very blank verse

I am
tired
of books that are in verse
so that
they sound more
deep
and so that they can
reach an acceptable
page limit.

This was occasioned, btw, by Yellow Star, which was perfectly adequate but by no means great. I mean, it's amazing that Syvia survived the ghetto, but the writing didn't lift this above other Holocaust stories. And the decision to write this in verse was, well, unnecessary. I would have preferred a straight transcription of the recordings of Syvia's story.

the best book is a yearbook? discuss.

A Sam and Max comic mentions yearbooks, and suggests that one should trade yearbooks with someone of the same age, so you'll realize, "hey, we had that guy too, but his name was Trent" or whatever. Today, a friend and I tried this. She'd grown up in a different kind of town (not the suburbs), at a much smaller high school 2000 miles away from mine, but it was so true! The only significant difference I saw was in the messages - my suburban classmates were much more verbose, and tended to write things like, "here are some phrases to remind you of this year: puppies are cute, dancing in the rain, bo balli!, eating the whole pie, the entourage", for half a page.
So, I encourage you to do this. My friend and I realized that the uniqueness of our teen years wasn't unique at all. We both started wearing black, and listening to the Cure, and liking guys with floppy haircuts at about the same time. And as we looked at both high schools' yearbooks, we remembered scandals, and "oh, yeah, that guy's dead now", and all of our crushes. It's fun, and a good late-fall activity.

SFBC significant SF novel meme

Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006.

The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.


1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov*
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey*
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card*
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling*
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

What about you? Which have you read? Why was Bujold left off?