If you could only read one book by this author, what would it be?

I was out trawling the net yesterday and I came across this most excellent if you could only read one book by this author discussion.  I decided that I wanted to make my own discussion and so hijacked the idea.

My list is not a rehash of any top 100 lists, it is not my recommendation for the best book by the author either.  The authors and books here I have read.  The book I'm recommending for one of the following possible reasons:

1. Important to the genre
2. Representative of the work
3. Start of an important series
4. I just really really liked it

One of the best "First Contact" novels ever written

 
If you haven't read a book by one of these authors, then read this book.  If it makes you think or you like it, then you should probably read other books by this author too.

On a side note, some authors (e.g. Piers Anthony) are so prolific and have so many good series its hard to pick a good representative book.  I picked the single book I thought would appeal to most people.  I like many of his series and think you might like them too.  Don't worry, I've left off tons of books that I loved.

I expect there to be disagreement, I expect others to prefer other authors - is so please DO let me know.  I'm always looking for another good read :)

#		Author		Novel
1		Douglas	Adams	The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2		Richard	Adams	Watershipdown
3		Poul	Anderson	Tau Zero
4		Piers	Anthony	On a Pale Horse
5		Isaac Asimov	Azimov	Foundation
6		Stephen	Baxter	Manifold Space
7		Greg	Bear	The Forge of God
8		David	Brin	Startide Rising
9		Terry	Brooks	Magic Kingdom for Sale -- SOLD!
10		Edgar Rice	Burroughs	A Princess of Mars
11		Orson Scott	Card	Ender's Game
12		CJ	Cherryh	Cyteen
13		Arthur C	Clarke	Childhood's End
14		Michael	Crichton	Andromeda Strain
15		Stephan R	Donaldson	Lord Foul's Bane
16		Arthur Conan Doyle	Doyle	Hound of the Baskervilles
17		Alexandar	Dumas	The Three Musketeers
18		David	Eddings	Pawn of Prophecy
19		Philip Jose	Farmer	To Your Scattered Bodies Go
20		Robert	Forward	Dragon's Egg
21		Alan Dean	Foster	Nor Crystal Tears
22		Neil	Gaiman	American Gods
23		William	Goldman	The Princess Bride
24		Joseph	Haldeman	The Forever War
25		Harry	Harrison	The Stainless Steel Rat
26		Robert	Heinlein	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
27		Frank	Herbert	Dune
28		James P	Hogan	Inherit the Stars
29		Robert	Jordan	Wheel of Time series is excellent but a single book may not be worth your time
30		Daniel	Keyes	Flowers for Algernon
31		Dean R	Koontz	Odd Thomas
32		Ursula	LeGuin	A Wizard of Earthsea
33		CS	Lewis	The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
34		HP	Lovecraft	The Call of Cthulhu
35		Robert	Ludlum	The Bourne Identity
36		George RR	Martin	Game of Thrones series is good but a single book may not be worth your time
37		Julian	May	The Many Colored Land
38		Ann	McAffrey	Dragonflight
39		Michael	McCollum	Antares Dawn
40		Michael	Moorcock	Elric of Melnibone
41		Larry	Niven	Ringworld
42		Larry & Jerry	Niven & Pournelle	The Mote in God's Eye
43		Frederick	Pohl	Gateway
44		Terry	Pratchett	Small Gods
45		Terry & Neil	Pratchett & Gaiman	Good Omens
46		Ayn	Rand	Atlas Shrugged
47		Alastair	Reynolds	Pushing Ice
48		Kim Stanley	Robinson	Red Mars
49		Brandon	Sanderson	The Way of Kings
50		John	Scalzi	Old Man's War
51		Sir Walter	Scott	Ivanhoe
52		George	Stewart	Earth Abides
53		JRR	Tokien	The Hobbit
54		Jules	Vernes	20,000 Leagues under the Sea
55		Verner	Vinge	Rainbow's End
56		David	Weber	Off Armageddon's Reef
57		HG	Wells	The War of the Worlds
58		George & Charles	Zebrowski & Pelligrino	The Killing Star

I've made a choice to count collaborations as a different author than either of the collaborators.

I will continue to update this as other books come to mind.  If you want to be updated on good author / book ideas tag, link, or comment on this entry.

On my Blog Title: Thesis-Synthesis-Antithesis

Background

I drive many miles each year.  Instead of wasting the drive time, I listen to audiobooks.  I generally select fiction novels for entertainment purposes but in about 1 in 10 of these books I select for self-improvement.

Several years ago, I went through a phase of trying to learn about philosophy (which is a very useful topic for learning how to think but not so good for turning into a career :D ).  A philosopher (Hegel) from the late 1700s to early 1800s proposed that all ideas went through an identical process that consisted of these three elements:

1. Thesis
Create ideas

2. Antithesis
Negate the ideas (which I take to mean remove the bad ideas or bad elements from a good idea)

3. Synthesis
Combine the remaining elements into a new idea (which takes you back to the beginning)

If you knew this already, then you will have also noted that my blog title is NOT correct!  This was done somewhat intentionally because the way I have it worded rolled off my tongue better.

Good stuff

My blog name sounds cool to me and I like it.

Bad stuff

If you're trying to learn something, I've provided you with incorrect information.

To compensate for my shortcomings and aid you in your quest for knowledge, let me refer you to the Wikipedia entry on Thesis, Antithesis, & Synthesis.

Thought of the day: Envy versus Inspiration

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ("ALS" also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a devastating, debilitating, painful, and eventually deadly disease (ALS Symptoms).  The muscles of patients with ALS atrophy while their mind remain completely intact.  People diagnosed with ALS typically live for about 2-5 years.

Recently in fund raising circles the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has taken the country by storm.  This fund raising activity has raised more than $20 Million for ALS research and support of families dealing with ALS.  The money generated by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge does, in part, go to help defray the costs of caring for people suffering from ALS.

Since patients with ALS eventually lose control of all muscles (including involuntary ones involved in breathing, digestion, and heart beat), the cost of care for ALS patients becomes exorbitant.

ENVY

I tell you all of this because lately I've noticed a backlash by some people against the popularity of this fund raiser.  Mostly the backlash comes from people with loved ones suffering from other potentially fatal diseases (including addiction, mental disorders, and other conditions).  Their thinking is that this attention and funding is disproportionate to the number of people affected by ALS.

The comments and blog entries I've seen on this are extremely negative of ALS and the Ice Bucket challenge, the people making the entries are infuriated that so much attention has been paid to this (seemingly unworthy) cause.

INSPIRATION
I find this envy to be a terrible, negative, and destructive emotion.  Rather than allowing your rage at the "unfairness" of one rare disease receiving attention disproportionate to its affect on the population, use these wonderful results as an inspiration for what could be done for other rare diseases.

Do not look at the popularity of this fund raiser as a reason to hate & envy, use it as inspiration.  Through your energies in trying to replicate the success of this drive for your own favorite cause / charity.  There's no reason there cannot be another wildly successful fund raiser next year to raise awareness of (for example) substance abuse.

On a side note:

There have always been celebrity diseases (AIDS receives disproportionately large federal funding) that receive funding way out of proportion to how the disease affects people's lives.  Similarly there have always been orphan diseases that do not receive funding anywhere close to being representative of the disease's impact on the population (Disproportionate funding levels hampers Alzheimer's disease research).  The lack of attention paid to an orphaned disease should never be used to detract from the attention and funding paid to these other conditions.  Although I personally think an objective measure should be created and used to allocate public funds towards researching these diseases.

To allocation public funds, an objective measure should be used for allocating funding, something like Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs).  It is a measure of overall Disease Burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.

Additionally, for private funding of diseases I think no one should be criticized for donating to any cause.  Charitable donations to worthy causes should be celebrated.  I recommend verifying that charitable organizations spend your donations wisely.  You can use web sites like Charity Navigator to evaluate the quality of charitable organization.  It provides a graphic showing how your charity rates (chart shown for the National Organization for Rare Diseases):

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD which consists of Crohn's Disease, Colitis, and a couple of much rarer rare diseases) is considered a "rare" disease (and both are listed in the National Organization of Rare Diseases: NORD: Crohn's Disease).  Although CD rarely kills its sufferers directly, I have now twice come very close to death due to side-effects and complications caused by this disease.  Despite modern and more effect treatments, it is likely that CD (and its complication) will shorten my life and will certainly degrade my quality of life substantially.

*I* do not begrudge the attention and funds flowing into ALS from this Ice Bucket Challenge and have cheered wildly as my children have been challenged and answered the challenge in support of this cause and I have matched my kid's contributions to this cause.  I do not envy the attention, I do not secretly seethe at the "unfairness" of attention - instead, I wonder how I might increase awareness of my particular issue (Crohn's Disease) or even nearer and dearer to my heart the condition of my 19 year-old daughter, Trigeminal Schwannoma.  This condition will require her to undergo brain surgery in the next couple of years.  The surgery has a substantial risk of causing permanent facial paralysis and this possibility scares me more than any possible complication or side-effect of my own condition.

Just because you are unaware of other people's health conditions, does not mean they do not also suffer from varying degrees of medical issues.  For instance, many members of my family have issues you would never have known and most likely we would never have told you about:

I suffer from:
Crohn's Disease (and related issues & conditions like kidney stones, fistulas, eye issues, etc.)

My daughter suffers from:
Trigeminal Schwannoma

My wife suffers from:
Endometriosis
Fibromyalgia

My brother suffers from:
Diverticulitis

My father suffers from:
Degenerative disk disease

My mother suffers from:
Sarcoidosis

My maternal grandmother suffers from:
Dementia/Alzheimer's

My paternal grandmother died from:
Cancer

My maternal grandfather died from:
Cancer

My paternal grandfather died from:
Aneurism

My sister suffers from:
Lichen Sclerosis

Hollywood squares humor

These great questions and answers are from the days when the Hollywood Squares game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now.

Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. Paul, what is a good reason for pounding meat?
A. Paul Lynde: Loneliness! (The audience laughed so long and so hard it took up almost 15 minutes of the show!)


Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.


Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.


Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.


Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.


Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No wait until morning.


Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.


Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say 'I Love You'?
A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.


Q. What are 'Do It,' 'I Can Help,' and 'I Can't Get Enough'?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.


Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.


Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.


Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.


Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.


Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.


Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.


Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.


Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?


Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.


Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.


Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected..


Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.


Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?


Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him


Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.


Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh