Top Fantasy Books and Series

Aldous Huxley: The Mike Wallace Interview THE MIKE WALLACE INTERVIEWGuest: Aldous Huxley5/18/58 WALLACE: This is Aldous Huxley, a man haunted by a vision of hell on earth. A searing social critic, Mr. Huxley 27 years ago, wrote Brave New World, a novel that predicted that some day the entire world would live under a frightful dictatorship. Today Mr. Huxley says that his fictional world of horror is probably just around the corner for all of us. WALLACE: Good evening, I'm Mike Wallace. He's just finished a series of essays called "Enemies of Freedom," in which he outlines and defines some of the threats to our freedom in the United States; and Mr. WALLACE: Well, what are these forces and these devices, Mr. HUXLEY: I should say that there are two main impersonal forces, er...the first of them is not exceedingly important in the United States at the present time, though very important in other countries. WALLACE: Uh-huh. WALLACE: Well, why should overpopulation work to diminish our freedoms? HUXLEY: Well, in a number of ways.

10 great science fiction novels that have been banned - io9 @djscruffy: And that's why you're a heathen and should be burned at the stake. @djscruffy: In defense of public schools, I would suggest that the reason many of these books are challenged so often is that they're frequently included in school curriculums and libraries. I grew up in a state that, according to these links, engaged in book-burning less than a decade before my birth. That makes me shudder. But I'm also the child of a public school teacher and am familiar with my mother's and many of her peers' views on children's reading materials. I suppose I've wandered a bit. @djscruffy: To be fair, it's not usually the schools that want to ban the books, but the few overprotective parents who make wild assumptions about the books we try to teach. Most of us really try to teach the kids to think, rather than becoming nice little automatons.

Top 10 Best Novels of the Last 20 Years Books The ten novels on this list all substantiate the belief that books are the most elastic, introspective, human and entertaining form of media that exist. Not movies, not music, not art, not the theatre. A famous author once said that novels are the best way for two human beings to connect with each other. I believe this, and I believe that people who do not find pleasure in words have never had the opportunity to read one of the great novels. The first introductions students often have to literature are stale century-old books that do not translate well to this new modern era. Music for Torching by A.M. First Sentence: ”It is after midnight on one of those Friday nights when the guests have all gone home and the host and hostess are left in their drunkenness to try and put things right again.” As the only woman on the list, A. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (1996) Of course, Palahniuk had to be on this list. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (2000) The house is alive. The Road

Top 10 Underrated Fantasy Stories Before 1937 Books J.R.R. Tolkien changed the face of the fantasy genre when he published “The Hobbit” in 1937 and subsequently his famous “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But with this defining moment in the genre, many of the great works that preceded Tolkien have been forgotten in time. This list gives you my top ten underrated classics of fantasy prior to the publication of “The Hobbit.” Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees Publication Date: 1926 Probably the most obscure thing I shall mention on this list, this is a rather interesting tale in an alternate world where some rather mundane people live in peace, but are interrupted by a flow of fairy fruit form the neighboring lands. The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley Publication Date: 1863 This is a children’s novel that I might not recommend for the kids, but anybody with an interest in Victorian fairy tales and a bit of controversy absolutely must pick this one up. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson Publication Date: 1908 Lost Horizon