I’m sure everyone has heard about the idiot cop at UC-Davis by now. If not, check out the story here and how he’s been turned into a meme. I happen to enjoy Philip K. Dick’s stories. If you’ve read any of Dick’s books, you’ll laugh at the picture below as well. It was created by the folks at Total Dick-Head.
So, npr did a survey and had more than 600,000 ballots cast to see what’s the best of the best in Science-Fiction and Fantasy books. I’m not going to get into disagreements of what should and should not be on the list, nor that something should be listed higher or lower than where it was placed. I’m simply changing the color of the books I’ve read to see for myself what else I should check out in the future.
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
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
I have read 33 of this top 100 list. If you get rid of all the strictly fantasy books (no crossovers), I’ve read closer to half the list. I’m not a big fan of fantasy.
It is a bit sad that Philip K. Dick only has one entry on the list, but that’s personal bias. I am not 600,000 people. Here’s some other authors who made multiple entries on the list.
As usual, people like to discuss the merits of those who are on the list as well as those who were omitted. Some just like to complain. If you want to read that sort of thing, check out this reddit link.
This book is quite funny. Now, Samuel L. Jackson reads it to you.
Here is the list of books that I have read since I made my last list in August 2010. They are in no particular order other than the order that I remembered them in.
FICTION
Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Goon. Yes, they are little kids books, but I’d never read them before. I actually had them read to me by one of the 7th grade teachers. It was state testing time and she was demonstrating how parodies work. Yes, I’m counting them on my list. They are books and I’ve now read them, dammit!
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I hated it. The 8th grade kids had to read it, so I read along. I would never read this again. The kids liked it though.
Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen. Again, this was a book the 8th graders read. I didn’t care for it. It wasn’t awful, but it certainly wasn’t something I’d pick up to read.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Holy shit! What a fucked up book. What else can you say? The near future United States in The Handmaid’s Tale is not a place I’d want to live. I love dystopian novels, but if I was forced to live in this society, I’d find a way to either kill myself or die trying to overthrow the powers that be.
World War Z by Max Brooks. I read The Zombie Survival Guide and loved it, so when there was a price drop on this one, I finally picked it up. Great book, but you have to like zombies to enjoy such things and I love zombies.
The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox. I have to admit, I would not have read this book on my own. The 8th graders had to read it and it was a pretty good book. I enjoyed it a lot. Yes, it’s graphic at times, but it’s historical fiction. Get over it. Life used to be like this.
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. Again, the 8th graders had to read this book. It was meh.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. The 7th graders had to read this one and, boy, did they hate it. They told me at every opportunity just how bad it was. I didn’t care for it too much, but it wasn’t all that awful. Just make sure, if you ever tell children that you do not care for a book, by the time it reaches back to the teacher, the message is that you hated it and it’s the worst book in the world.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This was another book the 7th graders had to read. I can understand why the kids liked it, but it was awful. The movie was even worse. The terrible part is that I was told these books were a great series so now I have the entire set and I’ll probably never read them.
Making Our Democracy Work by Stephen Breyer. Not a bad book at all. It was a bit dry in places, but, given the topic, it’s not surprising. I knew of most of the cases that Breyer wrote about, but not all the details, nor the stories behind the Supreme Court decisions. If you enjoy reading about that sort of thing you’ll like this book. If you find the Supreme Court and what it does boring and uninteresting, then skip the book.
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch. I really enjoyed this book. A lot of what Ravitch writes about I already knew. Some of it went into more detail than I knew about. In the end, you come out with the conclusion that our public education system is a giant mess in which No Child Left Behind only made worse. If you’re in education, pop on over to the library and check it out. It will probably piss you off, a lot.
The Third Terrorist by Jayna Davis. Interesting read about the Oklahoma City bombing. Davis can’t write for shit, but she brings facts to light that many do not know about. Questions about John Doe #2 remain to this day. The Clinton Administration was too quick to wrap up the story and give us the guilty party, which is why conspiracy theorists continue to ask questions about what really happened.
White House Diary by Jimmy Carter. A good and interesting read. If you hate politics, stay away from this one. If you would like to see a nearly unfiltered look at what it’s like in the White House, check it out.
Last Words by George Carlin. This was done over the course of the last ten years of George Carlin’s life. It’s a shame he’s gone. He was brilliant.
The Origins of World War I by Joachim Remak. Paul is taking a graduate class on WWI and I swiped this book from his reading list. I don’t know much or at least I don’t remember much about WWI, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s actually a great little book and gave me quite a few insights into the war’s origins.
I’ve got a stack of books on my summer reading list as well. I’m hoping to get to them all, but we will see where the summer takes me.
This is the full text of my article from The Daily Censored. Feel free to check out all the other stories there as well.
It was recently announced that the United States would be releasing a new version of Huckleberry Finn that will omit the words nigger and injun. Naturally, this decision is controversial. When you start down the path of open and blatant censorship, the results are never good. It doesn’t matter what the intentions are. When a small, but vocal, group are allowed to decide what is good for everyone, disastrous results always follow.
The word occurs more than 200 times in Huckleberry Finn, first published in 1884, and its 1876 precursor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which tell the story of the boys’ adventures along the Mississippi river in the mid-19th century. In the new edition, the word will be replaced in each instance by “slave”. The word “injun” will also be replaced in the text.
Defenders of this particular censorship of Huckleberry Finn state that this censored version is intended for younger audiences. If you truly believe that child cannot handle swear words or a given topic, then it should probably not be read to them. They will not be able to grasp the historical context or understand the greater meaning of the novel.
it’s exactly that vitriol and its unacceptable nature that Twain intended to capture in the book as it stands. Perhaps this is not a book for younger readers. Perhaps it is a book that needs careful handling by teachers at high school and even university level as they put it in its larger discursive context, explain how the irony works, and the enormous harm that racist language can do. But to tamper with the author’s words because of the sensibilities of present-day readers is unacceptable. The minute you do this, the minute this stops being the book that Twain wrote.
While parents may want their children to read and enjoy Huck Finn, it simply isn’t possible with younger children. They know that nigger is a bad word, but they don’t know why. They may see famous people use the word and not understand why it is permissible for some, but prohibited for others. If a child cannot grasp this, then how are they going to understand the time period, race relations, and that Huck Finn is often said to be anti-racist? If a parent wants a child to enjoy Huck Finn, they should wait until they are older to read it.
Children are also exposed to so many words and outside influences that censoring a single book becomes a ridiculous notion. Unless you keep your child locked in a closet, you can’t censor the world from them. They hear the word nigger, along with a plethora of other swear words on a a daily basis. It is better to educate them on these words than attempt to censor them out of existence. It is an impossible task that only leaves the child resentful.
When you censor a speech, a book, or a movie, you take away its sense of meaning and its purpose. The author chose these particular words for s specific reason. It may be to evoke an emotion. It may be to illustrate a point. It wasn’t put there on accident. We should give the author the befedit of the doubt, knowing that the words are written just as the author intended. To censor any part is to censor the whole.
Language counts here. As Twain himself said: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
When we censor text and video, we are allowing someone else to decide what is acceptable. We are saying that we are not capable of deciding right from wrong. We cannot, and should not, ever allow some bureaucratic entity decide the difference. Just as one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, what words a person finds acceptable, another finds abhorrent. It is the individual’s responsibility to know for themselves what they enjoy.
Mark Twain did not believe in censorship. He felt that anything written should stand on its own merits. If enough people believe that a book is not worth the paper it’s printed on, they will reject it and it will disappear for lack of profit. If, however, a book is deemed to have great value, it will stay the course of time. Huckleberry Finn is over 100 years old and has been enjoyed by millions with nigger and injun included. That should be all there is to say. Censorship of Huckleberry Finn of any kind has never been necessary and never will be.
You can read a point and counterpoint from Salon.com for more details on this issue.
