Favorite books in six words
by Rob - December 16th, 2015.Filed under: Uncategorized.
Yesterday on my Facebook wall, we played this game:
Describe the plot of your favorite book in exactly six words — but don’t say what it is, let us guess.I described seven favorite books thusly. Here are the descriptions, along with the books’ titles:
“Computer psychoanalyzes astronaut paralyzed by guilt.”
Gateway, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction novel by Frederik Pohl; my choice for the best SF novel ever written.
“Hen lays dinosaur egg; chaos ensues.”
The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. As The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature says, the book is “largely a satire on modern life in the USA” — and a brilliant one, at that. Plus, it features two paleontologists and is a rigorous science-fiction novel, to boot.
“Law student tries to impress professor.”
The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn, Jr. — the novel about Hart, a first-year Harvard law student, and his imperious professor, Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr., later played to Academy Award-winning perfection by John Houseman first in the movie then in the subsequent TV series.
“Noble father defends innocent black man.”
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, my all-time favorite novel.
“Scion of British family is unlovable.”
The Man of Property by John Galsworthy, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; the first volume of his “The Forsyte Saga.”
“Time traveler meets bifurcated human descendants.”
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, in which he pretty much invents the notion of science fiction as social comment.
“Definitions in alphabetical order; dull, really.”
The dictionary! My favorite is American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, Unabridged.
Robert J. Sawyer online:
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