War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Another classic by HG Wells- What a wonderful writer he was!
What makes this even more interesting is his commentary on the scientific and medical aspects of the martians and their machinery. He was a very learned man and he would not write a book about martians unless he had some kind of solid belief in the fact that they could very well exist. He didn't have solid proof, but he believed that there was life out there, and at the time of this books writing, the focus happened to be Mars. He did a wonderful job writing this book.

If you haven't read the book, it's about martians coming to the earth in the late 19th century (approx. 1898-99). Several cylinders from Mars crash land in several places in and around London and reveal strange creatures who begin building machines so that they can walk around and destroy the land. They begin a rampage that goes for about a month, month and a half.
Now, the book differs from ALL of the movies in several respects:
First of all, in the book the martians DO NOT have sheilds on their machines. In the first hundred pages, three (if I remember correctly) martian machines are destroyed.
Secondly, in the movies, the martians succumb to the germs and diseases of this earth within a few days, in the book it takes a more appropriate 4 or 6 weeks for them to succumb.
Third, the martians are incapable of walking upright on the earth without great effort due to the severe change in the gravity of earth compared to Mars.

The book is a wonderful read. It's a fast read and written with a scientific knowledge of how things work (machines) and biology (the martians, red plant). He writes it very well as if it were a memory of his. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys the classics. Definately a classic.

Next up on my list:
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (Wonderful!!!)
Faith of Our Fathers by N.C. Allen (put on hold)
Hiroshima by John Hersey (put on hold)
A Fresh Start in Fairhaven by Sharon Downing Jarvis (put on hold- cant get into it)

My book list seems to have dwindled. (on the interest side anyway.) I will look over some of the other books I have and update my list accordingly.