Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5713245" data-attributes="member: 52734">Forking from the 9 geek books you must read now thread, what is your list of 10 geek books/movies/tv series that you feel should be "required reading/watching" to consider yourself a geek - and why?My list:The Call of Cthulhu [and other stories] (H.P. Lovecraft) - While Lovecraft has written many a story, and later authors may have improved upon the field of unspeakable horror, Lovecraft helped to found the field by encouraging others to use his creations within their own works.  In the time before OGL, this was OGL.The Dark Knight (Graphic Novel, Frank Miller) -  I never got into Watchmen, but I loved the Dark Knight series.  In a time when Batman can't rely on his athleticism anymore in a world that's gone mad, we can see how crafty and adaptable he can really be.   Don't bother with the Dark Knight Strikes Again, it's not nearly as good - except for when Bats humbles Superman.Star Wars: New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (Movies, George Lucas) - You can choose whether to take up the prequels or not, but you can't call yourself a geek without being able to quote a line or two from these movies - if not the whole thing from the scrolling text to the end credits.  And gods help you if you can't keep Star Trek and Star Wars straight.  Which leads us to...Star Trek (TV Series, Gene Roddenberry) - It's okay to like either the original series (with Kirk) or the Next Gen (with Picard).  Watching DS9, Voyager or Enterprise can be a guilty pleasure, but just don't let anyone else think you like it.  And always remember the mantra - the odd-numbered movies suck.Starship Troopers (Novel, Robert Heinlein) - Folks, if you don't already know it, this is where Stormtroopers, Imperial Marines, Colonial Marines, Alien xenomorphs, Tyranids and the Zerg pretty much came from.  The eternal war of Apes vs. Bugs sprang fully formed from this psychological novel.  And no, none of the Starship Trooper movies count.War of the Worlds (Novel, H.G. Wells) - Before the craze with UFO sightings was even a glimmer in anyone's eyes,  Wells was frightening us with a tale warning us how truly helpless we are in the face of an uncaring, relentless foe.  While it's deux ex machina ending is cliche now, it's one of the few that actually fits the story incredibly well.Matrix (Movie, Wachowski Brothers) - What a way to download two hours of philosophy and pseudo-theology in an action-movie package. While it is at it's heart a retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave in the modern world, this movie engages you at several levels that endures beyond a blow-everything-up summer blocker buster that we commonly see from Hollywood.  At times, you have to sometimes wonder if it wasn't the machines who wrote the two sequels, just to try and downplay the impact of the first movie.Robotech (TV, Harmony Gold) - I don't know about others, but this was my first real anime - well, if you don't count Star Blazers and Voltron.  Hacked together from three separate series (Macross, Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross & Genesis Climber MOSPEADA), it hammered out a multi-generational story set to the backdrop of war.  The one thing that's always struck me about anime - they're not afraid to deal with the subject of death of a major character on the show.Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien) - Personally, I couldn't slog through the books, I cheated by listening to an audio drama and greatly adore the movies (extended versions, of course).  Bigger geeks than me will also probably point out that true geeks read the Simarillion, and leave the lighter fare of these three books to us lesser beings.</blockquote>

Verification