15 responses so far ↓

• 1 Matt Thurston // Nov 22, 2006 at 2:01 pm

  I’ve never been a big fan of sci-fi so I haven’t read many books from this list. What I have read I’ve only “sort-of” liked:

  Fahrenheit 451
  Ender’s Game
  Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone
  A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  Interview with a Vampire

  Of the above list I probably liked Fahrenheit 451 the best.

  Please don’t think less of me for not being a fan of sci-fi.
  And, if I ever decide to give the genre another shot, what is THE BEST sci-fi book ever?

• 2 Kaimi // Nov 22, 2006 at 6:38 pm

  John,

  I’m apparently not as big of a geek as I had thought I was — I got a mere 12 out of 50. 25 percent — yikes! (Why does that number remind me of home teaching?) I suspect that I’m bringing down the friends-of-Mind-on-Fire batting average. Clearly, I need to get cracking.

  p.s. This is a comment repost of sorts, as a prior version seems to have been eaten by your blog software.

• 3 Chris Rusch // Nov 22, 2006 at 10:08 pm

  Better then me Kaimi. I scored an eight and I thought I was geek. I guess it’s back to the basement with my dungeon masters guide and seven sided dice until I get it right:-)

• 4 Jonathan // Nov 23, 2006 at 1:08 am

  That’s crazy - you were right, we have a read a LOT of the same books, and we’ve even partially read the same books - Neuromancer and Dragonflight. I still didn’t make it to the 50% mark, but close - I think I’ve read 20 books listed on the list. I’ll have to start reading the rest of them now! BTW- darn you…I was just catching up on my book backlog, and now that’s gone all to heck.

• 5 nee // Nov 23, 2006 at 8:17 am

  Heh. I’ve only read 3. However, I’ve seen the movie version of 4. teehee

• 6 pilgrimgirl // Nov 23, 2006 at 8:28 am

  1) The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
  2) Dune, Frank Herbert
  3) A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
  4) The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
  5) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  6) Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
  7) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  9) Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut

  I guess I’m not too much of a geek, 9/50 isn’t that high.

  I’m with John in his lament that Connie Willis didn’t make this list. I also think it odd that Madeleine L’Engle isn’t listed. My favorite SF book is probably _The Martian Chronicles_–another book not found here.

• 7 pilgrimgirl // Nov 23, 2006 at 8:31 am

  Oh, one more thing…
  I was just thinking about _why_ I’ve read so many of these books and I realized that I read each of them on the advice of a boyfriend or my spouse. Most of them were books foisted on me by geek boyfriends while I was in high school. I guess what I’m saying is that I like SF, but it’s not something that I pick up/seek out on my own.

• 8 Paula // Nov 23, 2006 at 11:20 am

  I tie Kaimi with 12 of 50, some of those twelve read many times. I counted the Silmarillion but have to admit I dozed off a lot in the process of reading it. But Connie Willis really should be there, and Madeline L’Engle.

  1. The Lord of the Rings*, J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. The Foundation Trilogy*, Isaac Asimov
  3. Dune, Frank Herbert ( my cousin talked me into this one, and I didn’t like it.)
  4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
  7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
  10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
  22. Ender‚Äôs Game, Orson Scott Card (Read it, didn’t like it. My kid thinks it’s the best book ever though. Maybe it’s a guy thing.)
  26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone*, J.K. Rowling
  27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*, Douglas Adams
  41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

• 9 Oborosama // Nov 24, 2006 at 12:17 pm

  What I have read, am reading now:

  Lord of the Rings **!
  Dune*
  Stranger in a Strange Land * (Grogged it good)
  A Wizard of EarthSea*
  Childhood’s End*
  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*
  Fahrenheit 451*
  Caves of Steel*
  Ender’s Game*
  Harry Pothead and the Stoned Sorcerer*
  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*
  Interview with the Vampire*
  Left Hand of Darkness*
  The Man in the High Castle*
  Rendezvous with Rama(in process)
  Ringworld*
  Silmarillian*
  Starship Troopers*
  Sword of Shannara (hated it)

  Some books I have on my own subjective top fifty:

  Dr. Bloodmoney, P. K. Dick (good ol’ Hoppy Harrington)
  Four Ways to Forgiveness, U. K. LeGuinn
  A Wrinkle in Time, M L’Engle
  2001: A Space Oddessy
  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, R Heinlein
  Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
  2112, okay, okay, not a book, but possibly the best damn music album ever written (SF or otherwise)!
  the list goes on….

• 10 Miko // Nov 24, 2006 at 5:57 pm

  I hate you. j/k consider me now untagged…and, Matt, the Absolute Best SciFi Book in this or any other dimension is, as Ms. Pilgrim notes, the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I\’ve read it so many times that I should probably own it…

  FYI, underlined is \”unsure\” as in, I recognize the names and may very well have read it, but I can\’t back that up with detailed discussions of plot

  The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien I think this marks me from the start…my dad read it to me when I was a kid and it was okay…then I read it as an adult and it was so snooze-worthy that I couldn\’t waitfor the movie (cinema is life with the boring parts removed)
  The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
  Dune, Frank Herbert* (also a recomendation for Matt; a very interesting foray into pseudo-religion; now that I live in the desert, I like to consider myself a Freman)
  Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein meh, I should try again, I was really young when I started it; he\’s got some others that I looooove, tho
  A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin see Stranger, above
  Neuromancer, William Gibson ugh, could not get throught this! I know it\’s seminal and important and and…it\’s just sooooo bad!!!!
  Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick* SO GOOD. I don\’t really recommend it to beginners, though, it\’s a very strange ride
  The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley*** Not certain this counts as SciFi so much as feminism, but hey
  Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury** second best scifi ever written, I await a good movie version
  The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
  A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
  Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
  Cities in Flight, James Blish
  The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett I heart Terry Pratchett
  Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
  Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
  The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
  Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
  Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey much better than these were her Rowan series
  Ender‚Äôs Game, Orson Scott Card* I don\’t know that it\’s an especially good book, but it spoke to me when I was a kid; still does, actually…
  The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson didn\’t really \”get\” it; maybe if I try it as a religious book rather than scifi…
  The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
  Gateway, Frederik Pohl
  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling*, et al.
  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, et al.
  I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
  Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
  The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
  Little, Big, John Crowley
  Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
  The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
  Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
  More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
  The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
  On the Beach, Nevil Shute
  Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
  Ringworld, Larry Niven
  Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
  The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien someone told me that reading this would help me appreciate the Ring series…o O…that person needs to be shot
  Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
  Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson*** love, love, love it!
  Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
  The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
  Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
  Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
  The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks this guy\’s pretty good, too, but very prolific…he\’s hard to keep up with
  Timescape, Gregory Benford
  To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

  I think this is definately someone\’s listing, as opposed to that of a journal or publisher. There are too many obvious ones missing, neh?

• 11 Miko // Nov 24, 2006 at 6:29 pm

  please excuse all the erroneous slashes above, not sure where they came from…

• 12 John // Nov 26, 2006 at 8:05 pm

  My librarian friend Ned, who is a long time member of the Science Fiction Book Club, has read 40 of the above!

  He’s also published a scholarly article on Tolkien. He’s 100% geek, and has my deepest admiration.

  Chris Rusch, I can lend you some dice if you need them.
  I agree with the calls for L’Engle and Willis. These lists are decidedly arbitrary, so I don’t take them too seriously. They’re a great starting point for conversation, though.

  Oborosama and I have read almost all of the same books. I’m sure there’s some connection between this and our long friendship.
  Miko, for some reason, editing comments in WordPress adds those backslashes in front of the quotes. I tried to trim some of them down.

  Looks like Miko and I have struggled with some of the books: the Silmarillion, Dragonflight, Neuromancer. I’m not quite ready to give up on them yet, but it’s heartening to see some one else has had trouble with them.

• 13 John White // Nov 27, 2006 at 11:57 am

  29/50

  I agree that L’Engle and Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” should be on any list like this.

  BUT, I think “The Doomsday Book” was one of the worst books I’ve read to completion in a long while. I read it for a reading group and none of us really had anything nice to say about it.

  And Willis has now won more Hugo’s (or Nebula’s, I don’t remember which) than any other author. Grrr…

• 14 pilgrimgirl // Nov 27, 2006 at 2:54 pm

  Ok JohnWhite, I have to respectfully disagree about the Doomsday Book. I loved it and have plenty of good things to say about it. I’ve read it more than once and have enjoyed it each time

• 15 Jonathan // Nov 28, 2006 at 8:22 am

  John, Miko -
  There is a wordpress plugin fix for comment editing bugs - you can find it here. I had to get this too for my blog because I am always editing my comments
  Sounds like the 3 of us had a hard time reading the same books. I did, however, make it through the Silmarillion

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