Science Fiction For Beginners?: Top 15 SF Books That Made Me....

Which books should the novice SF reader tackle? Based on 40 years bookselling experience, Steve Andrews suggests the only way is your own way and reveals the key books he relished as a young reader, the books that forged his taste and laid the groundwork for a lifetime of Science Fiction expertise...
#booktube #bookcollecting #bookrecommendations #sciencefiction

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Apologies for the lighting glare in this one, still getting used to the tiny monitor screen on the GoPro, hope you enjoy the chat anyway- the next time we'll be back up to standard-cheers all, Steve

[@victorrodley9099]

This took me back Stephen.Wyndam,Christopher,Bradbury and Clark,from the local library,all profound,to my 14 year old self. Then I discoverd Ballard,and then New Worlds,and the world changed! Another great Vid Stephen

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, I didn't mentioned Bradbury- I meant to- I discovered him around the same time as PKD and burned through everything (as you do)!

[@MarcusKatzAuthor]

Interesting to hear your earliest journeys! I got bought "Stand by for Mars!" (1952) by Carey Rockwell by my Grandad for Christmas, which was my gateway drug into SciFi. I then had an art teacher in junior school mention in passing, "Brave New World" and that we were all too young to read it yet, but I knew my step-mum had a copy, so immediately went home and read it. This was then accelerated by a great English teacher at High School who introduced me to the Foundation series, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke and company. Then a short hop through teenager years into Moorcock, Howard, Lieber, Lovecraft, Vance and ... here we are, five decades later and past the Year 2000AD, which used to be the far future. Thanks for sharing and provoking very nice nostalgia!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yeah, the Future is now in our past, right? And we're living in a more distant epoch of it! Watch out for my upcoming video on Hauntology & SF, which I think you'll find interesting.

[@picturepainter]

The first proper science fiction novel I read was "The Day of the Triffids", at the age of 10. I was actually inspired to read it after watching the 1981 TV adaptation. I've got two copies of the book. (Used to have three.) I also have Harlan Ellison's "The Beast That Shouted Love At the Heart of the World". Same edition as shown in this video. Regarding the film version of "2001", I read somewhere that even Arthur C. Clarke didn't understand what the ending meant. Apparently Stanley Kubrick and another person working on the film were having a big argument about how it should end, so Clarke just left them to it.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Well, you'll note that on the covers of early editions of '2001', Kubrick is co-credited, since the novel is based on the screenplay and was written at the same time as the film was being made, so it's not really a tie-in, not really an original novel.

[@mikewoolie5153]

One of my favorite stories that Poe wrote was The Mask Of The Red Death. Truly heart wrenching. When you understand what was going on in Poe's life at the time it was written you understand the hard life he was going through.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, he had a tough time, did Edgar. 'Masque' is a brilliant story, read it many, many times.

[@johnpritchard7591]

Just about to read my first Bob Shaw, (Other Days other Eyes) looking forward to it. Great video, really love your style and content, keep up the great work!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks John, I'm unhappy with the picture on this one as I say, so I'm glad you liked the content. Let me know what you think of 'Other Days'- Shaw will be covered in my next wrap-up (books I've read or re-read in February) and an overview of his work in a dedicated video I'll be shooting in the next ten days.

[@kemouse]

I did like Burroughs stuff from Tarzan on. Ellison, Wydham, Verne, Wells, Jack London (Call of the Wild and White Fang primarily and not scifi) Clarke. Alistair Maclean was another writer not scifi but I'd read and re-read a lot of his books and I'll always have them. Once people are exposed to something then they may be able to appreciate that something. This channel helps people maybe not familiar with the "classics" per se to check them out. De Maurier is great too!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I love London, feel he is underrated these days- the dog books are superb, his depiction of the cruelty of nature, his mainstream novels, the superb journalism- fave book by Jl is 'John Baryleycorn', his "alcoholic memoirs", amazing book on every level. I like his SF too - 'The Star Rover' (aka 'The Jacket') is great. Thanks for your comment.

[@RukminiDMaria108]

I so enjoy your videos on KZbin. I too was a voracious reader as a child. Luckily, in the rural United States in the early 60s and 70s, there is a wonderful organization called Scholastic book club, which sells books at a discounted rate to school children. my family did not have much money, but my mother always gave me funds to buy as many books as I wanted. I think the books were about $.25-$.35 each at that time. I started to read kids science fiction books I remember one called the runaway robot. There were lots of them. I was walking to school one day in the sixth grade, when I was 11, when I realized that I would never be able to read every book that had ever been written. It was a terrible blow. And junior high school, I bought lots more Science Fiction books, and took them out of the school library and my village library also. If the description said “an underground classic“ then I had to have it. In any case, I feel like we could have really great conversations about books. There are still many Science Fiction books. I 51:26 haven’t read yet. Your lists give me a great place to start. Thank you.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

My pleasure, I was a rural kid too. In my video 'Dragons and Fables' I go on a walk back to me ancestral home in Wales, take a look. I was a big library hound as well! Thanks for watching!

[@forbiddenforest5327]

thanks for this - especially house on the strand rec. du maurier has that faultless smooth-as-silk-prose that rolls all by itself. A fantastic economical smoothness I have experienced with gibson, matheson, silverberg, owen (stig), pen lively, almond (skellig) and faulkner (moonfleet). I enjoy helping readers pick the good stuff. Keep the vids coming please.

[@joebrooks4448]

I reread all of my Wells about a year ago! Just great. At some point I will plow thru his Outline of History, Parts 1 and 2 again, 1956 edition updated by Postgate. That is my go-to World History reference up to 1956.

[@robertadamgilmour3375]

SFinTranslation did an interesting overview of Pierre Boulle early last year, reviewing something like 9 of his books.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I must take a look at that, thanks Robert!

[@thekeywitness]

My first SF … maybe something by Heinlein like The Door into Summer or PKD’s Martian Time-Slip. I was more into Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery stories before getting into SF.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

'Door' is a Henlein favoured even by the detractors, it must be said!

[@markkavanagh7377]

On board, captain. Ready to launch....

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Copy That, Red Leader (sounds frighteningly like a 'Star Wars' quotation...)

[@markkavanagh7377]

😀

[@luiznogueira1579]

I have that same edition of 'Lost Worlds of 2001', read it (and reread It) in 1976, when I was 16, same year I finally got to see the movie in the theatre(several times); also read '2001' at the time. I was absolutely crazy about Kubrick's masterpiece from the moment I first heard about It, in 1968, but wasn't old enough to go watch It; pestered everyone who did to tell me all about It! THE movie of my life, I guess; probably something to do with karma. You're right in saying that Kubrick was the real genius behind the movie. Over the years my interpretation has varied greatly(don't worry, I won't bore you with It...) But I've come to believe that Clarke himself didn't quite understand what Kubrick was doing, and that seems pretty evident in the book's final scene, where he says that the Starchild was about to detonate the orbiting nuclear platforms. Man, that's just NOT what the Starchild is all about! But that's Arthur C Clarke for you: a bit naïve, a bit silly and not very profound. Kubrick went way over his head, imo.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I have to agree. I have a soft spot for Clarke, but he's way too much of a mystic for me in a strange way, despite the engineering. Kubrick, strangely, manages to convey a balance between the 'spritual' -whatever that is- and nature (i.e. science) and truly attains the real point of the film for me - the sublime.

[@luiznogueira1579]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Definitely. When Kubrick shows the Monolith aligned first with the Sun and Moon, later with Sun and Earth--- and their positions do not match their physical locations--- to me he's saying "here we've gone beyond science", and that pretty much throws out the novel, imo. I was fascinated to find out that one of the books Clarke and Kubrick read when they got together in NYC to write 2001 was The Tibetan Book of the Dead. It shows to me that, like or not, we have to take the spiritual aspect into account when trying to understand the movie.

[@littleredflying-fox]

Brilliant video. I read the same books as a youth, but your reminiscing got me thinking. One of the very first S.F. books I read was Grinny by Nicholas Fisk. The literary merits of the book are probably questionable, but it did have me look at my grandparents in a different light.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, Fisk was one of the very few real SF writers in the UK who focused entirely on that market. 'Grinny' and 'Trillions' were still in print well into the late 80s.

[@louisblackforester]

My Sci-Fi journey began with Movies of course in the '80s, in the '90 I wanted to read the Novel of 2001and later DUNE, then Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.From there on it was not long to discover Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Aldiss etc. But only in the German translation. I started reading English books in 2007 with STAR TREK novels.

[@davidbooks.and.comics]

Hi Stephen, you and I must be around the same age. Of your books, I owned and read, John Wyndham's The Crysalids, H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds was the very edition you showed...close to my tastes back then. Very insightful show.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yep, I think these were the classic go-to books for a generation. Aside from my comments re recommending to a beginner, I'd still say a literate person (of any age) should begin with Wells, Wyndham, Orwell before tackling Genre SF from the magazines- and then I'd cleave to 1950s-1970s. Glad you liked it! Lots more like this here....

[@davidbooks.and.comics]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Yes, I remember reading the green covered Penguin edition of Nine-teen Eighty-four...and I have retained the famous line that Winston Smith quoted in his diary..."freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two is four...if this is granted all else follows." For me it has made delve into epistemology and what is really true.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@davidbooks.and.comics -Absolutely. A key adage in the UK of identity politics, misinformation and those who shout loud on twitter!

[@PaliGap1]

A great collection of books. Lovely to see Poe so positively regarded. I think he's wonderful too. A master craftsman and such an innovator! Thanks for another great KZbin post.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

As far as I'm concerned, Poe is The Master. If only he was read as much as Lovecraft is these days.

[@waltera13]

LOVE Martian Time Slip; one of Dick's best.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

It really is.

[@gbeat7941]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal just read it, thanks for the recommendation. What surprises me about Dick is how easy to read his books are despite the bizarre storylines

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@gbeat7941 -The mark of a truly great writer.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

Fantastic and informative as always, thanks for sharing your great insights on the subject of SF. I recall loving those Wyndham books, and the show U.F.O, when I was younger. I’m only getting “The Prisoner” done now (shame.) Your comments on Gerrold’s adaptation of the “Apes..” book has me curious to read it. I think the first SF book I read cover to cover was “Motherlines” then, “Dune” followed by “A Feast Unknown.” What a start!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Wow, Suzy MC! I had various exchanges with her online and got on with her (this was literally only in the last 18 months) -'The Vampire Tapestry' is a great book too, she was a very pleasant lady and good writer. 'The Prisoner' was legendary when I was a kid but I had to wait until 1980s rerun to see it. Read Boulle's POTA- the Gerrold is a very personal and subjective one. My fave book by David G is 'The Man Who Folded Himself' which in some ways reads like a YA, but it's quite adult in subject in places and fascinating narcissistic. As you've probably noticed, 'A Feast Unknown' is my fave Farmer and a book I regard very highly! re 'UFO' it was something I always wanted to watch at the time, but it wasn't broadcast in Wales. Because my home was half-way up a mountain, by twisting the bunny ears of the TV aerial (!) I could sometimes catch some of it in very poor quality from masts in England. I love the aesthetic of it and the argot ('Angel Interceptor', 'SHADO' etc - I had the diecast toys!) and the organ farming alien plot reflected the ol' cattle mutilation thing. Watch it as an adult though and the scripts veer from terrible to mundane LOL!

[@allanlloyd3676]

My early experiences were much less literary than yours. I was a very advanced reader for my age but I grew up in a home with hardly any books. My father had a couple of Zane Grey westerns and the early Tarzan books and my mother read romances, mostly Mills and Boon. I read my way through all the books available in the school library and then persuaded my mother to get a proper library ticket for me. The earliest books I remember with any fantasy content are Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree books and Hugh Loftus' Doctor Doolittle books with the talking animals and the Pushmepullu with a head on both ends (don't ask!). In the library I quickly graduated to the Gollancz yellow jackets and all those weird writers with strange names like Simak, Van vogt and Asimov. I had no-one to guide me towards the quality stuff, but do remember loving Wyndham and Clarke. There also seemed to be loads of books by John Lymington, but I must have had some degree of taste because I soon decided that he was a poor Wyndham rip-off. I didn't get to read many of the classics until much later, though I have to admit the Dad's Tarzan books were a guilty pleasure. I never got on with ERB's other SF books for some reason. I think I bypassed them when I was young and never got back to them. The Weapon Shops of Isher and Simak's City were early favorites. But I still have a tendency towards more trashy titles sometimes.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I never read many children's novels as such- 'Black Beauty', 'Treasure Island' stand out. I recall reading my father's Walter Scott books, a Scots school novel entitled 'Rival Schools At Marstone' which I've never been able to track down...and as I say lots of non-fiction. I may do another one of these focusing on the non-SF I read as a young 'un.

[@camo_for_cocktails]

So many tiny shocks of recognition. I actually started down a parallel path of horror and SF with Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend loaned to me on a vacation in 1971 when I was nine. It blew me away. Soon I was reading all the Planet of the Apes tie ins and Bouille’ original book which, of course, I found quite superior. I was also intent on seeing 2001 and asked for SF books for Christmas. I received a five paperback slipcase collection, popular gift format at the time, that included that novel and two others as well as two short story collections. From there I joined the Science Fiction Book Club and never looked back. Thanks for the memories!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Those were great days, Len, when mostly books of genuine literary merit were the standard entry point for genre readers and SF on screens was a blessed rarity!

[@kingj282]

Wasn't expecting Edgar Allen Poe

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

The Master. People go on about Lovecraft, but he's a pygmy besides EAP.

[@johnriley4320]

I read “Nineteen Eighty-Four” when I was about 13 - well before I was required to read it in secondary school - and it really shook me. Talk about a giant leap into adulthood!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yep, I was about that age, but it wasn't on the curriculum then. Ideally, I think every child should be ready, willing and able to read it in their early teens. A wake-up call.

[@Br1cht]

Re-read the first few pages and then look at Hollywood&CO now or read more be depressed, we live in phase one.

[@wbbartlett]

I had that same version of the Lost World as a kid. Had forgotten all about it until I saw this, I wonder what happened to it. Hope it found a good home!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

It's a cracking edition, that allosaur!

[@georgeparkes3863]

Great video. A lot of similar experiences in my reading like John Wyndham and Hg Wells. My true science fiction experience was being brought copies of ‘The Granville Hypothesis’ and, ‘Now wait for last year!’ A real pair of bangers. I must have been 10 or 11. I’ve never looked back 😄

[@verosnotebook]

Great selection! I’ve read nearly all of these, and I’m a fan of Wyndham and du Maurier. I of course had Verne, having grown up in French Belgium, and tons of scifi comics, or BDs. I read across genres, but SFF has a special place 😊

[@laughingbeast4481]

Here, in Czechoslovakia, Wyndham's Triffids were one of few scifi mentioned in literary class on elementary school. I always wondered why this particular novel was taken seriously by mainstream here.

[@paulcampbell6003]

... I fell in love with SF via short stories: all 558 astounding pages of "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame" (1970) edited by Robert Silverberg and the equally wonderful but now sadly utterly forgotten "Top Science Fiction" edited by Josh Pachter, part of his 'Author's Choice' series selected and introduced by the writers themselves (there is a Wikipedia page for the book where you can find the ToCs). He did a 'Top Fantasy' volume the following year, which is also terrific, and apparently a 'Top Crime' as well although I don't own that one.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

That Silverberg anthology is fantastic, mentioned it here a while ago, what a primer it is!

[@raphaelbernard7954]

In the 70's I was reading Mary Stewart, Mary Renault, Henry Treece, Geofrey Treece, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Raphael Sabatini, The Rupert Brooke series, The Man in the Iron Mask, a bit of Poe, Andre Norton, Robert Silverberg, Michael Moorcock mostly library books. In the 80's I started collecting.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Lots of great stuff there. I like Sutcliffe, Renault and Treece, Dumas, Norton...weirdly, Treece was the mentor of Ted Lewis, the best British crime writer ever who I've been obsessed with for decades.

[@clivesnowden4348]

Really enjoyed this, Steve. I have a copy of The Lost World, same cover as yours, but in lousy condition. It used to belong to my dad. I read it as a child and loved every page. Still an important book for me. Your copy of Triffids is the edition I remember from school (we had it read to us by our English teacher). Anyway, great selection. Many thanks for sharing them with us here.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Cheers Clive!

[@richardtoogood9817]

Fascinating reminiscence of your formative reading, Steve. Delightful to listen to. All the more so as there is so much here that I can personally relate to; be it the wonder of newsagent carousels, the almost magical allure of Menzies and Smiths and even the seedy joy of those sordid fleapits which had comics in the front, coffee ringed pbs in the middle and alcoves for the dirty mac brigade in the rear. Here in London those went under the name of the Popular Book Centre. Happy days. A fair bit of our early reading even travelled along the same lines. Only when PKD took you one way REH took me quite another. Vive la difference. I fully endorse your view of tailoring formative reading opportunities to cater to interests. Especially for boys. An idea which the comprehensive education system of our generation seemed to take a perverse relish in doing the opposite of. I enthusiastically second your esteem for Daphne Du Maurier. But my own opinion of Burroughs is quite different. Certainly he had his virtues as a storyteller, but he was also an opportunistic pirate who built his success on the plundered foundation stones of others: be it poor old Edwin Arnold for the Barsoom series or ACD for Caspak. And for all his defenders like to claim to the contrary its worth making the point that Kipling personally considered Tarzan a rip off of Mowgli. All that aside I do concede an enduring fondness for TPTTF film which I went to see on its initial release. Although I suspect that owes less to ERB's imaginative conceits than the revelatory impact of Dana Gillespie's monumental attractions.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I think you make very good points about ERB's plunderings - the Kipling one is as obvious as the Conan Doyle example- but I thought the 'Noble Man, Noble Savage' aspect of Greystoke a masterful bit of janus-faced heroics pre- Joseph Campbell, I must say. Great to hear from you as always, Richard.

[@rickkearn7100]

Great point about technology/science, OB. The analogy with animals using tools and how "a rational methodology that works is the beginning of science", as you said. Regarding your foundational books, I was pleasantly surprised how many were part of my own. I was blown away by House on the Strand being one of them, it's in my top ten. I have the Gollancz 1st edition and the Doubleday issue (sans dust jacket). Prized possessions. I'd seen Planet of the Apes as an adolescent so consequently dismissed any notion of reading the book. However, thanks to you, I will investigate, because I know now it's not a wild goose chase. As is the norm, I walk away from your posts with many new perspectives. It's really a very engaging education! Cheers.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Cheers Rick. POTA is well worth a read, cracking little French satire and the structure is very clever.

[@rickkearn7100]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Sorry old chap, you lost me with POTA. Drawing a blank!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@rickkearn7100 'Planet of the Apes'. Sorry, it was an acronym Marvel comics used to emply for their apes comics and I default to it habitually LOL!

[@rickkearn7100]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Oye, cement head here!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@rickkearn7100 Nonsense, old chum, my bad for usage of arcane terminology!

[@brettrobson5739]

My first SF was also British - Hugh Walters. Blast Off at Woomera is an extremely evocative title for a seven or eight year old Australian kid. Very juvenile, and it can't be read now as even a guilty pleasure, but it got me hooked. Got (and read) all of them from our local library. One visit & two books a week. Seemed incredibly unfair at the time, but it's stood me in good stead since (thanks Mum).

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Libraries were so seminal for many of us of a certain age all over the world. They're sadly in a long slow decline here in the UK, which I think is down to the internet, large bookshops and (it has to be said) the strange ideas librarians often have, as pleasant as most of them are (I used to lecture annually on bookselling to librarians doing an MSc in Librarianship & Information Management and my focus was trying to get them to see the customer as paramount and the whole point of the exercise). When preparing the largest bookshop in South West Wales for its opening, one of my temp crew was a librarian and our exchanges went thus: Me - 'Ok, arrange the language books A-Z by language, dictionaries first, the grammars...(and so on)'/The Librarian, later - 'I've finished that job, I've put all the Romance languages together, all the...(etc). How someone ignorant of philology, but with a command of the more fundamental skill of the alphabet was supposed to find the book they wanted was beyond the Librarian....

[@mitchellstrauss5117]

Some of my favorite editions of Wells and Verne were produced by the Heritage Press in the U.S. They were actually a more affordable version of the Limited Edition Press... in slip covers with marvelous illustrations commissioned by the publisher... by far, The Mysterious Island was my favorite Verne... Another great presentation today... thanks...

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, I like 'Mysterious Island' a lot- and of course 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' was the first one I read in a full-length version, great stuff!

[@chucklitka2503]

My first adult SF book was Clarke's The Sands of Mars. The local library had all of Heinlein's juveniles and other such youth orientated SF books like Andre Norton's early books to read.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I have my eyes on a nice copy of that Clarke at the moment -dealer I know has a sharp copy with a great jacket!

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

Yes! John Menzies 💪 Miss this store, better than Smiths.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, they kept a good range of paperback SF in their time, I always bought more from them and they had a bigger commitment to small provincial market towns.

[@Macilmoyle]

My parents had a book club edition of House on the Strand which I first read in my early teens. The ending of that story still haunts me (as does the ending of "Don't Look Now")

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, at her best she was quite something. Love "Don't Look Now".

[@arringtonmckinney2606]

I am glad your show is doing well you were due it's alot more to come

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks!

[@erikpaterson1404]

Pierre Boulle, writer of bridge on the river kwai... very good stuff.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, POTA was an entry text for me!

[@erikpaterson1404]

The star, Betelgeuse... I wonder if that has any connection to the film...

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@erikpaterson1404 Maybe, not my sorta flick based on what I saw of it, I'm afraid.

[@andykuhn9798]

Great video. Love your channel. I hope at some point you see fit to do some comics based videos. If you don't, I completely understand. Stay awesome!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Hey Andy - it WILL happen (early in the channel's history it was VERY diverse in topic and will return to that point once it's more stable). Currently, SF is getting me views and helping me support the time I'm spending and these views need to increase a good bit yet for me to productively spend time on other collectables. I read all kinds of things, but many subscribers who watch my SFF material don't even try my other stuff, which pains me as it's all part of the same continuum and one of my noted (by other people) strengths as a writer, bookseller and speaker is my ability to link and synthesize across genres and subjects. As views remain modest, however, it's possible that before too long, I'll slow on my chasing of the SF dragon and do other stuff again purely because I like variety and never mind the channel funding. This is where Super-Thanks helps me enormously. I don't get thousands of views for my expert content overnight (I struggle to get to 2K after months in most cases), so how long I'll keep at this is hard to say as the rewards - other than kind comments from people like yourself- are not outweighing my lost time currently. Sad, but true. But I will see what I can do re comics before too long, I hope. Cheers!

[@andykuhn9798]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal - I completely understand, thanks for the insights. Love your channel, stay awesome!!! :)

[@hatricvs3030]

Really great topic and has had me wracking my brains over what my formative books actually were and it is not as easy to work out for me. I have a horrible idea that mine were still Dr Zeus books compared to you when you are reading the Land that time forgot and War of the Worlds etc! Got a feeling I wasn't heavily into fiction at the same point in life and I think I was just reading up of military stuff from World War 2 or the beginnings of my interest in historical fiction Mary Renault and such like. Really enjoyable video on a great topic, Thanks Steve.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Cheers Andy- well, there was other stuff but this was the skiffy! I'm looking forward to you guesting here in the not-too-distant future and a planning meeting with Mr Bray must be set up soon! Always great to have you as a subscriber. Onwards!

[@paulcampbell6003]

Currently reading du Maurier's short stories - but you've certainly peaked my interest in "The House on the Strand". Cheers Steve! 👍😁

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, her shorts are good. I need to re-read 'Strand' as it's now been decades, so I may do it soon.

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

Orwell, Shelley and Poe. The trifecta 👌 certainly formative for me.

[@localmo88]

1984 followed by Martian Time Slip, great selections!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Few books are better than these, right? In fact, there are NO books better than the Orwell to me.

[@localmo88]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal yes, Recently read Orwell's 1984, found the final chapter on language fascinating. I also acquired a book of Orwell's letters during the spanish war which is brilliant, keep it in the glovebox of my car. ....as for Martian time slip, so incredible and hilarious. "Put your back into it", good old capitalist Arnie Knot, Greatest line ever. Have read several PKD's now. MTimeSlip is my favourite.

[@themojocorpse1290]

I

[@leemason6897]

"Battle for the Planet of the Apes" was a great novel. I bought it new back in the day and still have my original copy!

[@theprofessor5253]

Kudos for "the only way is your own way ". There is nothing so guaranteed to kill the joy than a mandated read.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I get asked for suggestions almost daily in work and am always happy to give some, but there is always the serious difficulty of judging someone's taste- I'd say that one of the key bits of advice I'd give to anyone bookshopping is 'go armed with knowledge of what you or the recipient of the gift you are buying likes in a cultural sense, otherwise the bookseller has no base from which to start'. There literally is NO such thing as a universally 'good book' - people vary so much in interest, reading ability, temperament, reading experience, age....it's an impossible question without some data input. And yes, you are your own best guide!

[@theprofessor5253]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal So true, every work of art is just half the equation. Having said that your signal transmisson of "Tower Of Glass" hit the spot here. Half way through it and liking it very much. Keep spreading the faith!

[@danieldelvalle5004]

The first adult book I read was a collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe which I bought off a rack in Woolworth for two quarters. Up to that time most of my reading was comic books. Poe opened up a whole new experience and dimension for me. He was a gateway drug which led me eventually to Verne and Wells.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Poe is the MASTER! "The Cask of Amontillado" I didn't mention, what a tale! People say Lovecraft opened the way, but no, it was Edgar.

[@danieldelvalle5004]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal, so true, and I think that even Lovecraft in one of his letters basically states that Poe is the master, and belittles his own work in comparison.

[@mike-williams]

When I was reading the classics - Verne, Wells etc they were often on really cheap paper with minuscule text, and that made it a bit of a labour to get through them, If I wasn't a precocious little reading machine I surely would have given up. Amazingly the local library of the small Australian town I spent most of my youth in was quite well-serviced for modern SF, with many of the New Worlds anthologies and - it seemed - everything that Gollancz published. Martian Time Slip was my first - and nearly last - attempt at Dick - can't remember if I ever finished it - but I was probably too young at 11/12 to make sense of it. The other British authors I remember reading at the time were: * Peter Dickinson, not so much his YA titles as the adult (Michael Crichtonesque/) novels on FSF-y themes which never seem to be labelled as either. * William Pereira: e.g. Another Eden (which was a bit like an adult version of Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky") I collected Heinlein wildly, buying all the NEL titles and trying to fit everything into his Future History timeline. My pre 18y formative books include: * Lem's Cyberiad * Dune books I-IV * Niven/Pournelle: The Mote in God's Eye * Lensman series (which even I could see were rubbishy pulp, but like popcorn to a young teen) * The Time Machine * Blish: Cities in Flight * BJB: The Soul of the Robot

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I like Dickinson and Bayley - am singling these out as they are under-mentioned these days, like most of yr others listed here too. It seems to me as a collector that if an SF writer visited Australia, they got the love from the denizens as certain writers' extant secondhand stock seems focused in Aus- Coney, Sladek both seem in evidence. I know the former visited and am assuming the later based on this evidence.

[@mike-williams]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Coney's books were certainly around but I don't remember seeing much Sladek even though I was looking for the Roderick books. I've never attended any fan 'cons' - I was unaware of their existence until I lived in the US at the end of the 90s - but I remember walking into Galaxy Books in Sydney ~1985 and finding Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven and Jack Chalker in there signing together.

[@forenichtreader]

Great video. The earliest SF books I read as a kid were the Target novelisations of Dr Who, but following that was Day of the Triffids at around age 12. With Clarke it was Rendezvous with Rama that made an impression on me as a teenager, and the first PKD I read was A Scanner Darkly at age 19 or 20. One I remember particularly vividly was reading Craig Harrison's The Quiet Earth at age 15, due to the atmosphere it evoked in my imagination. I loved Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go in my late teens, but unfortunately when I re-read it more recently I found it just okay - great concept but clunky writing.

[@mike-williams]

The early Dr Who novelisations were quite decent with fleshed out scenes and back story but after about the first twenty or so they just turned into barely-reformatted scripts.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I've read 'The Quiet Earth' but few other people seem to have done so, more have seen the uneven film, I think. Farmer was a great adventure writer, but did turn out a lot of near-hackwork. I read all the 'Riverworld' books but wouldn't do so again. His Wold Newton books are the best- there's a video here about them ('Metaphysical Pulp Genius'). 'Scanner' was an early Dick for me too, similar age to you. I read some of the Who novelisations as well and still own them, this would have been inbetween my Doyle/Wells/Wyndham reads, so I quickly moved on.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I still like the David Whitaker one of the first Dalek story: but then Nation's imagination was often front rank.

[@sylvanyoung]

Great . I have read most of what you have shown . Great stuff . I also read lots of Tom Swift and Mike Mars adventures ( ok , ok they were not SF ) 😁. And lots of the pulps . And movies . What do you think of the movie " Silent Running " . Alas there seem ti be no reason to the story .( One of my all time faves SF movies ) Movies that made you is another vid .

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Hey Sylvan- 'Silent Running' is an odd one, I like it, but as you say it makes little sense! I have the soundtrack album on green vinyl, yet.

[@themojocorpse1290]

I to my shame have never read 1984 will put this right very soon but love pkd

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

The finest. Take your time and let the detail seep in.

[@themojocorpse1290]

Just got to finish Martian time slip then 1984. Trying to fill in some missing classics also something wicked and Martian chronicles . Really looking forward to all of the above.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@themojocorpse1290 Hope you enjoy 'Time-Slip'. Both those Bradbury titles are ace, but Chronicles is the one!

[@louisblackforester]

Don't forget Cronenberg is in STAR TREK now.😀

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Never watch it, so not sure what you mean.

[@louisblackforester]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I dislike Discovery allot, but I know Cronenberg is a guest actor in the show.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@louisblackforester Right, didn't know that, thanks.

[@mikewoolie5153]

I am so glad your British and only like European novels whereas a lot of american stuff will probably never come up to your standards. What I mean to say is I can only hope that you never read the likes of Edgar Alan Poe whom I consider one of the greatest writers of all time, or at least for his day. Not Sci Fi.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I started reading Poe when I was twelve and had read everything by the time I was around 18. He is one of my idols. Incidentally, some of Poe's work qualifies as SF- Penguin used to publish a collection entitled 'The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe'. I like a lot of American writers in all genres as it happens.