Here’s an awesome article about 15 real scientists and their favourite scifi books and movies.
An great reminder that if we want to nurture tomorrow, we have to inspire today.
I have a million scifi books and movies I loved. I can’t name just one. I mean, there was Contact (book and movie, though they’re very different), The Andromeda Strain, Dune, Jurassic Park, anything by Phillip K Dick and so many others.
But it’s so fun to see that even scientists loved the same cool stuff you did.
What’s your favourite scifi book or movie? Better yet, name all you can think of off the top of your head. I’m no good naming just one so feel free to fill up the comments!
R.S.A. Garcia 
I enjoy that one of the scientists said Dragon’s Egg. I love that book. I just checked on my Nook and I’m actually surprised it is an ebook. My print copy is from the 80s. It’s about these aliens that evolve on a neutron star and shows how the huge gravity would effect life. One of the best aliens I’ve ever read. Actually talked about this book with Elizabeth Bear at a con once.
Mega side topic there but I get excited about old, obscure sci fi I actually know.
My own favorites live on a special shelf next to my bed dubbed the Shelf of Honor. It’s got Gaiman, Meiville, Tate (aka Palmatier), Stephenson, Priest, Zelazny, Lynch, and more. It’s not very big, but it is just a bit too big to list them all here. I’m actually a bit odd in that my favorite book as a teenager, Zelazny’s Amber series, is still my favorite book now. I read Nine Princes in Amber at least once a year.
I actually looked that book up when you mentioned the cheela. I found the concept fascinating. But my local library only started catching up with the outside world about ten years ago, so I missed most of what was available in scifi during the 80s – 90s lol.
My favourites used to live in my bookshelf over the foot of my bed, but I lost most of them when I had to move as a teenager. Now everything I own fits into two small book cupboards, sadly. Not much money to buy books. I’m a big library person, even today. I’ve always heard of Nine Princes in Amber but never had the chance to read it. I plan to read that and Dragon’s Egg some day.
Blade Runner. So atmospheric and beautiful! Bookwise is so tough to even think about. I think I’m still looking for “the one”! Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny probably top dog… at the moment.
Oh, I loved Blade Runner. Love the Phillip K Dick story it’s based on even more. Big Phillip K Dick fan here.
I don’t even bother trying for a one favourite in books! I just keep calling out names until I run out of breath and start up again when people say books I liked and forgot to mention lol.