While I was putting together the links for yesterday’s post on homeless veterans, I stumbled across another NPR story offering a survey of must-read books of the science fiction and fantasy persuasions. Nancy Pearl, the Seattle librarian who serves as NPR’s resident book reviewer, claims that she isn’t a “fanatic” for sf/fantasy, but the title she chooses to highlight reveal a connoisseur’s appreciation for the two genres. Pearl earns my instant respect with her inclusion of Gateway and and The Forever War, two books for which I’ve held a deep fondness since I read them in college. And her praise of The Name of the Wind is sufficiently intriguing for me to add the book to my Amazon wishlist. She also lavishes praise on Cryptonomicon, a doorstop of a book that has been sitting on my shelf for the better part of a decade and one that I really should get around to in the near future.
