Tag: People

Who Reads My Books? Seth Samuel.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Dear Neal,

I’ve been enjoying meeting some of your other readers and decided to chime in myself.
Amazon recommended The Skinner to me about 6 or 7 years ago, and I checked it out of my school’s library (Oberlin College in Ohio), read it way too fast, bought my own copy, and read it again. I never read books twice.

And I’ve subsequently read fifteen more of your books (all of them?)

You may be happy to know that you’re now one of my four favorite Neals! (Neal Asher, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stepheson. And my friend — Neil — who is not an author.) I’m also a big fan of China Mieville, Stanislaw Lem, and Jonathan Carroll, among others, in case you’re interested.

I am a 25-year old composer living in San Francisco, not yet making a living with music. Soon enough, I hope, though! (I’ve put a ton of my original music on my website — www.sethgsamuel.com ). I worked at two bookstores in Atlanta while in high school and summers during my college years — Chapter Eleven and Wordsmiths — and now both are gone, which is sad. I got a Masters in Film Scoring at NYU after getting my Bachelor’s in Composition at Oberlin, and while in New York I interned at the literary agency Black, Inc — the agency of, among others, Mitch Albom. Yep. I got Mitch Albom coffee! He said “thanks.” To me!

And now I live biking distance from a great, great store in San Francisco called Borderlands that carries all your books. I got my last two Ashers there, and they were pleased. Maybe I’ll work there.

Anyway, 99.9% of my books are back in Atlanta, in my parents’ house, but I’ve catalogued just about every book I’ve read to date on librarything.com. I’ve attached a screenshot of page one from it to this message.
Right between Woody Allen and Isaac Asimov — that’s you!

Best,

Seth

Who Reads my Books? Phil Ackerman.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Hi Neal
You asked who was reading your books, well here I am an Electronic Engineer designing radios for air-traffic control. Small department of approx 20 people so have to put my hand to all sorts of designs, audio, PSU, RF etc.

I have been reading SF since finding my older brothers collection of Asimov and Heinlein, though I was put off Heinlein after reading Stranger in a strange land, too hippy.

I love reading most proper SF, you, Reynolds, Hamilton, Vogt, Smith, Egan etc etc. Best thing with SF though is getting Interzone every other month. My other hobbies include cycle racing, bird watching and walking.

Can find photos of me at www.PhilAckerman.co.uk and I have attached photos of part of my collection.

Phil Ackerman.

Who Read My Books? Alexander Kruel.

Posted on by Neal Asher

I’m 25 year old guy living in Germany. I call myself a transhumanist, atheist and vegetarian. I’m interested in science fiction, science, philosophy, math, language, consciousness and the nature of reality…

I grew up within a religious environment. Later decided to become vegetarian when I was around 14. That decision was likely my first revolt against religion. Shortly afterwards, still ‘believing’, I completely rejected god. I guess that made me a satanist? Anyway, around the age of 19, with the onset of prevalent Internet access, I quickly decided to call myself an atheist. Although my atheism is just a public statement. In an epistemological debate I’d position myself as agnostic.

I Visited elementary school and afterwards went onto middle school. In Germany we have 3 school types that follow upon elementary school. Basically the lowest one is for dumb people, the middle one for average and another one for smart kids. I quit middle school at 15 and went onto the lowest school type to quit altogether after a year, without graduation.

I started to work as baker. Though found I’d rather sleep at night, since staying up basically turns me into a zombie. Afterwards I did various jobs, amongst other things working as digital media designer. The horror of push-button creativity…

These days I’m mainly trying to get a decent education.

P.S.
As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not neurotypical 😉

Photos? http://www.flickr.com/photos/xixidu/sets/1026306/

Who Read My Books? Mark Chitty.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Where to start with the exciting information about Mark Chitty? Well, I’m a 29 year old guy living in North Wales with my wife, Jane, and hyperactive cocker spaniel, Snoop. I work at Bangor University where I deal with students on a day to day basis and help them with any problems they have while also attending to vital jobs such as unjamming the photocopier, ensuring adequate stock of yellow highlighters and whiteboard markers for the academic staff, and other generally riveting and challenging duties. Before doing this I’ve been an NVQ assessor, a paperwork processor, an admin dogs-body and also worked in a hotel doing all the things associated with it. Yes, that also includes cleaning the vomit stained beds after rather inconsiderate guests.
Due to the high excitement (or rather lack of) in my working day I found sci-fi as the perfect escape route. While I’ve always been a fan of tv shows and console games in the genre, it wasn’t until 2004 that I really started reading as heavily as I do now. While I’ve read some of the classics I much prefer fiction from the mid 90’s onwards with the likes of Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher, Alastair Reynolds, Gary Gibson, Eric Brown and a host of other British authors taking the top spots. John Scalzi and Tobias Buckell are really the only recent American authors that I like enough to name, but anything sci-fi will get a look in one way or another.
Because of this new found love of sci-fi literature I run a blog, www.walkerofworlds.com, where I review what I read and post other bits of information, cover art and press releases whenever I get them. I also run a Peter Hamilton fan site at www.theunisphere.com, something that stemmed from that book I picked up in 2004 that started this all off (Pandora’s Star, in case you’re wondering).
Other than reading I’m still a fairly avid gamer, but I get nowhere near enough time to play anymore. Favourites are the Final Fantasy series and Star Ocean games, although give me a bit of Resident Evil any day of the week. I just got an Xbox too, so more time and money are slowly being absorbed by it’s seductiveness! TV shows and movies are again pretty much sci-fi orientated – the Alien series is a particular favourite, as too are the Stargate shows.
As for hobbies, after reading and squeezing some game time into the week I still like to try and play some basketball. I started playing while at school and used to play in the national under-19s league, way back in the day! Nowadays it’s all about playing for enjoyment and keeping fit – it’s one of the few sports I will actually play.

Who Read My Books? Taylor Preston.

Posted on by Neal Asher

I recently graduated from North Carolina State University with a BA in English and am currently in the process of applying for graduate school. I studied abroad in Oxford last summer and absolutely loved it. As soon as I have enough money I hope to come back. No technical or scientific background, but I love science and always have. Not enough people with English degrees appreciate the beauty and complexity of the natural world, and more’s the shame.

It’s safe to say I’ve read a lot of books, but I’m particularly fond of science fiction. Current favorites writing in the genre are Reynolds, Banks, Morgan, Kessel, Gibson (Gary, though I do like William as well), Hamilton, and, of course, Asher. I’m starting to reread many of the classics and I’ve found a lot to like in A.E. Van Vogt, Larry Niven, and Samuel Delany.

As well as reading, I also enjoy writing since my undergrad concentration was Creative Writing. I’ve taken fiction writing from John Kessel, which was loads of fun, particularly since he’s a science fiction writer and all around great guy.

Who Reads My Books? Graeme Finch

Posted on by Neal Asher

IT server hardware engineer on site, RFS Qualified but no longer practising Arborist (Tree Surgeon), one time lifegaurd (swimming pool variety). Grounds and terminal maintenance person at London City Airport when it first opened, cutting grass on the runway, painting terminal lounges and the like so dignitaries could get their fix of emulsion smell. One time mechanical and electrical maintenance estimator for the UK’s (then) largest facilities maintenance company, all these fields look random but are each connected by that six degrees of separation rule, what employment agencies call transferable skills.

I scuba dived extensively in my early twenties, and read the Godwhale and Cachalot for the first time during this period. I do a fair bit of walking, swimming and cycling, I read as much historical fiction as I do science fiction and have trawled through some Dickins. I will read Moby Dick this year and have tackled both the Illiad and Odessy both original translations and novelised versions and Dan Simmons Illium series that takes the themes of the Illiad and incorporates them into a far flung future and our very own past as well as a parallel universe (or two). The classics offer us a window on the past, attitudes to life and death, towards each other and reflect in some ways what was socially cohesive or topical at the time (a bit like climate change, and over population today). Neal’s own references to strong diseases and weak humans in Cowl will if we are unlucky prove to be one of those Scfi “cos that’s wot’l appen” moments some time down the line.

The first series of books I read were the Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley, before that I’d been a reluctant reader, after that I couldn’t get enough. My favourite book of all time is The Silmarillion by Tolkien, closely followed by The Lord of the Rings. I’m currently reading the Seven Suns Saga by some bloke called Kevin J Anderson, who I’d not heard of but is apparently a notable in StarWars circles and Co wrote some Dune books (I’ve only read Dune, it was brilliant), I’m struggling with the first book of the series because I feel a bit patronised by it, though it has some good stuff in it. I’ve read a good few Stephen Kings, Dean Koontz and Brian Lumley books. And down the years I’ve read countless odds and sods, from detective novels that were the only thing avaiable when I had a long stay in hospital when I was eighteen, to erotic fiction with some rampant bird I met during my divorce (I needed help maintaining my hormone levels at overdrive, though to be fair she wore me out and then gave me the Spanish archer treatment “El Bow”).
I have a hard back copy of Orbus which I’ll be reading next (though to be fair I can’t abide hardbacks), they don’t fit in my backpack pockets and take up too much room, and if they do go in the pack they invariably get damp damage because they share space with my swimming gear.

I Have a broad understanding of Particle physics, Cosmology, Theory of relativity and many other subjects science related. In part through science fiction and that nagging bit of the brain that says “is that actually plausible”? I’m curious, about the very massive and the very small and how if you could stand on an atom and look out through the rest of a cell at all the other atoms in the human body (for instance). Would the specs of light look like the stars in our galaxy and would the distances be relative. Then you take that idea out to the size of a planet and get your head around how far our nearest neighbour planet is, then our largest planet neighbour, then the next nearest galaxy and so forth.

Science fiction, generally makes you optimistic (I think) (someone I know of disagrees), though sometimes it makes you wish you were born in a couple of hundred years time. I also think older science fiction is a great gauge of what we imagined and what has now been realised (see line above).

Who Reads My Books? Owen Roberts.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Hi Neal,

I see some recent posts on The Skinner about your readers, so I’d thought I’d chime in with my story in the remote hope that you find some interest in it.

I’m an Australian software engineer, and although I’ve only been paid for this since I finished my degree (BE Computer Engineering), I’ve loved programming since the age of 11 or so. My first computer was the Dick Smith Wizard, and in addition to enjoying the programming, I also get a massive kick out of experiencing the exponential increase in the technology driving it. Most of my programming work has been in cryptography, covering authentication and encryption, primarily using the likes of RSA, DSA and Elliptic Curve algorithms to produce certification authority products and services.

I also love SF. Modern: Asher, Banks, Brin, Egan, Hamilton, Morgan, Reynolds, Stephenson, Stross. Older: Aldiss, Asimov, Bear, Gibson, Herbert, Niven, Robinson. I particularly enjoy the AI and creatures of Asher and Banks, and the physics of Egan.

I also enjoy a game of D&D, chess with 8yr old son, draughts with my 5yr old daughter, and drinks with my wife :_) Front rows of bookshelf attached. Really enjoying your blog and your work!
Regards,
Owen Roberts
http://unwritable.blogspot.com/
(you can use that mug shot if you really have to :_)