It’s t-shirt Tuesday, the day that makes the fact that it is only Tuesday and still far from Friday feel kind of fun. Today’s t-shirt is sort of an enigma. When my husband wears it almost no one understands what it means. Like a joke, if a t-shirt needs to be explained does that make it lame? In this case I say absolutely not. Curious yet? If so, read on and find out how I link this mysterious t-shirt to books!

This is today’s t-shirt.

pluto-strikes-back

Not sure what it is? Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. It took me a while to understand it, too. It’s actually Pluto plotting to destroy the rest of the solar system using a death star, presumably because he was downgraded from planet to planetary body. (Take a moment to look again. Now, take another moment to laugh.) It’s kind of genius right?

My husband got this t-shirt from a great site called shirt.woot.com. The t-shirt is actually called Pluto Strikes Back – http://shirt.woot.com/offers/pluto-strikes-back 

What’s not to love about this t-shirt? It’s funny. It references scifi. Better yet, it references Star Wars! (Yes, I love Gilmore Girls and Star Wars. They aren’t mutually exclusive, people.) Of course, this t-shirt sent my mind straight to all the great scifi books in the world. There are so many it would be impossible to cover them all in a blog. Here are a few of the favorites of my family, mostly the favorites of my husband, who is a scifi reader and fan.

  • Dune (Series) by Frank Herbert
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
  • The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov 
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  • Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard (Yes, that LRH. The guy who invented Scientology was a scifi writer. Is that really all that surprising?)
  • Mission Earth (Series) by L. Ron Hubbard
  • Neuromancer by William Gibson 
  • Red Mars (and Green Mars and Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Forever War by Joe Haldeman 
  • The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
  • The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester 
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • The Martian by Andy Weir

Great list – but does anyone else think we need more female scifi writers or what?

And, because I can’t help myself, here is a plug for Giving Tuesday (https://www.givingtuesday.org/): Go out a buy a book (or many) and give it to a local school library in need of books or a children’s hospital! Maybe a scifi book, like one of the ones listed here. Or buy a fantasy book like mine (The Travelers), where part of the proceeds will go to a book-related/reading charity. You have lots of options to give on Giving Tuesday. I’m partial to giving anything having to do with books and reading. But, just give! It is Giving Tuesday after all! Let’s embrace the other reason why Tuesday is awesome.