The Top 20 Geek Books Meme
Nov. 18th, 2005 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe top 20 geek novels as voted by Guardian readers.
(I've bolded those I've read. With commentary.)
1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
(le Classic. Still holds up well 20 years later.)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
(my not yet brother-in-law bought this one for me while he was dating my sister, along with Animal Farm. Given that I was, oh, twelve at the time, I'm not sure if he respected my outward maturity or just wasn't thinking straight.)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
Actually read this one during Free Study in Junior High. It's a distopia like 1984, but a trifle more witty than Orwell's work.
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
Read this one to try and make sense of the original cut of Blade Runner. It didn't help...
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
Classic again, but more dated. Hard to remember all the cliches in the book weren't cliches when it was first published.
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
The more I re-read this one, the more I'm convinced it's one of the bloody overrated "classics" ever written. Pure space opera, with cardboard characters and a trendy 70's eco message.
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
Read the book, burn the movie. Some of the best sci-fi detective stories ever written.
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
Read it in my early teens, saw no reason to re-read. I honestly don't remember spit beyond the first chapter with Dr. Seldon.
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
My library never got a copy for me to read. Judging from second hand reviews I've seen, I'm not missing terribly much. Rincewind was never my favortite among his stable of characters.
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
Goofy fun this one. Catches the zeitgeist of the 90's dotcom era to a T.
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
Noisy fun, at least until the number of quirky side characters went from amusing to ridiculous. Never felt much need to raed any more of his works though.
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Never read. Probably won't nowadays. The then revelatory concept of superheroes with neurosises isn't much of a draw these days.
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
Never read. Feel somewhat obligated too considering my family's relatively close involvement in the early days of the NSA.
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
My first Ian Banks book. Probably a bad place to start, since it's also my last.
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
I think this one, I Will Fear No Evil, and For the Living are the only works of his I haven't touched. Though I'd read any of the three if it meant I could scrub To Sail Beyond the Sunset and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls from my head.
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
Never read. Really ought to.
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
Attempted to read, but ended up throwing it against the wall. Neil is great with short works, but when he lets his prose wander, it can take forever to get anywhere interesting.
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
Okay, I did read two NS works. Pretty good in an arch sort of way, though the characters tended to be bland and uninvolving.
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Given how much SJGames gear I've bought over the years, I really ought to be ashamed of myself for not touching this.
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham
WTF? Never even heard of this one.
(I've bolded those I've read. With commentary.)
1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
(le Classic. Still holds up well 20 years later.)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
(my not yet brother-in-law bought this one for me while he was dating my sister, along with Animal Farm. Given that I was, oh, twelve at the time, I'm not sure if he respected my outward maturity or just wasn't thinking straight.)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
Actually read this one during Free Study in Junior High. It's a distopia like 1984, but a trifle more witty than Orwell's work.
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
Read this one to try and make sense of the original cut of Blade Runner. It didn't help...
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
Classic again, but more dated. Hard to remember all the cliches in the book weren't cliches when it was first published.
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
The more I re-read this one, the more I'm convinced it's one of the bloody overrated "classics" ever written. Pure space opera, with cardboard characters and a trendy 70's eco message.
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
Read the book, burn the movie. Some of the best sci-fi detective stories ever written.
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
Read it in my early teens, saw no reason to re-read. I honestly don't remember spit beyond the first chapter with Dr. Seldon.
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
My library never got a copy for me to read. Judging from second hand reviews I've seen, I'm not missing terribly much. Rincewind was never my favortite among his stable of characters.
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
Goofy fun this one. Catches the zeitgeist of the 90's dotcom era to a T.
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
Noisy fun, at least until the number of quirky side characters went from amusing to ridiculous. Never felt much need to raed any more of his works though.
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Never read. Probably won't nowadays. The then revelatory concept of superheroes with neurosises isn't much of a draw these days.
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
Never read. Feel somewhat obligated too considering my family's relatively close involvement in the early days of the NSA.
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
My first Ian Banks book. Probably a bad place to start, since it's also my last.
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
I think this one, I Will Fear No Evil, and For the Living are the only works of his I haven't touched. Though I'd read any of the three if it meant I could scrub To Sail Beyond the Sunset and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls from my head.
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
Never read. Really ought to.
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
Attempted to read, but ended up throwing it against the wall. Neil is great with short works, but when he lets his prose wander, it can take forever to get anywhere interesting.
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
Okay, I did read two NS works. Pretty good in an arch sort of way, though the characters tended to be bland and uninvolving.
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Given how much SJGames gear I've bought over the years, I really ought to be ashamed of myself for not touching this.
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham
WTF? Never even heard of this one.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 09:19 pm (UTC)I've read 9--no loss unless you really appreciate D&D injokes.
13 is arguably NS's best, lots of great stuff in it. Though it's something you read FOR the asides, no despite them.
15 is one of the better RAH. Think "megachurch" when you get to the Fosterites.
19 I gave up on after 100 pages.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 09:21 pm (UTC)Plus, Twoflowers (the Discworld's first and only tourist) makes a great foil (and souce of much crazymaking) for Rincewind, we get to meet the Luggage for the first time, Cohen the Barbarian has some wonderful bits, and Death gets summoned from a fancy-dress party. Oh, and at one point, Rincewind and Twoflowers wind up spending a brief time in our own world. And we get some good information on A'Tuin's species.
What keeps drawing me back to Watchmen isn't the neuroses of its heroes, but how tightly packed with things that at first seem like utter irrelevancies, whose true importance can only be understood on a second reading. It's like what Moore did in League I and II, only rather than work in allusions to a multitude of Victorian literature, the references are all to other parts of the series itself. Amazing stuff.
Cryptonomicon was a fun read, but suffered from Stephenson's tendency to end at the climax, rather than giving us an actual denoument.
As for Man In the High Castle? You owe yourself that one. It's a hell of a read.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-19 04:37 am (UTC)I read Dune when I was thirteen, and didn't like it very much. It seemed rather too childish for me.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-20 06:37 pm (UTC)-- C.