In which ~10 years have passed since I read all 101 books in the recommendations thread

[Eponine]

I read the list of books/series in the pinned recommendations thread about 10 years ago. I read every standalone cover to cover and at least the first book in every series.

I went back through and separated them into groups of books I liked/loved (or at least was happy to have read), books I hated, books I was meh about, books I completely forgot, and books I wanted to read again. I didn't look up old ratings and reviews for most of them so this is mainly based on memory.

There were 51 books I liked/loved + 10 I wanted to read again, by far the biggest group. If it weren't, it would be in question whether I actually liked SFF, right? They are all books that I would recommend to someone who liked that sort of book.

There were 10 books I was meh about. Several of them were classics or fan favorites, and I think my meh feelings were partly inspired by not finding them The Greatest Thing Ever (hello, Dune). If I'd had no expectations, I probably would have enjoyed them more. 

There were 12 books that I hated, and I still feel pretty strongly about them! I used to spend a lot of time here arguing about them and perhaps the main difference after 10 years is that I'm probably not going to spend my time doing that anymore unless you ask me about The Stand.

And there were 18 books of which I have zero memory. If you tortured me, I could not tell you a single thing about Mythago Wood. I couldn't tell you the setting, name a single character, or explain a single plot point. More embarrassingly, I bought Invisible Cities a few years ago thinking I'd be reading it for the first time, but that's clearly not true. (I still haven't re-read it and although I do know the general form it takes, I don't actually remember anything about it. I have trouble remembering anything about older space opera except there was some kind of trouble in space.

The 10 re-reads are as follows: 
The Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe
China Mountain Zhang – Maureen McHugh
The Chronicles of Amber – Roger Zelazny
The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
The Iron Dragon's Daughter – Michael Swanwick
Little, Big – John Crowley
Only Forward – Michael Marshall Smith
Otherland – Tad Williams
Permutation City – Greg Egan
Shardik – Richard Adams

These aren't necessarily my favorite books, in fact, some of them I didn't love the first time through but feel like there's more I could have gotten out of them. I don't read as much SFF anymore, so I haven't gone back to this list that often. I've tried to restart Little, Big a few different times - I did like it the first time, but if I fail this time, I'm going to conclude that once was enough. I was extremely surprised at how much I liked Otherland because I vaguely remember Memory, Sorrow and Thorn as being stultifying, and I hope I'll enjoy it again. Only Forward is a book I'd probably never have discovered without this list. I loved China Mountain Zhang but can't remember why. I'm enjoying The Book of the New Sun more now that I'm not anxious to figure out what's happening and why.

During the time I was reading this list, I started having a strong preference for standalones over series and it would take an awful lot to get me interested in a new SFF series now.

Piranesi is my number one recommendation for books written after the list was compiled. 

[JGP]

Oh wow, hai  Eponine

<3 Jeordhi

 

[just wanted to say hey before i go to bed]