As I am currently immersing myself into the sci-fi genre (in both books and movies), I’m trying to compile a list of reading and watching materials that would provide the general knowledge that I would need on the subject matter. However, since I have no friends who are as nerdy as myself, I’d like to ask for the information from my fellow bloggers. Please know that I have limited knowledge on what to watch or what to read as my parents were not big on sci-fi (this is exhibited by the fact that I only saw Star Wars when I was already 16, on my own). I would love to get recommendations and suggestions on how to understand the genre more as I am a huge fan of the subject matter.
As of now, the movie list I’ve compiled consist of the following (this list excludes the movies that I’ve already seen):
- Brazil
- Metropolis
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Star Trek: Wrath of Khan
- Solaris
- Alien
- Aliens
- The Road Warrior
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (I have not seen the original)
- Planet of the Apes (Same with the above, I have not seen the one with Heston, and the one with Marky Mark sucked)
- Moon
- The 5th Element
- Primer
- Forbidden Planet
- City of Lost Children
- Repo-Man
- Contact
- The Time Machine (I saw the one with Guy Pearce and it thought it was decent)
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
- Children of Men (I know this is a recent one but I have a slight aversion to Clive Owen, I don’t know why)
- A Scanner Darkly
- Dune
- THX 1138
- Tree of Life
In addition, the book list I’ve compiled are the following:
- Anything Asimov related (so far I am done with the robot and foundation series)
- Dune series
- Ender’s Game
- The Stars My Destination
- Philip Dick books
- Neuromancer
- The Forever War
- Rendezvous with Rama
- Brave New World
- The War of the Worlds
- Snow Crash
- Contact
- Eon
- The Andromeda Strain
I know this list is laughable since some basics are included, but when I started liking sci-fi, I didn’t have any idea which movies to see and what books to pick up. And as I was also a late bloomer in internet research, it’s only now that I’m definitely finding out that there are a lot of information I can use online. Unfortunately, I cannot understand which are good suggestions and which are bad from just merely reading what is available, so I trust personal recommendations would solve that. So, I am counting on those who also love the genre to comment and suggest on how to go about this immersion project and hope I can count on my fellow fans for support. Will be waiting for your suggestions. Thank you in advance! 🙂
Paning's Blog 
I think that this list is a great start. Have you joined Goodreads? There are some sci-fi groups that you can join and they have extensive reading lists. Also, people are really friendly and will answer any questions you might have.
As for my recommendations, I really enjoyed Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson.
Have not joined goodreads, will now 🙂 Thanks for that tip!
Your recommendation has been noted and is now part of my list. Your comment is very much appreciated! Thank you! 🙂
Is Robopocalypse the one being adapted by Spielberg to a movie?
Holy cow! You’re right. I didn’t know that it was being made into a film. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.
If you would like to add me as a friend on Goodreads, here’s my site: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9122859-buffy
I hope you enjoy your sci-fi adventure!
Thanks! I can’t seem to add you on goodreads 😦
You added me. I just had to approve it and I did. Nice to see you! 🙂
you can forget about dune, I would recommend the other version that was done by the sci-fi network, and I do highly recommend Contact, I know that you would love it
Really? Dune is not worth my time? I thought Star Wars was based on Dune?
I loved the books don’t get me wrong. it’s just the movie adaptation that blows