Sunday Book-meme: Genres
Genre fiction book meme (gakked from intertext)
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
I've bolded the ones I've read, put a star beside particular favourites, and put in italics ones I've started but never finished or have only read one of.
1. *The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien Well, duh,
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien Got bored and abandoned it.
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
5. *Robot series, Isaac Asimov For all their "Three Laws" cleverness these stories are as much about Susan Calvin as about the robots. Asimov at the top of his game.
6. Dune, Frank Herbert
7. *Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8. *The Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham Like Intertext, I liked Chocky better (and not just because my copy was a Christmas present from one of my LJ readers[g])
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett Yes, but I've never gone overboard for them like some of my friends.
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman
15. *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams Loved the books but loved the radio series even more.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice .
18. The Shining, Stephen King
19. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny . Read three of them and keep meaning to finish the set. My favourite RZ is Lord of Light though.
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke Found it rather disappointing.
23. *Ringworld, Larry Niven. I liked the sequels as well.
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance
27. *The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson. I really liked the first series though they are over-written, I thought the way the second series was linked to the first via the Staff of Law was very clever, though I didn't much care for Linden Avery. Second series good in parts. Best Donaldson by a mile is the Mordant's Need series, though I keep waiting for someone to make a film of Animal Lover (short from Daughter of Regals)
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber
32. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick. Great film though.
33. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
36. Eon, Greg Bear
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie
40. Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers . I've read one and can't remember which it was. Saw quite a fw on TV though.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Valley Of Fear is best.
44. *Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft. Best horror ever.
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth. Good fun, though the famous method of obtaining a false passport had been done years earlier in Adam Diment's The Great Spy Race
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth
51. Smiley series, John le Carre The first one was OK though the plot wasn't as confusing as I''d been led to expect. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold: now that's a complicated plot.
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Miller
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
58. *Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling. I didn't actually cry during the last one but it was a close thing. And I'm prepared to forgive any number of infelicities from the author of Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow/Turn this stupid fat rat yellow.
59. Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones
60. Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe. Funny-ish. Couldn't read his Porterhouse Blue without thinking of my old Durham college (and college bedder!)
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik .
64. *Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Duh, again.
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer. I like the idea of the high-tech fairies.
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris The first one especially chills the blood more by what he leaves unsaid than by the words on the page.
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
73. It, Stephen King
74. The Rats series, James Herbert
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams Liked the first much more than the second, though Catastrophic Structural Exasperation Syndrome is a great coinage.
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse Read What Ho, Jeeves! Loved the Fry & Laurie TV versions..
77. The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood
80. *The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson Utter genius.
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce. A new word for surreal, and irrestistible.
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton
85. Enigma, Robert Harris
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs
89. The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card
94. *Gormenghast series, Meryvn Peake I did cry when reading Gormenghast, twice. (Fuchsia's death and Flay hearing the Twins' cries but not being able to find them.) Never got into Titus Alone though.
95. Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White . Odd-numbered books great, even-numbered, meh. Lancelot fighting his way out of Guinevere's bedroom is still vivid after more than 30 years.
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson . Who needs computer games?
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison . Hilarious. Moreover, I have a Fighting Fantasy-type book based on these! And Harrison's Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers is simply the funniest SF ever: even better then HHGG.
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters
Some I haven't read stare accusingly at me from the bookshelves.
Ten which were not included but should be:
101. *The Falco series, Lindsey Davis. Best historical detective stories by far, with wonderful detail and characterisation.
102. *Flying Dutch, Tom Holt. A hilarious exploration of the myth of the Flying Dutchman. All his books are great fun though.
103. *The Tarot trilogy, Piers Anthony. Thank heavens for the SF abbreviation: are these fantasy or science fiction? Very clever and unusually for PA, not funny (though there's a caricature of Aleister Crowley in one that had me howling with mirth).
104. *The Brentford trilogy, Robert Rankin. Rankin is a genius in general, but these first efforts are his best.
105. *The Mma Ramotswe stories, Alexander McCall Smith. Laid-back and humorous detective stories written wih real affection. His other (Edinburgh-based) books are great too.
106.*The Restoration trilogy, Neal Stephenson. Best big historical fiction series since Dorothy Dunnett, and just as exciting.
107. *Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson, Probably my favourite SF novel of all time. A writer who can have you on the edge of your seat wih suspense over a pizza delivery: what's not to like?
108. *The Max Curfew novels, John Brunner. Thrillers where the hero is a KGB-trained black man, which makes for some interesting perspectives.
109. *Stand On Zanzibar, John Brunner Cleverly structured dystopia.
110. *The Jerry Cornelius books, Michael Moorcock Indescribable. No, really.
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
I've bolded the ones I've read, put a star beside particular favourites, and put in italics ones I've started but never finished or have only read one of.
1. *The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien Well, duh,
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien Got bored and abandoned it.
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
5. *Robot series, Isaac Asimov For all their "Three Laws" cleverness these stories are as much about Susan Calvin as about the robots. Asimov at the top of his game.
6. Dune, Frank Herbert
7. *Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8. *The Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham Like Intertext, I liked Chocky better (and not just because my copy was a Christmas present from one of my LJ readers[g])
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett Yes, but I've never gone overboard for them like some of my friends.
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman
15. *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams Loved the books but loved the radio series even more.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice .
18. The Shining, Stephen King
19. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny . Read three of them and keep meaning to finish the set. My favourite RZ is Lord of Light though.
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke Found it rather disappointing.
23. *Ringworld, Larry Niven. I liked the sequels as well.
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance
27. *The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson. I really liked the first series though they are over-written, I thought the way the second series was linked to the first via the Staff of Law was very clever, though I didn't much care for Linden Avery. Second series good in parts. Best Donaldson by a mile is the Mordant's Need series, though I keep waiting for someone to make a film of Animal Lover (short from Daughter of Regals)
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber
32. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick. Great film though.
33. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
36. Eon, Greg Bear
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie
40. Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers . I've read one and can't remember which it was. Saw quite a fw on TV though.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Valley Of Fear is best.
44. *Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft. Best horror ever.
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth. Good fun, though the famous method of obtaining a false passport had been done years earlier in Adam Diment's The Great Spy Race
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth
51. Smiley series, John le Carre The first one was OK though the plot wasn't as confusing as I''d been led to expect. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold: now that's a complicated plot.
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Miller
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
58. *Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling. I didn't actually cry during the last one but it was a close thing. And I'm prepared to forgive any number of infelicities from the author of Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow/Turn this stupid fat rat yellow.
59. Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones
60. Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe. Funny-ish. Couldn't read his Porterhouse Blue without thinking of my old Durham college (and college bedder!)
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik .
64. *Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Duh, again.
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer. I like the idea of the high-tech fairies.
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris The first one especially chills the blood more by what he leaves unsaid than by the words on the page.
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
73. It, Stephen King
74. The Rats series, James Herbert
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams Liked the first much more than the second, though Catastrophic Structural Exasperation Syndrome is a great coinage.
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse Read What Ho, Jeeves! Loved the Fry & Laurie TV versions..
77. The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood
80. *The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson Utter genius.
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce. A new word for surreal, and irrestistible.
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton
85. Enigma, Robert Harris
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs
89. The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card
94. *Gormenghast series, Meryvn Peake I did cry when reading Gormenghast, twice. (Fuchsia's death and Flay hearing the Twins' cries but not being able to find them.) Never got into Titus Alone though.
95. Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White . Odd-numbered books great, even-numbered, meh. Lancelot fighting his way out of Guinevere's bedroom is still vivid after more than 30 years.
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson . Who needs computer games?
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison . Hilarious. Moreover, I have a Fighting Fantasy-type book based on these! And Harrison's Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers is simply the funniest SF ever: even better then HHGG.
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters
Some I haven't read stare accusingly at me from the bookshelves.
Ten which were not included but should be:
101. *The Falco series, Lindsey Davis. Best historical detective stories by far, with wonderful detail and characterisation.
102. *Flying Dutch, Tom Holt. A hilarious exploration of the myth of the Flying Dutchman. All his books are great fun though.
103. *The Tarot trilogy, Piers Anthony. Thank heavens for the SF abbreviation: are these fantasy or science fiction? Very clever and unusually for PA, not funny (though there's a caricature of Aleister Crowley in one that had me howling with mirth).
104. *The Brentford trilogy, Robert Rankin. Rankin is a genius in general, but these first efforts are his best.
105. *The Mma Ramotswe stories, Alexander McCall Smith. Laid-back and humorous detective stories written wih real affection. His other (Edinburgh-based) books are great too.
106.*The Restoration trilogy, Neal Stephenson. Best big historical fiction series since Dorothy Dunnett, and just as exciting.
107. *Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson, Probably my favourite SF novel of all time. A writer who can have you on the edge of your seat wih suspense over a pizza delivery: what's not to like?
108. *The Max Curfew novels, John Brunner. Thrillers where the hero is a KGB-trained black man, which makes for some interesting perspectives.
109. *Stand On Zanzibar, John Brunner Cleverly structured dystopia.
110. *The Jerry Cornelius books, Michael Moorcock Indescribable. No, really.