"100 Best whatever" Lists and Other Miscellany

Every once in a while, websites compile a list of best books/authors/what have you. Instead of creating separate threads about them that die down after 10 posts, I decided to collate them into one big thread. I will ask a mod to pin this.

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Starting off, I present to you NPR's list of 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

There is your Harry potter, now discuss! (btw, you can also continue discussing the other NPR list mentioned above)

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I was surprised at the popularity of John Green, since frankly my only recognition of him was of a Youtube vlogger for Crash Course history.

Yet his books fill all the top spots. Any comments, specifically about his books?

edited 8th Aug '12 7:36:41 AM by ryzvonusef

Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!

He has a way of writing that's alternately funny and thought-provoking in all the right places. I can't deny that his popularity as a Youtuber is a factor in his popularity as an author, but that aside, I'd say his books are highly recommendable.

edited 8th Aug '12 4:24:19 AM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I would not have classified Fahreinheit 451 as a teen novel, so that was a bit weird. Lord of the Rings isn't a "teen novel" either - while it certainly can be read by teens, it's not like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games in being directed towards them.

While a teen, I read Harry Potter, The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings, To Kill A Mockingbird (for school [Grade 10]), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Giver (for school [Grade 6], liked it, good introduction to dystopia), The Outsiders (for school [Grade 8], didn't really care about it, really surprised when I found out SE Hinton was a woman), the entire Anne Of Green Gables series, His Dark Materials (didn't like it, due to Pullman being very blatantly and heavy-handedly anti-religion), The Princess Bride, Lord Of The Flies (for school [Grade 11], didn't really care about it), Flowers For Algernon, The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants, The Call Of The Wild (assigned reading [Grade 5, I think]; okay, but White Fang is a lot better), Abhorsen Triology (should be higher on the list, and I think it's typically called the Old Kingdom trilogy), Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy (should be a LOT higher on the list, especially for A Wizard Of Earthsea) Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lionness series (great series, should be higher on the list, but I'm glad it's on there), Trickster series (okay, but not as good as the Lionness series, and the main character's degree of (a)morality verges into creepy territory at times, particularly given that she's a teenager) and Circle Of Magic (good, suited to preteens as much as teens), Something Wicked This Way Comes (absolutely terrifying and creepy), The Chocolate War, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (awesome and hilarious, should be higher on the list, every preteen and teen who likes fantasy should read these; I think the second [of four] is best), and part of the Georgia Nicholson series (funny, but I generally dislike books that present teenagers as more immature, shallow and self-centred than they typically are; it only encourages them to be so rather than trying to improve).

The Hunger Games wasn't out when I was a teenager, but I've read it now and think it's fairly good. The writing style and the pace and organization of the plotting (sometimes it feels like the author's just giving a summary of things) could be improved, but the characterization was good; I like the way the characters of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale are drawn, and like all three of them; and Collins does a good job of writing a morally ambiguous and thoroughly imperfect heroine. It impresses me that Katniss has been given a role that is typically given to male characters (tough but ruthless, and better with action than emotion) while Peeta has been given a more typically female one (the "heart" of the team, and not so skilled when it comes to combat), and it's interesting to see the amount of hostility towards both characters that provokes from some people (Katniss being called a sociopath, Peeta being derided as useless).

It's horrifying that Twilight's on the list, and even more so - to anyone familiar with the Harry Potter fandom - that Cassie Claire's series is - and is high up on the list at 21 (short version - she's a mediocre writer at best, rather over-infatuated with "wittiness" (most of which is taken from Buffy), and a plagiarist to boot).

edited 8th Aug '12 4:49:49 AM by WarriorEowyn

I checked the fantasy/sci-fi list to see if any books by Brandon Sanderson were on the list. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mistborn and The Way of Kings were on the list. Then I realized that their description for The Way of Kings was wrong. They describe Kaladin as a "high-born youth", but he was just an average guy. He was learning to be a surgeon before he had to join the military, but that's not "high-born".

"Oh great! Let's pile up all the useless cats and hope a tree falls on them!"

I've never read anything by John Green, but he really is popular. We might be too old for him, he seems to have a cult following and his books make on the bestseller lists. "The Fault in the Stars" (#4 on the list) actually only came out this year, and was pretty highly hyped and anticipated for a book. Right now on Goodreads it's got a 4.58 rating, which might make it the highest rated novel on the site with a decent number of votes.

Another list on here I liked was "Andrzej Sapkowski's Fantasy Canon." https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13294921060A53100100&page=1#20

Here are some more lists.
Giant Lists- 1001 books to read before you die Guardian's 1000 novels everyone must read Harold Bloom's Western Canon The Recommended Fantasy Author List
Shorter Lists- Modern Library's 100 Best Novels All-TIME 100 Best Novels Borges' Personal Library

edited 11th Aug '12 7:03:53 AM by Rhea

Their summary of Watchmen was also pretty bad. Was glad the Space Trilogy got on it at all, but it deserves a better place then 100. Oh well.

edited 11th Aug '12 5:29:40 PM by Benluke

This list by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn is interesting - http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?187153. It's a rather old list though, and some of the choices may seem baffling. I don't think it's in any particular order.

For we shall slay evil with logic...

Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft, Ballard, Blish, Pratchett and The Turn of the Screw are on that list. Ergo, your concerns are invalid. That much awesomeness cannot fail.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Oh, I like the list, but I think some people may find the likes of Wuthering Heights and Moby Dick to be odd choices (haven't read WH myself though).

Notice that Wuthering Heights doesn't have a page on the ISFDB site, and they're pretty inclusive (the Kafka and Household books don't have links, but they're on the site), and include anything vaguely speculative as well as a few non-genre works of genre interest.

edited 8th Oct '12 3:56:43 PM by supergod

For we shall slay evil with logic...

Well, Wuthering Heights was hugely important to the development of the Gothic novel and Moby-Dick is made of symbolism, so... yeah, I'm not going to contest those.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2012.

The nominee list acts as an impromptu "Best of" in it self; each category has 15 nominations, and while you can enter another, those 15 present an interesting list of the books Goodreads chose as their favourites.

Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!

I have basically read none of those books. I'm not going vote for a book because it's the only one I've read, so I guess I'll abstain .

2012 World Fantasy Award

Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!

100 Notable Books of 2012 - NYTimes

Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!

Goodreads 2012 Winners

I hardly recognise any of them, and I suspect most won due to famous name authors, and not necessarily due to their quality.

Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!

Rarity from the Hollow

Haven't read any of the World Fantasy nominees, but I surely intend to. I strongly approve of their selection of Datlow for a potential lifetime achievement thinger.

P.S. And Gene Wolfe, still putting out books on a not entirely irregular basis! You go, Gene!

edited 15th Jul '14 2:40:20 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Sarah's Scribbles won Best Graphic Novel in 2017! Looool Well deserved though.

Didn't expect Lorelei Gilmore to win the Best Humor. In. 2017.

Major writing hiding at https://omnipapers.com

Apropos of not much, the Science Fiction/Fantasy all time top sales list.

Lots of guesswork in some cases, given issues like there not being any one sales list being The Authority(tm), and things like copyright expiring on the output of some authors (which means tracking them pretty much ends), but as a rough guideline still interesting IMO.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Eu também fiquei bastante impressionado com este romance e queria esclarecer mais com ele. Além disso, se a questão fosse sobre as habilidades comunicativas, você pode ter certeza da essência da criação.