Hey, No worries, I actually expected "someone" to make a comment, how could you not! I've never read anything else by him, and I'm not really making any plans to either, but I enjoyed this one!

In reply to this comment by EDD:
Hey, I'm not hating I haven't read it, I've merely heard Hubbard's stuff is sub-par from friends who are avid sci-fi readers. Personally I'm very much into sci-fi and fantasy movies, but very much NOT into those kinds of books. I'm just weird like that.

In reply to this comment by Sagemind:
Ya, I knew someone would say something about that! Hey, I like sci-fi and fantasy stuff. Battlefield Earth is a a great Sci-fi read. It's not not like I listed Dianetics or something. It is what it is - A "fun" read where the good guys, the humans win - Have you read it?? Perhaps you should!


In reply to this comment by EDD:


P.S. Oh and I think I speak for us all when I say - Sagemind - WHAT. THE. F*CK??

>> ^Sagemind:
I have to give two lists!

FICTION:
Clive Barker - Imagica
David Farland - Runelords
Dan Millman - Way of the the Peaceful Warrior
Frank Hurbert - Dune
John Fowles - The Magus
Alexander Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
L Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth
Jack L Chalker - Lilith: A snake in the grass
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Dart
Jack Kerouac - On the Road

Ahh, throwing the "there's so much to understand/interpret in god's work, non-believers will never understand it" card again.

Bovine manure. There's nothing to understand, there's only stuff to "interpret" whichever way suits you and calling it "enhanced understanding". The Bible is exactly equally as ridiculous as Ron Hubbard's nonsense; lord xenu's DC-7 spaceships are equally as ludicrous as a man surviving inside of a whale for several weeks. Only difference is the bible's more obscure, so that if a new bunch of people appear wanting to justify their new ideas/lifestyle, they can always "interpret" some parts/passages in one of the most ambiguous books ever written to their benefit.

Ya, I knew someone would say something about that! Hey, I like sci-fi and fantasy stuff. Battlefield Earth is a a great Sci-fi read. It's not not like I listed Dianetics or something. It is what it is - A "fun" read where the good guys, the humans win - Have you read it?? Perhaps you should!


In reply to this comment by EDD:


P.S. Oh and I think I speak for us all when I say - Sagemind - WHAT. THE. F*CK??

>> ^Sagemind:
I have to give two lists!

FICTION:
Clive Barker - Imagica
David Farland - Runelords
Dan Millman - Way of the the Peaceful Warrior
Frank Hurbert - Dune
John Fowles - The Magus
Alexander Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
L Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth
Jack L Chalker - Lilith: A snake in the grass
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Dart
Jack Kerouac - On the Road

-Le Petit Prince by de Saint-Exupéry, because it permanently shaped the way I look at (and interact in) any and all attachments.
-Vinnie the Pooh, because in it's simplicity it provided unique and oh-so-valuable insights on social norms and the psychology of friendship.
-The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, because it gave me the final nudge to become a true bookworm. I like to boast - at age 5 or 6, I read it cover-to-cover in about 9 hours (refused lunch and dinner until I'd finished ).
-The Catcher in the Rye - I guess the most straightforward and requires no explanation.
-A Hero of our Time by Lermontov, because it presented me with a fatalist byronic hero and gave me a clear idea of someone I was very much like and I DID NOT want to become.

and last but definitely not least:
-The Lord of the Rings to which I practically exclusively owe my English skills - I started Book 1 in 1999, I think, with the thickest available dictionary in hand, which honestly, at first had to utilize for practically every sentence but finished Book 6 (not a month later) having clearly surpassed my English teacher in vocabulary and speech fluency.

It has happened before and it will happen again (I mean this kind of Sift Talk), so I guess it was just a matter of time before I participated.

I only stated the couple of books that actually altered my life somewhat (I'm saying this because I always somehow got the impression other people made their lists based on how artsy/fancy their titles sounded, which I really hope isn't true in most cases among Sifters).
Anyway, I guess it's also worth saying that I read every one of these before the age of 15, which helps explain why and how they have influenced my life to some extent.

It's funny though - by the time I was 16 I'd also read and re-read Hesse, Huxley, Orwell, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, García Márquez, Rand, Joyce, Vonnegut, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Burgess, Hemingway, Rushdie and other "classics", but most some of these managed was to entertain me mildly (Vonnegut, Hesse, Huxley, Joyce - yes, I really did enjoy reading Ulysses), while I actually hated having to finish some of them (Orwell, Rand, Burgess).

P.S. Oh and I think I speak for us all when I say - Sagemind - WHAT. THE. F*CK??

>> ^Sagemind:
I have to give two lists!

FICTION:
Clive Barker - Imagica
David Farland - Runelords
Dan Millman - Way of the the Peaceful Warrior
Frank Hurbert - Dune
John Fowles - The Magus
Alexander Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
L Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth
Jack L Chalker - Lilith: A snake in the grass
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Dart
Jack Kerouac - On the Road

I have to give two lists!

NON FICTION:
David Bodanis - E=MC2
Kerry Mulis - Dancing Naked in the Mind Field
Richard P Fynman - Pleasure of Finding Things Out
Richard P Fynman - The Meaning of it All
Paul Coelho - The Alchemist
Depak Chopra - The Way of the Wizard
Ralph Mayer - Artist’s Handbook
Dennis Willium Hauck - The Emerald Tablet
Janet Gleeson - The Arcanum
Will Durant - The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time

FICTION:
Clive Barker - Imagica
David Farland - Runelords
Dan Millman - Way of the the Peaceful Warrior
Frank Hurbert - Dune
John Fowles - The Magus
Alexander Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
L Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth
Jack L Chalker - Lilith: A snake in the grass
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Dart
Jack Kerouac - On the Road

What's everyone worried about? I'm sure the Scientologits swiftly moved them to the "vault" up in the mountains, where the digging out the new "L. Ron Hubbard, Master of the Universe" annex wing.

I'll never get over "Founder L. Ron Hubbard" no matter what context it's used in.

>> ^MINK:
so Ayn Rand is equivalent to L Ron Hubbard. OK i see your point, thanks for clearing it up.


Ha... L Ron Hubbard's books are indeed on that reader's choice list, but Scientology is famous for their organized campaigns to game best-seller lists and lists like this. Orwell's 1984 and Joyce's Ulysses are high on the reader's choice list as well, so Rand has good company.

so Ayn Rand is equivalent to L Ron Hubbard. OK i see your point, thanks for clearing it up.

>> ^Raigen:
Just as I was about to upvote, that horrid Chopra showed up with a play on his terrible "line". Then, after some deliberation, I did upvote for the good execution of the video. I can forgive his appearance, but just this once.
Jeebus, I hate that man. Just about as much as I hate L. Ron. Hubbard.


I think the pure comedy from the "I SELL FEESH" man popping up right after him scores everything for thee win.

Just as I was about to upvote, that horrid Chopra showed up with a play on his terrible "line". Then, after some deliberation, I did upvote for the good execution of the video. I can forgive his appearance, but just this once.

Jeebus, I hate that man. Just about as much as I hate L. Ron. Hubbard.

>> ^gwiz665:
^ I was about to say that. Everything freezes, just get it cold enough.
I bet L. Ron had a lovely singing voice...


You have NOOOOO idea. Listen to elrond sing "Thank you for Listening". It is the all-time greatest:
www.ronthemusicmaker.org/music/listen.htm

Actually, to Scientologists, Xenu is the equivalent of the devil. Their God is L. Ron Hubbard. Seriously.

l ron hubbard: jospeh smith with a scifi twist

What is heroic about inciting people to kill innocents? Ask Paul Tibbets about killing 100,000 civilians for "the good of his country."

Of course I knew Sharon Tate was pregnant. I don't see what that has to do with anything.

I don't have any harmful desires to incite others to fulfill. At least not anything I couldn't do myself, if I was so inclined. I admire him, not for the murders, but for his ability to bring people into his circle with his flair for personality. I also admire David Koresh, Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, Marshall Applewhite, and a myriad of other people who found a way to trick the gullible. I don't admire what they did with their powers, but I still must applaud them for using people who are begging to be used.

The people I do not admire are those who followed the leaders. The gullible, the weak-minded, the easily-distracted lemmings who beg for anybody to relieve them of their need for self-guidance. I feel nothing but anger and contempt for people who sit on the edge of their seat, awestruck and dazed by the words of an orator. You know, the Germans of the early 20th century...many of the Obama supporters of today. Anybody who puts all of their hope into one person to guide them through treacherous waters, instead of navigating it themselves.

>> ^calvados:
>> ^thinker247:
He was the four-star general who ordered his troops into battle, and they willingly followed his orders, because that's what a good soldier does. He's an American hero, but outside of the boundaries of what we call "normal." And that's why he's hated. And that's why I like him, because he's an odd duck.

Where's this "battle" you speak of? There was slaughter, but where is the fight? What is heroic about inciting people to kill innocents?
I would ask whether you know that Sharon Tate was 8½ months pregnant when she was slain, and that she begged her killers to allow her to give birth to her baby before they finished her, but you say you follow serial killers very closely, so of course you knew that, didn't you?
If you honestly admire Charles Manson, does that mean that you, too, want to incite others to carry out your harmful desires?