Who wants to have a book club in SL?

I think a book club is a great idea, and I think Stephenson is a splendid choice for visiting author. Another possibility (perhaps?) is Ellen Ullman. She wrote Close to the Machine and recently wrote a very powerful novel called The Bug . Hauntingly sad, blackly humorous. (When I discovered what caused UI-1017, I wanted to beat my head on the table.)

Thank you for the suggestion, Hamlet. I am very new to SL but this sort of thing is why I am here.

MatC

I'm always looking for recommendations for new books to read, I'm in.

I'm generally more of a sci-fi/fantasy reader, but I'd be very interested in joining, buying recommended books, and reading them... even if they're off my beaten path. (8

Yea, verily. I’ve been meaning to read something other than Harry Potter books. This will give me the perfect excuse.

All of the titles mentioned sound good to me. I would have liked to recommend two books by R. Buckminster Fuller, “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” and “No More Secondhand God.” As I recall, they have quite a bit of relevance to sim worlds. Unfortunately, like most of his books, they’re no longer in print, and difficult to find. An incredible mind, but damn difficult to read.

“To start off with it is demonstrated in the array of events which we have touched on that we don't have to "earn a living" anymore. The "living" has all been earned for us forever. Industrialization's wealth is cumulative in contradistinction to the inherently terminal, discontinuous, temporary wealth of the craft eras of civilization such as the Bronze Age or Stone Age. If we only understood how that cumulative industrial wealth has come about, we could stop playing obsolete games, but that is a task that cannot be accomplished by political and social reforms. Man is so deeply conditioned in his reflexes by his millenniums of slave function that he has too many inferiority complexes to yield to political reformation. The obsolete games will be abandoned only when realistic, happier and more interesting games come along to displace the obsolete games.”
(No More Secondhand God, by R. Buckminster Fuller, Copyright 1963.)

Ummm, there won’t be a tax on reading, will there?

I have another recommendation or two.

1) The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll
2) Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Both good choices! I wonder if Stoll is still so anti-Internet. (Or not "anti", so much as "highly skeptical about the idea that the Internet will fundamentally transform society."

I think we're up to, what, 21 or so folks who say Yes? Keep
'em coming! Right now, I'm working with the Lindens to try and contact some of the Big Literary Guns on our reading list...

You mean it HASN'T?

(FTR, Stoll was the guy what got me interested in computers from the other end, as opposed to end users. Now I need to put that on the list of books to cart back from my parents' house when I visit 'em next month...)

I'd be interested in joining the book club. If you are looking for authors relevant to SL, don't forget William Gibson! Some nights the surrealistic, chaotic quality of our world here reminds me a lot of his imagery.

I would so love to be part of the book club, as soon as I can get back in world, which has been delayed a bit. Hopefully by the end of this week.

I have a suggestion for an author: Orson Scott Card.

I think he's a good choice because

A) Lots of people have probably already read his Ender's Game book

B) I'm fairly certain he would be willing to do something like this, time permitting.


I'd also like to suggest Dan Simmons' Hyperion as that really should be required reading in school. However, I have no impression of what Simmons is like personally, so can't be sure if he'd be willing.

Awesome idea Hamlet!

You have my vote too Hamlet. If done well and right, this could be a very big step for SL.

I'm a big sci-fi fan and it's great to be able to expand my reading list from all the great recommendations already posted.

Cheers and may your Packets never get lost.

One of my most favorite authors who seems to be very approachable (he participates in IRC chats sometimes) is Larry Niven. I think he has a new Ringworld book coming out some time in the not too distant future. I love that guy.

Some very nice choices here but I'm hoping that eventually once this gets off the ground we can include some *non* sci-fi writers too. I'm open to Sci-Fi but I normally don't read it for my own pleasure, except Vonnegut, which I'm not entirely sure can be classified as Sci-Fi. I tend toward "literary fiction" and "creative non-fiction" stuff myself. Either way, here's hoping we can see a range of "styles" and genres .

Zana

In view of Hamlet's recent request, I think it would be fitting to mention that I would consider it a great honor to be in the presence of someone with a mind like that of Hunter S. Thompson for a reading, whether virtual or physical.

Someone of his mental acuity might have some very interesting things to say about SL.

Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg" is non-fiction. Although it is still computer-related. It reads more like a spy novel, though.

Arik,

I met Hunter Thompson one time. It's more than i want to post here, but find me online sometime and i'll tell you all about it. Suffice it to say, he didn't disappoint.

Maggie

I'm in - I like to devour books.

right now I'm leaning towards cyberpunk (gibson, sterling), steampunk (meiville) and windpunk (McMullen).

bbc

Excellent idea, Hamlet! Here are some author suggestions:

Arthur C. Clarke
Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams)
Robert Crumb (assorted comics)
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
JC Herz (Surfing on the Internet, Joystick Nation)
Neil Gaiman

I know Gaiman has a blog up somewhere, don't have the URL, but he's very net.accessible. However, if we drag 'em in, chances are we'd never get another work out of them -- do we really want to risk that?

I love Mieville! He doesn't really have any direct connection to computers in the books of his I've read so far, but wouldn't it be fun to discuss Perdido Street Station?

Wow, we're already over the 20-30 I was hoping for, to
get momentum on this thing! Soon as I get back from
vacation, I'll start looking for authors to get in here, in earnest. (And keep posting suggestions!)

Kurt Vonnegut
We're never getting Ray Bradburry on here guys
I wish Issic Assimov were alive to see this

Would anyone be interested in *Lucky Wander Boy* as one of our selections? It's a cool novel, very much appropriate to SL and computer games, and more key, I know the author a bit via e-mail. Here's the Amazon
link , and here's my Salon editor's

review :

There is a plot in "Lucky Wander Boy" -- [videogame geek and writer Adam] Pennyman's search for the mysterious Japanese game of the same title provides a motive force for the novel. The book also takes aim at dot-com era shenanigans: Pennyman, a feckless layabout who is good at games but not much else, ends up working as a Web site copywriter for a Hollywood dot-com that makes schlock movies, many of which are based on video games.

But the plot is window dressing for Weiss' long-distance journey into the heart of video gaming. Pennyman isn't just a young man who thinks too much about the deeper meaning of video games; he's a product of a life spent gaming. He slithers in and out of jobs and relationships and passions as if he were rolling his mouse through an on-screen world where consequences don't really matter, because you can always start over, provided you have another quarter...

(I haven't asked D.B. if wants to/can do this yet, but if we generate enough interest for it here, I'll send out a feeler. I say "one of" our selections, because I do want to make this a monthly or bi-monthly event, which will hopefully include at least some of the authors y'all are suggesting.)

Any one who refers to themself with initials is good for me .

bbc

This book [Lucky Wander Boy] sounds good to me. I'm between books right now, having just finished "Dragon Princess of Trolldonia City", volume VIII in the superb "Elfwitch of Elberendillio" series, by N. G. Darmarra (I think it's a pen-name) which I think would be a great selection for our book club.