Genre book list
Feb. 12th, 2009 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielOh all right, since everyone else has done it...
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
Bold = Read
Italic = Started, but didn't finish (either the book or the series)
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien: Yes, I have read this.
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien: And this.
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien: This too.
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov: Nope, and it’s probably not going to happen, is it?
5. Robot series, Isaac Asimov: Nope. But they make me think of Miles O’Brien’s alter ego in ‘Far Beyond the Stars’, and his reason for writing SF: “I like robots.”
6. Dune, Frank Herbert: I’ve read the first one, and I’ve watched the miniseries with James McAvoy, which had some remarkable hats. And I’ve seen the David Lynch film on fast-forward.
7. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein: Nope. I’m working through the SF Masterworks, though, so I’ll probably get there eventually.
8. Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin: Damn yes.
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson: I remember getting it from the library, and I remember opening it, then I remember nothing else about my time in Mr Gibson’s hands.
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: I keep being thwarted in my attempts to get a copy of this.
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham: I’m fairly certain I’ve read this. I rewatched the BBC adaptation quite recently.
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe: WTF? Seriously, I have no idea what just happened there.
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett: I read these compulsively for a while, then decided I was getting the same three stories over again, so I stopped. I checked in again a few years ago with The Truth, and while it was funny, it was the same story again, so I felt like he and I had come to a natural break. I also found him oddly and old-fashionedly moralizing; I hadn’t remembered that about them.
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman: Gaiman doesn’t knock my socks off the way he seems to do with other people.
15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams: Sad fuck that I am, I love the TV version best.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffery: Not a single one, and I fear the time may be past.
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice: Vampires are not a high![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
altariel-interest product.
18. The Shining, Stephen King: “The Shinning, boy! Are you trying to get us sued?!”
19. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin: Due a reread very soon, in fact.
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny: Nope.
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke: Yes, I think.
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke: The characters are non-existent, but I really liked this.
23. Ringworld, Larry Niven: Nope
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock: Nope
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance: Nope
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance: Nope.
27. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson: I tried several times with these and never got past the first couple of pages. Yuk.
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin: I have this feeling that life is too short.
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison: Nope.
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard: I can’t see that I will...
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber: Nope.
32. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick: Absolutely brilliant.
33. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells: No, but I feel like I have.
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells: Same with this. Have I read this? I honestly don’t know.
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells: I read this becauseiainjcoleman shouted at me when he found out I hadn’t.
36. Eon, Greg Bear: Nope.
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie: Never heard of it.
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie: HICKSON FTW!
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie: Read during a summer-long Christie binge with my two sisters.
40. Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers: Read, reread, adored.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett: Um. I think so. Yes, yes I have.
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan: And a couple of film versions, still no idea what’s going on. Suspect I confuse it with The Riddle of the Sands.
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Those Jeremy Brett DVDs must be due a rewatch soon...
44. Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft: Never read any Lovecraft. Bad Altariel, no cookie.
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell: I just can’t bring myself to care.
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James: OH MY GOD PD LET ME GUESS IS IT ABOUT INCEST IN A MESSED-UP ANGLICAN COMMUNITY ON THE STORM-BATTERED NORFOLK COAST? There, I’ve saved you all the trouble now.
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler: But I can’t remember which.
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo: Nope.
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth: Nope.
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth: Nope.
51. Smiley series, John le Carre: Oh boy yes (though have not read The Honourable Schoolboy.
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch: What?
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson: Huh?
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore: Is all the series contained in the big book? Because I’ve read that.
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman: Damn, that was brilliant and depressing.
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller: Can’t bring myself to be interested.
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi: Extremely good.
58. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling: Well, that’s that then. What now?
59. Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones: Lovely and joyous.
60. Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock: They’re on the piano waiting for me to start.
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe: Read a couple of the Porterhouse books, but they didn’t tickle me.
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist: Fuck off.
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik: The first one is around the house somewhere but I haven’t read it yet.
64. Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis: I’m really surprised these are so low down. Loved them to bits as a kid, and never had the Betrayal moment of, “What? These are propaganda?!” because of being Catholic at the time. I do think The Last Battle is a nasty, ghastly book, however.
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman: I think these declined in quality steadily. But Northern Lights is magical. I wish Pullman didn’t come across as such an arse in interviews.
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman: Can’t say I’ve been tempted.
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer: I seem to be passing through life blissfully untroubled by these books.
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton: Nope. I like his detective series.
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer: I read the first one and was diverted, but not enough to read any more.
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber: These are always mentioned in the same breath as Bujold, but I have this feeling that they’re for people who like the mil-SF aspect of Bujold, which is not really why I read Bujold.
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris: Saw the films.
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King: I’m about halfway through these, but they’re slow coming via Bookmooch.
73. It, Stephen King: Great miniseries! Why isn’t The Stand on this list when it’s obviously King’s masterpiece?
74. The Rats series, James Herbert: No.
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams: I think I like these more than Hitchhiker’s.
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse: Lots of these at various points, but certainly not all.
77. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown: I don’t think I’m the target audience, but then I read fanfic, so who am I to judge?
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks: Still not read any of these. Read most of the non-M ones, but thought they went into decline around The Business.
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood: Sort of loved these when I was sixteen.
80. The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson: Nope.
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce: Nope.
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter: Really loved these at one point. They get better. I like it when Lewis is still a middle-aged Welshman.
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman: The which?
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton: Fantastic film!
85. Enigma, Robert Harris: Better film than book.
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris: Not bad, not brilliant, fills an hour or two. Rutger Hauer is in the film, IIRC, which is always going to make anything better.
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre: I’m a bit lairy about trying the ones that aren’t about people dying miserably in East Berlin.
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs: Telly makes everything better.
89. The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper: Terrific (although I never can remember what happens in the last one).
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson: Not even heard of it.
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton: Of course not.
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn: Not yet.
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card: I’ve read three. Are there more?
94. Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake: The first one and some of the second.
95. Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold: I adore these, in case anyone hasn’t noticed.
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White: I read this for the first time quite recently, and it’s amazing.
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson: Man, I loved these as a kid. I used to map them out instead of playing the game. I stopped around number 13 or 14 because GCSEs were taking up too much time which could have been devoted to mapping gamebooks, but I think there are now a hundred million of them.
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison: I wonder if I’d like these now?
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith: My brother had these, but I never got round to pinching them.
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters: Picking them up via Bookmooch. I think Jacobi was miscast.
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
Bold = Read
Italic = Started, but didn't finish (either the book or the series)
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien: Yes, I have read this.
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien: And this.
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien: This too.
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov: Nope, and it’s probably not going to happen, is it?
5. Robot series, Isaac Asimov: Nope. But they make me think of Miles O’Brien’s alter ego in ‘Far Beyond the Stars’, and his reason for writing SF: “I like robots.”
6. Dune, Frank Herbert: I’ve read the first one, and I’ve watched the miniseries with James McAvoy, which had some remarkable hats. And I’ve seen the David Lynch film on fast-forward.
7. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein: Nope. I’m working through the SF Masterworks, though, so I’ll probably get there eventually.
8. Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin: Damn yes.
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson: I remember getting it from the library, and I remember opening it, then I remember nothing else about my time in Mr Gibson’s hands.
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: I keep being thwarted in my attempts to get a copy of this.
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham: I’m fairly certain I’ve read this. I rewatched the BBC adaptation quite recently.
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe: WTF? Seriously, I have no idea what just happened there.
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett: I read these compulsively for a while, then decided I was getting the same three stories over again, so I stopped. I checked in again a few years ago with The Truth, and while it was funny, it was the same story again, so I felt like he and I had come to a natural break. I also found him oddly and old-fashionedly moralizing; I hadn’t remembered that about them.
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman: Gaiman doesn’t knock my socks off the way he seems to do with other people.
15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams: Sad fuck that I am, I love the TV version best.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffery: Not a single one, and I fear the time may be past.
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice: Vampires are not a high
altariel-interest product.18. The Shining, Stephen King: “The Shinning, boy! Are you trying to get us sued?!”
19. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin: Due a reread very soon, in fact.
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny: Nope.
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke: Yes, I think.
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke: The characters are non-existent, but I really liked this.
23. Ringworld, Larry Niven: Nope
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock: Nope
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance: Nope
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance: Nope.
27. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson: I tried several times with these and never got past the first couple of pages. Yuk.
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin: I have this feeling that life is too short.
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison: Nope.
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard: I can’t see that I will...
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber: Nope.
32. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick: Absolutely brilliant.
33. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells: No, but I feel like I have.
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells: Same with this. Have I read this? I honestly don’t know.
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells: I read this because
iainjcoleman shouted at me when he found out I hadn’t.36. Eon, Greg Bear: Nope.
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie: Never heard of it.
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie: HICKSON FTW!
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie: Read during a summer-long Christie binge with my two sisters.
40. Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers: Read, reread, adored.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett: Um. I think so. Yes, yes I have.
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan: And a couple of film versions, still no idea what’s going on. Suspect I confuse it with The Riddle of the Sands.
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Those Jeremy Brett DVDs must be due a rewatch soon...
44. Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft: Never read any Lovecraft. Bad Altariel, no cookie.
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell: I just can’t bring myself to care.
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James: OH MY GOD PD LET ME GUESS IS IT ABOUT INCEST IN A MESSED-UP ANGLICAN COMMUNITY ON THE STORM-BATTERED NORFOLK COAST? There, I’ve saved you all the trouble now.
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler: But I can’t remember which.
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo: Nope.
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth: Nope.
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth: Nope.
51. Smiley series, John le Carre: Oh boy yes (though have not read The Honourable Schoolboy.
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch: What?
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson: Huh?
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore: Is all the series contained in the big book? Because I’ve read that.
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman: Damn, that was brilliant and depressing.
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller: Can’t bring myself to be interested.
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi: Extremely good.
58. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling: Well, that’s that then. What now?
59. Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones: Lovely and joyous.
60. Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock: They’re on the piano waiting for me to start.
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe: Read a couple of the Porterhouse books, but they didn’t tickle me.
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist: Fuck off.
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik: The first one is around the house somewhere but I haven’t read it yet.
64. Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis: I’m really surprised these are so low down. Loved them to bits as a kid, and never had the Betrayal moment of, “What? These are propaganda?!” because of being Catholic at the time. I do think The Last Battle is a nasty, ghastly book, however.
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman: I think these declined in quality steadily. But Northern Lights is magical. I wish Pullman didn’t come across as such an arse in interviews.
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman: Can’t say I’ve been tempted.
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer: I seem to be passing through life blissfully untroubled by these books.
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton: Nope. I like his detective series.
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer: I read the first one and was diverted, but not enough to read any more.
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber: These are always mentioned in the same breath as Bujold, but I have this feeling that they’re for people who like the mil-SF aspect of Bujold, which is not really why I read Bujold.
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris: Saw the films.
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King: I’m about halfway through these, but they’re slow coming via Bookmooch.
73. It, Stephen King: Great miniseries! Why isn’t The Stand on this list when it’s obviously King’s masterpiece?
74. The Rats series, James Herbert: No.
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams: I think I like these more than Hitchhiker’s.
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse: Lots of these at various points, but certainly not all.
77. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown: I don’t think I’m the target audience, but then I read fanfic, so who am I to judge?
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks: Still not read any of these. Read most of the non-M ones, but thought they went into decline around The Business.
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood: Sort of loved these when I was sixteen.
80. The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson: Nope.
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce: Nope.
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter: Really loved these at one point. They get better. I like it when Lewis is still a middle-aged Welshman.
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman: The which?
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton: Fantastic film!
85. Enigma, Robert Harris: Better film than book.
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris: Not bad, not brilliant, fills an hour or two. Rutger Hauer is in the film, IIRC, which is always going to make anything better.
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre: I’m a bit lairy about trying the ones that aren’t about people dying miserably in East Berlin.
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs: Telly makes everything better.
89. The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper: Terrific (although I never can remember what happens in the last one).
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson: Not even heard of it.
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton: Of course not.
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn: Not yet.
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card: I’ve read three. Are there more?
94. Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake: The first one and some of the second.
95. Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold: I adore these, in case anyone hasn’t noticed.
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White: I read this for the first time quite recently, and it’s amazing.
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson: Man, I loved these as a kid. I used to map them out instead of playing the game. I stopped around number 13 or 14 because GCSEs were taking up too much time which could have been devoted to mapping gamebooks, but I think there are now a hundred million of them.
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison: I wonder if I’d like these now?
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith: My brother had these, but I never got round to pinching them.
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters: Picking them up via Bookmooch. I think Jacobi was miscast.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 01:32 pm (UTC)I'd noticed you were fond of the Temeraire books! :-D You and
There's lots to love about Pratchett and very little to dislike. I'm very fond of them still, although I can't see myself going out of my way to read any more of them.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 09:37 pm (UTC)I have to agree with
And you can't beat some of the early Lancre-based ones with the witches, like Lords and Ladies (which also contains the best ever quote about elves), since when it comes to my Favourite Pratchett Character it's a straight split down the middle between the Patrician and Granny Weatherwax. For the same reason, I love his more recent Tiffany Aching trilogy - The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith - which make me wish I had an eight-year-old daughter to read them to...
no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 02:26 pm (UTC)No, though! Because the best ever quote about elves is in Diana Wynne Jones's The Dark Lord of Derkholm:
They were all over six feet tall. Derk found them a bit much.
Ahem. Sorry. I couldn't help it. Plz to continue with your internet experience now.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 05:41 pm (UTC)