How many have you read?

Brady — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:48:52 +0000

You know that silly Facebook meme, the one that lists 100 books that the BBC has allegedly selected as the best evAH, and then goes on to claim that the average reader has only read like 6 of them. It’s fun, but completely bunk.

Well, our friends over at NPR, (who are like the BBC in a non-British way, I guess), recently put out a call for the best SciFi and Fantasy books. Over 5000 people nominated books and series in the comments. (I might have. I thought about it, but then I don’t know if I actually did or not). Then they slimmed the list to the top 237 nominations, specifically excluding books that didn’t make their strict criteria (basically, they excluded horror, paranormal romance, and YA from the list), and asked for votes.

50,000 votes later, and mine was for sure one of them, and they came up with a list of the top 100 SciFi/Fantasy novels (excluding YA. They are running a YA poll next summer. Sorry Harry.)

I don’t propose a meme, although go ahead and play along if you want. I’m just curious to know how many of them I have read. I’ve got the top 13 down, except I have never finished 1984.

Here’s the list. I bolded the ones I’ve read at least one of the series, although in most cases, I’ve read the whole she-bang.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

So there it is. I count 37 of them. That leaves me with a whole lot of reading to do. I recently added #14 Neuromancer to my to-read list, and several of the Neal Stephenson books are there. Looks like we’ve got a lot to draw on for our SpecFic book club too. So far, we have read #32 – Watership Down and #35 – A Canticle for Leibowitz. Some of our other books will likely be on next summer’s YA list.

Good times. How many have you read?

Flip Flop: Winter Holidays Edition

Brady — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:19:00 +0000

I am, by nature, a food flip-flopper. I have many times reversed decisions about whether or not I still like a certain food group or not. I have spent several entire summers not eating corn on the cob, only to (wisely) reverse my stand the next year. I flip-flop almost monthly in my feelings about citrus. On one occasion, I decided that I didn’t like watermelon at all, which in my present state of mind is an absolutely ridiculous stance.

Most recently, I have flip flopped my stance on eggnog. It’s getting to be the end of eggnog season, but I decided on one of my first shopping trips after the New Year that I should get some eggnog. After all, I had insisted that we have eggnog pie at Christmas Dinner (a very popular decision, I might add). Additionally, over Christmas, we twice had eggnog shakes while enjoying such diverse pastimes as reading the Christmas story and playing Dominion. If it had been delicious then, why not now, I reasoned.

How I reasoned wrongly!

I don’t know if it is just the brand that I got at Meijer’s or something else that turned me off. It’s cloyingly sweet and thick, and I just don’t like it. At all.

I have once or twice had some of it straight, but I can’t take very much of it that way, so I’ve taken to cutting it with milk. Unfortunately, this process forces the eggnog to last longer. I’ve had to begin masking it with other things, which as it turns out is a very effective method to increase my eggnog consumption to the point where I don’t feel like I’ve wasted the entire half-gallon.

Some highlights:

1- Eggnog French Toast. Turns out, eggnog and french toast were made for each other. Just swap out the milk for the ‘nog, and you barely have to season.

2- Eggnog Hot Chocolate. I tried this one this morning. Of course, I had to cut it with milk, but chocolate and eggnog seem to compliment each other.

One (extremely) lowlight:

I thought that the general success of the Eggnog Shakes over Christmas was a general indicator that eggnog mixed with any type of ice cream would be heavenly. Not so, my friends, not so. I had some left over ice cream cake from my birthday. It involved red velvet cake and cake mix ice cream, and was not improved at all by being blended with eggnog. In fact, it was the opposite of improvement. Do NOT ever try this. Not ever. Unless you have swallowed some poison and are trying to get it out of your system. I can think of better ways though.

So, now I’m on the outs with eggnog. I still have most of that half-gallon left, and fortunately, it’s just about at its expiration date, so I don’t feel bad about throwing it out now. I wonder if I’ll like it again next eggnog season. Anyone else have a food flip flop for Christmas?

Sometimes, those who wander really are lost » manias

How many have you read?

Flip Flop: Winter Holidays Edition