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A Blessing that is Often Overlooked – Books
Envisioning a better future, reliving a glorious past, encouraging us to dream big, or bring happiness – these are all reasons to find importance in reading books. They allow you to escape into a world you may never know and can even help lower stress levels. Reading draws us into a whole range of human emotions that provide wisdom and value and give us a positive distraction that potentially brings so much good into our lives.
Reading books improves confidence and self-esteem, which provides a platform to pursue goals and make decisions in life. Improving our education in almost any area can only enrich our lives beyond measure. There are so many positives about books that it’s hard to imagine a world without them.
“Reading forces you to be quiet in a world that no longer makes place for that.” – John Green
“There is no friend as loyal as a book” – Ernest Hemingway
“I am a part of everything I have read.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“We read to know we’re not alone.” – William Nicholson
“The more you read, the more you know. The more things that you learn, the more places you will go” – Dr. Seuss
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R. R. Martin
“Books aren’t made of pages and words. They are made of hopes, dreams, and possibilities.” – Unknown
“Reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out.” Pam Allyn
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King
“Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzei
“I feel the need of reading. It is a loss to a man not to have grown up among books.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them.” – Neil Gaiman
“Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting, and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives us a terrific advantage.” – Roald Dahl
“Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.” – Carl Sagan
Happy reading!
Solitaire
5 Authors to read if you enjoyed the works of Sci-Fi/Fantasy author Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Edgar Rice Burroughs – (1875 to 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific writing in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. He is best-known for creating the character Tarzan, and John Carter from the Barsoom series, but also the Pellucidar series, the Amtor series, and the Caspak trilogy. His book, A Princess of Mars, was the one that started everything for me as a young boy. I have had a love of science fiction/fantasy since the day I read his book. His Tarzan books and movies are quite well known, and all his books can be found on Amazon today. He is known as the master of adventure.
I highly recommend the following authors if you enjoyed Edgar Rice Burroughs. They are some of my favorites as well.
Piers Anthony – an American author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, best known for his long-running novel series set in the fictional realm of Xanth. Many of his books have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list, and he claims one of his greatest achievements has been to publish a book beginning with every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover.
Roger Zelazny – Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Fantasy – The fantasy sequence The Amber Chronicles, which started with Nine Princes in Amber, deals with the ruling family of a platonic realm at the metaphysical heart of things, who can slide, trickster-like through realities, and their wars with each other and the related ruling house of Chaos. His works were very loved, and he was a strong influence on such younger writers as George R. R. Martin and Neil Gaiman. He won the Hugo award six times and the Nebula award three times.
Michael Moorcock – Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published several well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. Born in London in 1939, he is a prolific and award-winning writer with more than eighty works of fiction and non-fiction to his name, he is the creator of Elric, Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat, amongst many other memorable characters.
Robert Heinlein – Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the “dean of science fiction writers”, he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. He had a writing career that spanned forty-nine years. He published 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections during his lifetime. Four films, two TV series, several episodes of a radio series, at least two songs (‘Hijack’ by Jefferson Starship and ‘Cool Green Hills of Earth’ on the 1970 album Ready to Ride and as the B-side of a single by Southwind) and a board game were derived directly from his work.
Algis Boudrys – Algirdas Jonas “Algis” Budrys was a Lithuanian American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome, John A. Sentry, William Scarff, and Paul Janvier. He is known for the influential 1960 novel Rogue Moon. He is the author of ten novels, three short story collections, and five non-fiction works. He has taught at Columbia (Chicago), Harvard, Brigham Young University, CalTech, the Charles Dickens House in London, Pepperdine University, the Taos experimental Writers of the Future workshop, and the Library of Congress, to name a few, as well as several annual workshops in Moscow, Idaho. He was the editor and publisher of Tomorrow Speculative Fiction magazine.
If you love science fiction and fantasy, all these authors are certainly worth reading and may become some of your favorites. There is nothing quite like the world of science fiction. It has the ability to instantly transport you to another world, leaving Earth behind. You also get to explore the capabilities of time travel, interact with androids, and consider artificial intelligence all while imagining what the future might be like.
Solitaire
Solitaire Parke - Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books 