{"id":10464,"date":"2007-01-09T19:13:23","date_gmt":"2007-01-10T02:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/01\/09\/booky-meme.html"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:07:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:07:37","slug":"booky_meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/09\/booky_meme.html","title":{"rendered":"Booky Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bold <\/strong>the ones you\u2019ve read, strike-out<\/s> the ones you hated, italicize <\/em>those you started but never finished and put an asterisk (*) beside the ones you loved.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *<\/strong>[Sine qua non]
\n2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov <\/strong>[A bit creaky these days and diluted by endless ill-conceived sequels, but still a seminal work]
\n3. Dune, Frank Herbert <\/strong>[The only one of the series I read; I liked the movies (either of them) better]
\n4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein * <\/strong>[Many re-reads. not my favorite Heinlein, but still an excellent work]
\n5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin<\/strong> [I should reread these some day. I read them post-Tolkien and was disappointed by the significant differences]
\n6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
\n
\n7. Childhood\u2019s End, Arthur C. Clarke <\/strong>[A classic]
\n8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
\n9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley * <\/strong>[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]
\n10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury <\/strong>[I’d choose The Martian Chronicles over this.]
\n11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
\n12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
\n<\/em>13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov * <\/strong>[Still love this book.]
\n14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
\n15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
\n<\/strong>16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
\n
\n17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison <\/em>[Just never got into the New Age SF]
\n18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
\n19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester<\/strong>
\n
\n20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
\n21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey * <\/strong>[Another series exhausted by going back to the well too often. The first two or three, though, are excellent.]
\n22. Ender\u2019s Game, Orson Scott Card
\n23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson<\/strike> <\/em>[If I were trapped on a desert island, I’d rather be bookless than have this with me to read.]
\n24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman * <\/strong>[Excellent book.]
\n25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
\n26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone, J.K. Rowling <\/strong>[Do I get extra credit for reading the edition that has this actual title (vs. the Americanized version)?]
\n27. The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams * <\/strong>[Faboo.]
\n28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson <\/strong>[And I’ve seen both the movie versions.]
\n29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice<\/strike><\/em> [Just never got into A.R.]
\n30. 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”?]
\n31. Little, Big, John Crowley
\n32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny * <\/strong>[Brilliantly imaginative. Not my fave of his, but a great read.]
\n33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick [On my list to read some time.]
\n34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
\n35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
\n36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
\n37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
\n38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke<\/strong> [A solid, but not spectacular, first contact mystery tale.]
\n39. Ringworld, Larry Niven *<\/strong> [A great exemplar of LN’s school of speculative fiction.]
\n40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
\n41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien<\/em> [I do have, however, a first edition.]
\n42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
\n43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
\n44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
\n45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
\n46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein * <\/strong>[It probably says something about me that I find this book as fascinating as #24, even though you’d think they’re diametrically opposed.]<\/font>
\n
\n47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock<\/strong> [Read the series. Never felt a great need to go back to it.]
\n48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks<\/strong> [Read it when it first came out. Um, just read LotR, you’ll sleep better at night.]
\n49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
\n50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer<\/strong> [I enjoyed the first of these, but the series quickly grew stale to me.]<\/font> <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Doyce<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bold the ones you\u2019ve read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk (*) beside the ones you loved. 1. The Lord…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,527,382,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-harry-potter","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-personal-qa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10454,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/11\/booky_meme_of_my_own.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":0},"title":"Booky Meme of My Own","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jan-07 6:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"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...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1436,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/05\/tales_from_the-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":1},"title":"Tales from the Third Age","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Jan-02 9:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1971, I received a boxed set of The Lord of the Rings, a Christmas gift which I believe came from my mom's parents. (I do recall we were there...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135364,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/16\/now-getting-lord-rings-tv-series.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":2},"title":"Why are we now getting a “Lord of the Rings” TV series?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Nov-17 3:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because Christopher Tolkien, at 93, has retired from his role as the (very, very strict) gatekeeper of J R R Tolkien's literary estate. I'm torn on this, because Christopher has been notoriously restrictive of any use of his father's stories, to the point of their being choked off to just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/luthiel-and-beren.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23606,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/10\/sci-fi-for-ya.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":3},"title":"Sci-Fi for YA","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Nov-11 9:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Cool list here from David Brin of SF for Young Adults. Of course, \"YA\" is a broad arena. Where does it start? \u00a0Where does it end? \u00a0Given that I still read some of these, as an adult -- but started reading them in my teens ... where is the boundary?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/hugo-award.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135958,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/03\/20\/lovely-tolkienesque-maps.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":4},"title":"Lovely, Tolkienesque maps","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Mar-18 9:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"This cartographer is doing maps of the UK's national parks in the style of Tolkien' maps in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, etc. He'll also do custom work. A Cartographer Is Mapping All of the UK\u2019s National Parks, J.R.R. Tolkien-Style Yeah, we think parks are pretty magical, too.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tolkienesque-peak-district-map.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128437,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/25\/a-map-of-middle-earth-annotated-by-tolkien.html","url_meta":{"origin":10464,"position":5},"title":"A map of Middle-earth, annotated by Tolkien","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 25-Oct-15 9:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is very cool.(Word has it that Christopher Tolkien will be issuing a trilogy of atlases based on it.) Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered inside copy of Lord of the Rings Map goes on sale in Oxford for \u00a360,000 after being found at Blackwell\u2019s Rare Books inside novel belonging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42644,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10464\/revisions\/42644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}