The Book List--F/SF this time

[mamculuna]

The way to do this:  Bold the ones you've read, asterisk the ones you've loved, strike the ones you've hated, italicize the ones you couldn't get through. However, I'm following royalbananafish's lead and bolding the ones I've read, with comments.

Doing this made me sad to be so poorly read, but really happy to have so many good things ahead of me. And I started reading SF in the 50's...how come I'm so illiterate?

Also, this is an odd list. Why no Kim Stanley Robinson, for just one off the top of my head?

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
3. Dune by Frank Herbert (I liked this one, esp. on first reading, but the others go downhill, IMO)
4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (and the others in the series, as well as just about all her books)
6. Neuromancer by William Gibson
7. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (and the whole series,  Short Sun and Long Sun)
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom by Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight by James Blish (want to read this one)
16. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany  
21. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (the first three, I think)
22. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (and about four more)
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway by Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the ... I've read them all.
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (but none of the others, don't know why)
28. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (again, downhill after the first one)
30. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big by John Crowley
32. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
35. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach by Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld by Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (some of it)
42. Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (no, but did read Stranger in a Strange Land)
47. Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
49. Timescape by Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

Comments

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Most of the list I've read. I will never read the Terry Brooks -- it is a rip of Lord of the Rings and not worthy. I got through 75 pages before I threw it at a wall.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I think I may have glanced at it and had that same take. But some of the others I haven't read I know are really good.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. The Stars My Destination is great -- I loved almost all of Alfred Bester's books.

I read More than Human for the first time when I was 15. There was a copy in the school newspaper office, and as the resident sf geek I inherited it. When Ted signed it he said a signed second edition was worth about $35.00 -- and that was in 1979.