{"id":467,"date":"2006-11-16T11:47:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-16T11:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/?p=467"},"modified":"2006-11-16T11:47:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-16T11:47:00","slug":"book-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/2006\/11\/16\/book-meme\/","title":{"rendered":"Book meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Frood'sThis is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction\/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.<\/p>\n

Bold = read it.<\/p>\n

Strikethrough = hated it.<\/p>\n

* = loved it<\/p>\n

underline = own it but haven’t read it yet<\/p>\n

! = heard so much about it I feel that I’ve read it.<\/p>\n

Italics = couldn’t finish it.<\/p>\n

To spread the meme copy the list and format accordingly.<\/p>\n

I’ve decided to treat these as commutative. Therefore, if something is strikethrough and has an exclamation mark I will not be reading it ever because I’ve heard enough about it and probably glanced at the first few pages (or read another book in the series), which is sufficient to decide I hate it. J.K. Rowling I dislike on principle.<\/p>\n

Frood<\/a> and I are both in agreement that this is not a very good list. The problem here is that they are being listed as “significant” rather than “good”. Presumably, for instance, Rowling gets a look-in because she has been made Saint Rowling after saving global literacy or some such rot. The Silmarillion is in there because it was written by Tolkien and thus has to be on the list. It has to be. Not too sure what’s significant about Stormbringer<\/i>. They should have gone for the Dancers At The End of Time<\/i> – significant because they show you can get any old rubbish published if you’ve already got an agent.<\/p>\n

Very surprised to see no mention of Octavia Butler. Very surprised. Wild Seed<\/i> is a fantastic work and I’m about to settle down with Fledgling<\/i> after overdosing on later Pratchett (mostly to do with the Watch, because that’s his best stuff).<\/p>\n

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien<\/s>
\n2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov<\/b>
\n3. Dune, Frank Herbert<\/b>*
\n4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
\n5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin<\/b>*
\n6. Neuromancer, William Gibson<\/b>
\n7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
\n8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick<\/b>*
\n9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley<\/s>
\n10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury<\/s>
\n11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
\n12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
\n13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
\n14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
\n15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
\n16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett<\/b>
\n17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
\n18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
\n19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester<\/b>**
\n20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
\n21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey<\/s>
\n22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card<\/u>
\n23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson<\/b>
\n24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
\n25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
\n!26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling<\/s><\/i>!
\n27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams<\/b>*
\n28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
\n29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice<\/s>
\n30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
\n31. Little, Big, John Crowley
\n32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny <\/b>*
\n33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
\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
\n!39. Ringworld, Larry Niven!
\n40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
\n41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien<\/i>
\n42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut<\/b>
\n!43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson<\/b>
\n44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
\n45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester**<\/b> (I read this when it was called “Tiger, Tiger”)
\n!46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein!
\n47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock<\/b>*
\n!48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks<\/s><\/i>!
\n49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
\n50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer<\/p>\n

Snaffled, in case you were wondering, from Estara<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Italics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"yoast_head":"\nBook meme ~ Singularity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/2006\/11\/16\/book-meme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book meme ~ Singularity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction\/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold = read it. 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