Scifi Books Meme.

I can't remember if I'd done this before, so here goes... (maybe again).

The NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels with the ones I have read in bold:


1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony (But not all of them, just the first dozen or so)
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Fifty out of one hundred.  Not bad, but I see an Amazon purchase in my future.

burning books

Today I burned a copy of the Koran.

Yeap, I found a .pdf version and burned it to CD.

I'm waiting for the Imam's to declare a fatwah against me. (or would that be for me?)

The right of...

The right of the people to keep and bear arms for self-defense and defense of the homeland shall never be infringed, limited, rescinded, interfered with, or prohibited by any decree of law, decision by court, or policy by the executive branch or any of its agencies. And this time, we mean it.

Catcher in the Rye.

J.D. Salinger, author of that classic American literary novel, passed away yesterday. I, like I suppose many others, have read his lone novel.

What struck me most about reading the Washington Post's article on the man, his life, and his works was this quote.

"Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure."

Could Mr. Salinger have been one of the worlds first bloggers? It seems to me he certainly understood what writing is all about for most of us in the blogosphere.

Am I taking crazy pills here?

I was reading something the other day, it's not important what, the the following passage caught my attention;

The President is chosen for four years, and he may be reelected; so that the chances of a prolonged administration may inspire him with hopeful undertakings for the public good, and with the means of carrying them into execution.

Nice, huh.

The same thought might be applied to senators and representatives as well, no? That they would, with an eye on getting reelected might weigh their actions in office wisely and with care. It seems to me that the opposite is true of our current crop. They are shoving legislation down our throats, with out regard, for we people that they supposedly represent as if they don't care that they have elections coming up in 11 months. There seems to be an attitude of "Damn them all, let's get what we can, while we can."

When you ponder on the caliber of men like Jefferson, Payne, Madison, Washington, Hancock, et. al.

Have we really gone from the age of Gentlemen/Statesmen to Pirate/Politicians?

My Reading Desk.

I think I've mentioned before whats on my reading desk. Usually it's a pile of paperbacks, science fiction or fantasy mostly, waiting to be read or reread. I have a bunch of standards that I like that I try to reread every year or two.

Right now, I've thrown away my always read from the top of the pile rule and started in on Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. The title is two volumes detailing what this Frenchman found on examining the democratic and republican practices in 1830's America. He came over to this side of the Atlantic ostensibly to study the American penal system. But instead he published a series of books that examined the state of the system of government that our founding fathers had established and had grown over 50 years of peaceful development.

Our country had yet to be tested by the Civil War or any of the world wars that were to follow. Many at the time wondered if this form government and rule of law was strong enough to survive a trial of that magnitude.

Anyway, I'm just starting on these volumes, but one thing caught my attention from his foreword. De Tocqueville writes:

"Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive."

I'm finding in many ways that de Tocqueville's thought and opinions are sort of a precursor to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. He, much like Ms. Rand, thought that democracy can only last until the people start voting themselves largess's from the government treasury.

Something else that he wrote about in his foreword. He advanced the theory that democracy is the form of governance that all societies move towards. He took France and England from the 11th century through the modern era as his examples. Stating that gradual adoption of the principles of democracy into local and town governments were the natural course.

I'm left wondering, based upon today's societies both here in America and around the world if de Tocqueville might have been a little optimistic there. I see a tendency towards Absolutism rather than democracy as the unpiloted course. And yes, I'm looking at society here in the states.

These are just my initial thoughts on the first few chapters of Alexis de Tocquevill's books. I'll try to update you on what I read and what I think about it as I get farther into them.