Peter's Reading List

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This is a brief list of books which I feel are excellent, and which should be read by everyone out there. Links to Amazon.com, a great online bookstore that I make heavy use of (living, as I do, in rural Japan), are provided.

I enjoyed the Hyperion SF series, Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and the Rise of Endymion. This is a grand and wonderful SF story spanning hundreds of worlds together in (you're going to laugh) Chaucerean style, ala the Canterbury Tales.

A very worthwhile book series for where you spend, ah, much of your time is the Bathroom Reader books by the Bathroom Reader's Institute. They are books filled with trivia and interesting short (1-2 page) stories on such topics as the invention of the elevator or chocolate chip cookies. Two I've read and enjoyed are here and here.

If you have children, you should check out the excellent Disney Mouse Works books, including Bambi, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, the Jungle Book, and so on. Books my children have loved for years include Marvin K Mooney will you Please Go Now, Puppies, Kittens, and the like. One book I really enjoyed reading to them, too, was the excellent complete Thomas the Tank Engine.

Interested in learning Kanji? Here's a workbook that I recommend. (Also check out the study materials we sell on J-List.)

I've been on a binge of SF lately, and I've come across some really excellent reads. The Forever War is a really special book, a tale a war spread out over 1000 years of human development due to Relativity (it's so good, I read it, got to the end, and started back at the beginning). A similar book, Ender's Game, also tells the story of a future war, postulating how humanity would develop its future commanders. Whatever you do, don't read past the first Ender's Game books unless you really like the story and characters! I'm frankly sorry I read the 6-8 books that went past the excellent original.

One of the most strikingly interesting novels was The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. What if White Supremacists from the 21st century stole a time machine and went back to change the course of the Civil War...? A thoroughly tantalizing read by a competent writer and historian. Why hasn't this been made into a movie?

Do yourself a favor, fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's excellent Middle Earth epic tales, and check out Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia by David Day. Replete with illustrations, timelines, background and more, this is the perfect accompaniment for the books, and allows the information in The Silmarillian and other histories to be understood easily. If you are looking for a wonderful gift for someone, you can't go wrong with the Lord of the Rings books. There is even an audio version.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is one of my all-time favorite novels, something which everyone between the ages of 12 and 60 should read. (I've even read it in Japanese, which was a memorable experience.)

While never being seriously into Amekomi (American comics, as the Japanese call them), I do have some excellent trade paperbacks that I am proud to own. Every generation X'er should own and frequently read a copy of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a glorious expression of hard-core comic book art that revolutionized the entire industry. And, Watchmen is one of the most stunning examples of how far the medium of the comic book can go -- I recommend it to everyone. Finally, the Sandman series of graphic novels by DC is a truly beautiful literary-quality comic work.

The first story that compelled me to become a reader of books was Ray Bradbury's Fire and Ice, a cool short story with a simple and exciting story. It can be found in R is for Rocket, a compilation of his stories. When Mr. Azimov passed away, I sent a note to Mr. Bradbury thanking him for the effect he had on my life. He even wrote back to me.

Ever ask yourself what the history of Ethernet is? Who invented Postscript? How Microsoft started out, or the real story of the Two Steves? Accidental Empires : How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, by Robert X. Cringely, is one of the most spry and interesting books I have ever read.

I have to admit, I really detest books along the lines of Making Out in Japanese, which purport to teach you Japanese love-slang, for the simple reason that they are insulting to any reasonable person's intelligence. Womansword, by Kittredge Cherry, is much better. An exhaustive yet approachable "pop study" of Japanese vernacular, this thin, smart book goes beyond basic sexual words, and instead takes on words and idioms that exist (or once existed) in Japanese, which tell about the relationship of women in Japanese society. Useful for a serious student as well as for someone looking for some interesting phrases to spring on cute Japanese exchange students. UPDATE: This book is no longer in print. Good luck finding it, since it's worth reading.

One series of books that succored me throughout much of my youth was the excellent Dragonriders of Pern series, by Anne McCaffrey. Exquisitely written, I remember the day, back in high school, when I realized I was approaching the last book in the series. (I went back to the beginning and read them all over again.) I can't recommend this series enough.