Thirteen Thursday #27: 13 Random Books

Thirteen Random Books From My Book Shelf Number #27 Ok, I've missed the last three weeks of Thirteen Thursday. I feel like I missed turning in my homework or something, this is something that should be done on Thursdays. The first one I really had a good excuse, I was in Washington D.C. and had no internet access. The next week I started one, but kept having trouble downloading music to it. We all know the problems I've had with music on here, I didn't want to blast everyone with 13 songs singing at one time again. I finally figured it out, but it was two weeks later, so that was kinda late. But I'm back finally. This 13 I stole, eh...borrowed the idea from Trav who made a list of the first 13 books from his bookshelf. I'm not going to list the first 13 but a random 13 that I can see from my desk. I have a bookshelf behind the desk with a walkspace between them that covers one wall of the room. This bookshelf holds pretty much paperback books. So with that long winded introduction to this 13 out of the way here they are, in no particular order: 1. Max by Howard Fast. This is not one of his series novels which is what hooked me into him in the first place. 2. The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun. This book was published back when Del Rey (I don't think they are still publishing under that name, are they?) was doing a whole series of Best of Books from great science fiction writers. Gallun was a writer from the thirties. 3. Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card. A time travel story involving Christopher Columbus. Card is one of my favorite writers with the Ender series. 4. Knight Life by Peter David. King Arthur comes back to life in the present and in New York City. A humorous take on the story by a writer more known for his comic book work. 5. Galaxy: The Best of My Years by James Baen. Galaxy was a science fiction magazine that published some of the best science fiction ever written. Baen was one of its last, if not last editors before the magazine folded. He published some great work by writers like Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Ursula K. LeGuin, John Varley and Roger Zelazny. He also brought in Spider Robinson to do book reviews. Spider was one of my favorite reviewers ever. 6. Love, Dad by Evan Hunter. Hunter is better known as Ed McBain, the mystery novelist who created the 87th Precinct. He also wrote the book the movie Blackboard Jungle was based on and the script for the movie The Birds. Evan Hunter was his real name and he wrote many great novels under that name also. 7. The Many Colored Land by Julian May. Part of a science fiction/fantasy series that I read years ago and actually can't remember a lot about. 8. In The Blood by Nancy Collins. This is part of her Sonja Blue vampire series. I think this series is so much better than the much over rated Vampire novels by Anne Rice. 9. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty. One of the best western novels ever. A really great story. I remember when I picked this book up for the first time, not really sure if I would like it, I'm not a big reader of westerns. I couldn't put it down, it was one of the books that I read as fast as I could turn the pages and did not want to put down. 10. Slam the Big Door by John D. McDonald. One of the greatest writers ever. The creator of perhaps the finest private detective series ever, Travis McGee. This is not part of his series, it was one of the many non series mysteries he wrote over the years. 11. Journey by Marta Randall. I remember really liking this novel years ago. It's a science fiction story and had a sequel to it. 12. The Iron Fist by Norman Spinard. Another science fiction novel about an alternate world ruled by the Nazis. 13. The Werewolf Principle by Clifford Simak. Simak wrote a lot of science fiction novels that might not have reached literary heights but always told a great story with believable people.

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