Sci-Fi Book Club List

Yet another tidbit from Amp - The Science Fiction Book Club have created a list of the fifty most significant SF novels from 1953-2006. The game is to bold the ones you've read, strike through the ones you didn't like, italicize the ones you never finished and put a star next to the ones you liked. Righty ho then.

1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien *
2. The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
3. Dune - Frank Herbert *
4. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin *
6. Neuromancer - William Gibson *
7. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom - Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight - James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions - edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories - Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
    - Stephen R. Donaldson *
24. The Forever War - Joe Haldeman *
25. Gateway - Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams *
28. I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big - John Crowley
32. Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny *
33. The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
35. More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach - Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld - Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5 - Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein *
47. Stormbringer - Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
49. Timescape - Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose Farmer

The most glaring item in that list is that I've never finished The Silmarillion. Talk about having to hand in my nerd card - sheesh. I do have it on my bookshelf, so that might be something I correct sometime in the future, when I'm um, really bored. There are quite a few big names on that list that I've never read, like Stranger in a Strange Land, Rendezvous with Rama and Stormbringer, that tempt me somewhat, but stuff like Harry Potter and Interview with the Vampire isn't ever going to make it onto my bedside table. I'm a bit miffed that Dan Simmons' Hyperion isn't on this list anywhere, but I suppose that's bound to happen when someone else makes the list.