Amazon's "100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to read in a lifetime"

[terpkristin]

Over in Quick Burns, AndrewP provided a link to Amazon's "100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to read in a lifetime" (from the Amazon Books editors).

Many former club picks in the list. I read 65 of them (and others are on my "To Read" list). Normally I kind of ignore clickbait like this, but let's be honest, I visit Amazon almost daily, so...

[Rob, Roberator]

I think I've done 56. I own a few others though.

[John (Taloni)]

Looks like 55 for me. Hard to get an accurate count the way the lists went to more than one row.

[Michele]

62 that I've either read or started to read but put down, so maybe about 55 I have read all the way through. A few more I haven't bothered to try as the description never interested me, or I read a different book by the author and wasn't compelled to read more by him/her. Several I have on my list for "someday, but not urgent."

[Trike]

Isn’t this the same list from 3-4 years ago? I feel like we’ve done this one already.

[David H.]

I believe I've read 70 of these, with probably half the rest on my to be read list. What an odd list, though, I never expected to see Westerfeld's Uglies on a list like this.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I've read 70.

47 have been Sword and Laser book picks.

[Silvana]

51. I wish there is a sale attached to the list. I think I have around 5 or 6 in my wishlist.

[Phil]

I've read 70 as well. There were a few I've never heard of before.

[Mark]

Here's the Goodreads list version of the Amazon list

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Edit: sort of, so many people are voting that the list has changed, with many more than 100 titles

[Rick]

Thanks Mark.

I have a couple of quibbles but that's actually a very good list. I'd not list every Harry Potter book separately since I doubt each of them alone is among the "100 books one has to read" - I'd just list the series. Much as I like Old Man's War I'm not sure it, Red Rising and RP1 are there either. But overall, yeah, that's a pretty comprehensive list. No one will like everything and we can all argue about a few of the books here and there but it's quite decent.

[Iain]

Of the books there I have read 75 but it seemed like more than 100, (since the list is very oddly formatted).

Its a pretty good list

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

It is oddly formatted. Here is the list. I have separated them into 3 groups.

Those that we read for Sword and Laser (47 Books)

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Among Others by Jo Walton
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Wool by Hugh Howey
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Other books by authors we read for S&L (16 Books)

2001: a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The rest (37 Books)

1984 by George Orwell
Blood Music by Greg Bear
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
H. P. Lovecraft: Tales by H. P. Lovecraft
Harry Potter and the Philosphers's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel by Susanna Clarke
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Riddle-Master by Patricia A. McKillip
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

[Louie]

Here is a version of that list with an easier way to track how many you have read

https://www.listchallenges.com/amazon...

[Trike]

Louie wrote: "Here is a version of that list with an easier way to track how many you have read

https://www.listchallenges.com/amazon..."

That’s much better. I’m more convinced now that we talked about this already, because the stats page shows most people participated in it sometime mid-2015.

Anyway, I’ve read 61/100, and seen the adaptations of 9 others. (The Magicians, American Gods, Last Unicorn, Hunger Games, Time Traveler’s Wife, Cloud Atlas, Outlander, Golden Compass, Howl’s Moving Castle.)

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Trike wrote: "That’s much better. I’m more convinced now that we talked about this already, because the stats page shows most people participated in it sometime mid-2015."

We did. In October 2015.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...?

[Trike]

I knew it. I did.

[Silvana]

Hmm. I have added ten books to my list since October 2015, based on that thread 😅

[Mark]

We’re doomed to repeat threads for all eternity 😭

[Sheila Jean]

I've read at least 52. I honestly can't remember if I did Slaughterhouse Five, Ferenheight 451, Starship Troopers, or i Robot... I might have read these as a teen, but I didn't keep track then.

[Iain]

Silvana wrote: "Hmm. I have added ten books to my list since October 2015, based on that thread 😅"

I think I have done the same, (turns out I now have 72), mainly due to reading books on the S&L list :-)

[Trike]

Silvana wrote: "Hmm. I have added ten books to my list since October 2015, based on that thread 😅"

I’ve added 4. A book per year!

[Rik]

I've read / listened to at least 32 of the books on that list (too many to list) and I might have missed one or two as I was quick counting.

I was forced to read parts of 1984 and Brave New World in high school but not the whole things so I don't really count is as reading or lemming.

I've lemmed 4 on the list: Among Others, Annihilation, Cloud Atlas, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

I wish I'd lemmed a couple of others on it, most notably Red Mars. I got the whole trilogy in some book deal so I felt obligated to read it. I suffered through Red Mars and made it halfway through the second before lemming. Haven't tried a Robinson book again and likely never will.

[John (Taloni)]

^It's good to get to the end of 20,000 Leagues but I will admit I skimmed a lot of the ocean travelogue stuff. I'm with you on Robinson's Mars books. I finished the trilogy and wondered what the heck the point was. Aurora didn't stink though, if you wanted to give Robinson another try. Lengthy diatribes in that book detracted for me, probably added to the allure for readers of a different type.

[Paul]

w00t! 74/100, including only a couple I've lemmed.

Several of the remainder on my list already, although (thankfully) the list itself hasn't made me add any more to far too extensive list!