100 Books, 100 More Books, All the Words Ever

[onceupon]

There's a list of 100 book titles going around on Facebook. Apparently the BBC put this list together; the supposition is that the average person has only read 6 of the books on the list

Comments

[elusis]

More later, but... I've been trying to find an authoritative source to debunk that "the BBC thinks you've read 6 of these books" thing and am only getting ahold of edges. The BBC did do a poll to create a list of audience members' 100 favorite books, which overlaps some with this one, but has distinct differences like listing several of the Harry Potter books separately. (And the list going around FB has some baffling inconsistencies like making "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" two separate entries when the former encompasses the latter... and also is not "a book.")

This blogger said it's from the Guardian, and was created by asking people for "10 books you couldn't live without" thereby assuming people have read 10 books.

I don't know why this is so annoying to me, except that memesheepery has been a low-level irritant for a long time, and Facebook seems to be the ideal petri dish for it as half the people there don't even know the difference between a Google result and the Facebook login

[onceupon]

I think lists like that exist as a way for nerds to feel superior. I really do. Mostly, I think it's interesting to see what other people have read. It does make me feel like a word shark. *laugh* I actually haven't seen any outrage from people on this one - just a couple of people tagging me with their own, uncommented-upon lists.

[crossbonesdj]

Some books that I love:

Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff (given to me by someone who suffers from multiples, and believes it is one of the best books told from that perspective)

Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne

Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman

Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids by Donna Gaines

The Sam Jones Mysterys by Lauren Henderson

Anything by Cynthia Heimel (especially Sex Tips for Girls)

[onceupon]

Added to my list to check out via samples! Yay!

[kisekinotenshi]

Honestly, you've probably read everything I have to recommend, but some of my favorite authors are:

Sheri S. Tepper
Octavia E. Butler
Donna Jo Napoli
Garth Nix

For good, dark vampire fiction, (from before it was all popular), the Sonja Blue series by Nancy A. Collins is really good.

I am also going to assume you've read the Oz books and the Anne of Green Gables series. I've been re-reading those lately. X3

[onceupon]

I do love me some Octavia Butler!

How preachy is The Waters Rising? I've picked it up and put it down several times, looking at it.

I enjoy Oz but I LOVE Anne. LOVE.

[kisekinotenshi]

I actually haven't had a chance to read it yet, the most recent of her books that I've read is The Margarets, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I adore the Anne books. I was so mad when I downloaded the collection for the Kindle and Anne of Windy Poplars wasn't included, that's my favorite one! I guess there's some copyright issue or something, because I can't find a Kindle version of it anywhere. XP

[nancylebov]

Nnedi Okorafor: Zarah the Windseeker and the rest of her books. I'd call it magical realism with a little world-building. This one is YA, her more recent novels are harsher stuff, and excellent.

China Mieville: Un Lun Dun. Surrealist YA with good puns and weirdness.

Greer Gilman: Moonwise. Fantasy's answer to James Joyce. Just about every paragraph has a reference to poetry, other fantasy and/or ballads. Exceedingly fine puns and gorgeous descriptions.

[onceupon]

*grin* I've actually read all of that. I started reading Nnedi after I met her at Wiscon two years ago.

[the_axel]

Also everything else by China Mieville. The ending of Perdido St Stn got a bit gratuitous (much like the end of Consider Phlebas only more so. Including his blog.

A bit of the old M. John Harrison would probably not go amiss.

I recently discovered that Michael Moorcock has written a Dr Who novel, which tickles my fanboyish heart.

I'm sure you're more than familiar with the books of Messrs Vonnegut & Cave so I won't suggest them.

It seems that I'm not really reading new fiction at the moment.

[kat1031]

I picked up Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger at the grocery store and found it phenomenal. I picked up The Time Traveller's Wife the weekend after that. It was also enjoyable, but not quite as good as Symmetry

If you like magical realism and you haven't done those, they're worth it.

[onceupon]

I read The Time Traveller's Wife first and just... found it kind of creepy and not at all the romance people said it was. Like... it just doesn't work for me as a concept. So I didn't pick up Her Fearful Symmetry - you say it is better so I will give it another chance!

[kat1031]

Symmetry is undoubtedly creepy as well... I just found the characters more fully fleshed out. Some of the people and the relationships are deranged, but it's a sensible derangement, if that makes any sense.