[Erfael]

Scott,

There's a thread like this over in Stover's little area, and having read some of your posts thought it would be interesting to see your take on things. So what do you think people should be reading, both in and out of genre, fiction and nonfiction?

[Scott Bakker]

I really want to answer this Q, Erfael! But every time I make it past the Doom and Bible threads, I am typed out... ;)

Next time, I swear.

[KatG]

You never answered this question. (Or maybe it's in another thread.) But I'd like to change the title of the thread, with your permission. With all due respect to Matt (yeah, like I'm going to let the man order me around,) what I would be interested in hearing is: Writers Who I'm Excited About. Yeah, I'm a girl, but still, I'm not taking orders from you. :) Suggestions, though, those I'd be curious to hear as I read your first novel.

[JRMurdock]

My own opinion for 'Who should read Scott Bakker?' is really quite simple. All those people on the fantasy boards who complain that fantasy is filled with senseless drivel and we need more intelligent fantasy out there.

and all those who like escapisism stories get a joy out of a well thought out world and characterism.

and those who don't like standard Epics.

and those who do.

and all those who don't fall under any of the above categories.

That's my opinion. :)

[Scott Bakker]

Completely forgot about this thread. Pretty obvious that I should be reading How to Have a Mega-Memory or something like that.

Who do I think people should read? Michael Shermer is one of the few authors I'd put on that list, but more because of the criminal way in which public education teaches us nothing about how gullible and self-serving we humans can be. Self-deception is literally the biggest foe any of us will face, and yet we're not taught a lick about it, let alone how to rationally evaluate the innumerable crackpot claims we encounter on a day to day basis.

Who am I excited about? Out of all the neuroscience related books I've recently completed, my favourite was one called Mind Hacks, which actually succeeds in making the topic fun, I think. At the moment, I'm reading Grave's I, Claudius and I'm quite smitten. I'm also dipping into Cheevers again, more to remind myself of what writing can be than anything else.

[Larry]

Robert Graves, huh? May I highly recommend to you his WWI-based autobiography Goodbye to All That? And if you're fascinated about him, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (who wrote that famous "Dulce et Decorum Est" poem), Pat Barker wrote a trilogy of books starring them back in the mid-1900s, one of which won the Booker Prize. I think the first volume is Regeneration, but it's been 10 years since I read it on a professor's rec. I really need to re-read them sometime - she writes solid, moving stories :D

[Scott Bakker]

I'm into Claudius the God at the moment. Loving it.

[Larry]

Just don't bother reading the prequel books, like Claudius: House Patrinicus ;)