Bold the ones you’ve read,
strike-outthe ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk (*) beside the ones you loved.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *[Sine qua non]
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov [A bit creaky these days and diluted by endless ill-conceived sequels, but still a seminal work]
3. Dune, Frank Herbert [The only one of the series I read; I liked the movies (either of them) better]
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein * [Many re-reads. not my favorite Heinlein, but still an excellent work]
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin [I should reread these some day. I read them post-Tolkien and was disappointed by the significant differences]
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke [A classic]
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley * [I was smitten by this book — which was ruined for me when I had to rush through the last five pages as a plane was landing from a business trip and people were waiting for me at the gate]
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury [I’d choose The Martian Chronicles over this.]
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov * [Still love this book.]
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison [Just never got into the New Age SF]
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey * [Another series exhausted by going back to the well too often. The first two or three, though, are excellent.]
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson [If I were trapped on a desert island, I’d rather be bookless than have this with me to read.]
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman * [Excellent book.]
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling [Do I get extra credit for reading the edition that has this actual title (vs. the Americanized version)?]
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams * [Faboo.]
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson [And I’ve seen both the movie versions.]
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice [Just never got into A.R.]
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin [Do I get any credit for having read “Catwings” and “Lathe of Heaven” and “Rocannon’s World”?]
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny * [Brilliantly imaginative. Not my fave of his, but a great read.]
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick [On my list to read some time.]
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke [A solid, but not spectacular, first contact mystery tale.]
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven * [A great exemplar of LN’s school of speculative fiction.]
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien [I do have, however, a first edition.]
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein * [It probably says something about me that I find this book as fascinating as #24, even though you’d think they’re diametrically opposed.]
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock [Read the series. Never felt a great need to go back to it.]
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks [Read it when it first came out. Um, just read LotR, you’ll sleep better at night.]
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer [I enjoyed the first of these, but the series quickly grew stale to me.]
Allow me to express my dissatisfaction at a list like this with nothing by Norton or L’Engle — or R. Adams or Howard or Leiber or Orwell or Huxley.
(via Doyce)
Hated Donaldson that much, eh?
I loaned Lord Foul’s Bane to a friend years ago, and she said she threw it across the room a hundred pages in. I can’t really say that I blamed her, even though I’ve devoured everything Donaldson wrote (lest it devour me first).
I find his books fascinating and troubling in equal measure. They’re intricate ethical dilemmas and logic puzzles that only seem to be solved by doing the wrong thing over and over again at every turn. There’s one book of his that I’ll never read again, and he’s the only one of my essential authors that I never recommend to others.
I don’t want people to throw his books at me!
Must be a Canadian thing. 🙂
I’m with Dave on the Donaldson. Only once have I chucked a book across a room in disgust…
Interesting how closely our tastes match. I tried to wade through I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, but I guess I just want more sciency fiction. I would have thought for sure you’d have read Dick, though. And I won’t read Adams. :p
I was also surprised you didn’t mark LotR as a favorite. The guy who drew a map of Middle-earth to pin up over his bed didn’t even finish his much-prized first edition of The Silmarillion? I’m shocked!
Most of the series are good for 2-3 titles. Very few hold up after that. (Remember Gor?)
Speaking of which, Read Ender’s Game. I read Speaker for the Dead, but not any subsequent books, so I won’t recommend any but the first one.
As for missing authors, what about William Tenn??? And Harry Harrison’s The Stainless Steel Rat? (Have you replaced the beat-up paperback of the first three Rat books I gave you lo, those many years ago?)
Not marking LotR as a fave was an error. I’ve corrected it.
I remember Gor. Just as well that series wasn’t listed 🙂 But, yes, few series hold up past the first 2 or 3 books (after which the author is either out of ideas, has gotten bored, or has grown so popular s/he can eschew an editor). There are some exceptions, but …
Of course, I remember back in the old days (when novels were on clay tablets) when books weren’t written as part of a series — indeed, a “common background” for a series of novels and stories was a novelty. Now everything’s written for at least a trilogy and as often an unending series, because that’s what readers like (and I’ll admit to being one of them).
Orson Scott Card reprocessed and repackaged the Ender story far too many times. He wrote two other books in the main series after Speaker for the Dead, and then started re-writing Ender’s Game from the perspective of supporting characters (Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, etc.)
I should just break down and read LoTR. Really.
I responded in blog.
Booky Meme Redux
The same as the Booky Meme, but with a list from Kate (via Doyce): Bold the ones you’ve read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never…
Booky Meme of My Own
It’s the meme that’s sweeping the circle of blogs I read! And write. Anyway, here are “51 (I like being odd) of my favorites” (as Kate put it) … feel…