Book meme!
Aug. 15th, 2011 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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runpunkrun: "NPR released a list of their Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels or Comic Books also Tie-In Novels or Historical Fiction That We Accidentally Thought Was Fantasy"
And I could go for a meme. So bold the ones you've read, italicise the ones you intend to read, underline the ones you've read part of, andstrike the ones you never intend to read.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. A Christmas present when I was about... 11? I'd already read The Hobbit anyway, and I read fast enough that I got past the Tom Bombadil snorefest nice and quick and without giving up like lots of people seem to (I keep telling a guy at work he should just skip that chapter, but he can't get past it). It was my favourite book for a while, and I still admire Tolkien's creative obsessiveness.
2. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. I have read this, but I actually prefer the radio series to the books. I heard that first, you see - another extremely well-chosen Christmas present from my parents. I have the whole lot on CD now, up to the recent ones, though I haven't yet made it past my old favourites of the original 70s series.
3.Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. I probably would have read this, but hanging around the interwebz has allowed me to pick up by osmosis that Mr Card is a total dick, so I now avoid his books. It can be a sad thing sometimes, knowing too much about creative types...
4. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert. I read part of the first one and didn't much enjoy it, though it was long enough ago that I can't quite remember why. I think I didn't like Paul Atreides much or something.
5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series, George R.R. Martin. A series I intend to read as long as Mr Martin contrives to finish the thing before popping his clogs. I will not start something I know is going to be a frustrating WIP - it's bad enough in fanfic.
6.1984, George Orwell. I'm not a big fan of dystopias, and I generally don't like to read stuff that is probably going to leave me depressed.
7.Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. I've read some of his short stories and enjoyed them, and I might give this a shot except for the fact that the temperature is completely made up and this annoys me as a scientist! (I am an irrational scientist, okay?)
8. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov. Again, I've only read some short stories, but my dad had various Asimov and Niven books around and I think I'd like to give them a shot one day.
9.Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. Never really appealed.
10. American Gods, Neil Gaiman. Read it, enjoyed it, like other Neil Gaiman more.
11. The Princess Bride, William Goldman. Loved the commentary where he skips the boring satirical bits! And the framing of it being a story book he had to hunt down for his completely disinterested son, and the rather gorgeous fold-out map there was in my paperback.
12.The Wheel of Time Series, Robert Jordan. Not going to read due to being warned off by one of my friends having a very funny rant about all the frustrations of trying to read this. I'm fairly sure the books aren't as entertaining as the rant.
13. Animal Farm, George Orwell. It was school text, and I did enjoy it even though it made me very upset.
14. Neuromancer, William Gibson. I've a vague feeling I did actually start this once, but I can't really remember, so I should probably give it a go just to find out for sure.
15.Watchmen, Alan Moore. What have I heard about this? Oh yes - violent, misogynist, brutal. Think I'll pass.
16. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov. See above comment re Asimov.
17. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. Think I mainly read this because my dad had it and the cover was intriguing. As a preadolescent/teenager, it was entertaining enough, as an adult the sexual politics and sexism drive me batty even just remembering bits and I wouldn't read it again. (And Space Family Stone was more fun anyway.)
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss. I've never heard of this. Should I have?
19. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut. I've never read Vonnegut, but again he is an author I think I probably should and I've only really heard good things about his books.
20.Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. I think I'm just not that interested in this.
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood. And this is the author who says she doens't write sci-fi. Margaret, who exactly do you think you are kidding?
23.The Dark Tower Series, Stephen King
24.2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
25.The Stand, Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. I don't know anything about this.
27. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, Neil Gaiman. I might try this one day, but I don't really like reading graphic novels.
30.A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess. So not interested.
31.Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein. I steer clear of Mr Heinlein these days, though the film is bloody funny.
32.Watership Down, Richard Adams. Not even if you paid me. I will not read a tragedy with rabbits.
33. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey. Not interesting enough to read any other of the series, and I've heard too much now about the squicky non-con/dubcon whatever and homophobia to go back.
34.The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein. See above, re Heinlein. I can't believe he's on this list so much.
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller.
36. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keys. Read it at school. Hated it with a passion.
39. The War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, Roger Zelazny. I've read one book by Zelazny (A Night in the Lonesome October) and it was awesome.
41.The Belgariad, David Eddings. I've read all the Elenium and Malloreon or whatever they were called, that was quite enough Eddings for me.
42.The Mists Of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have a feeling I would not like her take on Arthurian legend very much.
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson. ?
44. Ringworld, Larry Niven. Mainly because I read The Flight of the Horse as a child and have very fond memories of it.
45.The Left Hand Of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin. I adore the Earthsea Trilogy (I don't like the 4th one) but the sci-fi of LeGuin's that I've read I found very heavy-handed and, frankly, a little boring.
46. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. I think I got 30 pages or so in? And then all the proper names overwhelmed me and I lost track of what was happening and who it was happening to.
47. The Once And Future King, T.H. White. Though it probably won't make me laugh as much as The Sword in the Stone.
48. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. Very enjoyable, the moreso for being able to picture Patterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas.
49. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons. Never heard of it.
52. Stardust, Neil Gaiman. It may be heresy, but I enjoyed the film more. I missed the chorus of ghosts and the crossdressing pirate in the book, and I liked the film's ending way better.
53. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
54.World War Z, Max Brooks. This has zombies, right? I don't do zombies.
55. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle. I think I've heard good things about this.
56. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett. Yay, PTerry.
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson. Thomas Covenant can fuck right off and die in a fire. I read one or two chapters and hated it.
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold. Why isn't Cryoburn in the UK shops yet? Why?
60. Going Postal, Terry Pratchett. Not my favourite by a long way as I don't much like Moist. Where's Night Watch?
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62.The Sword Of Truth, Terry Goodkind
63.The Road, Cormac McCarthy. No way in hell will I read this.
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Okay, I get that it is amazingly written and in-period, but I just didn't find it that interesting.
65.I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, Raymond E. Feist. Well, I read up until The King's Buccaneer before I lost interest and they started being computer game tie-ins. And I think the original version of Magician was better than the revised one.
67.The Shannara Trilogy, Terry Brooks. Shoddy Tolkien rip-off.
68.The Conan The Barbarian Series, R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, Robin Hobb. I really enjoyed that trilogy. Couldn't stand any of the characters in the Liveships Trilogy though, and by God did the ending of the Fool Trilogy piss me off. (And the fact that Fitz never seemed to learn from his mistakes.)
70.The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger. Look, if I want timey-wimeyness, I'll watch Doctor Who. I've seen relationships that are out of order already, and I just don't find the idea of this book to be interesting at all.
71. The Way Of Kings, Brandon Sanderson. ??
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, R.A. Salvatore. This is in the Top 100? Seriously? Look, I had a crush on Drizzt when I was ten, but these are hardly brilliant books.
74. Old Man's War, John Scalzi. I'm vaguely intrigued by Scalzi.
75. The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
77.The Kushiel's Legacy Series, Jacqueline Carey. Something put me off these - a bad review?
78.The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin. See above re LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
81.The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, Steven Erikson. I've tried some other Erikson and didn't like it.
82. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde. I loved this whole series, up until I got First Among Sequels which I can't get into for some reason. The Nursery Crimes books are very funny though.
83. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, Timothy Zahn. Probably the best Star Wars novels I read, and at one point I owned 25 of the things. Thrawn was very cool - I kind of wanted him to win.
89. The Outlander Series, Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, Robin McKinley. I am a big McKinley fan (8 of her books on my shelves right now) and I enjoyed this a lot. But it felt oddly like the first half of a story, rather than one in itself because there were so many loose ends.
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, Piers Anthony. Is that the one with all the puns? I'm sure I've read at least one of them.
100. The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis
Why no John Wyndham, list? You had enough HG Wells and Ray Bradbury in there.
runpunkrun: "NPR released a list of their Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels or Comic Books also Tie-In Novels or Historical Fiction That We Accidentally Thought Was Fantasy"And I could go for a meme. So bold the ones you've read, italicise the ones you intend to read, underline the ones you've read part of, and
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. A Christmas present when I was about... 11? I'd already read The Hobbit anyway, and I read fast enough that I got past the Tom Bombadil snorefest nice and quick and without giving up like lots of people seem to (I keep telling a guy at work he should just skip that chapter, but he can't get past it). It was my favourite book for a while, and I still admire Tolkien's creative obsessiveness.
2. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. I have read this, but I actually prefer the radio series to the books. I heard that first, you see - another extremely well-chosen Christmas present from my parents. I have the whole lot on CD now, up to the recent ones, though I haven't yet made it past my old favourites of the original 70s series.
3.
4. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert. I read part of the first one and didn't much enjoy it, though it was long enough ago that I can't quite remember why. I think I didn't like Paul Atreides much or something.
5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series, George R.R. Martin. A series I intend to read as long as Mr Martin contrives to finish the thing before popping his clogs. I will not start something I know is going to be a frustrating WIP - it's bad enough in fanfic.
6.
7.
8. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov. Again, I've only read some short stories, but my dad had various Asimov and Niven books around and I think I'd like to give them a shot one day.
9.
10. American Gods, Neil Gaiman. Read it, enjoyed it, like other Neil Gaiman more.
11. The Princess Bride, William Goldman. Loved the commentary where he skips the boring satirical bits! And the framing of it being a story book he had to hunt down for his completely disinterested son, and the rather gorgeous fold-out map there was in my paperback.
12.
13. Animal Farm, George Orwell. It was school text, and I did enjoy it even though it made me very upset.
14. Neuromancer, William Gibson. I've a vague feeling I did actually start this once, but I can't really remember, so I should probably give it a go just to find out for sure.
15.
16. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov. See above comment re Asimov.
17. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. Think I mainly read this because my dad had it and the cover was intriguing. As a preadolescent/teenager, it was entertaining enough, as an adult the sexual politics and sexism drive me batty even just remembering bits and I wouldn't read it again. (And Space Family Stone was more fun anyway.)
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss. I've never heard of this. Should I have?
19. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut. I've never read Vonnegut, but again he is an author I think I probably should and I've only really heard good things about his books.
20.
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood. And this is the author who says she doens't write sci-fi. Margaret, who exactly do you think you are kidding?
23.
24.
25.
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. I don't know anything about this.
27. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, Neil Gaiman. I might try this one day, but I don't really like reading graphic novels.
30.
31.
32.
33. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey. Not interesting enough to read any other of the series, and I've heard too much now about the squicky non-con/dubcon whatever and homophobia to go back.
34.
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller.
36. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keys. Read it at school. Hated it with a passion.
39. The War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, Roger Zelazny. I've read one book by Zelazny (A Night in the Lonesome October) and it was awesome.
41.
42.
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson. ?
44. Ringworld, Larry Niven. Mainly because I read The Flight of the Horse as a child and have very fond memories of it.
45.
46. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien. I think I got 30 pages or so in? And then all the proper names overwhelmed me and I lost track of what was happening and who it was happening to.
47. The Once And Future King, T.H. White. Though it probably won't make me laugh as much as The Sword in the Stone.
48. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. Very enjoyable, the moreso for being able to picture Patterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas.
49. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons. Never heard of it.
52. Stardust, Neil Gaiman. It may be heresy, but I enjoyed the film more. I missed the chorus of ghosts and the crossdressing pirate in the book, and I liked the film's ending way better.
53. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
54.
55. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle. I think I've heard good things about this.
56. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett. Yay, PTerry.
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson. Thomas Covenant can fuck right off and die in a fire. I read one or two chapters and hated it.
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold. Why isn't Cryoburn in the UK shops yet? Why?
60. Going Postal, Terry Pratchett. Not my favourite by a long way as I don't much like Moist. Where's Night Watch?
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62.
63.
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Okay, I get that it is amazingly written and in-period, but I just didn't find it that interesting.
65.
66. The Riftwar Saga, Raymond E. Feist. Well, I read up until The King's Buccaneer before I lost interest and they started being computer game tie-ins. And I think the original version of Magician was better than the revised one.
67.
68.
69. The Farseer Trilogy, Robin Hobb. I really enjoyed that trilogy. Couldn't stand any of the characters in the Liveships Trilogy though, and by God did the ending of the Fool Trilogy piss me off. (And the fact that Fitz never seemed to learn from his mistakes.)
70.
71. The Way Of Kings, Brandon Sanderson. ??
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, R.A. Salvatore. This is in the Top 100? Seriously? Look, I had a crush on Drizzt when I was ten, but these are hardly brilliant books.
74. Old Man's War, John Scalzi. I'm vaguely intrigued by Scalzi.
75. The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
77.
78.
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
81.
82. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde. I loved this whole series, up until I got First Among Sequels which I can't get into for some reason. The Nursery Crimes books are very funny though.
83. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, Timothy Zahn. Probably the best Star Wars novels I read, and at one point I owned 25 of the things. Thrawn was very cool - I kind of wanted him to win.
89. The Outlander Series, Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, Robin McKinley. I am a big McKinley fan (8 of her books on my shelves right now) and I enjoyed this a lot. But it felt oddly like the first half of a story, rather than one in itself because there were so many loose ends.
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, Piers Anthony. Is that the one with all the puns? I'm sure I've read at least one of them.
100. The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis
Why no John Wyndham, list? You had enough HG Wells and Ray Bradbury in there.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 09:06 pm (UTC)Hahaha, yes! I'd already read it by the time I heard that, but it would totally have put me off. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-17 06:11 pm (UTC)I would like to try a Bradbury novel at some point though - I remember his short stories as being pretty cool, either creepy or intriguing or both.