Pressuring my peers

[sqbr]

I normally can't be bothered with this sort of meme, but I seem to have beat much of my friends list (though not by as much as I thought I had, since I can't count) and feel like gloating :) This has nothing to do with reading all the Hugos, no no, I'm just well read(*). This particular iteration stolen from oliverm (minus double equals signs, this isn't Pascal or whatever).

Bold = read

(Bold + strikethrough = read and disliked, but I liked all the ones I finished)

Italics = started but never finished

* = liked, ** = really liked

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
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
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny*
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon*
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith (I think. Is this the book of short stories?)
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

(*)Actually, I must be, since the only one of these I read because of the Hugo thing was "Stand on Zanzibar". I surprise even myself sometimes.

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I am pleased to see another fan of the Book of the New Sun.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

There have been a few such on my flist - I'm only periphally aware of it. Recommended, I take it? Why so?

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

A lot of reasons. Mostly because its a big, complex thing that you gradually unpack and see more layers of as you read it/every time you read it. And the core ideas at its heart are challenging and audacious - the Christ as torturer central theme, for example. And because lots of the little details are wonderful - the unreliable narrator, the use of all sorts of lovely archaic language often in subtly misleading ways, all sorts of great images.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Cheers. I'll chase it up.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Just be aware that reading it is best approached as a serious undertaking.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

*girds loins*

Check.

[alias_sqbr]

Thank ataxi, who recomended it to me in a "You Will Read This" kind of way :)

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

The Book of the New Sun was the first time I ever read anything that was both decidedly inside the sf&f genre, and decidedly pursued its literary aims over its genre aims. I still can't think of much sf that does this - it either cops itself out of genre by claiming status as parable, allegory or magic realism (Margaret Atwood etc.) or it's literary, but not more than it is genre (Miéville). I only sort of know what I mean here, but the main bit of it is: Gene Wolfe is God, or at least an important part of God.

[alias_sqbr]

Actually it did kind of remind me of reading some of the more interesting bits of the bible :) (That whole dense with myth and history thing)

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I invented that iteration! The ** concept is all mine! And I put the stupid "=="s in ... to me they represent the triple bar equals / defined-as ;-)

[alias_sqbr]

I bow to your meme adapting abilities. (Also, it is very hard to type while a "you are on hold" message goes in one ear, my work walky in the other and announcements in the background)