Book Geek

I think everyone and his dog's already linked to this Top 20 Geek Novels poll, but what the heck, it's my turn now. I note with some interest, but not much surprise, that of the 20 books, I've read 17. Two more, Cryptonomicon and The Illuminatus! Trilogy are still languishing on my To-Read Pile. Weirdly, I've never even heard of The Trouble with Lichen, despite having read some of Wyndham's other stuff. Is that one something that's much better known in the UK than the US? Or did it have a different title here, maybe?

Anyway, of the ones I have read, I can't really quibble with the choice of any of them, although it's certainly easy enough to name ones that might have made the list and didn't. OK, I think Stranger in a Strange Land turns from a good book into a, um, less good book partway though, Nineteen Eighty-Four is kind of tedious, and Dune, while interesting, is decidedly overrated. Oh, and The Color of Magic is easily Pratchett's weakest, though I assume it's pretty much there as a representation of the Discworld series as a whole. But even those ones are the sorts of things any geek ought to be familiar with, in the interests of geekish cultural literacy, and I'd definitely recommend any of the others.