Sometimes, those who wander really are lost » memes

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?

Brady Needs

Brady — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:55:00 +0000

So, you’ve probably seen this one on Facebook. I found it quite amusing. I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to check it out. I know you probably did anyway.

THE RULES: Go to your favorite search engine and enter your FIRST name and the word NEEDS in quotes (” [Your name] needs”), and see what comes up. List 10 sentences that make sense and then tag some of your friends if you want.

Brady needs professional help understanding the nature of effective moderation in virtual conversational spaces

Brady needs another dimple

Brady needs a GF!!

Brady needs to learn to shut up.

Brady Needs to Return to Salem

Brady needs an Oscar

Brady needs a home

Brady Needs to Be More Original in Karaoke

Brady needs to adjust to field crown

Brady needs air time!

So there you have. Now you know what I need.

Happy Halloween!

Brady — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:07:00 +0000

So, probably not the most timely of posts. I’ve been fighting with my computer, my browser, and Blogger to get these photos uploaded. I have finally vanquished the computer gnomes that prevented this post.

I’ve officially been 29 for 12 days now, but I wanted to post about what I did on my birthday. I had a wonderful time, thanks in great part to some wonderful friends. I took the day off, to take advantage of the quirkiness of Ford’s holiday schedules and work my way into a 5 day weekend.

I had been having a hard time trying to schedule a get-together with friends. The timing was just off. Someone took it on themselves to organize a breakfast at the Northside Grill. I’m still not entirely sure who it was, but I am very grateful to that person or persons. I would have never thought about breakfast. The waitress brought out a brownie cake with candles for both me and Seth who shares my birthday. Brownies at breakfast. Who’da thunk?

The second plan of the day was to go hiking after Friday Forum. I had managed to convince Jonathan that he should come hiking, as it would probably be one of the last great days of the fall. Together we persuaded Amy to join us, and Amy brought Jin.

We drove out to Pinckney Rec, and it was a beautiful day! The leaves were still colorful and mostly still on the trees. The temperature was perfect for hiking! We set out on the Crooked Lake trail, a five mile hike. Amy and Jonathan weren’t on vacation like I was, so they walked part of the trail with me and then went back and did important things, while I did my best to wear out Jin.

Jin and I did fairly well together. I think he didn’t realize that there might be squirrels off trail. He did get a little impatient with me when I stopped to take pictures. Right towards the last half mile of the trail, Jin noticed something off trail. Unfortunately, we were at the top of a steepish hill, and the squirrel or woodland creature or whatever was at the bottom of that hill. It was a fun ride down.

The final part of the day was the Monster Ball. I had been intending to exercise my birthday right to not dress up on Halloween, but it came to me that I should go as Dr. Horrible. I posted the video a few posts back to get a few of my friends up to speed, because i knew many wouldn’t really know who I was.

I think I pulled it off fairly well. For an internet meme that not many people around these parts had heard of, I only had to explain myself a few times. My welding goggles and my freeze ray made it.

One of the events at the Monster Ball was a Mr. and Miss Monster Ball 2008 talent contest. The HSAC had invited a few people to participate, Mike and Brian notably. I was not in the original set of contestants. However, someone didn’t show, and I got asked at the last minute if I could do something so there was an even number of guys and ladies in the contest. Fortunately, I had my iPod in my car with the sound track for Dr. Horrible on it.

I quickly put together a lip sync to the Laundry Day / My Freeze Ray song. I convinced Amy to be the Penny to my Billy. She had seen the show, and knew what was going on. We ran through it once before the show, me listening to the iPod and narrating the actions as we went along. The lip sync went well and got a rousing round of applause.

Somehow, against Mike’s rendition (and real singing) “The Monster King” and Brian’s excellent song about vampires, the crowd gave its approval to my obviously lip-synced song and crowned me Mr. Monster 2008. Still no real idea how that happened.

Kara Stowers, dressed as Kimmy Gibler, was crowned Miss Monster Ball. It was a fantastic way to end the night. Thanks to all who shared a part of their day with me. I couldn’t have picked a better day

Dr. Horrible

Brady — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:09:00 +0000

I’ve raved about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog before, but probably only in real life. If you haven’t see it yet, you absolutely must.

It’s a 45 minute internet show, which you can see on hulu at the above link. Here’s one of my favorite songs from the show:

It’s basically awesome. Anyways, I love the air.

An Alphabet Tag Thing

Brady — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:43:00 +0000

I got tagged. I guess. Whatever that means. Silly internet memes.

A-Attached or Single: Single

B-Best Friend: Pierre, my roomba

C-Cake or Pie: Pie… Apple Pie

D-Day of Choice: Thursday

E-Essential Item: iPod + Nike. I can’t run without it. (And that’s really about all the usage my iPod gets!)

F-Favorite Color: To wear: blue. To look at: red

G-Greatest Accomplishment: Learning to juggle scarves

H-Hometown: Lovell, Wyoming

I-Indulgences: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

J-January or July: July

K-kids: Nope, see M.

L-Life is incomplete without: 3 books in my to-read list

M-Marriage Date: Should I speculate about the future?

N-Number of siblings: 7

O-Oranges or apples: Honeycrisp Apples (But really, it’s a seasonal thing…)

P- Phobias or fears: Falling and Failing

Q-Quotes: Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.
- Christopher Morley

R-Reason to smile: Because it’s all fun and games until someone loses $23 million.

S-Season: Fall (Really, apple season) (and sometimes oregano)

T-Tag 5 friends: You, you, you, you and you. You’re all it.

U-Unknown fact about me: I’m terribly self-conscious about my chipped tooth.

V-Very favorite store: Borders

W-Worst Habit: Blogging / Facebooking at work

X-X-ray or Ultra-sound: I prefer to think of this question as X-ray vision or Ultra-sonic hearing. I choose X-ray vision.

Y-Your favorite food: My favorite food is really sharing what I’ve made with friends. So whatever that is. It’s probably not a casserole. It’s more likely an oven omelet.

Z-Zodiac sign: Scorpio