Several days ago, Bogie posted Vote For Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles : NPR. As would any doting mother (notice that it is not spelled with a "u" and there is an "r" at the end) would have done, I followed Bogie's link and voted for my favorites.
The results have been posted by Ole Phat Stu as a meme. I'll join the fun and invite you to join.
To follow the NPR (US National Public Radio) meme, copy this list, putting in Bold those you have read. Link your list in Dana's comments.
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
I did not complete Stu's instruction to link the list with Dana's comments - no need to attract readers to my blog who think I'm a big sci-fi fan. My sci-fi "stage" is a thing of the past - and - I was never into fantasy. Probably none of my favorites had been published within the past 40-50 years! Stu had read 75, I've read 49.
Note: I put in bold only the books that I recall reading. As I am one who can happily re-read the same book every two years (because I've forgotten it in the meantime), who knows how many I missed? Who cares? Not I!
I read a lot of SF as a teenager in the 50's. Then in the 80's I took a college course in Fantasy and SF and read a lot of feminist SF by Joanna Russ and Vonda MacIntyre. We also read John Cowley's Aegypt and Little, Big. Later on I discovered Octavia Butler on my own.
SF still goes on, but one could argue that the golden age was the 50's, with so many SF magazines and great new stuff coming out all the time.
I've read some of the things on the list and maybe should investigate the ones I haven't.
Posted by: Hattie | August 18, 2011 at 11:28 AM
Apparently my taste runs to crap - some of the books I voted for didn't even make the top 100.
Posted by: bogie | August 21, 2011 at 05:16 AM
Hattie--I'm not familiar with any of the authors that you list. Obviously, your sci-fi reading has been more nearly current than mine. My big whine about sci-fi when I was in high school and college was that most of it, ala Heinlein, was written for teenaged boys and featured the daring do of teenaged boys who "came of age" over the course of the book. I won't bother reading the rest of the stuff on the list as I no longer find even the blurbs of most sci-fi books interesting.
Bogie--Recognizing that you and I rarely connect with the same author's writing (Aeul, notwithstanding), my thinking is that your taste is better developed than the average sci-fi reader - oops! No one said that the people voting on the website were average or, in any way represented the average. Perhaps it was mostly us old fogeys voting who outnumber you young whippensnappers.
Posted by: Cop Car | August 21, 2011 at 10:24 AM