book meme

[sophinisba]

I have written most of a personal update type post. Maybe I will finish that sometime. Things are going well though!

Also I have started watching Mad Men (all four seasons available on Netflix streaming) and I love it.

Now here is that NPR SF/F book meme! This is a list of Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books as voted on by more than 60,000 people at npr.org. For the meme, strong the ones you've read, emphasis the ones you intend to read, underline the ones you've read part of, and strike the ones you never intend to read. (I'm not really bothering with the strike because I don't have strong feelings about most of the ones I haven't read, but I probably will not read them.)

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien Unlike a lot of you I didn't get to this until I was an adult. I loved the first movie a lot and read just the first book in 2002, not wanting to be spoiled for the other movies. In 2003 I read TTT and then of course had to keep going to the end of RotK, and as soon as I was finished went back and read FotR again. I think I reread the other two the following year. My first real fandom (starting in 2005) and still the source of a lot of love and joy.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams I loved these a lot as a kid!

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card Loved this too, and eventually read most of the sequels and a lot of other books by that guy. Too bad he turned out to be such a jerk!

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert I read and enjoyed the first book a lot, but did not feel like taking on the others.

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin Lots of cool people seem to like this series, but everything else I hear about it gives me an immense feeling of DNW.

6. 1984, by George Orwell I don't really think of this as sf but I've read it more times than anything else on the list. It made a big impression on me as a kid and has probably shaped a lot of my story kinks as well as my political ideas.

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley I think I read most of this. People kept telling me I would like it because I liked 1984.

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore I intended to read this this summer but didn't get to it. I did read some other comics and graphic novels and will try to do more soon.

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood As with 1984, this terrified and fascinated me a whole lot as a pre-teen.

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut - I think I read this? I read several Vonnegut books around the same time a couple years ago. They were similar and I liked them.

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman I read the first couple chapters of the first book earlier this summer before I had to return the copy I was reading. I didn't really like it but I intend to go back so I can keep trying to figure out what everybody's so excited about.

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

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 (It's possible that I read this.)

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 I think there were ten of these (plus some extra stuff) but I only read the first nine because the tenth hadn't come out yet at the time, and then my reading interests changed, or because I was a kid and depending on my older brother to supply books and then he went away to college or something like that. Anyway, I liked them a lot and have always kind of thought I should go back and read the last one, but I think I'd be awfully confused, and I don't feel like taking on all ten.

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings Aw yeah, I loved these!

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley Formative, man!

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien Only the first couple pages. I've always had some guilt about not having read this and pretending I know what's going on in the fandom, but it is so not my kind of thing.

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White I read some chapters of this as a kid.

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

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

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson I think I read several of these books and liked them but didn't complete the series. Again, it was that thing where I was just reading the books that were in my brother's room and not making a lot of effort to acquire other things.

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold - If you would like to try to convince me to read these, I will listen. I don't know much about them other than that it gets written a lot at Yuletide and there are a lot of fans on my f-list.

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

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

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke I read the beginning of this and it looked neat, but gosh it's big. I just finally gave away the book a couple weeks ago because I was moving and it was taking up too much room/weight for something I'd probably never finish.

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne (I can't remember if I read this.)

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

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 I just bought Kushiel's Dart a couple days ago! I think I will try to start reading it today!

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

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

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 My brother had a TON of Michael Moorcock books. I think I read a couple of them.

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

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville I read The City and the City last year and really loved it, so I intend to read more of Miéville's stuff sometime.

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

I've been enjoying reading this meme and reactions to it on other people's journals and I liked Glen Weldon's explanation/commentary. (Glen is part of the NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour so it is is fun to imagine it in his voice - especially the line "Be a dude.") eruthros is starting up a top 100 speculative fiction works as chosen by people in fandom list, now in the nominations stage.

Comments

[netgirl_y2k]

The NPR list gives me all sorts of weird feelings because there are a lot of books on there that I love beyond the telling of it (as well as a couple that I hate with the fire of a thousand suns) but put all together like that it does look rather... white dude-y.

I must stay away from that eruthros post because the list of things I want to read is already way longer than the amount of time I possibly have to read in.

I am about halfway through the Vorkosigan saga and am enjoying it muchly. While I don't think anyone will ever accuse them of being great literature, they are fun, easy reads. They're pretty good on stuff like disability and gender. The protagonist Miles is great fun, and he has the best mother in the universe, Cordelia Vorkosigan, who I wish to be adopted by.

[sophinisba]

Some people are very upset by the white dudiness of the list and I am not, especially, because eh, it was a lot of people voting and their tastes are very different from mine. This often happens.

I think I would like Vorkosigan. Maybe by next summer I will have some money and I will buy an e-reader and not have to worry about collecting and holding onto a lot of books. Are there a lot of them?

[netgirl_y2k]

I think there's a point where you just have to be a bit zen about the white maleness of a lot of things, if only because it's exhausting to live your life in a state of permanent frothing rage.

I think there are fifteen Vorkosigan books, plus a bunch of short stories and novellas. I'm only up to book seven, because I'm reading them very slowly and interspersed with a bunch of other things, but I am enjoying them. Actually, the good thing about them if you do decide to get an e-reader is that they're all available for free online, which saves a wee bit of cash.

[sophinisba]

That is awesome about them being free! Maybe next summer. I'll get back into reading books someday, really I will.

[sally_maria]

If you can handle reading an ebook on the computer, the publishers actually made the Vorkosigan back catalogue available for free download when the latest one was released.

You can download it here. I really like Baen's business method when it comes to ebooks - no DRM and a general understanding that letting people share is good advertising and leads to more sales in the long run.

[sophinisba]

Thank you so much for the tip. I think when I go home at Christmas I'll try to convince my mom to lend me her e-reader and I'll check out the first one then.

[fitz_y]

the mists of avalon was formative, wasn't it? i remember when everyone was reading it, and then when i finally got my hot little pre-teen hands (or early teen, not sure) on it, it was so jarringly good and jarringly sexual. i fell in love with morgaine and her angst so hard. SO HARD. also this book probably explains a lot of the kinks i developed.

and left hand of darkness -- you should read this. one of the most interesting fantasy world takes on gender ever written, really.

[sophinisba]

when i finally got my hot little pre-teen hands (or early teen, not sure) on it, it was so jarringly good and jarringly sexual. i fell in love with morgaine and her angst so hard. SO HARD. also this book probably explains a lot of the kinks i developed.

So much, yeah! I remember taking this and The Color Purple with me to church camp when I was 13. It was great for the fun of reading them but also for the fun of shocking the people who were freaked out by them ("OMG I SAW THAT MOVIE TWO GIRLS KISS!") and bonding with the other people who liked them.

I have been told a lot of times that I would like LeGuin but I finally read the first Earthsea book a few years ago and I really did not care for it at all. :(

[fitz_y]

yes!!! i remember learning about the book from my friends at acting camp! there was so much discussion around Mists of Avalon, so much shock value in it for groups of little pre-teenage and teenage girls. ;-)

that's sad about LeGuin. :( but yeah, if it's not your thing, then it's just not. the Earthsea book i haven't read for a very very long time. a lot of people think they're too "young" or too simple. i did like it when i read it, though. but Left Hand of Darkness man. that blew me away. anyway.

[jain]

I have been told a lot of times that I would like LeGuin but I finally read the first Earthsea book a few years ago and I really did not care for it at all. :(

You might try some of her short stories if you're ever at loose ends. Four Ways to Forgiveness and Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences are both brilliant short story collections, and they're very different from A Wizard of Earthsea. (Also, I suspect that you'd enjoy The Tombs of Atuan, the second Earthsea book, a lot more than the first one. The second book is a girl's coming of age story [Tenar! oh, how I love her!] where the first book is a boy's coming of age story, and it's possibly better suited to your tastes; certainly, it's my favorite of the series.)

[sophinisba]

Thank you thank you, these are good things to know! And it may be that I'd like The Left Hand of Darkness a lot too if I would give it a chance.

[emei]

Mmm, I think I might tag along and do this meme. Boooks! :D

I would've recced you LeGuin too, she's one of my favourite of favourites. I find her sf and her fantasy to be quite different, (and love both) - both The Dispossed and The Left Hand of Darkness are terrific if you like digression into the political/theorectial set-up of a world, and probably very slow if you don't.

Also, I think you might like Karin Boye's Kallocain, which is similiar to 1984 in many ways, except written by a lesbian poet in 1940.

[sophinisba]

Kallocain sounds like it's right up my alley, thanks a lot!