While blog-hopping - I found the cutest widget! Shelfari! It's a virtual bookshelf. (duh, you can see that much on the right of this blog!) Anyway - I love books. Books are my friends. So you can browse through my shelf via the arrows on the bottom to see what books I've enjoyed. You'll probably see a pattern. I'm big on sci-fi and mystery. :) Books are one way I can escape from the real world - especially when it sucks. I figure suicide isn't a good option, so how else can I leave what's going on? By transferring myself to another time and place of course!

I'm sure my love of reading comes from my mom. She was such the bookworm! She'd finish books in days easily. She'd practically read anything and everything. This made her a great teammate for Trivial Pursuit. She soaked up random tidbits like a sponge.

Anyway, I think I'll give you an overview of some of my all-time favorites.

Dune

Laws, do I love Frank Herbert! Dune is seriously epic. Some call it the Lord of the Rings of sci-fi. And it is. The end. :) Only MORE epic. Dune alone has so many "plots within plots." The main theme is a messiah story, however you get ecology, sociology, religion, etc. :D I'm a Dune-nut, it's true. Of course, that means I don't only love Dune - but the whole lot of the series. Allow me to break it down for you, should you decide to take on the monolith.

Written by Frank Herbert:

Dune

Dune Messiah

Children of Dune

God Emperor of Dune

Heretics of Dune

Chapterhouse: Dune

Written by Brian Herbert (Frank's son) and Kevin J. Anderson:

(prequel trilogy 1):

Dune: The Butlerian Jihad

Dune: The Machine Crusade

Dune: The Battle of Corrin

(prequel trilogy 2):

Dune: House Atreides

Dune: House Harkonnen

Dune: House Corrino

(Dune book 7):

Hunters of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

(Random):

The Road to Dune

Paul of Dune

Note - I, myself, have not read ALL of these. I got stuck on Road to Dune. I don't want to go on without finishing, though I probably will. I'm sort of re-reading Chapterhouse in order to read Hunters and Sandworms. Eventually anyway :) Regardless, I highly encourage everyone to at least try Dune.

The Cat Who... series

Well, it's pretty obvious I stole this pic from Amazon. However, considering I just gave them credit - it's not exactly stealing, is it? Anyway..

The Cat Who... series is written by Lilan Jackson Braun. Super easy read - and short too! I enjoy this when I want something light. They can be read out of context very easily - so you don't have to look at it like a series if you don't want to. I'm currently going through and reading them as a series, however. You do see some progressions that are kind of interesting when you do that.

Anyway - there are a lot, and they're kind of predictable, but they're still entertaining. The first (if anyone wants to go the series route) is The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. I'm currently on book five, The Cat Who Played Brahms. Good books - and she's still alive, so occassionally a new one shows up.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

K, I stole this from Amazon too - but I got smart and found the cover *without* the "search inside" business. I'll conclude my list with this - considering this post is HUGE! Anyway - Douglas Adams is a funny, funny man. There is no definite Hitchhiker's Guide. It has mutated in all its forms (BBC radio broadcast, TV series, books, recordings, and, of course, the movie).

I show you the picture of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in paperback, mostly because this is the one we bought, so this is what I've read. It contains all five books and the short story that comprise the "trilogy." (That's right, 5 books, one story = trilogy.) If you opt for this route - you NEED to read the forward stuff. Douglas Adams is funny always - not just when writing novels ;)

Alright - I'll be done. Kudos to anyone who makes it this far. Check out my shelf - and get your own at http://www.shelfari.com/