The Sword and Laser discussion

Warning: This is only for the brave of heart or bored of mind!

Go to your local library. Stand in the SF/F section, close your eyes, spin around a bit, and then pick a book. Do you dare to accept the Random Book Challenge?

Part of me loves the idea, but between S&L and my own unwieldy to-read list, I can't justify actually trying it. I'd love to hear the results of others who do give it a go though!

Cattfish wrote: "Do you dare to accept the Random Book Challenge?"

No, With my luck I'd end up with a 1000 page chick lit fantasy book :-?

or f***ing Twilight.

If I had time to read other books outside Sword and Laser and Game of Thrones and textbooks, I would totally do this! Maybe this summer!

Our library decided to be ecumenical about (some) genres and re-shelved all of the SF and fantasy in the general fiction section. For some reason, they left Mystery alone.

At first I thought, "Bravo!" because I've always been annoyed that some authors have books in both sections, even ones that are clearly SF (Kim Stanley Robinson, Neil Gaiman, and Neal Stephenson come to mind). It's like "If it's good enough SF, then it can go in the fiction section."

After my initial amusement, I realize how much shelve browsing I used to do in the SF/Fantasy section and now it's impossible. Not happy about the change anymore.

I would do this, but my local library shelves all genres of fiction together.

What is a "library"? I don't think I've set foot in mine for years.

Kim wrote: "What is a "library"? I don't think I've set foot in mine for years."

It's this mystical, magical place where those of us who are really, really poor can still read books... for free!

For those of you playing along at home with your ebooks, just throw some random numbers into the amazon url... same game, more choices!

Sounds like someone needs to make an app for this. :)

Maybe one that scans Amazon for those freebies and then lets you randomly pick one?

You are lucky, here (in Argentina) the libraries don't have a SF or Fantasy section, maybe one or two books for each genre, it took me 10 year to complete the Asimov's Fundation saga

Tassie Dave wrote: "Cattfish wrote: "Do you dare to accept the Random Book Challenge?"

No, With my luck I'd end up with a 1000 page chick lit fantasy book :-?

or f***ing Twilight."

Actually you wouldn't as Twilight is shelved in the YA section. In general they don't put 'chick lit' in the sci-fi/fantasy section.

Skaw wrote: "Actually you wouldn't as Twilight is shelved in the YA section. In general they don't put 'chick lit' in the sci-fi/fantasy section. "

I beg to differ I've seen some Darkover books there.

My library has two sections: fiction and non fiction. I'm scared of what romance novel I'd end up with if I tried this.