Do the people across the street have a sprinkler system?
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Yes - but the very dead patches in her lawn are from cinch bugs.
(And unfortunately, it has spread to kill almost the entire lawn now - because I got busy and didnât track her down to give her some poison for it.)
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Took me a minute but I remember it. Good short story. One of his first exploring solipsism. This later lead to much of what became NotB.
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NotB? He is my favorite author but I donât get the reference
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Sorry, I always AssUMe that fans get the titles from the letters. Number of the Beast. If you have not read it, it is a must. It ties a lot of the future history series together.
Iâm almost a over the top fan of RAH because I didnât discover him as a kid. I had read all the Clark and Asimov I could get my hands on but somehow missed uncle Bob. About 20 years ago someone Handed me The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and that started me down a path that I have not come to the end of yet.
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Ah! I have read it and listened to it several times. I love how Jubal Harshaw makes them realize they have no idea how many black hats there are. Something along the lines of âyou would never get a fair witness to say thatâ and âyou saw one and you killed oneâ
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In elementary and grade school I read everything I could lay my hands on from Adams, Asimov, Bradbury, Clark, Heinlein, and Tolkien. Multiple times. I didnât have TV growing up.
I realize that I probably missed a lot due to my age.
And thatâs a good thing. Now I get to go back over everything and re-experience it from a new perspective. Biggest problem is that I have a stack of crates full of books, and no shelf space left.
edit- except for the Douglas Adams. I have re-read the HGTTG âtrilogyâ too many times to count, and listened to the books on tape through many, many times as well (makes the drive from Boulder County Co to Marin County CA just fly by). I had the entire series on tape read by the author, but many of those have been missing for a long time. When I tried to replace them in digital format, I could not find them. So now I also have the first book read by Stephen Fry.
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Ditto. So many books in this house, it will go up like a roman candle if the laser ever gets out of controlâŚ
Hmmmmn! 
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Heinlein is by far my favorite author. My brother gave me the âFive by Heinleinâ box set back in '70 (!). Read his prior works as quickly as I could track them down, then eagerly awaited each new book.
Like him, I was a officer in the US Navy and once wrote to his publisher regarding âAnd He Built A Crooked House.â Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from RAH himself telling me more about it! Still have it in my firesafe⌠
That being said, NotB was one of my least favorite books. It was the first published after his stroke, and it really changed his writing. YMMV, of course.
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Milage really does vary. NotB makes my RAH top ten. Then there is Glory Road, everyone loves it but just didnât speak to me.
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Stranger in a Strange Land was a very influential book for me in terms of filling my consciousness with a deep appreciation for individuality and difference. Respecting the âotherâ as the only way out of selfishness or solipsism. I canât go swimming in a pool without going into the deepest part and hanging out on the bottom for a little while, just grokking away. I liked Time Enough for Love but as I prefered novels with longer narrative structures rather than episodic, I could never say that Heinlein was my favorite. I did think it was cool that he was from Missouri. I think Dune is really the science fiction novel that captured me most.
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Loved Herbertâs âDuneâ as wellâŚ(Movie adaptation of that was very good, given the complexity of the novel.)
Also - Orson Scott Card - âEnderâs Gameâ (book fantastic - movie was poop)
Anything by Asimov of course.
Anything by Mercedes Lackey.
Anything by Anne McCaffrey.
Harlan Ellison.
Roald Dahl.
Zenna Henderson.
Sara Douglas.
Melanie Rawn.
Goodkind.
Donaldson.
The list goes onâŚ
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My top are:
Farmer in the sky
Starman Jones
Citizen of the Galaxy
The day after tomorrow (sixth column)
Number of the Beast
Starship troopers
Time for the stars
Time enough for love
Methuselahâs children
My least is:
I will fear no evil
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Solipsism, That had running to google. First time I recall ever seeing it.
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Dang! Iâm the only one here again.
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You just never know what you will learn or be encouraged to learn here. It was a new concept to me when I started reading RAH. It is just one of many mind-bending things he explored.
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Reading Variable Star nowâŚgreatly enjoying it! Was planning to just browse a chapter or two to see if I was going to like it - and have had to rearrange my plans for the afternoon.
Good recommendation @gernreich! Might have to look up some other Spider Robinson stuff as well.
(not going to rhapsodize too much, since I know youâre saving it for later)
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Anybody here read Zelazny? I loved the Amber series (although it got a little tedious toward the end) but my favorite was âDoorways In The Sand.â
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Thanks 
Looking forward to reading it!
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Jim Butcher and his The Dresden Files series is amazing imo.
Think the adult version of Harry Potter based out of Detroit. Doesnât do it justice, my description, but I am in a hurry and try to keep it short ;D
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