My junior high book club always had TKAM as its first book of the year (it was the teacher/moderator's favorite book), so I first read it the summer between 6th and 7th grade. I definitely "got it," but then, I read Roots in 5th grade and loved it, so I was weird.
Reavers ain't men. Or they forgot how to be. Now they're just nothing. They got out to the edge of the galaxy, to that place of nothing, and that's what they became.
Mal ,'Bushwhacked'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Kathy A - Aug 11, 2011 7:31:14 am PDT #15903 of 28497
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
DavidS - Aug 11, 2011 10:34:09 am PDT #15904 of 28497
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Knut and I both thought that NPR's List of Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books was incredibly boring.
So we traded picks and made our own top ten of just Fantasy and I like our list better. (They included series so we did too.)
1. The Circus of Dr. Lao - Charles Finney
2. Gormenghast Trilogy - Mervyn Peake
3. Lud-In-The-Mist - Hope Mirrlees
4. Mythago Wood series - Robert Holdstock
5. Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
6. The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter
7. Fafrhd and the Grey Mouser series - Fritz Leiber
8. Riddlemaster of Hed series - Patricia McKillip
9. The Dying Earth - Jack Vance
10. Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanick
-t - Aug 11, 2011 10:46:57 am PDT #15905 of 28497
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Well, I've certainly read a more representative sample of the NPR list than y'all's.
Jesse - Aug 11, 2011 10:50:09 am PDT #15906 of 28497
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Glen Weldon's commentary on the list is interesting, I think: [link]
Polter-Cow - Aug 11, 2011 10:50:51 am PDT #15907 of 28497
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Yeah, your list is completely foreign to me. I have heard of Gormenghast, and I have a Jonathan Carroll book that JZ lent me years ago (I think that's the one, actually) but I haven't read, but I haven't even heard of the rest.
There's much on the NPR list I haven't heard of either, but also lots I like. Too bad the Feed books didn't make it this time!
Glen Weldon's commentary on the list is interesting, I think: [link]
Ooh, yeah, worth a read.
zuisa - Aug 11, 2011 10:55:56 am PDT #15908 of 28497
call me jacki; zuisa is an internet nick from ancient times =)
I have the first book in the Gormenghast trilogy, but I've sadly never gotten around to reading it.
I haven't much on the NPR list either, sadly, but the books I have read Snow Crash, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and some others) I've very much enjoyed.
I need to read more science fiction, is the moral of this story, I think!
Ginger - Aug 11, 2011 11:12:56 am PDT #15909 of 28497
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Gormenghast? Really?
Connie Neil - Aug 11, 2011 11:14:08 am PDT #15910 of 28497
brillig
I tried Gorgmenghast and it just seemed utterly bleak. I do enjoy Riddlemaster of Hed and I've heard of Mythago Woods, but the others are unfamiliar.
Atropa - Aug 11, 2011 11:14:18 am PDT #15911 of 28497
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
I've read a bunch of the books on your list David, but I don't necessarily agree they're the best ones. For instance, I think that Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber collection is more important (and interesting!) than The Magic Toyshop. And while Gormenghast is hugely important, I don't know many people who've made it through the entire trilogy. (Heaven knows I haven't.)
Plus, no Tanith Lee? No Ray Bradbury? Crazyheads.
Connie Neil - Aug 11, 2011 11:15:54 am PDT #15912 of 28497
brillig
Zelazny would go on any list I made, if I was making lists.