2012 is fiction reading only, loving the post war LA Americana of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler. Elmore Leonard (Killshot) and Hunter S Thompson (Fear and Loathing) also hit the spot.

I’ve often enjoyed the movies of Philip K Dick stories, anyone read and enjoyed the books? Blade Runner one of my favourite films…..should I start with “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

I really enjoyed ‘A Scanner Darkly’

I’ll be shot down for this, but I thought Blade Runner was far superior to ‘Do Androids…’

The Man in the High Castle is my favourite

UBIK is a great book

I enjoy films based on his writing but I came to them through the books. The books often have a different (darker) tone than the films.

Man In The High Castle is a good starter.
Or one of the volumes of short stories e.g. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.

I think short stories are were it’s at with PKD – he’s an ideas man and doesn’t really have the writing to sustain novels, although he wrote loads, obviously. All of his shorts are collected and available in about 5 volumes IIRC.

Saying that, I did really enjoy the books he wrote late on where he’s getting a bit frazzled. Valis and The Divine Invasion are brilliantly inventive, but very much in the vein of the Illuminati books – worth picking up if you appreciate that type of fiction / secret history of the world.

ETA I shouldn’t say frazzled really as he was stuggling with mental illness by this time – this comes through strongly in Valis, it’s quite a sad and moving book with a clear autobiographical theme.

likewise i think he’s a great ideas man but not the best writer. adaptations of his books make great films. usually you get a lot out of the books having watched the films but again, i don’t find it so with PKD. a scanner darkly turned out to be a great film IMO.

edit to add, try ‘the rum diaries’ and ‘hell’s angels’ if you enjoyed HST’s writing. also try iain m bank’s culture sci-fi if you’re that way inclined. they tend to bowl along at a pretty decent pace.

The Man in the High Castle is a good read and if in the mood for PKD I would also recommend The Forever War by Joe Haldeman or Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Both are good reads with the storeys being more important than the sci fi element.

There was a really interesting Radio4 discussion on Phillip K Dick (it might still be up on listen again or something). As said above, he was schizophrenic and had a twin brother that only lived for a week or so after birth (he blamed himself for that somehow). Those two conditions informed pretty much all of his work.

What other PKD books have been made into films? I thought I saw something recently (a film) that turned out to be by him.

On chapter three of do androids dream of electric sheep, really enjoying it so far

Id recommend A Scanner Darkly. Dont watch the film until you have read the book, as you will misunderstand key elements in the film. I think some reviews compared it to Dazed and Confused, and Fear and Loathing, which completely misses the point of his message.

What other PKD books have been made into films? I thought I saw something recently (a film) that turned out to be by him.

Off the top of my head: Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and Next. All terrible films except for TR (which is awesome but for different reasons than the book!)

OMG WTF –> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Recall_%282012_film%29 They’re remaking it!! nnnoooo…

I thought Minority Report was quite good.

Off the top of my head: Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and Next. All terrible films except for TR (which is awesome but for different reasons than the book!)

Minority report is okay.

Anyway +1 for “The Man in the High Castle”

If you like classic sci-fi and have never read any then Ray Bradbury has some good books like Faranheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles.

Ender’s Game buy Orson Scott Card is also worth a read.

I couldn’t get into Kurt Vonnegut – its the curse of the Kindle if a book doesn’t grab me straightaway I’ve got another few hundred to try!

If we’re spreading the net wider then IMO Robert A. Heinlein wrote better novels than PKD. Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in particular are excellent.

heinlein, or dick you cant go wrong with either imho, but different styles even if somethings are similar

I’m never much convinced by Tom Cruise but I did enjoy Minority Report. A collection of short stories sounds like the way to go. I just had a go at Midnights Children, got to the stage where I just couldnt face another 400 hundred pages of Salman Rushdie showing off.

lol, that has been sitting untouched on my shelf for years!

I love Dick…….ooh, hang on , let me re-phrase that – um, Philip K Dick is ace.
Scanner Darkly is my favorite, closely followed by Man in The High Castle.
Film adaptations have never quite captured the dark paranoia. It took me several watches of Blade Runner before I enjoyed it as a film in it’s own right, instead of trying to be the novel it was taken from.

oooh fudge even though its got colin farel the new total reacal doesnt look so bad
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T-Jt9RCy4v4[/video]
lets just hope hollywod dont screw it up and its more ‘in bruges’ than ‘alexander’

+1 for Valis though it is more a contemporary biographical tale- I recommended it on here on another thread.
Now Wait for Last Year is one of my favouritess. Flow My Tears, the Policeman said,Ubik and A Maze of Death all good as is Man in the high castle which is very polished and complete compared to some of his other efforts.Loads of brilliant ideas in his work
I’ve read all his books and first heard of him after reading something in a punk fanzine I bought way back in 1978.