Bookshelf Meme

Absorbed from droxy:

Your Bookshelf Rec Meme
These books must be on your bookshelf or recently read.
Droxy added "books lying about, stacked on tables, under desks..."

I'm also going to cheat a bit, and include some series as "one book".
( bookies! )

Omnilingual by H Beam Piper

I'm posting this here because I fear I will forget what I thought of this book and not add it to my reviews site. I still might forget to add it, but still my thoughts will be recorded here.

I was listening to this book (with the help of http://www.librivox.org) over the past few days.
Good classic SF, though dated. A manned expedition to Mars, looking at the ruins of the Martian civilization. Debates and personality conflicts, the central question being, "How can one translate a language so dead that mankind were doing cave paintings when it was last spoken?"
( slightly spoilery niggles )

All that being said, I did like this. I liked the way the characters kept on citing archaeological precedents in their debates, I liked how Our Heroine kept on doggedly working on her word lists despite the derision of her peers. And I liked the resolution in the end, which didn't fall back on the "technology indistinguishable from magic" which other authors might have done. Then again, judging from "Little Fuzzy", Piper is more thoughtful than otherwise with his SF. He seems to like a blend of frontier ruggedness with a touch of thoughtful philosophy.