I saw this over at Randy's blog. It's a list from the SFBC and they think these are some significant books. Here's the explaination of the list.
“Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
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
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
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester*
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany 32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling***
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
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
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
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
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
I didn't hate any of the books that I read but most aren't on my list to re-read. I might not like some of the unread ones for various reasons so I'm not planning to read any of them in the future. I thought many of these titles were pretty significant back when I was younger but now I am more interested in a good read. I think a good book is one I will want to keep and re-read. Harry Potter is, for me, eminently re-readable. The Bester books are ones I have been re-reading every few years for the last 30 years. Not on the list but read about as frequent is James Hilton's Lost Horizon. I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings back when the movies were coming out and found the first ok but bogged down in the trilogy. Parts were great and parts were dead boring. Tolkien wasn't a good writer from my POV. Jenny Nimmo is a more entertaining writer, her Charlie Bone books made it to the keep pile, LotR might not. Cordwainer Smith's The Rediscovery of Man is also one I re-read. There is a wonderful collection out from Nesfa Press. They have some great books in their catalog. Besides the Smith short story collection they have his only novel Nostrilia, and there are two big hard covers of Fred Brown's science fiction. His complete novels and short stories. All are worth getting and Nesfa produces a nice well made book. I read the long version of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It should have been edited. I re-read Neuromancer about three years ago and found it to be slow and badly dated.
I finish most books I start. I can remember most of the books I didn't finish. The Stand and The Shinning by King. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. That's the novels. I don't count books that I pick up and read a bit here and there to see what the story is like. Sitting in a bookstore for hours and hours over the last 10 plus years has given me plenty of dippin' time. Saved me from buying many books. There are twenty big Frank Lloyd Wright art books in the attic that I never finsihed reading the text. I did look at all the pictures.
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