The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
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The 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Die, According to Amazon
Mod
Kind of a letdown really...
65. A lot of the newer ones I've read are because of this group and a lot of the ones I haven't I've never heard of.
Weird list. Some undeniably great stuff that's going to show on almost any serious SFF list (Neuromancer, etc), some stuff that's a bit underexposed (Butler's Kindred for example) and some things that feel like "we need some recent popular stuff here!" filler (Ready Player One, The Rook, World War Z). To forestall the outrage... I'm not saying that the last group is bad, but they don't feel much different from a fairly random collection of widely talked about, popular SFF from the last few years.
Mod
The Sword and Laser Book club has read 39 of them.
Estimate - have read about 45 all the way through and significant portions of another 25 or so. I'm surprised - I usually don't have quite that high a proportion of all-through books.ETA: Just checked for books I don't know. One. YOWTCH! (Red Rising by Pierce Brown.) Where did this list COME from?
I was first recommended Red Rising last winter, by a very enthusiastic fan. I got the audio book, and got a little over a chapter in, and just wasn't feeling it. So I lemed it, but in the true sense of the word, I do plan on getting back to it at some point in time. I just have a lot I would like to get to first.I'm at around 40, and I agree with Rick that the mix is a little heavy on past 5 year stuff. Like most lists like this we have talked about over the years.
I've read 26 which is pretty low but I DNF'd a few more.
57. But come on, Ready Player One?That's like having a list of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach and John Mayer.
68. A real mixture on the list, which I agree seems a bit forced with modern popular fillers.
Mod
That's like having a list of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach and John Mayer."
To be fair. There are a few John Mayers (ie duds) on that list ;-)
I liked Ready, Player One but it wouldn't make my Top 100 (or 1000) either.
Mod
This is books to read before you die, not best written or whatever. I think that's why the newer 'John Mayer' books make a lot of sense personally.
Managed 61 - quite a few more are already on my TR shelf.Not the list I would've come up with but shows a good balance.
I've read about half of these, so I'm going to skip the rest and live forever!
54 in total and plenty of them on my " to read list". There are some books on this lists which i enjoyd, but who wouldn't be on my best 100 list.
I managed 40, if I counted right.Did anyone else notice that "Vote on Goodreads" link in the image at the top? That list is a bit different.
It looks like I have some work ahead of me, I've only read 35 of the books listed.
Mod
Did anyone else notice that "Vote on Goodreads" link in the image at the top? That list is a bit different."
That's because people added books to the list.
I dig John Mayer's electric guitar stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncijv...Huh. Scott Westerfeld's Uglies is on there. That's YA.
Tamahome wrote: "I dig John Mayer's electric guitar stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncijv...Huh. Scott Westerfeld's Uglies is on there. That's YA."
So are Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Golden Compass, and others. Could still be they're worth reading.
I've read 50 and tried about 10 more without finishing them. And about another 20 were already on my wishlist. The only one I'd never heard of was Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus and I added that one. (I thought she only wrote short stories for some reason)
58. I like that Amazon has the link to weigh-in/vote for yourself at Goodreads. Many of the 58 were also S&L picks. Guess that means we do "popular" things. ;) :p
Rob wrote: "This is books to read before you die, not best written or whatever. I think that's why the newer 'John Mayer' books make a lot of sense personally."De gustibus, but I expect any book I must read before I die should be a life changing event. I don't think Ready Player One qualifies unless you're Natalie Portman's character in Garden State. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone wasn't born between 1955 and 1990 and exposed to heavy amounts of American culture in the '80s.
And some of the other choices -- Shannara, Thomas Covenant Rapist -- I wouldn't even recommend to people who are already dead.
Sean wrote: "And some of the other choices -- Shannara, Thomas Covenant Rapist -- I wouldn't even recommend to people who are already dead. ..."
Brilliant. :)
I agree - books like RP 1 etc are fine, it's just the way the list is pitched. Even things like The Rook, Red Rising... are they really books I need to read before I die? Nah, probably not (to me, such a book needs to be re-readable or at the least, something that sticks with me). Had they pitched it as "100 Books That will give you a feel for SFF", yeah. But of course one of the reasons people talk about lists like this is that they're pitched as Best/Need to read before dead and the like. Which is good - it gets people talking about books, after all.
I really do think they started out this list and realized that they were filling it up with recognized classics - The Martion Chronicles, Lord of the Rings, Neuromancer, etc - and added some lesser know stuff (the Butler, others) and then felt they needed to add in some other, more recent works. In other words, it feels like a balancing act.
Too, remember that this is an Amazon list. It's partially there to spur sales.
39. And as much as I love Sanderson, I could have died without reading Steelheart. But there are another 15 at least that are high on my to-read list.
@sky - yeah, any list like this will have some WTF books for any given reader but honestly, it's a good list of both books and authors if you're in a reading rut and looking for suggestions.
I've read 35. I have several others on my to read list.
Another odd thing about the list is the duplication of titles. 23. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) 83. The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6) Butn then 58. The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7). Then there is: 79. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, #1-3) And, 81. Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, #1)
I don't think this is a curated list, or even one given editorial review. Just something generated by votes, sales, tweets, or something like that.
I don't think this is a curated list, or even one given editorial review. Just something generated by votes, sales, tweets, or something like that.
David wrote: "Another odd thing about the list is the duplication of titles. 23. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) 83. The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6) Butn then 58..."You're looking at the Goodreads list as opposed to the Amazon list. I believe that you're right that the Goodreads list is just generated by votes so you get the weird duplication you're noticing.
When they leave off all of HG Wells, I really have to wonder how good the list is.
John (Taloni) wrote: "When they leave off all of HG Wells, I really have to wonder how good the list is."The Time Machine is there.
56. And yeah, the list has some good stuff on it but it's kind of weirdly random.
61 for me. That is a very odd list. Some are new and popular, some are classics, many are wonderful stories, and some are just "WTF is that doing here?".
Rob wrote: "I've probably recommended Ready Player One to more people than any of the other books. It's one of my favorites personally.This is books to read before you die, not best written or whatever. I think that's why the newer 'John Mayer' books make a lot of sense personally. ."
It's a list of science fiction books you MUST read before you DIE.
That kind of implies they should be transcendent in some way, not stuff to kill time while waiting at the doctor's office that you'll forget a week later. This is like a list of "Places you must visit before you die" and it's the Grand Canyon, Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall and Iowa's Third Largest Ball of Twine. Not third largest in the world, third largest in Iowa.
Not exactly a memorable experience equal to the others.
Trike wrote: "Rob wrote: "I've probably recommended Ready Player One to more people than any of the other books. It's one of my favorites personally.This is books to read before you die, not best written or wh..."
Depends on how big a fan you are of architecture compared to twine and Iowa.
Kevin wrote: "Depends on how big a fan you are of architecture compared to twine and Iowa. "Nobody is that big a fan of twine.
A list of science fiction books you MUST read before you DIE. At 100 books that's way too long. I'm sure that the romance, crime, spy, travel, adventure, gothic, Bible, biographic, comedy, erotic, gangster, horror, superhero, etc. readers could all come up with lists of 100 books you MUST read before you DIE. I don't have time for that. I might look at a top 10 list. Top 3 or 5 make more sense. But it is a bit presumptuous to think anyone NEEDS to read 100 books in any genre.
Even better is if you like X then Y in this genre might appeal to you.
Even better is if you like X then Y in this genre might appeal to you.
35 and I have copies of about two dozen more of the books in TBR stacks. Too many books to read.
David wrote: "A list of science fiction books you MUST read before you DIE. At 100 books that's way too long."What? You can get that done in a year. It's no big deal.
Sean wrote: "David wrote: "A list of science fiction books you MUST read before you DIE. At 100 books that's way too long."
What? You can get that done in a year. It's no big deal."
Ah, but do you want to spend a year reading the 100 western romance novels you MUST read before you DIE? Or how about a year reading the 100 robinsonade plays you MUST read before you DIE? Or the 100 sacred texts you MUST read before you DIE? Life is too short.
What? You can get that done in a year. It's no big deal."
Ah, but do you want to spend a year reading the 100 western romance novels you MUST read before you DIE? Or how about a year reading the 100 robinsonade plays you MUST read before you DIE? Or the 100 sacred texts you MUST read before you DIE? Life is too short.
I'd add a further nuance to the general complaint: to me, a 'books you must read before you die' list shouldn't even be the same as a '100 best books' list. Because there are a lot of good books that are, well, similar to one another. So when you've read some, you don't really NEED to read the others. They're not going to change your life. But they might still be great! They'd be great on a "you're going to live a long, long time so here's the best way to spend your time" list, but not so much on a "make sure you've read these things" list. Conversely, some books you should read before you die aren't necessarily even all that good! For that sort of list a really thought-provoking, challenging, DIFFERENT sort of book is more appropriate than yet another mainstream book, even if the latter is better than the former.To give a concrete musical example, let's say we're coming up with a list of 100 pieces of classical music to hear before you die. And we get down to: should we include Beethoven's 8th symphony, or Scriabin's 'Vers la flamme'?
Almost everybody would agree that B's 8th is better than VLF. If you're making a 'best of all time' list, you put the symphony on it, not the piano piece. But if you're making a real 'make sure you listen to these' list... after you've put Beethoven's 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, and maybe 7th symphonies on the list, does the hearer really gain all that much by listening to the 8th as well? On the other hand, most people may have no time for 'Vers la flamme' at all... but it's different, and it helps show what music is capable of, and some small minority of people will respond to it powerfully.
I'd rather have '100 books to read before you die' list were a list of books like Vers la flamme, rather than a list of books like Beethoven's 8th symphony or Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto (it's good, but once you've heard the 2nd do you reall NEED the 3rd?)...
I think you all are placing a little too much importance on a list title that was chosen as a simple marketing trick.
55. Some of the others are in my audible queue. :)
Kevin wrote: "I think you all are placing a little too much importance on a list title that was chosen as a simple marketing trick."This is the INTERNET. Everything is of equal importance here.
40 books. Never heard about 20 books. I don't believe in these kinds of lists (at the end, it's all about the personal taste), but still good to know and count :)
It is a list. Some I like and some I do not like. I do not agree with many of them, but I am not the final arbiter of taste either. It just so happens that Amazon sells them all. You do not suppose that had anything to do with it HMMMM?
71 for me. The good news is even if you read every book on this list, you'd still be woefully under-read to be considered an expert on the genre's (i.e. there are a lot LOT more very good reads out there).
A bunch books we have stacked up in the warehouse that we need to move (plus a bunch of classics)
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Books mentioned in this topic
Nights at the Circus (other topics)Red Rising (other topics)
http://www.amazon.com/s?rh=i%3Aenglis...