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The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-06-01 2:52 AM (#10669)
Subject: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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This thread is for discussion relating to The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge.
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Administrator
Posted 2015-06-01 4:17 PM (#10686 - in reply to #10669)
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I'm happy to make a banner for this one tonight if you like. 
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Administrator
Posted 2015-06-01 10:05 PM (#10689 - in reply to #10686)
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Here ya go. 

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DrNefario
Posted 2015-06-02 3:03 AM (#10690 - in reply to #10669)
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Lovely, thanks.
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2015-06-18 7:11 AM (#10807 - in reply to #10669)
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Signed up for this challenge even though I am still working on 50's challenge.
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-08-12 6:38 AM (#11114 - in reply to #10669)
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I've finally managed to start this challenge, with Judith Merril's The Tomorrow People (no relation to the 70s kids' TV show). It was a little disappointing, to be honest. Readable enough, but nothing special. Then again, it wasn't a book I had especially picked out as something I wanted to read, just something I happened to come across in a second-hand book shop at the right time.

The same is true of my 1961 choice, The Joy Makers by James Gunn, so maybe I shouldn't set my expectations too high for that one.
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-08-24 8:04 AM (#11212 - in reply to #10669)
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Well, it turned out that I enjoyed The Joy Makers. There's probably some kind of wordplay in that... no, I can't see it.

I was intending to read Hospital Station by James White next, in preparation for Star Surgeon later in this challenge, but I decided that was a collection and therefore moved it onto my daily short-story track, deciding to read The Joy Makers as my main novel instead. (Joy Makers is also a fix-up, but but is presented less like a collection.) It was very readable, and the books are still pretty short in the early 60s, so it only took me a couple of days to get through.

i notice that some people are already pretty much done with this challenge. If someone else wants to start a 70s challenge, feel free. I don't want to create it myself, yet, since I don't want it to sit there with 0/10 books read for months until I catch up. If someone else creates it, I don't have to join until I'm ready.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-10-09 5:22 AM (#11462 - in reply to #10669)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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I have finally finished the 60s challenge,though only the basic 10 books. Reading only library copies limits the choice a lot,as they can be hard to come by,so I was lucky to find the Open Library site,where I found my reads for 1961,1963,1964,1965.1968 and 1969!.
I have read all 12 of the books which may survive to the 22nd century,and these were my reads by the year
1960 : Mark Clifton - Eight Keys to Eden
1961 : Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat
1962 : Samuel R Delany - The Jewels of Aptor
1963 : Clifford Simak - Way Station
1964 : Jack Vance - The Star King
1965 : Fred Pohl - A Plague of Pythons
1966 : Samuel R Delany - Babel-17
1967 : Samuel R Delany - Einstein Intersection
1968 : Alexei Panshin - Rite of Passage
1969 : P K Dick - Galactic Pot Healer
That brings me up to 50 books(36%) off the list,with 27 others on my Himilayan TBR for the future. Those are all the books that will be available free online for me.
I probably wont be doing the 1970s challenge anytime soon,if at all. I have read a measly 19/102 from that list,and can barely scrape together perhaps 15 available books I could even bear to read.Mind you,I am even worse with the 90s,a mere 19/136 books.Sorry,I am an old dinosaur,living in the past.
I am having much more fun steeping myself in the 50s list,where I still have 24 books from the list on my TBR. Then of course the 27 from the 60s,its going to be a long time before dutifully reading from the 70s,which seems a bit sparse to say the least.


Edited by dustydigger 2015-10-09 5:27 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-10-09 7:27 AM (#11463 - in reply to #10669)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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I'm still way behind on the 60s challenge, although I did manage A Wrinkle in TIme for 1962 earlier this month. I have to say it didn't do much for me, but at least it was easy and quick to read.

I'm thinking of opening the 70s challenge next month, making it five months per decade, even though I'm a long way away from being able to start it myself.

I find that I have accumulated a lot of classics from the 50s and 60s which have made these challenges relatively easy to fill out. The 80s and 90s are more of a problem for me because that was kind of my era, and I have read most of the books I want to read. I'm trying to stick to books I haven't previously read, and I'm missing more years in the 90s than in the 70s and 80s put together.
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-11 5:22 PM (#11474 - in reply to #10669)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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Sorry guys, I missed when this was created. I just joined and picked out my ten books. Actually, I never finished the 1950s like I planned, but I'm still trying.
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-17 10:30 AM (#11511 - in reply to #10669)
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When did the 1960s start for science fiction? In Rock and Roll, it was when the Beatles came to America. Looking back, I think many would say 60s Sci-Fi hit when Stranger in a Strange Land came out, because looking backward it feels like the Sixties. However, Heinlein had started working on that story in the 1940s.

For me, the borderline between the 1950s and 1960s is with "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by Roger Zelazny. When I look back I remember how Samuel R. Delany and Roger Zelazny came on the scene and they felt young and different. But I put none of their books in the Top 12 for the decade https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_60s.asp because the average reader today seldom encounters Zelazny and Delany. I started reading SF around 1961, so its a decade I remember as it unfolded. I'm surprised by how different the books I remember excited me then are from the ones that everyone remembers.

When I first read "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" I thought it was dazzling. I still do. But it's a mixture of old and new. That's why I say it's on the borderline between the 1950s and 1960s. It's a shame that Zelazny was never as dazzling as I found him in "A Rose for Ecclesiastes." When he started writing novels, stretching out the narrative weakened his impact. His novels have flashes of brilliance, but they were stuck together with less exciting filler.

But the epitome of 1960s for me was "The Star Pit" by Samuel R. Delany. The very story is about longing to go out into space, and being held back by barriers. That's how I felt in the 1960s as a kid reading SF.



Edited by jwharris28 2015-10-17 10:32 AM
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2015-10-17 10:54 AM (#11512 - in reply to #10669)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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For me the 60's would also have to be "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" along with "Dune" and "The Andromeda Strain" all of which I read as a kid because my Mom had copies of the books. Until just a couple years ago, these were my idea of what the 60's in Sf were, a combination of science and... religion, in the case of "Rose" and "Dune," man's desire to overreach their abilities in "Andromeda." That being said I have not read much from this era so I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into some new reading. I probably will not even get to this challenge until next year, but I am already planning what my reads will be. I still have 2 years left in the 50's.
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-17 11:06 AM (#11513 - in reply to #11512)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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Dune portends another change in the 1960s - because that's when SF novels started getting bigger. Most of the SF books of the 1950s were short, often less than 200 pages, and something you could read in a day. Dune, Stand on Zanzibar and Stranger in a Strange Land are books that want to be taken seriously. They are ambitious and big. 
 

 The sixties was when science fiction began to want to be considered something other than gosh-wow books for boys. Novels got more complex, and the writing started to improve. Plus, the genre began its first steps towards diversity. Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delany added a lot of flavor that didn't exist in the 1950s.

 



Edited by jwharris28 2015-10-17 11:07 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-10-29 8:34 AM (#11588 - in reply to #10669)
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I've just finished Star Surgeon by James White for 1963. A bit sexist (women's minds can't handle the alien physiology tapes, sorry) but fun. Very short, at 156 pages, but didn't feel quite that short. I've enjoyed both the sector general books (since I also read Hospital Station a couple of months ago in preparation for this), and wouldn't mind reading more, if I can find any.

I had previously only read Way Station by Simak from 1963's selection, and possibly the PKD. I can never remember which PKD novels I've read and which I haven't.

Next up, for 1964, is The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith. This is just something I randomly found at a second-hand shop, and not something I have particularly chosen myself. I don't really know what to expect.
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-29 8:52 AM (#11589 - in reply to #10669)
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I just started Thorns by Robert Silverberg because it was one of the three books I could get on audio for this reading challenge -- well of the 10 I selected to read. But it does seem like there are fewer 1960s SF classics on audio than there was for the 1950s challenge. It would have been just two audio books, but a handful of lesser Clifford Simak books showed up on Audible.com in the last couple weeks. For some reason, there is no Samuel R. Delany at all on audio. Only Stand on Zanzibar for John Brunner. Luckily, a handful of Robert Silverberg books have been showing up on audio, but mostly his 1970s titles.

Thorns starts out quite engaging. It's about a manipulating impresario who finds emotionally problem people to make famous. I haven't come to this part, but evidently there's some kind of TV or movie tech for emotional theater. I'm just guessing though.



Edited by jwharris28 2015-10-29 8:54 AM
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Emil
Posted 2015-11-01 11:33 AM (#11659 - in reply to #10669)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1960s Reading Challenge
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I confess to reading them slightly out of sequence. It's not so easy to get hold of vintage sf books here in Namibia. I am able to listen to a few whilst in the John Deere, but not all I'm interested in reading have an audio version. The rest I'm able to get e-books for. So pardon me - at least I'm getting on and through the decade!
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-11-01 11:38 AM (#11660 - in reply to #11659)
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I'm not worry about order either. I doing the books I can get on audio first, and then ebook, and if I still can't find them, I'll track down a paper copy.  How popular is science fiction in Namibia?
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Emil
Posted 2015-11-08 10:54 PM (#11764 - in reply to #11660)
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jwharris28 - 2015-11-02 7:38 AM

I'm not worry about order either. I doing the books I can get on audio first, and then ebook, and if I still can't find them, I'll track down a paper copy. How popular is science fiction in Namibia?


Yeh, for me it's also in order of audiobook first and then the rest.

I live in a rural farming area where SF is actually non-existent. I have to go to the main town Windhoek or the coastal town Swakopmund to find anything SF related. I've been donating some of my double copies to the local library and sad to say that the only SF in this library is what I've provided. Judging by the modern fantasy series I can still find in WIndhoek and Swakopmund, it's safe to assume some people do read our genre, but I haven't found ANY classics from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s in any shop yet. So, I guess SF proper is not all that popular here. And ... farmers do not really read :-)
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-11-14 10:57 AM (#11822 - in reply to #10669)
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I finished Thorns by Robert Silverberg which was pretty good, but not great. I was hoping it would be really good like Downward to the Earth which I discovered a few weeks back. I also listened to Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. I've been waiting about 15 years hoping Delany would come to audio, ever since I first discovered Audible.com. Well, finally Babel-17 showed up, and Dhalgren will come out in January. The wait was worth it. As much as I love Delany back in the 1960s, his prose was never meant for my teenage speed reading habits. Listening to Babel-17 made it come alive in ways my previous readings hadn't. This is a great book for the 1960s Reading Challenge because Delany and Zelazny changed the style and flavor of science fiction in the 1960s.

Edited by jwharris28 2015-11-14 10:59 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-12-24 11:10 AM (#12186 - in reply to #10669)
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I zipped through Slaughterhouse-Five in the last few days to complete this decade. I was expecting to be a bit more difficult than it was, I don't know why, but Vonnegut has an easy, chatty style even when the subject matter is dark.

One more book and I'll be into my lifetime.
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spectru
Posted 2015-12-24 12:12 PM (#12187 - in reply to #12186)
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Slaughterhouse Five is the best Vonnegut, IMHO. Not really SF, except for the time travel and the extra-terrestrials.
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jontlaw
Posted 2016-05-26 11:11 PM (#13631 - in reply to #10669)
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Ok, signed up today. I'm still working on the 1950's, have two more books for the basic 10 and five more that I've committed, but I've been reading pretty fast lately, so I think I'll be into this one within the month. I really hemmed and hawed about the 1960's because I had three open years, and had to buy a couple of things, but I'm committed to 15 now so I'm in for the win. Expect lots of Philip K. Dick.
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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-07-24 2:06 PM (#14077 - in reply to #10669)
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I wish I could say I was enjoying this challenge more, but my first two books were a bust. I read The Status Civilization and Dark Universe both of which I had to force myself through. The first one at least had a plot that moved forward and the 2nd at least had an interesting idea.

I'm optimistic about 1962 b/c I chose The Man In The High Castle. Hopefully the 1960s will pick up for me.
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2016-12-19 12:58 PM (#14748 - in reply to #10669)
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DrNefario, thanks for the extension, this challenge just got a bit away from me.
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jontlaw
Posted 2017-06-01 4:00 PM (#15794 - in reply to #10669)
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Finally finished this challenge. Went for the 15-book threshold.

1960 - Flesh by Philip Jose Farmer
1961 - The Lovers by Philip Jose Farmer
1962 - The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
1963 - The Game-Players of Titan by Philip K. Dick
1964 - Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick
1965 - The Three Stigmata of Eldritch Palmer by Philip K. Dick
1966 - Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
1967 - Thorns by Robert Silverberg
1968 - Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg
1969 - Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick

Extras -
1962 - The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
1964 - Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
1964 - the Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
1966 - Now Wait for Next Year by Philip K. Dick
1969 - Ubik by Philip K. Dick
I enjoyed all of the books, as I expected too. I was very surprised by the early Farmers, I had no idea that he had been so open and out there. Ballard and Silverberg were the authors that I had never read, and both were excellent, especially Silverberg's Hawksbill Station (I gave it five stars!).

I still own 20 more books that fit this challenge, but I really have to move on to other things. I wondered if I could do it again at a later date, but to do it straight through, I would have to find books to fit 1960, 1965, and 1967.

I've also considered moving on to the 1970's challenge. I own at least 17 books that fit the challenge, but I can't do it one for each year. 1978 only has three books, and I've already read the one I have.

I've also considered the 1980's challenge. It would be easier. I have at least 25 qualifying books, including one from every year. I would just want to do the 70's first.



Edited by jontlaw 2017-06-01 4:03 PM
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