100 sci-fi books

There's a list making the rounds of "100 Sci-Fi books everyone should read."

Rather than doing the whole list, and bolding the (embarrassingly few) that I've read, I'm just going to list and comment on those I HAVE read. (you can go to either of the links for the full list, and for their comments on them)

So, here are the ones I've read:

The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury (Though I can't remember if I actually finished it.)

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (Scary book, and one of those books, like "Brave New World," where, in my bleaker moods, I wonder if society isn't VOLUNTARILY moving towards that kind of depauperate existence)

(I've also read his "Dandelion Wine." Not really sci-fi, more of a memoir, but I remember finding it quite beautiful, the summer I read it when I was 13 or so).

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (I think most geeky kids growing up in the 80s read this. Maybe even multiple times.)

1984 – George Orwell (Scary book, but I think its future is less likely than the one laid out in "Brave New World," where people voluntarily choose to infantilize themselves)

Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut (I know I read it but I do not remember it now. Not a single plot point. Can you count a book as "I read it" when you don't remember it? I just remember that I decided I didn't care for Vonnegut. I know people love his writing, but I just can't get into it.)

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (Read this in high school. Another book I found scary, mainly because of the seeming soullessness of the droogs.)

A Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne (I remember LOVING this as a 12 year old or so; I tried to re-read it a couple years ago and got so hung up on the scientific inconsistencies that I couldn't enjoy it any more.)

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne (Haven't ACTUALLY read it but it's on my list)

Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton (I liked it better than the movie because I think the book did a better job of raising the question "Just because we CAN do this, SHOULD we?")

Doomsday Book – Connie Wills (Oh my goodness yes. I LOVED this book. This is one of the very small number of books I push on people. It's fascinating and challenging and sad and exciting...)

Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes (Another one of those that raises some important sociological questions, and the whole spectre of "If we can do this, should we?" and also "is it better to have a short period of an "ideal" life and then lose that ideal, than to never know what it was like?" Actually, this is another book that made me sad when I read it.)

Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein (I found it very unsettling. Did not like Valentine Smith at all, did not like Jubal Harshaw (and did not trust any of the characters.) It was a good story but I'd run fast the other way if I met someone like Smith. Or Harshaw, for that matter.)

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle (I have read this many times, first at the age of about 8, when I was probably too young to understand it. I still love it and it seems to get deeper with each re-reading. I've read most of the others in the series as well.)

Out of the Silent Planet – C. S. Lewis (Another "haven't read yet" but I have the entire trilogy on the bookshelf. Aha! Maybe I should take the first volume to read on my trip - I was trying to figure out a not-too-heavy (physically heavy) fiction book to take, and my copy is paperback)

A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge (Started it three or four times, got lost or bored every time.)

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (I don't know. I kind of felt like I was being beaten with a feminist stick for much of this book. Yeah, yeah, misunderstanding religion can make people do bad things.)