h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
2. Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
3. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
4. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
5. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
6. The Firm, John Grisham
7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
8. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
9. Poland, James Michener
10. 1984, George Orwell

1. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Dispossessed, Ursula K. le Guin
3. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
4. Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
5. Xenogenesis (trilogy), Octavia E. Butler
6. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
7. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
8. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
9. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
10. Kartanonherra ja kaunis Kirstin, Kaari Utrio

I have read LOTR about ten times, didn't like the movies. Ender's Game and Speaker for the dead are way different from each other and work quite well individually (I think I even read Speaker for the Dead before Ender's game the first time), so I put them separately (and I didn't like Xenocide and Children of the Mind as much), the trilogys are as one because their books are quite similar (and it would be quite odd to read just one book of LOTR, they don't really have endings, from Xenocide one could read just one book but it's best if one reads them all). Kaari Utrio is a finnish writer, writes historical romances (and some historical non-fiction).

1. Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray
2. Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
3. The Waves, by Virginia Woolf
4. The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay
5. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne
6. The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell
7. Earthly Powers, by Anthony Burgess
8. I, Claudius, by Robert Graves
9. The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri
10. Travels with my Aunt, by Graham Greene

Top 10 Books


1. The Bible – I Am
2. Lord of the Rings – J.R.R Tolken
3. Who moved my cheese - Spencer Johnson
4. Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe (series)– DNA
5. Piercing the Darkness - Frank Peretti
6. This present dakness – Frank Peretti
7. He came to set the captives free – Rebecca Brown
8. 2001-Trology- Arthur C Clarke
9. The Earth's Children Series- Jean M Auel
10. Tutankhamen- T.G.H. James

In no particular order, with sneaky inclusions of trilogies as single books...

1: Fight Club by Chuck Palanhuick
2: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
3: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
4: Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
5: King of the City by Michael Moorcock
6: Jennifer Government by Max Barry
7: The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
8: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
9: Vurt by Jeff Noon
10: Neuromancer by William Gibson.

1. Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones
2. The Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones
3. The Far Country, by Nevil Shute
4. Secret Water, by Arthur Ransome
5. Persuasion, by Jane Austen
6. Charmed Lives, by Diana Wynne Jones
7. Apple Bough, by Noel Streatfield
8. Three Cheers for the Paraclete, by Thomas Keneally
9. On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. No Highway, by Nevil Shute

1. Brave New World, by A. Huxley
2. Alice's Adventures etc., by L. Carrol
3. Hitchhiker's Collective, by D. Adams
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, H Lee
5. Do Androids Dream etc., P.K Dick
6. Pollen, by J. Noon
7. Sophie's World, by J. Gardner
8. The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkein
9. Odd Jobs - Hellboy Stories, by Various
10. The Sandman Libraries, by Neil Gaiman

What -- The Hobbit with no "etc." ?

Well, I'm frankly astounded that Tolkein makes anyone Top Ten at all.

I've just realised that my Top Ten is shockingly inaccurate, so I'm going to re-post it:

1. The Beiderbecke Trilogy, by Alan Plater
2. Ice Station Zebra, by Alastair MacLean
3. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
4. Winnie the Pooh, by AA Milne
5. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, by Jeffrey Archer (no, really!)
6. We Joined the Navy, by John Winton
7. High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby
8. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
9. The Village Cricket Match, by John Parker
10. Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

Again, I am deliberately omitting non-fiction, which would make my job a lot harder.

B

Gosh Master B, you may not like it, but how can you be astounded? I'm amazed that anyone can rate the Winnie-the-Pooh schmaltz higher than the most complete fictitious world ever created. There you go, different strokes for different folks; it obviously goes back a long way with you; and I must confess (talking of schmaltz) that Lady and the Tramp is one of my favourite films.

Yes, The Hobbit...because The Lord of the Rings is tiresome. The Hobbit is a classic children's book..I enjoyed reading the tale at the age of 6, that is why it's in my Top Ten. Not for literary merit, more for happy memories. Yes, some people do have them.

I do remain slightly baffled as to why Recumbentman chooses to knock Winnie the Pooh rather than Jeffrey Archer.

B

Here goes then.....

Glory Road - Robert Heinlein
The Man-Kzin Wars - Larry Niven
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Roget's Thesaurus - Peter Mark Roget
The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey
Bill, The Galactic Hero - Harry Harrison
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Throwback - Tom Sharp
Monstrous regiment - Terry Pratchett
Icerigger - Alan Dean Foster

Monstrous Regiment? I wouldn't call that one of his best...

Master B -- I knock A. A. Milne rather than Jeffrey Archer because I've read some A. A. Milne . . .

And I LOVE Winnie the Pooh! Isn't it in my top ten? It should be!

Winnie the Pooh! Winnie the Pooh! Funny little tubby old stuffed-with fluff he's Winnie the Pooh...

Come off it! How could you love Winnie-the-Pooh and sing that Disney song?

That's exactly what I was thinking!

I love the books, and I love the Disney version too, sorry

1. Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
2. THHGTTG ("trilogy") + Dirk Gently books, by DNA
3. Bridget Jones' Diary, by Helen Fielding
4. The Rift War Saga (All 5), by Raymond E Feist
5. The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
6. Harry Potter (All), by JK Rowling
7. Last Chance to See, by DNA
8. Mr Nice, by Howard Marks
9. What Do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character, by Richard P. Feynman
10. The Deity Dozen, by Andrew Harman

I tried to put these in order but then I realised that the order would change every day with my mood. So I leave them all higgledy piggledy!

Mel