World Builder's Library

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

Please make your sales pitch for the ONE book that you think absolutely, without question, most belongs on the shelf of a world-builder, and tell us why! There are a lot of good books out there and I want to keep this library relatively compact, so make sure this is a nonfiction book that you strongly feel a SF/F writer would be hindering himself by NOT reading. Please explain what the book is about, and how it is helpful, and what category of the index it should be under. I will keep a running list of those books which are considered to be indispensable, and may boot some of the less-acclaimed choices if a category gets crowded.

It's okay if your book is only useful for a certain subgenre (say, space opera, or sword and sorcery) or a certain place/time period, and not others. I am going to keep an index in the next post and keep it categorized so people can go "shopping" easier.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

INDEX (work in progress)

Agriculture/Food

Architecture/City Planning

Astronomy/Planet-Building
Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World by Jonathan Lunine - Generously illustrated, and touches on many different sciences in explaining the earth's evolution.
What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been, by Neil F. Comins - An accessible look at alternate-earth scenarios based on hard science.

Biology/Creature-Building
Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease, by Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince - A look into why genetic diseases exist, and how they actually stem from beneficial mutations.

Clothing/Costume

Culture/Psych/Social
The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious, by Carl Jung - Classic psychological work explaining recurring themes and roles that have existed in human society throughout history. Important for all storytellers!

Geography/Map-building

History
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, by Fernand Braudel - Explores the culture of the Mediterranean in the late 16th century in a panoramic way that focuses more on principles than events.
Four Thousand Years Ago: A World Panorama of Life in the Second Millennium BC, by Geoffrey Bibby - A slightly dated but still-beloved text that fires the imagination by bringing various scenes from the Bronze Age world to vivid life.

Linguistics/Languages

Politics/Government
Origins of the State and Civilization by Elman R. Service - How forms of government develop hand-in-hand with technology/civilization.

Religion/Spirituality/Myth
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, by Emile Durkheim - Explores the universal human tendency toward ritual, magic, and myth.

Ships & Sailing
SHIP, by Brian Lavery - Comprehensive visual introduction, covers from the very first floating vessels to the present day. Maps and photos galore!

War & Weaponry

Multiple Subjects
Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond - Pulitzer winner that covers the development of society from its very beginnings and explores why some societies/cultures dominate others.
The 10,000 Year Explosion, by Gregory Cochran - A concise look at the material/evolutionary benefits of civilization. Excellent when combined with a study of Diamond's book.
World Builder's Guidebook, D & D 2nd Edition - great for spur-of-the-moment "Oh crap I need detail NOW!" reference.

AMCrenshaw · Feb 18, 2009

Archetypes of Carl Jung:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/089254029X/?tag=absolutewritedm-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691018332/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

I think they would be useful for any fantastical world-building that seeks alternatives to gods and goddesses (though many of these archetypes are themselves based on mythology) as a source of meaningful presence. For another thing, understanding a culture's archetypes allows a writer to more lucidly reflect that culture's sensibility.

This could apply to space opera or harder sci-fi if the archetypes are fixed in the stars-- that is, the motion of the stars bears repeated results (like the zodiac, imagine, but more concrete).

ETA: I'd put this in the category of Culture.

AMC

AMCrenshaw · Feb 18, 2009

The 10,000 Year Explosion by Gregory Cochran.

A concise look at the material/evolutionary benefits of civilization. I'd suggest combining it with a study of Diamond's book.

AMC

ETA: Multiple Sections category.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

What category would you place 10,000 year Explosion under? I'll edit the first post to encourage people to categorize the books themselves so I don't end up guessing wrong if I haven't read 'em

Feel free to suggest a new category if your book doesn't fit under the ones I have up.

AMCrenshaw · Feb 18, 2009

Gillett and Bova's World Building is probably good for inspiration, but I myself would look elsewhere for more specific information.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/158297134X/?tag=absolutewritedm-20
/ref=pd_sim_b_6

AMC

ETA: I don't know which category this would belong to.

geardrops · Feb 18, 2009

I have to say, the best thing for all my worldbuilding was staying awake during history class.

Really, any history text is going to help you, especially if you can read between the lines.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

AMCrenshaw said:
Gillett and Bova's World Building is probably good for inspiration, but I myself would look elsewhere for more specific information.

In the interest of keeping the list fairly "tight" I think I'll hold off on adding anything that comes with a caveat or any amount of ambivalence, and stick to the "OMG you have to read this," recommendations.

I'm aiming for those books that once you find them, you'll wonder how you ever dreamed of writing your novel without them at hand for constant reference and re-reading.

mscelina · Feb 18, 2009

suggested mythology resources:

Go straight to the original sources:
Homer--The Iliad and The Odyssey
Ovid--Metamorphoses
Beowulf
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Bible--any version

For secondary Greco-Roman mythology sources, try to avoid Edith Hamilton. Look for Morford or Gayley for greater accuracy.

The Book of Goddesses and Heroines--Patricia Monaghan
Celtic Myths and Legends--Ken and Joules Taylor

As a subcategory of History--Political

Hitler--Mein Kampf (the how-to guide on creating a sick political mind)
Machiavelli--The Little Prince
The Republic--Plato

History

Herodotus

As a subcategory of History--Culture(also can cross categorize with linguistics)

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America--David Hackett Fischer

War and Weaponry

Caesar--Commentaries on Gaul

This is just what's on my desk that I can see at the moment. I may add more later.

Higgins · Feb 18, 2009

dempsey said:
I have to say, the best thing for all my worldbuilding was staying awake during history class.

Really, any history text is going to help you, especially if you can read between the lines.

as in? Braudel's book on the mediterranean?

La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II

For Braudel there is no single Mediterranean sea. There are many seas--indeed a "vast, complex expanse" in which men operate. Life is conducted on the Mediterranean: people travel, fish, fight wars, and drown in the many seas. Again, the sea gives on to plains and islands. Life on the plains is diverse and complex; the poorer south is affected by religious diversity (Catholicism and Islam), as well as by intrusions - both cultural and economic - from the wealthier north. In other words the Mediterranean cannot be understood independently from what is exterior to it. Any rigid adherence to boundaries is a way of falsifying the situation.
The first level of time, geographical time, is that of the environment, with its slow, almost imperceptible change, its repetition and cycles. Change may be slow, but it is irresistible. The second level of time comprises social and cultural history, with social groupings, empires and civilizations. Change at this level is much more rapid than that of the environment; he looks at two or three centuries in order to spot a particular pattern, such as the rise and fall of various aristocracies. The third level of time is that of events (histoire événementielle). This is the history of individuals with names. This, for Braudel, is the time of surfaces and deceptive effects. It is the time of the "courte durée" proper and it is exemplified by Part 3 of The Mediterranean which treats of "events, politics and people."
Braudel's Mediterranean is a complex of seas but just as important it is also the desert and the mountains. The desert creates a nomadic form of social organization where the whole community moves; mountain life is sedentary. Transhumance is also a factor--that is, the movement from the mountain to the plain, or vice versa in a given season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel#La_M.C3.A9diterran.C3.A9e

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

dempsey said:
I have to say, the best thing for all my worldbuilding was staying awake during history class.

Really, any history text is going to help you, especially if you can read between the lines.

I agree completely. A general familiarity with history will be extraordinarily helpful to anyone, as will a general familiarity with any of the other broad categories. What I hope to find to put under the History category here would be books that, in a fairly concise and concentrated manner, cover history as is most helpful to world-builders who are not making an earth-based world. So, history books that deconstruct things, rather than focus on accurately telling the stories of particular individuals and events that won't be covered in your own novel.

An example of what I mean:

Less helpful (but still generally helpful in the sense of educating and broadening one's mind) - a detailed biography of Napoleon.

More helpful - A detailed portrait of everyday life during the Napoleonic era.

dclary · Feb 18, 2009

I don't understand the fascination with worldbuilding anymore. I did when I was twelve, and had about 10 more hours in a day than I knew what to do with. But today? I just write stories, and make the world up as I go.

mscelina · Feb 18, 2009

nonfiction book that you strongly feel a SF/F writer would be hindering himself by NOT reading

An argument can be made that all mythology is fiction at some point. I recommend using primary sources--like Ovid or Homer--as opposed to secondary collective sources--like Hamilton-whenever possible. Granted, mythologies frequently overlap or you find different traditions regionally so there is no definitive source for any mythological system.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

mscelina said:
suggested mythology resources:

Go straight to the original sources:
Homer--The Iliad and The Odyssey
Ovid--Metamorphoses
Beowulf
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Bible--any version

For secondary Greco-Roman mythology sources, try to avoid Edith Hamilton. Look for Morford or Gayley for greater accuracy.

The Book of Goddesses and Heroines--Patricia Monaghan
Celtic Myths and Legends--Ken and Joules Taylor

As a subcategory of History--Political

Hitler--Mein Kampf (the how-to guide on creating a sick political mind)
Machiavelli--The Little Prince
The Republic--Plato

History

Herodotus

As a subcategory of History--Culture(also can cross categorize with linguistics)

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America--David Hackett Fischer

War and Weaponry

Caesar--Commentaries on Gaul

This is just what's on my desk that I can see at the moment. I may add more later.

For the purposes of this particular list, try to narrow it down to the ones that you consider truly indispensable. I want to keep the list manageable - if it helps, understand that I will actually be purchasing everything on the list and keeping it on my shelf.

Feel free to take all the time you need to decide on your "official recommendations," as this will be an ongoing project for the indefinite future.

This is not intended to be a complete reading list - I of course think writers should voraciously read anything they can get their hands on above and beyond this list. Rather, these are the books we're suggesting any one SF/F writer should a) Make SURE he reads if he wants to know what he's talking about and b) keep handy in his/her personal collection. I intend to include only about 5 books per category at the most, so let's keep it to the ones that many people agree are not only worth reading once, but worth keeping on the shelf to refer to repeatedly.

As better suggestions come up I will remove less essential books from the list.

So, hm, easiest way to do it I guess is, feel free to list any books you consider valuable, and I'll let other posters comment if they agree/disagree about the value of each title and use general consensus as a guide to what goes on the official list.

mscelina · Feb 18, 2009

Those are the ones on my desk. ON. my. desk.

*shrug*

That makes them indispensable to me. However, if you're going to complain about additions to the list--or have now decided to add limits that weren't in your original post--then please forgive me for contributing at all.

Just out of curiosity, how are you arbitrarily going to decide which five books are indispenable? What standards are you going to apply? How do you know which is most important? When it comes to a choice between Roman warfare or seventeenth century European tactics, how are you going to figure out which one is indispensable?

For that matter, if you don't read the suggested books personally, how are you going to decide which ones are less essential? What if someone wants a world based on Oriental culture and you've compiled a Euro-centric list?

In other words, an index of world building source materials is a good idea. It would be a great thing to have. However, to try and restrict History or Mythology to just five books as being the 'most essential?' That's ridiculous. It would probably be best to just compile a list and let people look through the suggestions offered than to try and make a short list to cover some of the topic headings you have in the OP.

Have a nice day.

FennelGiraffe · Feb 18, 2009

You're missing a category, Planetary Science. In the interest of avoiding proliferation, it should probably be combined with Astronomy.

These are two books in that area that have been very useful to me. (If I had to choose between them, I'd rate Earth the more valuable of the two.)

Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World by Jonathan Lunine
Atmosphere, Climate, and Change by Graedel and Crutzen

(By the way, I'd like to offer a very strong agreement with Guns, Germs, and Steel.)

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

dclary said:
I don't understand the fascination with worldbuilding anymore. I did when I was twelve, and had about 10 more hours in a day than I knew what to do with. But today? I just write stories, and make the world up as I go.

It really depends on the type of story you're telling. A lot of people enjoy complex and intricate settings, and those types of readers want authors to do the work.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

mscelina said:
Those are the ones on my desk. ON. my. desk.

*shrug*

That makes them indispensable to me. However, if you're going to complain about additions to the list--or have now decided to add limits that weren't in your original post--then please forgive me for contributing at all.

Just out of curiosity, how are you arbitrarily going to decide which five books are indispenable? What standards are you going to apply? How do you know which is most important? When it comes to a choice between Roman warfare or seventeenth century European tactics, how are you going to figure out which one is indispensable?

For that matter, if you don't read the suggested books personally, how are you going to decide which ones are less essential? What if someone wants a world based on Oriental culture and you've compiled a Euro-centric list?

In other words, an index of world building source materials is a good idea. It would be a great thing to have. However, to try and restrict History or Mythology to just five books as being the 'most essential?' That's ridiculous. It would probably be best to just compile a list and let people look through the suggestions offered than to try and make a short list to cover some of the topic headings you have in the OP.

Have a nice day.

Yikes.

Just figuring this out as I go along. I'l cross the "how do I limit it" bridge when I come to it, but I imagine it will be based on other posters' opinions of the suggestions made. For example if I have 5 books in a category and suddenly 3 people are singing the praises of a 6th, I might take off one that is basically the same subject but only one person recommended, or what have you. If I end up needing more than 5, so be it. This isn't a science. We'll just feel it out as we go.

I'm open to suggestions, but not so much to hostility, so let's keep that to a minimum if possible.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

FennelGiraffe said:
You're missing a category, Planetary Science. In the interest of avoiding proliferation, it should probably be combined with Astronomy.

These are two books in that area that have been very useful to me. (If I had to choose between them, I'd rate Earth the more valuable of the two.)
Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World by Jonathan Lunine
Atmosphere, Climate, and Change by Graedel and Crutzen

(By the way, I'd like to offer a very strong agreement with Guns, Germs, and Steel.)

Ok, let's put Earth up there for now, and see if anyone else brings up/seconds the other.

Can you give any more info about Earth and what in particular makes it stand out? For the blurby thingie?

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

Higgins said:
as in? Braudel's book on the mediterranean?

La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II

Looked this up and it looks exactly like the kind of history that is most useful to world-builders, so I am going to put it up there unless/until someone disagrees or we get a lot of better suggestions.

sunandshadow · Feb 18, 2009

When I wrote my essay about how to do worldbuilding
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=263649&reply_id=1647036
the two main books I used were:

Origins of the State and Civilization by Elman R. Service

Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Emile Durkheim

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

Can you give a bit of a sales pitch for one or both of those, just to give us an idea of why they rock?

From the titles they sound great!

sunandshadow · Feb 18, 2009

Hmm. Well they are both really old, yet the information in them is just as true and relevant as it was 50 years ago. Origins of the State is about the hand-in-hand evolution of forms of government and technology. Religious Life is about the role ritual plays in any society and the human instinct to think in terms of magic and myth. Together I think they provide a solid basic framework for a writer to say "I want to create an original culture with technology level X, government type Y, and belief system focusing on Z" and to my mind those are the three central points of any culture, although non-human biology or magical abilities can form a fourth equally crucial point.

sirensix · Feb 18, 2009

Ok, those both sound pretty fundamental/basic, and that reminds me that I need a Government/politics category, so I'm going to put 'em both up there.

On a related note, my "mythology" category on second thought seems a bit specific/earth-based, so I'm just going to make a more general Religion/Mythology category that's a catch-all for the study of spiritual practices, rituals, and beliefs and what they mean to human or humanoid peoples.

FennelGiraffe · Feb 18, 2009

sirensix said:
Ok, let's put Earth up there for now, and see if anyone else brings up/seconds the other.

Can you give any more info about Earth and what in particular makes it stand out? For the blurby thingie?

Comprehensive, but readable, study of Earth, from its formation to the present, cutting across astronomy, chemistry, geology, biology, climatology. Formation of the solar system; comparison of Earth to Mars and Venus; internal structure of Earth; plate tectonics; rocks and minerals; origins of life; evolution of life; what the geography, atmosphere, and biosphere looked like during various eras of Earth's history; interdependence of atmosphere and biosphere.

World Builder's Library

Mediocre Sorceress

Mediocre Sorceress

...

...

Mediocre Sorceress

...

Good thing I like my day job

Mediocre Sorceress

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Mediocre Sorceress

Unabashed Mercenary

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Mediocre Sorceress

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

It's green they say

Mediocre Sorceress

Mediocre Sorceress

Mediocre Sorceress

Mediocre Sorceress

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Mediocre Sorceress

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Mediocre Sorceress

It's green they say