Good Weekend
Aug. 15th, 2011 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasOn Friday we went to the County Fair and then on Saturday I took the boys to their 'dojo picnic' and they had all the fun kids can have with unlimited wet sand, rocks and strange things washed up by the tide, and now they have a new favorite beach. Though I think they will find it diminished without 30 other kids to share it with. I hadn't been to this particular beach in twenty years. It was a pretty popular beach as beaches go around here, spectacularly beautiful, and there were people surfing, horseback riding (I was so jealous!), rock climbing and getting married. I love weddings (though I was too shy to throw one for myself and eloped) and it was cute to see them getting windblown in their formal wear. The poor chilly bridesmaids all had identical dresses and identical slightly hunched bare shoulders. I recommend beachwear for beach weddings, I think. The officiant's long white vestments were particularly unruly.
NPR 100 Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels meme.
Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you intend to read, underline the ones you’ve read part of, and strike through the ones you never intend to read.
Since the Mister is a fellow nerd but with a different bent, I asked him to do it with me: asterisks indicate titles he's read. As I expected he definitely has more hard and classic sci-fi.
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy*, by J.R.R. Tolkien - I couldn't get through these when I was a sub-adult, but I read them in the last year and wow, the relatively scanty roles that women played in the movies? All added by Peter Jackson & Co. Bless them for taking a work where the ladies are completely invisible, and reinterpreting it as a parade of spectacularly pretty men.
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy*, by Douglas Adams Read them in high school. Probably should read again.
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - Also read in high school.
4. The Dune Chronicles*, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin - I read the first one, but I don't read fiction to despair for the soul of humanity, there's plenty of that in non-fiction, so I'm not planning to read the rest.
6. 1984, by George Orwell - Read for school
7. Fahrenheit 451*, by Ray Bradbury - Ditto.
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 - I think fondly of this whenever I read my kids a 'good parts version' and quite often whenever two characters are about to engage in mortal combat of high significance.
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan - Read some, got bored long before the Chosen One fulfilled his Destiny.
13. Animal Farm*, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer*, by William Gibson - I can't deny it. Nerds are a lot cooler now than when I read this and doubted.
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore - Entertained but not enamored.
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 - These were after my King phase, though I read all the classics and I feel certain they still form part of the bedrock of my imagination.
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 - It looks like I've thoroughly neglected Vonnegut. There was a lot of Vonnegut on my Dad's shelves and he sometimes liked writers that were clever just for sake of being clever, but perhaps I have been unfair.
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman - I read Stardust because I loved the movie so much and found that there was this smug, paternalistic tone that rubbed me the wrong way. It turned out that the movie was the good parts version.
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess - On my shelf
31. Starship Troopers*, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down*, by Richard Adams - I love this book. I read it a number of times as a school child and it moved me to tears when I re-read it a couple of years ago. I don't think it could be a bestseller now. There's something about the way the story has gravity and yet is kind of innocent that marks it as a product of another time. But it's clearly a classic.
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 - Mr. Wells' autobiography was really interesting. I found myself wanting to have a fiery debate with him, but of course it's far too late for him to give me the smack down.
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 - this ought to be worth bonus points or proof of fannish insanity since it's essentially a few hundred of pages of background notes for novels that many people find a bit of a slog.
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke - I read this because it came up in a conversation about the Buffy Season 8 comics. It's got the appeal that classic science fiction has because we are living in the future the author was trying to imagine.
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman - Loved the movie.
53. Cryptonomicon*, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle - Stephen King compared the reader/writer relationship to something like telepathy. Each book I read by Mr. Beagle always has some startlingly clear bit of imagery that stays with me forever. Someone also once suggested this as one of the most wonderfully egalitarian narratives from a feminist standpoint.
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 - Tried but failed.
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 - I believe it's good, but worry it will be a tearjerker.
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 - Pretty with long white hair and hopelessly in love with a good woman, Drizzt definitely piqued my interest, but that's about it. I actually flipped through the final three books in Drizzt epic recently when I found it in a free pile and it seemed pretty juvenile and rushed. Maybe this particular subset of books was superior.
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 - I always felt that either there was a lot of arbitrary weirdness or there was a lot of symbolism that was going way over my head. I never read another of his books. The Wizard of Oz was apparently an allegory of early twentieth-century politics in America, but I still managed to enjoy it on another level.
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 - I skimmed through the first one and decided it wasn't for me.
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock - Hmmm, a white-haired protagonist
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 - he wrote a space trilogy?
NPR 100 Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels meme.
Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you intend to read, underline the ones you’ve read part of, and strike through the ones you never intend to read.
Since the Mister is a fellow nerd but with a different bent, I asked him to do it with me: asterisks indicate titles he's read. As I expected he definitely has more hard and classic sci-fi.
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy*, by J.R.R. Tolkien - I couldn't get through these when I was a sub-adult, but I read them in the last year and wow, the relatively scanty roles that women played in the movies? All added by Peter Jackson & Co. Bless them for taking a work where the ladies are completely invisible, and reinterpreting it as a parade of spectacularly pretty men.
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy*, by Douglas Adams Read them in high school. Probably should read again.
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - Also read in high school.
4. The Dune Chronicles*, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin - I read the first one, but I don't read fiction to despair for the soul of humanity, there's plenty of that in non-fiction, so I'm not planning to read the rest.
6. 1984, by George Orwell - Read for school
7. Fahrenheit 451*, by Ray Bradbury - Ditto.
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 - I think fondly of this whenever I read my kids a 'good parts version' and quite often whenever two characters are about to engage in mortal combat of high significance.
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan - Read some, got bored long before the Chosen One fulfilled his Destiny.
13. Animal Farm*, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer*, by William Gibson - I can't deny it. Nerds are a lot cooler now than when I read this and doubted.
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore - Entertained but not enamored.
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 - These were after my King phase, though I read all the classics and I feel certain they still form part of the bedrock of my imagination.
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 - It looks like I've thoroughly neglected Vonnegut. There was a lot of Vonnegut on my Dad's shelves and he sometimes liked writers that were clever just for sake of being clever, but perhaps I have been unfair.
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman - I read Stardust because I loved the movie so much and found that there was this smug, paternalistic tone that rubbed me the wrong way. It turned out that the movie was the good parts version.
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess - On my shelf
31. Starship Troopers*, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down*, by Richard Adams - I love this book. I read it a number of times as a school child and it moved me to tears when I re-read it a couple of years ago. I don't think it could be a bestseller now. There's something about the way the story has gravity and yet is kind of innocent that marks it as a product of another time. But it's clearly a classic.
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 - Mr. Wells' autobiography was really interesting. I found myself wanting to have a fiery debate with him, but of course it's far too late for him to give me the smack down.
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 - this ought to be worth bonus points or proof of fannish insanity since it's essentially a few hundred of pages of background notes for novels that many people find a bit of a slog.
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke - I read this because it came up in a conversation about the Buffy Season 8 comics. It's got the appeal that classic science fiction has because we are living in the future the author was trying to imagine.
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman - Loved the movie.
53. Cryptonomicon*, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle - Stephen King compared the reader/writer relationship to something like telepathy. Each book I read by Mr. Beagle always has some startlingly clear bit of imagery that stays with me forever. Someone also once suggested this as one of the most wonderfully egalitarian narratives from a feminist standpoint.
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.
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 - Tried but failed.
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70.
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 - Pretty with long white hair and hopelessly in love with a good woman, Drizzt definitely piqued my interest, but that's about it. I actually flipped through the final three books in Drizzt epic recently when I found it in a free pile and it seemed pretty juvenile and rushed. Maybe this particular subset of books was superior.
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 - I always felt that either there was a lot of arbitrary weirdness or there was a lot of symbolism that was going way over my head. I never read another of his books. The Wizard of Oz was apparently an allegory of early twentieth-century politics in America, but I still managed to enjoy it on another level.
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 - I skimmed through the first one and decided it wasn't for me.
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock - Hmmm, a white-haired protagonist
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 - he wrote a space trilogy?
