Apologies for the long gap in posting. I haven't been writing much lately because I've been up to my arse in projects of various kinds, and trying to find some steady clients to support my book addiction and the lifestyle (such as it is) to which I've become accustomed. My house is filthy and many books unread and unmade because I've been teaching and grading. So here's a little filler to tide you over. I'll be back soon, I promise. I owe everyone and their dog a blog entry.
You already know my weakness for book memes, and this one is particularly fun for me because it's about my two favorite genres: SF and mystery. I've been reading both since I was a kid, and though my first love is SF, I read a lot more mysteries now. What I like best is when the two genres elide into each other, like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. It's unfair to lump the best of these into the genre slot because when they're good, they're as good as literary fiction. They are, in fact, literary fiction. I'd put Tolkien, LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, later William Gibson and Iain Banks in that category, along with Elizabeth George, Dorothy Sayers, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett. Some of the thriller writers on this list I can't say the same for, good as they are, though I suspect Le Carre might be that good. I haven't read his books, so I can't say. It's really more about the quality of the writing than about the setting or plot. Good plots are universal, though, and the best SF and mystery/thriller make use of those, while tricking them out with genre conventions.
Okay, enough with the lecture. Here we go:
the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
Bold is for anything I've read in entirety or a substantial proportion (of a series), italic for anything I sampled and then put down, and underlined those things I've never heard of. Italic and underlined for those I've heard of but never read
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
I used to read this trilogy once a year, in the spring. It still makes me happy
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
I
read this when it first came out in the States and fell arse over
teakettle for it, as I'd just discovered fantasy lit then too. I was
about 11.
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Read
it in high school on the bus, still hungry for more Tolkien genius.
Only for the hardcore, but a fascinating pseudo-history. Tolkien's
scholarly background is really in evidence here.
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
This has been on my list for years, and now that it's an ebook, I'll finally get to it. Asimov is not my favorite author of this period, but I've read a lot of his other books.
5. Robot series, Isaac Asimov
As
is often true of Asimov, the ideas are great, the execution, not so
much. His characters are always very flat, even more so than Arthur C.
Clarke's.
6. Dune, Frank Herbert
Read 'em all. Only the first three are worth bothering with though. And the first one is genius.
7. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
Love, love, love this one. I love even more that his characters show up again in The Number of the Beast.
8. Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin
These are absolutely timeless, at least for me. They're among the keepers on my limited shelf space. I'm glad she continued the series, too, but the first three books are marvelous.
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson
I like his later works better, but this is really ground-breaking and worth the read.
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Do I get bonus points for having taught this? Bradbury has a knack for writing social criticism that's also a good read.
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham
Another series like the Earthsea ones that I remember very fondly. Great coming-of-age story.
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe
Anything
Gene Wolfe writes is genius. He has one of the most peculiar and
imaginative minds I've run across in a wildly imaginative genre.
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett
How did I miss
these when they first came out over here. Oh, man. And I'm deeply
saddened that Pratchett's career is coming to an end the way it is.
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman
I could never get into these though I don't know why. Especially since I love comics.
15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I
love these. I've never seen an author take so many disparate and
apparently unconnected elements and tie them all together at the end
and have it work so well.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffery
I read three or four of these and liked them, then lost interest.
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice
Yawn. I've tried several times. It's boring.
18. The Shining, Stephen King
My friends keep telling me to read this, but I find Stephen King impossibly creepy.
19. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin
I've
taught this too. She's one of my favorite writers. I don't think I've
read anything by here that wasn't at least good, if not brilliant, and
I've read almost everything she's written. Like Bradbury, she writes great social criticism wrapped in a good story.
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
I
lost interest in this after 2010, but the first one, and the movie,
were great. Clarke's characters are always a little wooden, but his
ideas are fascinating.
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke.
The Fountains of Paradise is better, and this series went on far longer than it should have.
23. Ringworld, Larry Niven
I read these over and over too. They're so much fun. And the engineering is really cool.
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock
Read these ages ago, but they didn't stick with me. I'm not a big Moorcock fan.
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance
27. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
These
were great when I read them but I'm not sure I'd like them now.
Covenant is a complex character and really more an anti-hero than a
hero. They seemed very sophisticated when I was in high school.
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard
I
still have a lot of affection for these, awful as they are. They
introduced me to the Sword & Sorcery subgenre, which I loved for a
long time, but can't read now because it's so juvenile. And not in a good way.
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber
These too, but they don't hold up well. Howard was a better writer, though his prose is pretty purple. Leiber's is just stilted.
32. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
I'm
going to pronounce blasphemy; cover your ears: Philip K. Dick could not
write his way out of a paper bag. He's terrible. His ideas, though, are
brilliant, and make excellent movies. Read this at your own peril if
you love "Blade Runner," which was based on this book. Ridley Scott took
dross and spun it into gold.
33. The Time machine H. G. Wells
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
Wells is a must-read for anyone serious about SF.
36. Eon, Greg Bear
Not a huge fan of Greg Bear, either.
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie.
Beach reading.
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie
Beach reading.
40. Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers
Some
of the best stories in the genre. Brilliantly written, literate, great
plots, excellent characters. I've wanted to marry Peter Wimsey for
years. If you're any kind of academic, you must read Gaudy Night.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Hammet is great, but not as good as Chandler.
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
Started it, found it dull as ditchwater.
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"I've
read all of them, some of them more than once but I have no idea why,
they are not great literature, they are not even great mystery stories
but there is something about them that I find captivating," said
linda_joyce . I concur.
44. Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James
Dalgliesh is a great character and James' is a great stylist.
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler.
The ur noir mystery writer. Nobody does it better.
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Read it in high school. Yawn. Beach book, like Jaws.
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
Beach book.
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth
Beach book.
51. Smiley series, John le Carre
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman
Genius. Read it if you never read another graphic novel.
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller
This is the Batman, as far as I'm concerned. And the satire of the Reagan era is really juicy and spot-on.
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
Truthfully, this, Maus and Fun Home should not be missed, by anyone. They're autobiography at its most imaginative and poignant.
58. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
These
very quickly joined the "comfort books" that I read again and again
when I don't want a challenge. They're well plotted for the most part,
but somebody needed to rein her in a bit. Even so, it's nice to have 700 pages to curl up with when you read quickly.
59. Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones
60 Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik
Both alternate history and dragon fantasy, they work equally well in both genres. Very good books.
64. Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
These are great if you're a kid and not aware of the preachy Christianity. They're very heavy handed in that way, and annoying if you come to them as an adult.
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman
If
Pullman had just written the story and not been having a vicious
conversation with Lewis, these would have been brilliant. Great
world-building, great characters, great plot, too didactic. Just write
a good story and leave off the message.
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King.
These are the only books of his that I've liked, or been able to finish since It.
73. It, Stephen King
And this is what turned me off of King. Too damn creepy.
74. The Rats series, James Herbert
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams
Okay, but not great. Certainly not as good as the Hitchhiker series.
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse
I think my sense of humor is not British enough to like these.
77. The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Possible
the biggest waste of paper ever. A senseless massacre of trees and
several hours of my life I'll never get back. Not bitter.
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
Some of these are brilliant, some are just incomprehensible. Worth poking around in though.
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood
80. The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Never been able to get into these.
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter
I've never read the books, but I love the TV series.
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman
These are really wonderful and I've read 'em all.
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton
Gosh, I know I've read this, but I can't remember a thing about it.
85. Enigma, Robert Harris
This too. Must mean it's airport reading.
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs
89. The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper
These
are great! Wish I'd read them as a kid, when they would have been even
better. If you're a fan of Arthurian lit, pick these up.
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson
I know of these only by way of reference in Heinlein's Number of the Beast. They were a bit before my time, I think.
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
Couldn't put it down.
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn
Better than most of these are. Zahn's a good writer.
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card
I've gone completely off Card though I used to love his books.
94. Gormenghast series, Meryvn Peake
Dreadful. Even more purple than Howard.
95. Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
One of the books that turned me on to Arthurian Lit. The other was the Merlin Series by Mary Stewart.
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison
They were fun when I read them but haven't held up. Very much a teenage boy series.
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith
Another series I know of only through Heilein's Number of the Beast.
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters
Liked the TV series, but not the books. I don't consider Peters much of a writer.