Right, I’ve finished the final, definitive version of the my 2012 reading list. I’m not going to repost it here because it’s long, and most of it has already been posted. A couple of notes:
- The list, based on the NPR Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of All Time, and subtracting those books I have read, currently stands at 275 books.
- This is because there are a crapton of series in there.
- In many cases I could probably skip other books in the series but prefer not to.
- In some cases I have decided to skip other books in the series for various reasons.
- For example, I’ve previously read numerous Drizzt books, but never the Homeland trilogy, so I’m just reading the Homeland trilogy. Yes, I know I said I’d skip the Drizzt books this year. Shoot me.
- For another example, I’m not only reading the first Pern trilogy; I’m reading the rest of the books in the Ninth Fall era. This only comes to about ten of them, and the Ninth Fall is my favorite time period in the series. I may also read some of the 9th fall shorts, like The Girl Who Heard Dragons and Runner of Pern, which puts me in severe danger of accidentally reading the rest of the stories in the collections they’re in.
- For a final example, only one of the books in Pratchett’s Discworld series is on either list. I could read the whole Discworld series, but it’s forty books long and then I wouldn’t have any more to look forward to. Pratchett’s books are tasty treats that I save and savor.
This list is looking more and more like a two- or three-year goal, especially considering that since setting the goal I’ve read 37 books, of which 12 were listed titles. This is almost a perfect ratio of 2 non-list books to 1 list book – indeed, the only reason it isn’t is because I’m not at a number divisible by three. The next two I’m likely to finish are Dragondrums, which is listed, and Legends from the End of Time, which isn’t, and if that goes as expected it will be a perfect 2:1 ratio when I hit 39 books. This is not intentional, just amusing.
And, erm. If I maintain that 2:1 ratio, this list might take a little while.