NPR Top 100 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Books list

NPR recently released a reader-chosen list of the top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books. They didn't include the meme directions, but did they need to?

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. (8/100, ha ha)
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love, and strikeout the books you read but didn't like.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien - I've been stopped in the middle of Fellowship at the Council of Elrond for several years now, and the movie tie-in set I own is packed away. I know I could just buy others, but it seems wrong to start on new books. I'm dumbly sentimental, I know.
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams - Love restricted to Hitchhiker's, the titular part of Restaurant, and Life, the Universe, and Everything. Haven't even bothered with Mostly Harmless.
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - No interest.
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin - Not in a million years.
6. 1984, by George Orwell - Still not better than Brave New World, or Alan Moore's V for Vendetta note-in-the-prison-cell rejoinder.
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - Atta boy.
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan - I read halfway through The Eye of the World and actually liked how it took its time with its young heroes' desperate flight across their land but for some reason (perhaps sheer attrition) never finished the thing. For the better, from all accounts.
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys - Effective, but it's tough to say you love this.
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien - Started and didn't finish. Torture porn crossed with a mockery of a loving God.
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett - I'm ecstatic this ended up as one of the few Discworld representatives.
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey - I see the fans turned out for this poll.
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis - And yet (albeit not unexpectedly, considerinng the source) no Narnia.
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Bad day on the information highway

Sunday wasn't a good day. I referred to it, in fact, as a Bad Day on the Midway, the name of a PC adventure game I'd seen about ten years ago in GAMES magazine's end-of-year best-of list and whose name has stuck in my head ever since, despite my never actually playing the dang thing.

And I never will play it, considering the state of PC emulation. This is a minor cause celebre in the gaming world, so my thoughts are scarcely original - and we're finally getting some action on this front with recent releases like the classic Ultimas (if only due to the reboot the knaves at EA surely have up their sleeves). But I'm not thinking of the old landmark franchises; I'm thinking of the titles that were big in their years, the Lighthouses and the Shiverses and the Weird Dreams and all the little stuff from publishers so long defunct one wouldn't even know whom to contact for the rights. Contrast this to consoles, where most somewhat-serious gamers would at least recognize the names of each year's highlights (and even the titles that have seemingly no reason to be remembered get loving restorations and testimonials - I saw a Rockin' Kats Let's Play starting up a while back). Yes, a heck of PC gaming's lost heritage is FMV garbage and bad CG, but the sheer volume of stuff that's going into history's dustbin not only unmourned but completely unknown is sobering.
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