Top 20 geek novels

[andysocial]

So there was a small poll of the Top 20 English-language geek novels since 1932. Let's see how I did - I'm bolding the ones I've read, and italicizing those I own.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

I guess my geek cred is still intact, although the fact that I've not read Brave New World is somewhat shameful.

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Comments

harh.

[the-detective.livejournal.com]

i was cleaning out my back room over the weekend and i found neuromancer...THE GAME on 5.25 floppy. i almost peed myself.

Re: harh.

[andysocial]

I remember copying that for my friends after I bought it, including xeroxing the code wheel to bypass the copy protection.

I tried playing it in a C64 emulator a while ago...nostalgia is better when absent from reality. :-)

Re: harh.

[the-detective.livejournal.com]

so THAT's where i got it from! heh. thanks. :)
what year was that?

Neuromancer

[andysocial]

That must have been around 1986, I think.

[the-lucky-nun.livejournal.com]

oh, god. it's so nice to see that other people share my love for Neal Stephenson's writings. Brave New World is a good read, and even creepier now that Soma really exists.

Stephenson

[andysocial]

I'm working my way through the final book of the Baroque Cycle now. I even liked The Big U, and Stephenson has just about disavowed ever writing that one. :-)

The only Huxley I've read was "Of Ape and Essence" and that was pretty darned freaky.

Re: Stephenson

[the-lucky-nun.livejournal.com]

I did NOT like The Big U. I don't even think I made it through the first chapter. if that had been my first experience with him, I wouldn't have gone any further. fortunately, my first Stephenson book was Snow Crash.

Re: Stephenson

[andysocial]

Yeah, I started with Snow Crash too. I'm pretty sure the opening scene was in a SF magazine prior to it being published, because Hiro Protagonist and his Pizza Delivery schtick were already familiar to me before I read it. Probably one of the best sequences I've ever read in any novel.