John Scalzi's Reading List

"'Spin,' by Robert Charles Wilson (reread)"

"'The Face of Battle,' by John Keegan, which was one of the first serious books of military history to take on the history of battle from a grunt's-eye view of things. The book was incredibly useful when I wrote 'Old Man's War,' and I come back to it whenever I start researching for a military-oriented work."

"'Raising the Stones,' by Sheri S. Tepper, a quasi-sequel to her novel 'Grass' (also exceptional, with 'Dune'-level worldbuilding), which has very interesting things to say about masculinity and society."

"'Grass' (also exceptional, with 'Dune'-level worldbuilding)... 'Grass,' however, is in print. Get it."

"I reread James Clavell's 'Shogun' a lot when I travel; I tend to think of it as epic fantasy as I am unsure of its historical and cultural accuracy."

"Katherine Addison's 'The Goblin Emperor' is always a joy to reread; I leaned on it a lot when creating my own unready imperial ruler for the Interdependency series."

"I always have at least one Susan Orlean book on my phone for when I'm stuck in the airport and in the mood for nonfiction; the current one I have at the ready is 'The Library Book.' She writes books that are comforting and fascinating at the same time."

"it's a book so lovely on a sentence level that it took me six reads to focus on the story."

"As a kid the three authors who served as my entryway to the genre were Madeleine L'Engle ('A Wrinkle in Time'), Susan Cooper ('The Dark Is Rising') and Robert A. Heinlein ('Citizen of the Galaxy')."

"As a kid the three authors who served as my entryway to the genre were Madeleine L'Engle ('A Wrinkle in Time'), Susan Cooper ('The Dark Is Rising') and Robert A. Heinlein ('Citizen of the Galaxy')."

"As a kid the three authors who served as my entryway to the genre were Madeleine L'Engle ('A Wrinkle in Time'), Susan Cooper ('The Dark Is Rising') and Robert A. Heinlein ('Citizen of the Galaxy')."