Should have written about this yesterday when it was still slightly fresh, but the Top 100 books from the BBC's Big Read campaign have been announced. Is it just me, or do large parts of that list just seem to be there to confirm Sturgeon's Law?
And when what seems to be a collected fan effort has got Raymond Feist's Magician on the list (no, I have no idea what it is either) isn't it slightly depressing that SF fans really seemed to take a pass on this one? Dune is the only 'pure' SF book on there (you could possible include Hitch-Hiker's, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World at a stretch, but it's still less than Terry Pratchett has by himself) - where's Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or even The War of the Worlds?
It's a weird list on the whole. Just when you think it's all decent books you notice that something like Kane and Abel or The Thorn Birds has got in there and High Fidelity and White Teeth haven't. And why are Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials on there as single works while the four Harry Potter books all get on there separately?
I took a quick look at the discussion boards to see what people are saying about it...but when one of the first topics I saw was: Does anybody else think that Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the best book ever written, and should win hands down? I got out of there.
And for those of you wondering...I've read 20 of the list.
And when what seems to be a collected fan effort has got Raymond Feist's Magician on the list (no, I have no idea what it is either) isn't it slightly depressing that SF fans really seemed to take a pass on this one? Dune is the only 'pure' SF book on there (you could possible include Hitch-Hiker's, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World at a stretch, but it's still less than Terry Pratchett has by himself) - where's Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or even The War of the Worlds?
It's a weird list on the whole. Just when you think it's all decent books you notice that something like Kane and Abel or The Thorn Birds has got in there and High Fidelity and White Teeth haven't. And why are Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials on there as single works while the four Harry Potter books all get on there separately?
I took a quick look at the discussion boards to see what people are saying about it...but when one of the first topics I saw was: Does anybody else think that Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the best book ever written, and should win hands down? I got out of there.
And for those of you wondering...I've read 20 of the list.
Nick got away with this at 2:41 AM
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