Orson Scott Card
IMHO, the best Science Fiction and Phantasy writer alive. Not only because of the
quality and interest of his tales (populated with very human characters that face
important moral decisions) but also because they make you a better human being.
He always touches me. Which of his novels I would recommend? Many! I'll mention
some that went deep into my heart. I won't put in the first place the famous
"Ender's Game" (I didn't cry with that one) but
"Speaker for the dead",
"Lost Boys" (the one I have read more times) and the
Alvin Maker saga
Agatha Christie
For Sherlock Holmes,
Irene Adler,
will be always
"the woman". I could say the same about Agatha. Nobody like
her for making you know, and love, the small English towns like
St Mary Mead, where
Miss
Marple used to live. But why the other classics from the golden age
of mistery novels, like
William
Irish,
John Dickson Carr
or
Ellery Queen have COMPLETELY
dissapeared from the shelves only for being replaced with a lot of dull books (with
exceptions) is a mystery that only
Hercule Poirot could solve. Only
Perry Mason has managed to keep a little place in the bookstores. Probably the reason is
the deep understanding that Agatha had of human nature, that makes her inmortail
C.S.Lewis
I knew about C.S.Lewis because "Out of the Silent Planet" was published in Cuba. Years
later I was able to read the Narnia saga and the other two books of the Space Trilogy
and loved all them. But it was very recently when I was able to appreciate his other facet,
reading "Mere Christianity" and I like it that much that I cannot resist the temptation to share it from here.
PDF in English
or
(en espaƱol). I
also recommend the excellent
online course
about Lewis of the Hillsdale College.
Harry Potter
Yes! I confess it with pride. I'm old enough for not having to prove anything or for
following the criteria of the main stream pundits. I'm a great fan of Harry Potter.
I've read all the novels and watched all the movies several times and I'll continue
doing that. If they are a product of the merchandising, as some people say, I don't
care: I just like it. Besides, I became a Harry Potter fan from the first book,
before the movies and before the big merchandising boom.
Isaac Asimov
It was 1992 and I was in Mexico when the sad news arrived: Isaac Asimov, the good professor,
the author more prolific than
Lope
de Vega had passed away. I still remember the emptiness of knowing that
no more
Foundation
novels will appear in the shelves and that
Daanel Olivaw would not act as
deus-ex-machina again. Fortunately, he left books enough for centuries
of pleasant reading. The movies based in his works had not made him justice yet,
perhaps because Asimov is not very "cinematographic". And now, adding insult to
injury they are going
to
spoil Foundation
(
"I Robot" it's a very entertaining movie, but it's NOT Asimov).
Richmal Crompton
I met
William Brown
when I was a boy and I don't know how many times I read all of those books. The
thing is that I continue reading them from time to time. If you have sense of humor
you cannot be old enough for not enjoying the William, Douglas, Henry and Ginger
(the
"Outlaws") adventures. It's not easy to find them nowadays (not many
reprints are made), probably because some of them are not very
"politically correct".
Wodehouse
And Richmal Crompton takes us to Wodehouse because I found them closely related
due to the scene of their stories and their sense of humor (that I know not everybody
is going to share). But I recognize it. I always have a lot of fun with
Bertie Wooster,
Jeeves
and all the characters in
Blandings
Castle.
The classics
The universally recognized classics that had passed the test of time don't need
advertisement. Some of them touch my heart more than others. I want to give special mentions to the
"Bard of Avon".
Mark Twain,
C.S.Lewis (great in SF, fantasy and as a Christian Apologist),
Tolkien,
Poe,
Dostoyevsky
and many others that also put a bit of them in me.
The Beatles
They not need presentation. I have to include it because they were an important part
of my youth and I still listen (and enjoy) them from time to time. I'm a bit old
fashioned. The Beatles,
Queen or
Simon and
Garfunkel,
Elvis,
Pat Boone,
Nat King Cole,
country, sound tracks of musical movies:
Annie,
Damn Yankees,
The Sound of Music,
Mary Poppins,
Pajama game,
Little shop of horrors,
Camelot... Enough! The list of my musical DVDs is too long :)
That is what I always have in the gloves compartment and listen while I drive. I confess that I'm very ignorant about
the last 30 years music, with the exception of some country singers and some musical movies.
Star Wars
It's true that the 2nd Trilogy was below the expectatives (also the expectatives were too
high). It's also true that the special effects replaced the ideas and the script
was dull. But... I can forgive all that. I still believe in the story of the fall
and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. If the world is divided in
"Ringies"
(my neologism for the
"Lord of the
Rings" fans),
Trekkies
and
"Starkies" (another neologism) I'm a bit of all them. (But only a bit:
I don't speak
Klingon
neither
Elvish). (I wrote this
before Disney took over the saga and made it wonderful again. Kudos to them! They are making
me a happy camper with that. I forgive them for not continuing the Narnia saga)
Columbo
"One more little thing, just for my report..." And here comes the fictional friends,
headed by Columbo, the man with the trench coat and the old and always breaking
car.(
"Have you considered buying another car?" "I already have another: my wife drives
it.") Could other than Peter Falk be able to convert him in the unforgettable
character it was? I doubt it.
Adrian Monk
The fictional parade continues with Adrian Monk, his phobias, his interesting murder cases and
--the heart of the saga--. his beautiful and eternal love to Trudy and the affection-exasperation
relationship that he establishes with his assistants, first Sharona Fleming and
later Natalie Teeger. No more new Monk chapters after the last season (the producers
are mean!). We are missing him a lot. Fortunately, the modern Sherlock Holmes of
Elementary
is filling very well the role of "Beloved Detective in the TV Screen".
Superman
It seems that I share this with
Jerry Seinfeld
but the truth is that, from my childhood, I've liked Superman stories and I still
like them. I haven't missed a chapter or
Smallville, I have in DVD all the movies and TV series and now I'm collecting
the
DC archives.
Not a very refinate taste? Who cares!
Steven Spielberg
I had some issues with this inclusion. Since Spielberg decided to make "serious"
movies, looking for Oscars, somehow part of his magic touch was gone. But then I
thought: he is still the man of unforgetable works as
E.T,
Duel,
Close Encounters,
Hook,
Jurasic Park,
Jaws and
Indiana Jones (I'm not counting all the films he produced and have his
"touch", like
Gremlins And the
magic was partially
ack in the
last Indiana Jones... It would be unfair to exclude who made me dream that
much. So , remembering that
St Exupery dedicated his
Little Prince (that should be included here, but I'm not including single
books: otherwise this would be endless) to
"Leon Werth, when he was a little boy",
I'm dedicating this to
"Steven Spielberg, when he was the E.T. and Indiana Jones
man".
Laura Ingalls
Little House on the Prairie is an oldie that I discovered recently and made me an instant fan of it, touching my heart. I watched the TV series so I cannot
talk about the books, that I have not read. I plan to do it. It's true that the best seasons are the childhood of Laura and there are some bad chapters (and even very bad
ones, like the
Halloween Dream) but "Nobody is perfect". When my wife and I finished the nine seasons we wanted more, so we started
watching
Highway to Heaven that had some familiar faces :)
Disney
I enjoy a lot most of the Disney pictures. Half of my DVD shelves are filled with them.
Of course, I don't like everything that the Disney company produces and I was upset with
their decision of not continuing with the
Narnia
saga after two awesome movies. Fortunately Fox saved the day and
"The Voyage
of the Dawn Treader" was released. Also the Disney Channel
is no more what it used to be. But
Wreck-It_Ralph.
the new Star Wars movies and others demostrates that Disney's magic is well alive, even without Pixar. Long live to
it!
Doctor Who
Thanks to the new way to watch TV (streaming) I was able to watch
Doctor Who that became, for me, the
best Science Fiction TV program ever, moving Star Trek to the second place. Now I'm watching the classic episodes that are not lost,
and they make me nostalgic. They remind me the Flash Gordon episodes that I watched in my childhood (I have them in DVD).