Lonesome Robot Press :: Jack Graham

I really should read more Asimov. And Bradbury. And... yeah, you get the idea.

Locus Magazine reported on Twitter that NPR had done a listener poll asking people to nominate and rank the best 100 SF books of all time. Of course, this makes it a popularity content, but the 60,000 respondents were enough to represent an interesting sample size.

Here’s what they picked.

No huge surprises, although I was disappointed to see Ender’s Game, a book I enjoyed but feel is overrated, in the #3 spot. I was also surprised that Neal Stephenson’s books didn’t rank higher, and that Neuromancer, a pretty important book even in a post-VR world, didn’t make the top ten.

That said, this inspired me to collate (following NPR listeners’ rankings) my…

List of Important Fantasy & SF Books I Still Need to Read
(According to NPR Readers, Who May or May Not Be Trustworthy)

1. The Foundation Trilogy, Asimov
2. American Gods, Gaiman
3. I, Robot, Asmiov
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood
5. The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury
6. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
7. The Mists of Avalon, Bradley
8. The Once & Future King, White
9. Childhood’s End, Clarke
10. Cryptonomicon, Stephenson
11. World War Z, Brooks
12. The Last Unicorn, Beagle
13. The Forever War, Haldeman
14. Small Gods, Pratchett
15. The Mote in God’s Eye, Niven/Pournelle
16. The Road, McCarthy
17. Old Man’s War, Scalzi
18. The Dispossessed, LeGuin (just started reading this one a few days ago, actually)
19. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury
20. The Culture Series, Banks
21. The Illustrated Man, Bradbury
22. Red Mars, Robinson
23. Doomsday Book, Willis
24. Perdido Street Station, Mieville

But it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that I’ve got about two dozen books queued up on my shelf that I should probably get to before I run out & buy these…