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Isaac Asimov's 100th book, a collection including samples of the range of his writings.Tags
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The famous author's self-review of snippets from his first 100 books... not among his best, which began to look ever more churned-out in his later years, during which he wrote hundreds more.
At one time, I had all but 5 of the first 100 books Isaac Asimov ever wrote. Then I got distracted by college, work, family obligations...the usual case of Life. I still have those 95 books.
This book takes selected quotes from each of those first hundred and intersperses them with biographical anecdotes. I would often recommend it to friends who had never read any of Asimov's work as a starter book. It is true that his unadorned writing style is not to everybody's taste, but I always enjoyed his clear, concise writing in both fiction and nonfiction.
If you can find a copy of this book, I still recommend it.
This book takes selected quotes from each of those first hundred and intersperses them with biographical anecdotes. I would often recommend it to friends who had never read any of Asimov's work as a starter book. It is true that his unadorned writing style is not to everybody's taste, but I always enjoyed his clear, concise writing in both fiction and nonfiction.
If you can find a copy of this book, I still recommend it.
Asimov's 100th book (eventually he would write over 500), this one is a collection of excerpts from prior books of essays on a variety of topics, including all fields of science and mathematics, the Bible, humor and word origins. Asimov was a true renaissance man, fascinated with all fields of knowledge, and gifted in the ability to transmit this knowledge on paper so as to infect the average reader with this fascination.
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Author Information
Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, on January 2, 1920. His family emigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they owned and operated a candy store. Asimov became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of eight. As a youngster he discovered his talent for writing, producing his first original fiction at show more the age of eleven. He went on to become one of the world's most prolific writers, publishing nearly 500 books in his lifetime. Asimov was not only a writer; he also was a biochemist and an educator. He studied chemistry at Columbia University, earning a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. In 1951, Asimov accepted a position as an instructor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine even though he had no practical experience in the field. His exceptional intelligence enabled him to master new systems rapidly, and he soon became a successful and distinguished professor at Columbia and even co-authored a biochemistry textbook within a few years. Asimov won numerous awards and honors for his books and stories, and he is considered to be a leading writer of the Golden Age of science fiction. While he did not invent science fiction, he helped to legitimize it by adding the narrative structure that had been missing from the traditional science fiction books of the period. He also introduced several innovative concepts, including the thematic concern for technological progress and its impact on humanity. Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series, which includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In 1966, this trilogy won the Hugo award for best all-time science fiction series. In 1983, Asimov wrote an additional Foundation novel, Foundation's Edge, which won the Hugo for best novel of that year. Asimov also wrote a series of robot books that included I, Robot, and eventually he tied the two series together. He won three additional Hugos, including one awarded posthumously for the best non-fiction book of 1995, I. Asimov. "Nightfall" was chosen the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1979, Asimov wrote his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. He continued writing until just a few years before his death from heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Opus 100
- Alternate titles
- Opus One Hundred
- Original publication date
- 1969
- Dedication
- To Time and Circumstance,
which have been kind to me. - First words
- Frankly, I never planned it this way.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Charles Dickens died as he was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood with his pen trailing a mark along the page and his head slumped over the manuscript—and that is the only way a writer would want to go.
- Publisher's editor
- Harris, David M.
- Blurbers
- Clarke, Arthur C.
- Original language
- English US
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 308
- Popularity
- 103,625
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.64)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 7
