Robert Heinlein Books I Read
Submitted by professor on Sat, 10/02/2004 - 09:07
Tags:
- The Best Of Robert Heinlein (Short Stories)   (1974)
- Stranger In A Strange Land   (1976)
- Double Star   (1977)
- Time Enough For Love   (twice 1986 & 1996)
- Job: A Comedy Of Justice   (1986)
- Methusellah's Children   (1986)
- Farnham's Freehold   (22-May-86)
- Yet To Read   (but on my bookshelf)
- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
- To Sail Beyond Sunset
- The Door Into Summer
Author Comments:
Robert Heinlein is a favourite author of mine.
The dates shown are the approximate dates that I read (finished) the book.
Top recommendation:   Time Enough For Love
(Methusellah's Children, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond Sunset all follow the same theme/story).
Cloned From:
I've got you beat here. I've read lots more Heinlein than this. The novels I have in my collection and have read (most at least twice) are listed here. I have almost all of his short story collections too. Don't neglect his early 'juvenile' novels, they are all worth reading.
Wow ! You certainly do have me beat (by a galaxy).
Your list(s) must be close to being the definitive sci-fi list.
We agree on so many of my (sci-fi) favourites:
Aldiss - Hothouse
Bester - Stars My Destination
Clarke - Childhood's End (outstanding)
Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama
Disch - Camp Concentration (awesome)
Farmer - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Gerrold - Man Who Folded Himself
Haldeman - Forever War
Herbert - Dune
Matheson - I Am Legend (and a favourite film of mine The Omega Man)
Orwell - 1984
Silverberg - Dying Inside (outstanding)
Silverberg - Downward To The Earth
Simack - Way Station
Stewart - Earth Abides (outstanding)
Sturgeon - More Than Human (outstanding)
Van Vogt - Slan
AND, we agree on many non-favourites, books I have read which I thought less than great and which you also haven't recommended:
Bester - The Demolished Man
Card - Enders Game
Coney - Charisma
De Camp - Lest Darkness Falls
Dick - Time Out Of Joint
Disch - The Genocides
Heinlein - Double Star
Heinlein - Door Into Summer
Heinlein - Job
Herbert (Frank) - the Dune sequels
Herbert (James) - The Rats
Shaw - Two Timers
Silverberg - A Time of Changes
Wyndham - Chocky
Zelazny - This Immortal
Zelazny - Lord of Lilght
Naturally, there are some I have read that we don't agree on:
Heinlein - Stranger In A Strange Land (overrated IMHO)
Heinlein - Time Enough For Love (awesome)
Huxley - Brave New World (overrated)
Miller - Canticle For Leibowitz (forgettable)
Panshin - Rite of Passage (OK but not great)
Silveberg - Nightwings (OK but not great)
Silverberg - Book of Skulls (great)
Stapledon - Last and First Men (disappointing)
Some I have not read but I have on my bookshelf to read, which I might just bump up a little higher on the list on your recommendation:
Dick - Man in the High Castle
Pohl - Gateway
Stapledon - Star Maker (possibly)
I'm sure you'll like Gateway. Brave New World and Last and First Men were great for their time (the 30s) and both highly original and hugely influential; you need to make allowances in reading them - which is like seeing Citizen Kane and wondering what all the fuss is about.
Stranger in a Strange Land is H's most famous novel among non-genre readers. It was almost as big on college campuses as Tolkien at one time. Notoriously, multiple murderer Charles Manson nominated it as his favorite book.
I have added Gateway to my list of Books I Plan To Read in 2005.