Readers of Guardian's Technology Blog have voted (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2005/11/09/top_20_geek_novels_the_results.html) for the Top 20 geek novels. The list is led by:

The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)


Of all the books listed, I've read eight. Do I now qualify as a geek?

Heh. I only read 3. Go me.

My "score" is 9 read, if you count Azimov's "Foundation" as one book instead counting the "trillogy" as 4 books.

Let's see....

On the list, I've read 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (watching Blade Runner doesn't count for number 4, I guess :) )

That's 8, and all in the top ten... that's pretty sad. :p

...watching Blade Runner doesn't count for number 4, I guess :)

"Blade Runner", the movie version of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", follows only one component of the original story, and that is covered only partially. There is much more to the book.

1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,17,18,19 - boy I must be a geek :D

I may have also read 16, but can't rember that particular title from the Dick stories I read. Have to go out and read the others now.

Stu

I guess I'm less of a geek... 1,2,6,7,8,15. But that's enough to make me stranger than the average bear (as Yogi Bear might say!)

2, 3, 11, 17

Stu, shame on you! Where the geek ends, the nerd begins, right? ;)

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Great! Read them all. Actually, this was what got me started on ebooks. I wanted to know what people were talking about (there was a time when a lot of quotes, names and anectodes my friends made were being told from this book). And since I wanted it in the original language (english), I did some googling and found my first pirated copy of a book real quick.
That was so impressive that I have not purchased another pBook for myself ever since.

Another "topX" list ... I like 'em :)

Hmmm... this geekette has read #1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 15. I *think* I read #20, but can't remember now. I own a copy of #14, but never got around to reading it.

I find myself agreeing whole-heartedly with a number of the comments. My first reaction is "what happened to Ender's Game, Left Hand of Darkness, Hal Clement and Octavia Butler?"

I'm not sure... I generally don't remember title so much as covers and contents. This is annoying when people repackage books... but I'm guessing I have not read "Watchmen" (#12) and Illuminatus (#19). The rest I'm petty sure I've read. Some, admittedly, pretty much at gunpoint, in the sense of "it's that or watch TV".

I read 15 so I must be a geek. But ... I don't like Buffy ... so I can't be a geek !! I'm confused now.

I know I've read at least 12 on the list; possibly a couple more. I love Watchmen and just got the very expensive Absolute Edition hardcover (now I can retire my first edition trade paperback I've had for a couple of decades).

I read 15 so I must be a geek. But ... I don't like Buffy ... so I can't be a geek !! I'm confused now.

I had also read 15 of them but I think Buffy is the best TV series ever made...

I've read 14 of them. Guess I'm a geek too !

Buffy the best series ever made ?? What ???? Have you forgotten such delights as: Friends, X-files, Spaced, Heroes, Lost, ... ... ....

Buffy the best series ever made ?? What ???? Have you forgotten such delights as: Friends, X-files, Spaced, Heroes, Lost, ... ... ....

You mean Carnivàle, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos & Ghost in the shell S.A.C. ?

Buffy the best series ever made ?? What ???? Have you forgotten such delights as: Friends, X-files, Spaced, Heroes, Lost, ... ... ....

Did not like Friends and X-files at all. Lost and Heroes has lost it. Good first seasons but not so good now.

Actually The Wire is the best TV series. I forgot that. Buffy is second. Soprano is also very good. Battlestar Galatica was good the first season.

How can you possibly miss out "Dr Who"? :D

45+ years running (albeit with a few interruptions) and it keeps on getting better and better.

How can you possibly miss out "Dr Who"? :D

45+ years running (albeit with a few interruptions) and it keeps on getting better and better.

I think you need to have grown up in the UK to really like Dr Who in this fanatical way. It can be fun to watch but it is not so good. And the latest series is only so and so. Some very good episodes like Blink but also many bad ones. Season three now have started good. The new companion is much better know that the avoid they romantical aspect. I really liked the Pompey episode.

Yes, I suspect you're right. It's very much a British "cultural phenomenon". It's something which anyone under the age of about 50 will have grown up with.

I make it 3 for me - still debating whether to try HitchHikers Guide ....

How can you possibly miss out "Dr Who"? :D

45+ years running (albeit with a few interruptions) and it keeps on getting better and better.

Well, we weren't always able to receive BBC and the cost of that many seasons on DVD would simply bankrupt me. Plus my wife would divorce me if I started watching that at myy usual tempo :D

Since we're now talking UK series, I also liked 'Blake's Seven' (first couple of seasons were great). Looks a bit dated now though

Buffy the best series ever made ?? What ???? Have you forgotten such delights as: Friends, X-files, Spaced, Heroes, Lost, ... ... ....

Dark Angel , Firefly , Stargate SG1 & Atlantis !!!!

and

Stingray , Thunderbirds ............. classics from so long ago

Since we're now talking UK series, I also liked 'Blake's Seven' (first couple of seasons were great). Looks a bit dated now though

I really like Blake's Seven. Our local science fiction club rewatched all four series recently to introduce some new members to the series. I have probably seen all episodes 4-5 times...

Stingray , Thunderbirds ............. classics from so long ago

All the Gerry Anderson series were just wonderful - as you say, Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlett, Fireball XL5, etc. I've got most of them on DVD now :).

Yes, I suspect you're right. It's very much a British "cultural phenomenon". It's something which anyone under the age of about 50 will have grown up with.

Never got into 'Dr Who' myself.
Liked 'Blake's Seven' (first couple of series), and 'Survivors'.

I was born in the UK and grew up in Canada, but I'd certainly count Dr. Who. Then again I've never been able to get any interest at all in Buffy, Friends or Sopranos.

haven't read any of those,though 1984 shouldn't realy be up there.

I think you need to have grown up in the UK to really like Dr Who in this fanatical way. It can be fun to watch but it is not so good. Nah -- if you lived in one of the US cities where the Public Broadcasting station carried Tom Baker's episodes in the mid-late 1970s and into the 1980s, you could easily become a fanatic. In Tallahassee, 1981, Dr. Who came on each evening around 6pm (I can't remember for sure). My 2-year-old would come running through the house yelling "Doc-tah Hoo! Doc-tah Hoo!" when he heard the opening theme. The only other show to capture his attention was M*A*S*H. Same behavior, except shouting "Helicopters!"

haven't read any of those,though 1984 shouldn't realy be up there.

Sure it should! That's geek material if there ever was any!

Personally, I challenge the sense of the date applied, since it removes the work of H.G. Wells from the list, and I would have included Time Machine and War of the Worlds. (But it wasn't my list...)

My score was 9. We should spin part of this thread off into "top 20 geek TV shows!"

I read a solid 7, maybe more, not sure. No Buffy.

For TV there was always Space 1999. Dr. Who I can take or leave (and leave is the most used term for me about that show.)

For TV there was always Space 1999. Dr. Who I can take or leave (and leave is the most used term for me about that show.)

I watched Space 1999 as a kid and thought it was very good. Then I made the mistake of watching its as a grown up and it was slow and very bad. Doctor Who survives the viewer getting older much better.

:::sigh::: I've 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,13,15,16,17, and I have #9 on my Reader right now. I'm a bigger geek than I realized.

IMO, no list of geek novels is complete without Gravity's Rainbow. Why isn't it there? Perhaps because nobody can finish it?

I agree with Jack Schofield that Stand on Zanzibar belongs on the list (yeah, read that too). And, I like Buffy. Jeez, I'm just a big fraggin' geek.

Jim

OOOppppsss
I read 18 out of 20
:eek::eek::eek:
10 and 12 I'll go looking for now
5 of them are on my reader
Maybe the wife is right after all
she calls my reader a geek machine
:(:(:(
It awfull not to be understood
:p:p:p

It awfull not to be understood

On the contrary... I think your wife understands you very well... :D

The original list. BOLD the books I've read. RED the one I wish I hadn't.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

I agree with the original article/author: Neal Stephenson is awesome. The Baroque Trilogy should be on the list, as well as the entire Neuromancer series from Gibson.

The original list. BOLD the books I've read. RED the one I wish I hadn't.

Copying your style, I shall do similar....

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)[/B]
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)


I've silvered Cryptonomicon to highlight that I started to read it, but soon lost interest. It is one of the few books I have ever started but not finished. Neal Stephenson's popularity hasn't been lost on me, and it is probable I will try something else of his, but it would have to be good for me to consider trying again on Cryptonomicon.

I should also mention that though I haven't read American Gods, I have read Anansi Boys and if that is anything to go by I am at this stage extremely discinclined to read anything else by Neil Gaiman.

Cheers,
Marc

I'm very surprised to see Wyndham's 'Trouble with Lichen' in the list.
It's not one of his best (in fact I think it's pretty feeble SF, and seems very dated now).
But also, it doesn't seem particularly geeky.
Was there some sort of voting campaign to get it on the list; and if so - why?? :chinscratch:

I'm very surprised to see Wyndham's 'Trouble with Lichen' in the list.
It's not one of his best (in fact I think it's pretty feeble SF, and seems very dated now).
But also, it doesn't seem particularly geeky.
Was there some sort of voting campaign to get it on the list; and if so - why?? :chinscratch:
See :
The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
It's a conspiracy

1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 15

Do I get bonus geek-points for reading all the Foundation books, all the Dune books, and Stranger in a Strange Land at least 6 times.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

So I've read 13/20. I liked them all, including American Gods. I started to read Dune but found it boring and have no desire to do so. I don't have much desire to read the others either, except maybe Microserfs.

Also, I think BNW and 1984 are not really the best dystopian books. I enjoyed This Perfect Day a lot more, and it's "geekier" automatically because it has programmers.

I loved first three books of Dune, read the rest of Frank Herbert's after that out of loyalty, the first of his son's Dune books out of curiosity, the second out of sick fascination and revulsion, and refused any more out of not wanting to contribute to the desecration of his father's work.

Well 1,2,7,8,9,12,15 &17 for me. Never could stand to go all the way through Dune unfortunately.

Have read almost all of Asimov, Heinlein, Adams & Pratchett's work.Dont't know if that counts for bonus points.

And have to agree that the 1932 date is a bit of a pain as it does leave out the works of Wells and Verne who I personally would consider writes of some of the greatest geek books.