Life, the Universe and Everything

Looking for a good book?

Then welcome once again to Lindenhurst Patch’s . Twice a month the Lindenhurst Memorial Library (LML) will search its extensive collection, consult the bestseller lists and provide a list of good reads designed to pique your interest.

This week Director explores the world of novels.

Missed his discussion of what makes for a good and his recommended list of books? Visit the .

Science fiction is a highly imaginative form of fiction based on speculative science or life on other worlds.

The genre's appeal is mainly in its ability to immerse the reader in a vividly created imaginary world that offers a compelling experience.

The following are just a few of the genre's all-time best titles:

• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams: Chronicles the off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, notions and acquaintances of galactic traveler Arthur Dent.
• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit after meeting a young girl whose family lives a slower, more graceful existence.
• Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card: A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he’s engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he’s commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth.
• Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein: Valentine Michael Smith, a man from Mars and the only survivor of an earlier visitation, is brought down to Earth and kept under wraps in a government hospital. The non-human visitor brings into doubt the values and self-evident truths of Western society.
• Neuromancer, William Gibson: Case, a burned-out computer whiz, is asked to steal a security code that’s locked in the most heavily guarded databank in the solar system.
• Dune, Frank Herbert: Set on the desert planet Arrakis, this is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

You can search for and reserve these books online at the LML website, and check them out at the library at One Lee Avenue.