one of my favourites, for the main characters personality is so well done and (for me, i guess) easy to identify with.

[Faster Master St. Pastor]

The World at the End of Time by: Frederick Pohl IV

I found this on the floor while I was cleaning my room; it interested me because the main character is a god like plasma being who lives in a sun. It is a dual storyline book, one storyline is the plasma being having a war with his clones, and the other is how this war affects a human colony on a new planet. I found it very mentally involving (I learned what Tachyons were because of this book). One word of caution, this book has moderately sexual themes. By this I mean that the general attitude is 'we only have two thousand or so colonists and lots of people died in stasis so have sex as much as you want'. I found it good to just skip these parts because the overall novel is very cool.

[The Jade Knight]

Hit this thread for books to avoid:
http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=books;action=display;num=1122164596

And this thread for what people have read and enjoyed:
http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=books;action=display;num=1112295274;start=0

Personally, I recommend My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.  It's not SF/F, though.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Yes, but that thread is more of a "recent things I've read".  I'm wanting to hear about all the books everyone read when they were teenagers that I missed.  Should I slog through the Foundation trilogy?  Should I give Edgar Rice Burroughs a try?  Should I ignore my prejudice against late Heinlein and read Stranger in a Strange Land?

[Faster Master St. Pastor]

The World at the End of Time is not something I've read recently, I only thought of it because it was a good book (overall) that I think people would enjoy.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Thanks, that's actually exactly the kind of recommendations I want - I've heard of Pohl, but never read anything by him.  

[Faster Master St. Pastor]

My sister reccomends Farenhiet 451 by: Ray Bradbury.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think everyone interested in Sci-Fi should read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers. They're very different books, and there is much to disagree with either one for most people, but they have interesting ideas and what I think is rather skillful writing. You'll disagree with one or both, but it's worth the thoughts that go into it.

I also recommend Dragon's Bane by Barbara Hambly. And, believe it or not, Jeffe once gave me a book called Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill that turned out to be a very good book, and not a silly one either. It's not a classic, but it's a good read.

There's also the ever popular Narnia series (you've probably read it), but C.S. Lewis also did a sci-fi trilogy, the first of which was called Out of the Silent Planet which, while curious in approach to technology and even more overt in it's Christianity than Narnia, was a really good read.

Finally, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, starting with The Book of Three. These are the first books I read several times. So I recommends them if you haven't read them.

[Skar]

Classics ay?

To e's list of Heinlein I would add "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"  

Beyond that,  

Kieth Laumer was a great golden age SF writer.  My absolutes favorites of his are "Galactic Odyssey" and "Trace of Memory"

Jack Vance. I love his stuff.  Start with "Lyonesse" ,or "Maske:Thaery" ,or "Araminta Station". Maske:Thaery is a standalone while the other two are the beginnings of trilogies.  If you like those he wrote plenty more.

Roger Zelazny. Amber series. Book 1 is: "Nine Princes in Amber"  or a standalone by him, "Lord of Light"

Now, if you want to get into real pulp Robert E. Howard (the inventor of Conan, and not the conan you see in the movies either) wrote the best there ever was.  Any from his Conan series is good, as well as anything else he ever wrote. " Almuric" is one of my favorite by him.

Neal Stephenson.  He's writing modern classics.  I recommend most highly, "The Diamond Age" "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon".  While I really enjoyed his "Baroque Cycle" it's very different in that it's historical fiction written like good hard SF.  Very focused on the characters, who are in turn very focused on developments new to their time and whose lives are changed by those new developments.  So someone mostly focused on SF and F may find the Baroque Cycle hard to take.  But, again, I loved it.

I'll end my list here, although I could recommend many more.

[Fellfrosch]

Take a break from novels and read short stories: the collected works of Phillip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury are among the finest literature in any genre.

[Chimera]

My sister reccomends Farenhiet 451 by: Ray Bradbury.

Good classic book--one of the ones I liked in high school that was required. Along with that, you should read the classic 1984 by George Orwell if you haven't. Then you'll finally know why Big Brother is always watching.

A silly sci-fi book I loved in junior high was Interstellar Pig, about a kid and how he must save the universe by beating aliens at a boardgame. Ah, nostalgia.

Oh, and I hadn't read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card until last year. I recommend it if you haven't read it either.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Along with that, you should read the classic 1984 by George Orwell if you haven't. Then you'll finally know why Big Brother is always watching.

I read that in high school on my own choice, because I was in the Academic Quiz team and we had a whole year where there was at least one question about 1984 every match, and no one on the team had read it or remembered it if they had.  Regardless I really liked it, but was horrifically disappointed in the movie.

[Fellfrosch]

There was a movie?

[MsFish]

Have you read Mama Day yet?  I've recommended it like 5 times on this site, but I figured I'd give it another plug.  It's "literary" fantasy, in that it gets shelved with mainstream, and it's awesome.  

Also, Kitty and the Midnight Hour just came out, and it's great.  Despite the terrible title.  Well, at least, I think it is.  

Those are both fantasy, and neither are classics.  Oh well.