84 thoughts on “NPR list”

1. I’ve only read 10 of them listed … though a number of them were trilogies or even more ..

   1. we KNOW you’ve at least read Dragonflight! 😀

      1. Yes, Deslily definitely read that one! 🙂

         1. smartypants ! sgist too!

            it only lists dragonflight but “we know Deslily” has read 23 Pern books! and many (6) David Eddings books 9 of Donaldsons Thomas Covenant books, both Rothfuss’s books, 3 Mary Stewart Arthur/Merlin books,3 LOtR books & the Hobbit, Lord Valentine’s Castle (eons ago), Lud-in-the-Mist, & The Magicians (not thrilled with either of those) The Once And Future King,The Shannara Trilogy, The Silmarillion,Stardust,& numerous books from The Xanth Series
            so pppplllssst!

            1. LOL! Not sure when the last time was that I was called ‘smartypants’. We do know you well, at least where Pern is concerned.

      2. ya think? LOL LOL

2. On the list of 100, I have a smaller list of 46. Of those 46, I have read 31 and 1/13 books/series, with the rest of the 46 being books/series I seriously intend to read. Of the 31 & 1/13, the 10 I selected (with difficulty) are as follows:

   American Gods, Dark Tower, First Law Trilogy, Frankenstein, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Kingkiller Chronicle, Lord of the Rings, Mistborn, Sandman, and 1984. (At least this is what I think I selected. I deliberated so much with myself I can’t recall exactly.)

   I appreciate NPR doing this. It’s not without peril, but it’s definitely great for conversations and web-chatter.

   1. I’m glad they did it as well.

      I would have probably keeled over dead if you didn’t have Rothfuss on your list! Had I finished with Wise Man’s Fear I would have put it on my list for sure. I’m hoping to get back to it soon.

      Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of my great embarrassments. I started reading it when it first came out, was loving it, then set it aside for something else and have never went back to it. I love her short story collection and have no doubt it is a book I must read at some point.

      1. Susanna Clarke’s two books are two of my absolute favorite reads ever. I desperately hope she comes out with a sequel or related book to JS&MN.

         On a related note, one of these days I hope to acquire the 4 volume Absolute Sandman set. I’ve only read the series once, but it kindled my love for Gaiman. What a remarkable series.

         1. Susanna Clarke and Diane Setterfield are two authors who I keep desperately hoping for word of more books and all I ever seem to hear are crickets chirping. The Ladies of Grace Adieu is such a wonderful short story collection and I’d love to get more shorts from her.

            1. it’s so hard to believe that Setterfield could write such a fantastic book and then drop off the radar and not write anything since.

               I was in the used book store today and actually sold 2 books for them.. one was I told a lady about The 13th Tale and the other book I sold for them was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ! I can never say enough about Setterfields book! I’ve read it 3 times so far.

               1. I remember reading that it took her a very long time to write, but still, I was hoping for another by now.

                  My wife really enjoyed the Guernsey Literary book.

                  And look at you, making sales for the used bookstore. They ought to hire you!

3. I too had a problem with the series concept, if you count reading at least one book out of the ‘series’ as having read it, then i’ve read about 3/4’s of the books on the list. As a matter of fact I would probably voted for The Acts Of Caine Series, by Matthew Woodring Stover If I had noticed it but I didn’t because if I remember correctly that isn’t the name of either of the books that make up the “Acts of Caine”. Same with Anne Bishop’s “The Black Jewels” I’ve read & enjoyed all of them but without a title listed it doesn’t ring a bell til much later. I also would have LOVED to have voted for Charles DeLint but Memory & Dream wasn’t one of my favorites of his books.

   I voted for Neil Gaiman also but for Sandman as that was my initial draw to his writing. Also: The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers; The Coldfire Trilogy, by C.S. Friedman; The Faded Sun Trilogy, by C.J. Cherryh; Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card; The Last Herald Mage Trilogy, by Mercedes Lackey; The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold; Sunshine, by Robin McKinley; The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart & The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

   If you want to be picky about it, The Last Herald Mage ‘is’ actually part of the Valdemar series so that would have left an opening for another book/series that was omitted from the list, but…. 😀

   1. Sgist: For the sake of the list that made sense to me. At the very least it stops any “you haven’t read X?!?!?” comments when I’ve actually read and enjoyed the first book of the series.

      I could have very easily justified any of the Gaiman books for a vote for myself. I enjoy all of them that are listed and have read/listened to them multiple times.

      I was kind of disappointed Speaker for the Dead wasn’t on the list. I think it is a much better book than Ender’s Game, and I really think highly of Ender’s Game.

      Must read Bujold at some point.

      1. Have posted the list on my livejournal that actually shows what i remember reading, what I own and haven’t read etc… It’s nice to have it where you can go back and say, “oh, that’s something I haven’t read, let’s try THAT shall we!” 😀

         http://merlin513.livejournal.com/7558.html

      2. and YES! you MUST read Bujold!!!! Miles Vorkosigian is a JOY of a character!!!

         1. I bought Cryoburn when it came out because I liked the cover and thought it sounded fun, even though I theoretically have several novels to read before I ever get to it.

      3. I agree about Speaker for the Dead not being one the list because I felt the same way. It’s probably my all-time favorite sci-fi novel. A curious omission.

         1. Yes, especially since the idea of the story itself was done before Ender’s Game, and he wrote Ender’s Game almost as a prequel to set up Speaker. Both are great novels and both deserve to be on the list. Wonder why they didn’t choose to list it as a series, although it could simply be because no one nominated any of the books besides Ender’s Game.

4. I was reading all of the comments and got tired of people complaining about YA not being listed and about certain titles not being listed in the final 100 when the proponent of the title clearly didn’t nominate that title in the first go round. They had open nominations and you could nominate as many titles as you want. That’s pretty darn fair to me.

   I didn’t care for the mixing of SF and Fantasy but was OK (merely OK) with having Series mixed with Standalone.

   More than anything I like being exposed to popular titles and series I’ve never heard of before. Now if I could just remember what 10 I voted for on the final ballot. 🙂

   1. Dan: Ah, you pointed out something else that I meant to say too, which is that I imagine many of the people complaining didn’t bother to actually nominate anything when the time existed to do so. And so yes, their complaints have that extra level of annoyance to them.

      I just voted yesterday and I had a hard time recalling exactly which 10 I voted for after the debates I had with myself. 🙂

5. Well put especially 4 and 5. I’ll post my response sometime this weekend.

   1. I look forward to it Dan!

6. When I voted it said over 53,000 people had voted. That’s pretty impressive for a sample, so I’m looking forward to seeing the winners. I voted for 10 books I’ve read in recent years that I consider very good, but I can’t claim are the best. I just voted for some books that I read or reread in the last several years that I think deserve more attention:

   Earth Abides
   Fahrenheit 451
   The Hyperion Cantos
   The Mars Trilogy
   The Naked Sun
   Replay
   The Road
   The Sparrow

   I omitted to vote for The Windup Girl, and I wished they had offered me the chance to vote for City by Simak.

   Jim

   1. I haven’t read Windup Girl, but I like Bacigalupi’s work a great deal.

      I’m looking forward to reading Replay when it comes up here soon on the Classic Science Fiction Book Club list. Every time I see it in the bookstore I want to pick it up and start reading it.

7. I’ve read 61 of them. But for the books series, I counted every book in the series I’d read.

   John

   1. Either way John, that is impressive! But how could you leave us in suspense as to which of those would be in your Top 10?

8. After I finish this comment I’m going to go vote. We, from your top ten list, is a strong contender on mine. I’ll have to give it some more thought.

   As for your other points…..

   What do you think of the Hugo awards? They’re a combination of expert opinion/popularity contest yes? I just read to of the winners from years past, Hothouse by Brian Aldiss and Deathworld by Harry Harrison. I loved Harrison but found Hothouse contained some pretty poorly written stuff, though it was fun.

   I’ve been on the look out for Bester this summer, not found him yet, but I’ll get to him soon.

   When all is said and done, the fact that NPR is paying attention to the genre is probably good for it in the long run.

   1. I don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining about them doing this, I think it is great. I especially think it is great that an intelligent group like NPR are sponsoring it. I just think they could have been a bit more open about the process, and maybe they will be or have elsewhere and I just can’t find it. And I wish they had either chose one genre or the other or had done two separate polls.

      I actually like all the awards, despite their flaws. They are either accused of being a popularity contest or they are done by some system of judging and people don’t feel like they get their say or what have you. They are a no-win situation in some ways. What I like about awards and about lists like this is that it does give readers some idea of what is at least potentially noteworthy and was found to be by a group of other readers/critics. Still, I’m glad they do them and I’m glad people do these kinds of lists. It is always fun, even when people grouse about it in the comments and let their baser sides show when they do so.

      I will say by and large the people commenting on the NPR site are much kinder than the kind of thing you might get elsewhere.

      We is a very good book. I’m so glad I stumbled across it at BN a few years back. And I really enjoyed Deathworld. I actually liked all 3 books in that series, although the first was the superior novel.

9. I voted too but it was hard because I could obviously only pick books or series I had read. I can guarantee there are better ones I didn’t pick because I haven’t read them yet – like Rothfuss. I picked Neverwhere because to my horror I still haven’t read American Gods! I’d like to think of this as a kick ass great to-read list. I can’t believe people are complaining.

   1. People will always complain when they don’t have favorites on the list. I don’t mind that so much as I do them complaining about various YA titles (Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, etc) that aren’t on the list when the rules clearly stated no YA titles would be included.

      Neverwhere will probably always be my favorite. To be honest, though, had The Graveyard Book been on the list (another YA that couldn’t be included) I would have voted it even above American Gods because I think it is Gaiman’s best written novel to date.

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11. I wouldn’t begin to feel qualified enough to vote, as I’m just not terribly well-read when it comes to either fantasy or sci-fi. (Actually, it quite surprised me to find that I’d read 24 from that list. Though three of those would be asterisked.) But I so loved reading over the top 100 list, and even more, I enjoyed your top 10. In fact, you’ve made me want to move a few books higher up on my TBR pile. 😉

    I know I’ve been absent lately, but I just have to say that I so hope you all have been having a wonderful, if ridiculously hot, summer! Miss you.

    1. It is always a wonderful treat to have you stop by Debi! I hope your family has been enjoying Hell…er, I mean Summer…as well. This current break in the ungodly heat has been nice.

       Sounds to me that you are very qualified to vote if you’ve read 24 of the books! Unless of course you didn’t enjoy them, LOL!

12. I’ve read 83 of the initial list and started 6 or 7 of the others and put them down when they did not interest me. That’s not bad. Which are the best? No, wait it’s FAVORITE isn’t it, not BEST. Well, I can’t narrow it down to 10, or even 20.

13. Vote for Dune, if you like. It’s not really a series the way the Jordan or GRRM are. It’s a novel that was, upon success, followed by other novels. Not the same thing.

14. My count of 83 was items on the list, not books within the items, so if a series was listed and I read the entire series I counted it as 1 read, not 3 or 4 or whatever.

    1. Wow, that is super impressive, Richard. It was very hard for me to pick just 10, I could see how that would be much harder for you to do.

       I certainly consider Dune a stand alone novel having just read it. I realize there are some unanswered questions and a lot is left open for the novels that followed, but I am very content with it as it exists.

15. The list just bugged me, so in the end I didn’t vote. I don’t know how you can be random about standalones, series, and trilogies. Dune, for example, is a favourite of many people but the rest of the series is not supposed to be the best ever. I read series/trilogies all the time where I enjoy the overall experience, but I don’t love every book. I also don’t understand why they include uncompleted trilogies/series. How can you say that it is the best ever when it isn’t finished yet? And, mainly I just wish they had divided the two categories. I know there are crossovers, but the two genres should be separate. I do enjoy both, but I don’t think in a way where I can compare fantasy to sci-fi.

    I didn’t count how many I have actually read

    1. I think they would have been better off sticking to individual novels rather than listing series, especially in the case of people like Patrick Rothfuss whose series isn’t finished.

       And given the classic nature of the book, Dune should have been listed just by itself and not lumped in with the sequels, regardless of how worthy or unworthy they might be.

       1. I think I have read 43 of them. I counted the amount of books in each series I have read, though.

          1. I’m not sure of any of the series that I’ve read more than one other that Wheel of Time.

16. Inevitable problems aside, I am excited about the list. I voted for my ten, and can’t wait for the results. I like what Modern Library did with their top hundred list–the first list was a panel of experts, and then they did a readers poll. I like to look and see what’s on both lists and read those ones first. That’s actually what led me to read Dune for the first time years ago. I think it was number one on the reader’s poll. But now that I think about it, I don’t think it was on the experts’ list at all… But what do they know, really?

    1. And you aren’t going to share what you voted for? Oh, that is just too cruel! 🙂

       I enjoyed the Modern Library list as well, and I do like that format. Actually I like the NPR format as well, I just wish they would have explained exactly how the ‘expert panel’ whittled down the list.

       1. You know, now that I think about it, I didn’t actually vote for 10. I’m either a liar, have a bad memory (I voted a few days ago), or was just very careless in the wording in my comment,lol. I think I voted for about six. I’ve only read 25 on this list, and rather than just picking my ten favorites of those 25, it made more sense for me just to vote for the ones that blew me away somehow or that I really loved reading. I know there are many that I haven’t read that will probably claim that status when I actually get to them someday. For now, though, I voted for Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, Handmaid’s Tale, Shannara Trilogy (although I think the second set of four books is the best), Dune, and 1984. I think I even cast a vote for the Song of Ice and Fire series even though I was too much of a baby to finish the second book. I felt like it deserved a vote.
          I’m mostly excited for the list because even though I love sci-fi and fantasy I’ve read so little of it. I want to know what Joe Reader thinks are the very best, because I know I will probably agree with him 🙂

          1. Thanks for sharing what you voted for. I’m nosy that way. 🙂

             I’ve read about a quarter of Clash of Kings. Its been good thus far and I imagine it will stay that way.

             One thing I always think when I see these lists is that despite all that I haven’t read I can still get excited because that means there are so many books that I have to pick from.

17. Oops! I just checked and Dune was actually #14 on the reader list. Close to the top, though.

18. Cool post! I love lists like this as well. It always leads me to finally reading a new author.

    As for the list I have read 42 on the list and have started but haven’t completed another 12 on the list. I was surprised I’d read so many. Carl I wrote down my 42 so remind me sometime and I’ll share the list with you as I think it would be rude of me to take up that much space as to list them all in your comments section especially with all my other thoughts.

    As for my Top 10. I debated this for quite awhile and then I decided to go by what they said and picked my ” favorite’s ” and not what I think is the best written or classic. My list is as follows in order for me.

    1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, 2. Stardust by Neil Gaiman, 3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, 4. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, 5. The Conan the Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard, 6. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, 7. Watership Down by Richard Adams, 8. The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson, 9. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and 10. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar.

    Again these are just my favorite’s who I voted for and don’t reflect which books are the most important to the genre or best written but are just books that I think of often and have had a big impact on my heart.

    Things that bugged me on this list the mixing of Science Fiction and Fantasy together. They are top big to be lumped together and on top of that there horror books sprinkled in as well. I mean HOW can they include Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and NOT include Dracula by Bram Stoker is beyond me. Dracula would be in my own personal top ten if it were on the list. It’s crazy Dracula is not on this list.

    I also would have voted for Speaker of the Dead were it on the list. While I like Ender’s Game I feel Speaker of the Dead if far superior to it.

    Lastly one last thing that bugs me how do you not include Star Trek and Star Wars books. They are a huge impact on the genre. Are they not series. The worlds of Gene and George just can’t be ignored especially when they have produced so many great books. I personally would like Star Trek books as a series in my own top ten list.

    Lastly it kills me that I didn’t vote for any Heinlein. I would have voted for The Puppet Masters. I hope his juveniles make it on the Top 100 list for YA next summer. I love them. Farmer in the Sky being my favorite right now.

    Anyways that’s my two cents.

    1. I was thinking about Puppet Masters too and wishing it was on the list. I didn’t get in on the NPR list to nominate books, but when I think about the fact that you were only allowed to nominate 5 books total then it is not surprising that certain books didn’t make the list. I’m not sure anything of Heinlein would be in my Top 5 despite how thrilled I am with his juvenile novels.

       Had they separated out Science Fiction and Fantasy and stuck with this series motif it wouldn’t have surprised me to see Star Trek and Star Wars on the list, especially Star Trek given how many authors have worked on the series over the years. And yes, there are some great books in both series, worthy of standing up with some that are on this list and would be on a Top 100 SF only list.

       I think Frankenstein is sometimes considered science fiction because of the “science” of Dr. Victor Frankenstein creating his “monster”. I think it is a pretty loose connection myself and I personally consider it (and Dracula) as classic literature first and then horror second.

       Many of your choices could easily be in my Top 10, and I imagine on any given day my voting would be a bit different. Most of my choices are books I’ve read more than once, and the others are books I strongly desire to read again. And all of them have had a big impact on my emotions, but so did many of those you listed, particular Howard’s books and TTW. I would have a much easier time listing a Top 50 in each category. Or at least I think I would. I should experiment and see if that would be easier or more difficult.

       1. You could only nominate FIVE books. Yikes. Then RAH wouldn’t have made it in my top 5 either.

          I like only picking the top 5 though as my top 5 came quickly and easily to me. It was slots 6 through 10 I debated about a lot more.

          I don’t like the term classic myself because I find it even harder to define than genre definitions myself. I know what you’re saying about Frankenstien but I think the panel is wrong just flat wrong. Frankenstein and Dracula go together like two peas in a pod. Period.

          ST and SW will always get looked down upon which is crazy as sales of those series outweigh I bet 90% or more of the Top 100 list.

          As for the whole JK Rowling thing I agree with you. My bet is that the majoity of those who complained don’t want to admit they actually read a Young Adult book. They are in deinal. 🙂

          1. I have no doubt that when NPR does its YA list next year, or whenever they plan on doing so, that Rowling will be at or near the top of everyone’s list, especially if popular vote holds a big sway with how the list is put together.

             I wouldn’t have allowed Frankenstein in myself, especially not when it took the slot of other books that are more clearly science fiction or fantasy.

19. Wow. I’ve read a ton of these.

    Was very pleased that they included The Snow Queen, The Shattered Chain Trilogy, and the Vurt Trilogy – all are incredible reads.

    Thought they picked the wrong Charles de Lint (even though I love the one they picked).

    Really think they should’ve separated sci-fi, fantasy, and graphic novels – really different forms and worlds.

    Enough of that – I was inspired to post right here

    1. Yes, I don’t understand why that particular de Lint book would have been the one to get the most nominations and find its way on the list. My leanings would be towards Widdershins, but it is also the first de Lint I read and the book that hooked me on his work.

       I’ll check out your posting!

20. Important note to all: as I said above, this list is for the FAVORITE books, not the Best ones, and there is a huge difference. There are a lot of books that for me are favorites but that I know may not be the best of the genre. An example would be Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity.

    1. True. I certainly didn’t mind picking a few that I felt were “best” over a few “favorites” because the reality is that every book that I voted for is a favorite as well. One of these days I need to see if it is difficult or easy for me to make a “Top 100” list of my own for fantasy or science fiction. Considering all the other stuff I read I wonder if I would actually have that many in both categories that I would consider “favorites” vs. just books that I’ve read.

21. Jeff – the Star Trek and Star Wars books are series, they are spin-off novels and they have not, as you say, had a huge impact on the genre. The source TV and films have, but not the spin-offs. What they have had a large influence on is the readership, which is quite a different thing, I believe. I also notice that in your top 10 there are only 2 books that are pre-1980, one of which is very arguably not either SF or F (Watership Down). I find in lists like this there is an awful lot of emphasis on what’s recent, which I guess is just what’s in people’s minds or memory, but that’s an unfair weighting, since favorite books will always be what’s been more recently read…

    1. I also wonder what the age range is for people answering this survey. I know a lot of “older” (and I would lump myself in that category) people are comfortable with tech, but I wonder if the age range for the people who actually took the time to nominate books skews younger? If so one could make the assumption that favorites are more recent novels just because I’m not sure older stuff has the readership that it deserves and certainly doesn’t enjoy the same popularity that it used to.

       If I was one of the ‘expert panel’ I think I would have screen out Watership Down, Animal Farm, and Frankenstein from the final 100, and I would have made an additional rule and not included graphic novels. Not that I don’t have the greatest respect for them, but like YA I think they deserve a poll of their own and shouldn’t be included with the rest of the novels.

       Not to be cantankerous, but I believe half or better of the Top 100 are actually published before 1980, with most of those being before 1970. So actually that is one thing I am actually thrilled about with the list is that it seems to be balanced between “classic” and “contemporary”.

22. There are other ways to determine what books are popular. Look at this page at LibraryThing, a database for tracking the books you own. This list shows which books are the most owned by all the members:

    http://www.librarything.com/z_books.php

    It also tracks what are the most popular authors readers have in their collections. Of course, this is skewed to people who like to use online database to track their books. But still it’s a pretty good statistic sample.

    One fun thing to do is take a title from the NPR list and see where it’s at on the LibraryThing list. Of course, the LibraryThing list includes all books, and not just SF.

    1. Reading your comment Jim makes me realize I’d be interested in going and checking out NPR’s previous summer lists to see what other books in other genres people like.

       I used to use Library Thing and Goodreads more and I should get back to it. There are just so many things to occupy one’s time.

       1. If you do, post the links here so we can follow your explorations.

          Also, do you know about:

          http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/

          http://www.sffmeta.com/home

          http://www.isfdb.org/top100.html

          I’m hoping the results from the NPR list will inspire me to update my list. I need 3-4 new lists to help update it.

          1. I did not, and sorry about not seeing that your comment got held up in moderation because of the links. I thought it was supposed to email me about that.

23. Lovely post, Carl, and thought-provoking. I was surprised and delighted to read as many as I have – 54!! I have to go vote, then I will come back and let you know who I voted for. I’m surprised at what is on as best of, until I catch myself and realize this is a list of people’s favourites. That they are not necessarily the same thing. I totally agree that SF and Fantasy should not be lumped together, because they are distinct genres, despite the modern blending of the two in fiction. I think they do split votes that otherwise would come to this genre – so we get a list of reader’s favourite Sci-fi and fantasy, but not a separate list of each. I would like to see a list of both, next time. They are each flourishing sections in the publishing world. Meanwhile, on to vote, and then I’ll be back so I won’t keep you in suspense!

    Oh – what I thought was left off? Bellwether, by Connie Willis (though very happy to see Doomsday Book on it), instead of To Say NOthing of the Dog, which is not nearly as good. Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint, a much better short story collection than Memory and Dream (which is still very good!) though like you, Widdershin is among the best of his books.

    1. I think I’d probably vote for Dreams Underfoot for the best de Lint short story collection as well, at least of what I have read thus far.

       Knowing that it is people’s favorites makes me wish even more for two separate lists. That way we would have 200 books to be picking over, discussing, agonizing over, etc. Kudos to NPR for deciding to pick SFF though, as any exposure the genre gets is fun for those of us who enjoy reading in these categories.

24. No, you misunderstand. The comment about after 1980 was directed at Jeff’s top ten, not the entire list, on which I believe only Tolkein and Howard are pre-1980. You, cantankerous? I just can’t imagine that.

    Oh by the way, I was in Borders this morning at 10:am when fixtures went on sale. They handed out tickets, then when your number was called you got to tell them what you wanted, or ask questions, or take a second look around… so it took a while. We were #17 (there had apparently been a line, and I stopped to look for an SF book) but after looking around a lot we decided that, as good as the prices for the big bookcase, shelving units, tables and so forth were – they were really good! -we probably didn’t really have a good place for most of it. So we bought a set of 4 very comfy, sturdy leather-topped, metal-legged bar stools for $120, in perfect condition. It seemed the big leather chairs were the hot item.

    1. I gotcha, I did misunderstand. And you are right except Watership Down is also pre-1980. Surprisingly I’m pretty sure I’ve never read that book, even in school where it seems like it was a fixture.

       I’m glad you got some stuff at Borders, and thanks for sharing about the process, I was really curious about how they would keep that from being a free-for-all. I haven’t decided if my last trip to Borders (I made one more after making that Borders post) will be my last or not. It is certainly tempting to go back, and yet I cannot think of anything off the top of my head that I didn’t grab last time. Makes me sad though to think of not going back, although the picked over emptiness of the store might even make me feel more sad.

       Hope you take some pics of your bar stools to share.

25. Great post, Carl, and I agree with all of your points. I nominated books when NPR put the call out and voted earlier in the week. It was difficult, there are many great books on that list. I tried to read through all the comments but got tired of all the whining. I’ve decided that people just don’t read instructions.

    I also love lists. Author’s list, reader’s list, almost any kind, because they always introduce me to something new and, regardless of NPRs process or transparency, I’m hoping this whole thing will introduce new readers to the fabulous worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Now I’m off to count how many on that big list I’ve actually read:)

    1. I just missed the cutoff for nominating by 1 day (procrastination is not a good thing!), which was disappointing. Although I imagine about anything I would have listed with only 5 choices is actually on the larger list.

       I like lists too, especially those by authors I enjoy, at least when they still seem to have a love for reading stories. And of course I love seeing the End of Year posts from all bloggers, whether they read the same kind of stuff I do or not, because I always discover things I want to read that I hadn’t even noticed during the year. That is becoming one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. Interesting how book blogging has added its own traditions to those we’ve fostered throughout our lifetime.

       What books did you nominate, Gavin?

26. Ok I voted! and posted it to my facebook page. I voted for:
    A Song of Ice and Fire
    Lord of the Rings
    Doomsday Book
    American Gods
    Fahrenheit 451
    I, Robot
    Dune series (really for Dune the book itself)
    Fionavar Tapestry (still one of the best myth trilogies I’ve ever read, AND he’s Canadian!
    Wheel of Time Series (because this is still among the best, ever)
    Frankenstein

    I tried to pick books that I both have really enjoyed/read over more than once, and that I think are seminal in the genres. Again, there’s much I haven’t read, that I really want to – Revelation Space, The Demolished Man, to name a very few…..so it really is a list of what I think is very good. I left off so much, too, it hurt!!! No Charles de Lint (I’d have voted for his best, because it is landmark in urban fantasy)! No Robin Hobb! No Kage Baker or Patricia McKillip! No Sunshine, which I love but I don’t think is the best vampire book out there, which has to go to the one that started it all, Interview With the Vampire.

    Isn’t it lovely, I could go on and on, it is an interesting list NPR has compiled!

    1. Yes, it hurt not to vote for McKillip as she was my first exposure to fantasy and I am really fond of her work, but my favorites are not on this list.

       I haven’t read Revelation Space and I’ve heard mixed things, although the trilogy supposedly gets better and better. I have read Chasm City, set in that universe, and it is excellent.

       Fahrenheit 451 is another book that I almost feel ashamed in admitting that I haven’t read it. Never came up for any of the reads I had to do in elementary or high school.

27. When I first starting going down the list, I thought it would be easy to pick 10 since I recognized hardly any of the books. But then I started recognizing more titles, and by the time I got to the end I realized that choosing just 10 would be very difficult. (I’ve actually read 31 books and/or series on the list – not bad, considering the amount of sci-fi and fantasy I read on a regular basis has decreased since high school.) The hardest part about picking 10 was trusting my memory and the younger version of myself – were some of these books really as good as I remember them? I ended up choosing the 10 very quickly, (not something I usually do; I typically agonize over decisions like this), because I knew if I stopped and thought about it, I would never, ever be able to decide between The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.

    In other news: I noticed in previous comments some discussion on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Do go back and read it! It’s fantastic! I recommend reading it during the winter. It’s the perfect book for gray, drizzly weather.

    Thanks for posting this. I’ve been out of the loop, internet/book-wise, so I hadn’t heard about this.

    1. I’ll definitely read Jonathan Strange someday, and it strikes me as a fall/winter book as well, so I appreciate that recommendation.

       I hadn’t really thought about it much, but I’ve read or re-read each of the 10 books I voted for in the last 5 years or so and thus they are fresh in my mind as favorites, which lends credence to Richard’s comments about what is fresh in our minds.

       Other than short stories the only Bradbury I’ve read is Dandelion Wine and it is certainly a favorite. Had it been on the list I think it would have made my top 10.

28. Add me to the list of people who are frustrated by voting for an entire series. Ya’ll know I’m a Rothfuss fangirl, but how can I vote for a series when it isn’t finished yet? I adore Steven Brust, but I’ve only read portions of the Vlad Taltos series because most of it is impossible to find due to being out of print. Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy turned me into a high fantasy fan, but the third book pissed me off to no end.

    sigh.

    oh, and of the books/series listed, I’ve read about 60 of them, or at least portions of those series. or something.

    1. Wow, that is great redhead.

       I agree about the series. If the remained of the Dune books aren’t as good as the first one, should that cloud people’s feelings about voting for Herbert’s work? I don’t think so. I really liked the Wheel of Time books that I read but I’ve heard that some are just awful and so I’d rather see an individual novel or two from that series. I’d rather see Name of the Wind listed on its own, etc.

29. RkR – Not sure what I can tell you but they said favorite so that’s what I went with. At first I struggled with what I thought were the classics and what I really liked. As much as I enjoyed say Foundation and The Stars My Destination for example I just couldn’t put them honestly in my top 10 as I felt as much as I enjoyed them I wouldn’t call them my favorite’s. Did I think they were good? Yes. Do I think they are well written? Yes. More so than say Brandon Sanerson Mistborn series or Time Traveler’s Wife. But well written and classic wasn’t what I thought they were asking. It was your favorite’s.

    I think it’s only natural to gravitate to more recent works as let’s face it 99.9% of books are not timeless. More recent works tend, IMO, to be written in a more natural way for the reader to disgest as the wording is insync with the current culture. Older books suffer for having to be compared to current books if for no other reason than there ease of gramatical style on current ears.

    As for Watership Down. I don’t think it belonged on the list but alas there it was. Should it be YA, yup. I could ignore it I suppose but then I figured if it’s on the list then it won’t be on the YA list so I need to vote for it now because it is a favorite of mine and deserves to be on one of my lists.

    All in all I think NPR completely bungled this list. Fantasy and Scifi together. Bad choice number one. Standalone’s and series lumped together. Bad choice number two. Uncompleted series on the list. Bad choice number three. Not having a YA list out now. Bad choice number four. Non transparent selction process. Bad choice number five.

    Bottom line it sure has been fun to talk about but all in all not a good list to me at all. In fact I honestly doubt I’ll ever look at again. Of course that being said I look forward to the YA list next year and the talk that will stir up. 🙂

    1. Yes, I’ll be right there with the YA list too and will hopefully pay enough attention that I can actually nominate some books when the time comes.

30. I’m going to do a thing I rarely do, which is comment before I’ve read all the other comments, so forgive me if I’ve repeated a point or otherwise stick my foot in it (I just want to get this down before I forget, and it’s late for me)…

    Your point re: having scifi and fantasy on the same list really, really speaks to me. Why are they lumped? It’s the whole “speculative fiction” thing all over again — to suggest that there are connections between the two is reasonable, but no one would put together a romance-mystery list of the sort NPR has put together. Yes, there are readership overlaps between SF/F (and it even has its own acronym of togetherness, see?) But there are huge readership overlaps between mystery and romance, too. There are theme overlaps, I suppose, but are there more themes overlapping than in romance and mystery (to harp on my example)? I would argue not.

    Science fiction is its own thing, as is fantasy, and I think to connect, or rather, forcibly group them, as often as they are is vaguely disrespectful to both. And part of me starts to feel like maybe it’s a little disrespectful to readers of these genres, too — perhaps a little whiff of “SF/F are both completely escapist and unreal and for geeks and nerds who live in their parents’ basements.” I happen to quite like both genres, with a definite bent towards fantasy. My significant other, on the other hand, has very little fondness for fantasy but a deep fondness for scifi. What would he do with a list like the NPR one? By lumping the two together so often, I think we do a disservice to everyone — readers, potential readers, authors, and the works themselves.

    1. kiirstin – Well said !!! I agree with your point completely.

       1. Amen to your thoughts, Kiirstin. It does do a disservice to the genres and also to the readers and the people who might be influenced by this list.

          And the term “speculative fiction” makes me shutter. It feels like one of those terms meant to try to legitimize two genres that I feel are legitimate in their own right, short-sighted critics and elitists be damned.

          Great to have you weigh in.

          1. Hi Kristin, I’m trying to figure out how I feel about lumping the SF and F together. Once upon a time, I was just like your significant other, I would read anything SF but wouldn’t touch F with a ten foot pole. eh, I got over it and now I read tons of fantasy.

             but what about sci-fantasy? I’d consider McCaffrey’s dragonflight series to be Sci-fantasy, and a lot of Michael Moorcock stuff falls into Sci-fantasy too.

             I guess what I’m trying to say is that they are damned if they do, damned if they don’t when it comes to splitting or not splitting the SF&F lists.

             1. I agree that it is in some ways a no-win situation, but I believe the bigger win is keeping the categories separate and honoring/respecting them for what they are. Yes, there are novels/series that aren’t as easy to classify, but classification still happens and even the ones you mention tend to have been given a classification that most agree on as to where they stand in the Science Fiction or Fantasy camp. My biggest problem with it, especially given that this is people’s “favorites” vs. “best”, is that lumping the two together cuts down significantly on the number of books we are all able to look at, talk about, etc. I would rather see 100 favorites in each category, personally.

                I admit I don’t understand people who won’t give a genre a try when it comes to comparing science fiction and fantasy. They do share a common ancestor in their examination of the worlds of imagination and the fantastical. There are great books in every genre, one just has to give them a try.

31. Carl – As for Dune I will say I quite enjoyed books 5 and 6 of the series as much as book 1.

    As for the Wheel of Time books. I think awful is too harsh on some of the middle books. I think that is the vocally minority who whines about any series.

    I would much rather voted for individual books in a series.

    I really didn’t like the inclusion of incomplete series even though I voted for some. It bugs me to vote on something incomplete but they were on the list so what could I do. The rules were what they were so I piced them. Again a big problem with this list.

    1. Glad to know about the Dune books.

       Incomplete series is really more of a faux pas than the complete series. For example, the last book in Rothfuss’ trilogy could be a complete disaster that warps the entire experience. I doubt that will be the case, but still, it could be. If something like that were the case, the first book, The Name of the Wind, could still be seen as an amazing book.

       And I guess more than anything I just don’t understand it. Certainly there has to have been a general consensus on books in a series to where the panel could just pick one book to represent the series.

32. NPR has published the final results. How about a follow up post where we can give our thoughts on the final list?

33. Pingback: And the NPR Science Fiction/Fantasy Winners Are… | Stainless Steel Droppings

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