Reading Lists 3

[brenda_in_sepia]

The Modern Library's readers' poll for the 100 best novels published in the English language since 1900 opened on July 20, 1998 and closed on October 20, 1998, with 217,520 votes cast. Bold the books you've read, italicize the novels you've started but not finished

The Reader's List:

1. ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand <----Seriously??!!
2. THE

Comments

[sillybrit99]

Oh dear god. The only explanation is that the Scientologists stuffed the ballot boxes just so they could claim that Hubbard could actually write. To my shame I've read Battlefield Earth and it is without a doubt one of the worst I've ever read - on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate it 'fucktard'.

The Hunt For Red October isn't really much better, although I liked it at the time - it was the 80s and that's my excuse. I later came to hate the main character, Jack Ryan, who appears in many of Clancy's books, simply because he's such a Mary-Sue it almost puts LKH and her Anita Blake Vampire Humper series to shame. I suspect Clancy used to masturbate frantically while writing Mr Ryan's more heroic scenes.

Starship Troopers was good, but then who wouldn't like Nazis in Spaaaaaace, even if I do pretend the movie doesn't exist. Ender's Game is the only other book I've read on that list and while it was OK, I've never wanted to re-read it plus its sequels were somewhat lacking for my tastes.

There were obviously a bunch of old school sci-fi geeks who voted, but I can't say I'm impressed with their choices. Heinlein's good, but he's not that good - what about Andre Norton, Stephen Donaldson, Larry Niven, Robert Jordan, Poul Anderson, etc, etc, ad nauseum. The less said about LKH, the better.