NOTE: Please read the requirements for this list before adding things. :)

u/p0x0rz undertook upon himself the gargantuan task of surveying the general users of r/fantasy and collating the results to find out what fantasy everybody thought other people ought to read. This list is the result of that collation. :) To find the original post, please check http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comme...

Series should have no more than 5k ratings on Goodreads, with some exceptions. This is a "soft" rule. If there's someone that you really want to submit that has six or seven thousand ratings, it's not a big deal. When in doubt, submit! Note: This is for individual books in the series. A whole series can have way more than 5k votes, but as long as no book within it has, say, 100,000 reviews, it's good. :)
Nothing that got more than five votes on our "Reddit Top 100" thread! I'll post the link to that thread at the bottom of this OP. This, combined with the GR thing, should winnow out books that have just been released, and so don't have many GR reviews, but are otherwise very popular. The list can be found at http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comme...

Also, please only add the first book of a series, not the entire series. It's not fair to the rest of the books that have been voted on to have the whole series added. Thanks!
1

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4.17 avg rating — 57,044 ratings
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2

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4.04 avg rating — 20,507 ratings
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3

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4.10 avg rating — 18,862 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 25,954 ratings
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5

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4.60 avg rating — 10,395 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 42,926 ratings
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7

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4.14 avg rating — 412,278 ratings
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8

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3.98 avg rating — 16,181 ratings
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9

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4.09 avg rating — 12,876 ratings
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10

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4.07 avg rating — 18,205 ratings
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11

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3.88 avg rating — 10,087 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 384,260 ratings
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13

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4.05 avg rating — 15,975 ratings
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14

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3.96 avg rating — 10,726 ratings
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15

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3.93 avg rating — 54,426 ratings
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16

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4.18 avg rating — 42,638 ratings
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17

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4.27 avg rating — 10,662 ratings
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18

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3.96 avg rating — 23,262 ratings
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19

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3.52 avg rating — 3,004 ratings
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20

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3.86 avg rating — 6,506 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 13,244 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 23,204 ratings
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23

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3.93 avg rating — 5,444 ratings
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24

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3.98 avg rating — 13,098 ratings
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25

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3.83 avg rating — 46,302 ratings
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26

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3.77 avg rating — 13,271 ratings
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27

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3.89 avg rating — 9,328 ratings
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28

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3.89 avg rating — 81,593 ratings
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29

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4.01 avg rating — 7,389 ratings
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30

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3.97 avg rating — 15,435 ratings
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31

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3.87 avg rating — 5,016 ratings
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32

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4.13 avg rating — 63,683 ratings
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33

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3.74 avg rating — 18,351 ratings
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34

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3.97 avg rating — 5,652 ratings
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35

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3.88 avg rating — 10,842 ratings
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36

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3.75 avg rating — 13,429 ratings
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37

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4.23 avg rating — 76,740 ratings
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38

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4.10 avg rating — 40,292 ratings
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39

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4.29 avg rating — 41,501 ratings
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40

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3.85 avg rating — 792 ratings
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41

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3.82 avg rating — 23,008 ratings
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42

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3.68 avg rating — 3,936 ratings
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43

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3.64 avg rating — 13,552 ratings
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44

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3.71 avg rating — 2,505 ratings
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45

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3.74 avg rating — 7,587 ratings
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46

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3.99 avg rating — 8,267 ratings
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47

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3.72 avg rating — 9,362 ratings
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48

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4.02 avg rating — 4,893 ratings
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49

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4.14 avg rating — 56,108 ratings
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50

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3.94 avg rating — 12,602 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 8,237 ratings
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52

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3.59 avg rating — 4,028 ratings
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53

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4.03 avg rating — 3,812 ratings
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54

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3.51 avg rating — 6,594 ratings
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55

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3.85 avg rating — 8,067 ratings
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56

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4.12 avg rating — 15,592 ratings
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57

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3.96 avg rating — 7,732 ratings
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58

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3.84 avg rating — 3,786 ratings
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59

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4.03 avg rating — 9,273 ratings
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60

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3.77 avg rating — 7,094 ratings
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61

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4.41 avg rating — 91,825 ratings
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62

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3.78 avg rating — 6,357 ratings
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63

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3.89 avg rating — 9,996 ratings
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64

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4.10 avg rating — 2,480 ratings
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65

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3.70 avg rating — 6,364 ratings
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66

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4.03 avg rating — 4,737 ratings
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67

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4.34 avg rating — 16,050 ratings
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68

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3.93 avg rating — 28,728 ratings
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69

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3.76 avg rating — 9,479 ratings
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70

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4.17 avg rating — 92 ratings
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71

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3.65 avg rating — 11,947 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 5,978 ratings
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73

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3.99 avg rating — 4,579 ratings
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74

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4.07 avg rating — 13,514 ratings
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75

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3.81 avg rating — 3,726 ratings
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76

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3.30 avg rating — 2,054 ratings
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77

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3.87 avg rating — 7,592 ratings
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78

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3.76 avg rating — 2,119 ratings
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79

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4.08 avg rating — 4,861 ratings
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80

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3.96 avg rating — 755 ratings
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81

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3.91 avg rating — 1,552 ratings
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82

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4.11 avg rating — 2,078 ratings
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83

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3.97 avg rating — 31 ratings
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84

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3.62 avg rating — 789 ratings
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85

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3.89 avg rating — 4,171 ratings
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86

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3.57 avg rating — 4,502 ratings
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87

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4.09 avg rating — 6,215 ratings
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88

by
4.09 avg rating — 14,262 ratings
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89

by
3.76 avg rating — 10,999 ratings
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90

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,443 ratings
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91

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3.96 avg rating — 11,099 ratings
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92

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3.84 avg rating — 5,821 ratings
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93

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4.22 avg rating — 11,274 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 5,064 ratings
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95

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3.97 avg rating — 8,465 ratings
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96

by
3.80 avg rating — 298,955 ratings
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97

by
4.05 avg rating — 6,127 ratings
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98

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3.98 avg rating — 3,450 ratings
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99

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3.96 avg rating — 859 ratings
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100

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3.27 avg rating — 2,305 ratings
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725 books · 1,088 voters · list created May 11th, 2014 by Amanda (votes) .
855 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Amanda 6017 books
83 friends
Michael 1169 books
19 friends
Nathan 83 books
28 friends
Manan 733 books
66 friends
Daniel 73 books
7 friends
Herder of Squirrels 64 books
0 friends
Jeannette 631 books
61 friends
Lisa 1365 books
507 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Grack21 (new)

Grack21 Less self published sock puppeting then I would have excepted- oh there it is.


message 2: by Vicii (new)

Vicii There are lots on here that look great - I've just added a whole load to my TBR list


message 3: by Joey (new)

Joey Decent list. Poaching a lot here.


message 4: by Jonas (new)

Jonas Gehrlein Someone needs to keep kick out book with to many ratings. there are to many with over 10 K ratings


message 5: by Grack21 (new)

Grack21 Ahhh there's the blatant self promoting.


message 6: by Alex (new)

Alex Parker [redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D.] wrote: "Ahhh there's the blatant self promoting."

Why not? It's a good book.


message 7: by Enzo (new)

Enzo thank you for this list!


message 8: by Mitchell (last edited Jul 31, 2015 08:19AM) (new)


message 9: by Sarah (new)

Sarah Given that the directions at the top say a soft rule of 5,000 I've gone ahead and removed anything with more than 8,000 ratings:

The Crown Tower
The Emperor's Blades
Among Thieves
Jhereg
The Black Company
The Dragon's Path
Luck in the Shadows
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Bone Doll's Twin
The Curse of Chalion
The Devil You Know
City of Golden Shadow
Rivers of London
Daughter of the Empire
The Briar King
Finnikin of the Rock
Titus Groan


message 10: by Sarah (new)

Sarah Continued:

The Steel Remains
The Last Wish
Warlock
Annihilation
Gregor the Overlander
Raven's Gate
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves


message 11: by Amanda (new)

Amanda Not cool, dude.


message 12: by Amanda (new)

Amanda To anyone who cares, this list was created a year ago by me as a corollary to the /r/Fantasy Underread and Underrated List, which was voted on and finalized by the members of /r/Fantasy and can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comme...

I've basically left alone any addition to the list that was relatively related to the original spirit of the list, but the original occupants of that list REALLY OUGHT to stay on the list. I'm going about re-adding them as I can. I am really sorry that the votes have been lost, and I think that it's really sad that they have been.


message 13: by Mitchell (last edited Oct 15, 2015 08:57PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman Amanda wrote: "To anyone who cares, this list was created a year ago by me as a corollary to the /r/Fantasy Underread and Underrated List, which was voted on and finalized by the members of /r/Fantasy and can be ..."

I'm confused. As the list creator - what exactly are the criteria for books on this list? Books that were on http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comme... and only that list?

Then I suggest you change the list description to say that - and drop any mention of the rest of the historical rules - or at least describe it as "this list was created initially by the following ... " but now you should consider it an absolutely static list and only pick books from that link. And no book should be removed from this list for reasons of ratings or anything else - unless it is not on that external link.

I for one pulled my votes from this list.


message 14: by Amanda (last edited Oct 16, 2015 05:19AM) (new)

Amanda Because there is no way to make a list static, and because once a list is created it is considered property of the community, (and also because I read somewhere that librarians making edits to Listopia lists that are not absolutely necessary risk losing not only their Librarian status but also their Goodreads membership,) I was absolutely fine with books added to this list that were added in the spirit of the list. I did, however, create the list when the /r/Fantasy list was published while working with the creator and after it was voted on over at /r/Fantasy (www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy), so I truly feel those original books should *stay* on the list. I never thought someone would come through and just remove them without even dropping a note to me, given that I'm a fairly active user and very responsive to notes.

Were there a way to make the list static, I would have done it, but the reality is that there is not yet such a setting and that controlling voting and additions will always be a problem. If you want to see the original list, it's linked in the header or you can find it here: hhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm... I have also got all the books added on a bookshelf on my personal page, which can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

This isn't the place to critique lacking Goodreads features, but with the limitations after I created this list, I've tended to post mine with Google Sheets links instead, despite the fact that there are some absolutely fabulous top threads over at /r/Fantasy and I've led a couple. Feel free to check their top lists found in the sidebar, voted on by members of the community, in the sidebar. (Note: I am not a mod, just a user who loves the community :D)


message 15: by Mitchell (last edited Oct 16, 2015 07:01AM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman Amanda wrote: "Because there is no way to make a list static, and because once a list is created it is considered property of the community, (and also because I read somewhere that librarians making edits to List..."

As a librarian, when you remove a book from a list, you see the following message "Only delete books from the list that are totally miscategorized. Deleting books that aren't will result in a loss of librarian privileges, and possible deletion of account. We're super serious!".

That said, I became a librarian on Goodreads primarily to remove books from lists. I volunteer manage lists with very specific criteria some of which I created. Mostly the problem is author related spam, wrecking the lists with irrelevant books that no one will ever hear of. And of course random books that people drop in that are completely unrelated. Removing books for being above or below the number of ratings is typical. So I know a list such as this one could be managed.

For example - check out

Best Fantasy with between 1000 and 9999 ratings
Best Fantasy with between 100 and 999 ratings
Best Fantasy on Goodreads with less than 100 ratings

So basically what you are saying for this list is to librarians - feel free to remove any books with over 5000 ratings - but first verify that they are not on the static list. If they are, leave them alone.

But there are no minimums. I would suggest that for any book published since 2000 that there be a minimum number of ratings of 100 to keep most spam off. With the understanding that there as well a book on the static list would be left alone.


message 16: by Loreley (new)

Loreley Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) has 194,056 Ratings
hardly underread :) but it appears in reddit list with one vote. should it be removed?


message 17: by Charles (new)

Charles I can't be bothered with this. If it can't be a static list then let it evolve naturally and let librarians remove books that don't fit the criteria, leaving a link to the original list in the description. Until then I'm pulling my votes.


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