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NPR's Top 100 SFF Books list is out. As usual, it's both interesting, and in no way comprehensive; this kind of thing ends up being something of a literary popularity contest, and some submitters think more critically about their choices than others, and some use different criteria, and just about everyone probably forgot at least one book they'd agree should be on it, but oh well. There's a finalists' list of 237 books I haven't looked at yet.
Also as usual, somebody (telophase in this case) started a meme: Bold if you've read, italicize ones you fully intend to read, underline if it's a series you've read part but not all of. I've also occasionally used underlining for books I started but didn't finish, and commented accordingly.
I nearly private-locked this, since I don't know if anyone else will care about what books here I have and haven't read, but enh, you can scroll on past if you don't care! (Feel free not to care.)
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert [read the first, liked it, stopped there.]
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin [read the first, liked it; picked up the second a year later, realized I would have to reread everything prior to keep track of the cast, and never bothered.]
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury [in school, no less.]
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov [vaguely interested in reading, but not so much as to seek it out.]
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley [again, in school.]
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan [fully intend to finish, when I get around to reading the Sanderson ones.]
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore [bored and annoyed by the narration and half the characters; never finished it.]
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss [maybe? I've heard good things.]
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut [again, in school.]
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley [I don't know if I'll enjoy or finish it, but it seems a thing to try sometime.]
22. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick [I want to read some Philip K. Dick, whether or not it's this one.]
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood [not in school, but because of it; we watched the movie minus the rape scene and read the very end of the book after we read Brave New World. Later, I sought out the book to read the whole thing.]
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
26. The Stand, by Stephen King
27. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson [enjoyed the beginning, progressively disliked the middle, gave up and metaphorically threw it across the room during the Big Ending Climax on the grounds of its getting everything about mythology and human societies and library research WRONG WRONG WRONG.]
28. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury [in school, but I want to reread it sometime.]
29. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams [multiple times. I love this one.]
32. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings [it was okay. I was too old to find it formative.]
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley [most Arthuriana loses me when it turns into soap opera and love triangles. I liked the feminist retellings, although I think even in junior high I recognized that the history was dubious.]
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson [might read it -- it seems potentially interesting.]
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven [despite the father of a kid I babysat lending it to me. I should give it a try.]
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman [Interesting world and concept, boring main character, seams showed too much where it had been brought from a visual medium into a book form; everything had to be onscreen or said aloud. Kind of fun, but there are better Gaiman books, I think.]
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett [not actually my favorite Discworld book, but there's no such thing as a bad Discworld, and this one does have the advantage of being a standalone.]
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson [from descriptions, I strongly suspect I'd hate this and give up on it two chapters in.]
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett [see above re: Small Gods.]
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy [read The Crossing, in school, and liked it okay. So maybe.]
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist [I read a bunch of them, but this is a looong series.]
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks [I got about a third of the way through one book once...? This is not a book you can read after you've read Tolkien.]
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard [I don't actually plan to read all of these, but I feel it'd be entertaining to read one sometime, in the same way I enjoyed reading (and headdesking at) Tarzan of the Apes.]
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger [didn't hate it, didn't bother to finish it.]
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore [Read many, loved many, HAHAHA WHY IS THIS ON HERE. I read and loved them at age 12, because I am a sucker for stoic angsty swordsmen and didn't mind the leaden prose and cardboard cut-out characters, but really?]
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey [tried the first one; bounced off hard.]
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire [tried it; found that the Oz books were way too formative for me to enjoy this version. It might be different if I liked the changes he made, or if I'd cared about any of the characters we meet in the first several chapters, but I didn't.]
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart [not all the sequels. Again, I love Arthuriana until it turns to doomed love triangles.]
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock [own it; should really read it or sell it]
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis [I should try more Connie Willis sometime. I read and hated Bellwether, and it's put me off her other stuff to an extent that may or may not be fair.]
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville [I want to read some Mieville, but I'd start with Un Lun Dun or Embassytown, I think.]
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony [...oh, come on, SERIOUSLY? I loved these for a while as a pre-teen, because everyone has bad judgment when they're young, but really now.]
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
This entry is also posted at http://genarti.dreamwidth.org/5846.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, whichever you like.
comments at DW.
Also as usual, somebody (telophase in this case) started a meme: Bold if you've read, italicize ones you fully intend to read, underline if it's a series you've read part but not all of. I've also occasionally used underlining for books I started but didn't finish, and commented accordingly.
I nearly private-locked this, since I don't know if anyone else will care about what books here I have and haven't read, but enh, you can scroll on past if you don't care! (Feel free not to care.)
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert [read the first, liked it, stopped there.]
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin [read the first, liked it; picked up the second a year later, realized I would have to reread everything prior to keep track of the cast, and never bothered.]
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury [in school, no less.]
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov [vaguely interested in reading, but not so much as to seek it out.]
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley [again, in school.]
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan [fully intend to finish, when I get around to reading the Sanderson ones.]
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore [bored and annoyed by the narration and half the characters; never finished it.]
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss [maybe? I've heard good things.]
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut [again, in school.]
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley [I don't know if I'll enjoy or finish it, but it seems a thing to try sometime.]
22. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick [I want to read some Philip K. Dick, whether or not it's this one.]
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood [not in school, but because of it; we watched the movie minus the rape scene and read the very end of the book after we read Brave New World. Later, I sought out the book to read the whole thing.]
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
26. The Stand, by Stephen King
27. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson [enjoyed the beginning, progressively disliked the middle, gave up and metaphorically threw it across the room during the Big Ending Climax on the grounds of its getting everything about mythology and human societies and library research WRONG WRONG WRONG.]
28. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury [in school, but I want to reread it sometime.]
29. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams [multiple times. I love this one.]
32. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings [it was okay. I was too old to find it formative.]
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley [most Arthuriana loses me when it turns into soap opera and love triangles. I liked the feminist retellings, although I think even in junior high I recognized that the history was dubious.]
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson [might read it -- it seems potentially interesting.]
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven [despite the father of a kid I babysat lending it to me. I should give it a try.]
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman [Interesting world and concept, boring main character, seams showed too much where it had been brought from a visual medium into a book form; everything had to be onscreen or said aloud. Kind of fun, but there are better Gaiman books, I think.]
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett [not actually my favorite Discworld book, but there's no such thing as a bad Discworld, and this one does have the advantage of being a standalone.]
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson [from descriptions, I strongly suspect I'd hate this and give up on it two chapters in.]
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett [see above re: Small Gods.]
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy [read The Crossing, in school, and liked it okay. So maybe.]
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist [I read a bunch of them, but this is a looong series.]
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks [I got about a third of the way through one book once...? This is not a book you can read after you've read Tolkien.]
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard [I don't actually plan to read all of these, but I feel it'd be entertaining to read one sometime, in the same way I enjoyed reading (and headdesking at) Tarzan of the Apes.]
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger [didn't hate it, didn't bother to finish it.]
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore [Read many, loved many, HAHAHA WHY IS THIS ON HERE. I read and loved them at age 12, because I am a sucker for stoic angsty swordsmen and didn't mind the leaden prose and cardboard cut-out characters, but really?]
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey [tried the first one; bounced off hard.]
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire [tried it; found that the Oz books were way too formative for me to enjoy this version. It might be different if I liked the changes he made, or if I'd cared about any of the characters we meet in the first several chapters, but I didn't.]
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart [not all the sequels. Again, I love Arthuriana until it turns to doomed love triangles.]
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock [own it; should really read it or sell it]
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis [I should try more Connie Willis sometime. I read and hated Bellwether, and it's put me off her other stuff to an extent that may or may not be fair.]
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville [I want to read some Mieville, but I'd start with Un Lun Dun or Embassytown, I think.]
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony [...oh, come on, SERIOUSLY? I loved these for a while as a pre-teen, because everyone has bad judgment when they're young, but really now.]
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
This entry is also posted at http://genarti.dreamwidth.org/5846.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, whichever you like.
comments at DW.