Dave Switzer's Favourite Activities

Music is very important to me. I play the piano, and I'm a part-time organist at my home church (Kirkton United Church (Kirkton is near St. Marys which is near Stratford)). I sing in the DaCapo Chamber Choir, which is an approximately 20-member group that mostly sings 20th century a cappella pieces. We released our first album entitled Still in 2004.

Card games I like to play include bid euchre, hearts, and trump (also known as screw-your-neighbour).

I watch two current TV shows: Battlestar Galactica and Boston Legal. I also am a fan of all of the Star Trek series as well as Babylon 5, Firefly, and most of The X-Files. Most of the rest that's on TV I consider garbage.

Tennis is a sport which I learned only a few years ago, but I enjoy it very much. I also enjoy volleyball and ping pong. Once in a while I like to bowl, water ski, and climb mountains.

I plan to live to be 120, and by then I should have travelled most of the world (and possibly farther if they start selling seats on the Space Shuttle). So far I've travelled to various parts of Canada and the United States, and I went to Europe a few years ago. In 2000 I went to Egypt and Israel, and in 2001 I went to Trinidad and Tobago. I would also like to go to Africa to see great apes in the wild.

I read a lot, mostly fiction, and of that most is science fiction and fantasy. I have written several short stories and one novel, all science fiction and/or fantasy. I have one other novel started, and yet another one which I am researching. None of my works have been published yet, but we'll see what happens. For the last few years, I've been focused on editing rather than writing. My publishing company is Crystalline Sphere Publishing which publishes the science fiction and fantasy short story magazine Challenging Destiny.

Here are my favourite books, of the ones that I've read in the past few years:

• Science Fiction
  • The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
  • The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
  • Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
  • Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
  • The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  • Golden Fleece and Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer
  • A Door Into Ocean and Brain Plague by Joan Slonczewski
  • Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
• Fantasy
  • The Tales of Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card
  • Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
  • Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
  • Tigana and A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
  • The Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell
  • Nobody's Son by Sean Stewart
• Other
  • Shogun, Gai-Jin, Tai-Pan and Noble House by James Clavell
  • Too Many Blackbirds by Ken Ledbetter
  • Ishmael, The Story of B and My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
  • The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos by Anne Rice
• Memorable Short Stories
  • "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, in Nightfall and Other Stories
  • "Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester, in Virtual Unrealities
  • "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card, in Monkey Sonatas
  • "Tower of Babylon" by Ted Chiang, in Stories of Your Life and Others
  • "Expedition to Earth" (aka "History Lesson") by Arthur C. Clarke, in Expedition to Earth
  • "Mythological Beast" by Stephen R. Donaldson, in Daughter of Regals & Other Tales
  • "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison, in Paingod and Other Delusions
  • "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" by James Alan Gardner, in Gravity Wells
  • "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin, in The Wind's Twelve Quarters
  • "...And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russell, in Major Ingredients

Last modified: August 16, 2007. Return to Dave Switzer's Home on the Web.