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Wastrel

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I've never read them, so I don't know whether I, as an individual, would consider them that way.

How this poll will consider them will depend on how the voting goes. Vandermeer certainly looks like getting on the list, but I don't know whether he'll get two books or one. If he gets one, as it stands I'll probably put Ambergris as a series, as Shriek and CoSaM aren't that far apart in the voting - if the balance tips further toward CoSaM, I'll probably just cite that. If there are two slots, I'll put both separately, or CoSaM+somethingelse, or Ambergris+somethingelse, depending on the balance of votes.

There is a degree to which interpretation of the votes will be exactly that... interpretation, not pure rule-following.

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The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R Tolkien

A Song of Ice and Fire- George R.R. Martin

Malazan, Book of the Fallen- Steven Erikson

Watership Down- Richard Adams

The Silmarillion- J.R.R Tolkien

1984- George Orwell

Brave New World- Aldoux Huxley

The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams

The Hobbit- J.R.R Tolkien

Magician- Raymond E. Feist

Dracula- Bram Stoker

Discworld Series- Terry Pratchett

The Wheel of Time- Robert Jordan

The Saga of Darren Shan- Darren Shan

The Black Company- Glen Cook

Redwall- Brian Jacques

Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman

The First Law Trilogy- Joe Abercrombie

Harry Potter- J.K. Rowling

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Okay then, here's my tentative list. I fully expect to change at least a bit of it before this's over, but might as well post something for now:

A Song of Ice and Fire – George RR Martin

City of Saints and Madmen – Jeff VanderMeer

The Fiction – HP Lovecraft

Chasm City – Alastair Reynolds

Mistborn – Brandon Sanderson

Dreamsongs – George RR Martin

Veniss Underground – Jeff VanderMeer

Finch – Jeff VanderMeer

Ship of Magic – Robin Hobb*

The Scar – China Mieville

Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake*

The Wheel of Time – Robert Jordan

Altered Carbon– Richard K. Morgan

Market Forces – Richard K. Morgan

House of Suns – Alastair Reynolds

Malazan – Steven Erikson

Ender’s Quartet – Orson Scott Card

The Long Price – Daniel Abraham

The First Law – Joe Abercrombie

The Prince of Nothing – R. Scott Bakker

* Didn’t put the series name because I’ve only read the first volume. To be fair, I haven’t finished Malazan yet either, but I’m at least far enough in to have a decent idea about the series as a whole.

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A Song of Ice and Fire - George R R Martin

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien

The First Law - Joe Abercrombie

1984 - George Orwell

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Preacher - Garth Ennis

The Warlord Chronicles - Bernard Cornwell

The Once and Future King - T. H. White

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

Magician - Raymond E. Feist

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore

The Stand - Stephen King

The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

Le Morte d'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory

The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone - Greg Keyes

The Black Company - Glen Cook

Dreamsongs Volume 2 - George R R Martin

Legend - David Gemmell

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Prince of Nothing- Scott Bakker

Book of the New Sun- Gene Wolfe

First Law- Joe Abercrombie

1984- Geroge Orwell

Best Served Cold- Joe Abercrombie

The Lies of Locke Lamora- Scott Lynch

The Black Company- Glen Cook

The Engineer Trilogy- K.J. Parker

Wheel of Time- Robert Jordan

A Clockwork Orange- Antony Burgess

Lord of The Rings J.R.R. Tolkien

Hitchhikers Guid to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams

Dune- Frank Herbert

Use of Weapons- Ian M. Banks

Godless World- Brain Ruckley

Litany of the Long Sun- Gene Wolfe

The Wounded Land- Stephen R. Donaldson

Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

Watership Down- Richard Adams

The Pearls of Lutra- Brian Jaques

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A song of ice and fire - GRRM

Watchmen - Alan Moore

I am Legend - Richard Matheson

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

lord of the rings - Tolkein

Fevre dream - GRRM

Gentleman bastard - Scott Lynch

The Stars my destination - Alfred Bester

Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The Separation - Chrispher Priest

Takeshi Kovacs trilogy - Richard Morgan

World war Z - Max Brooks

The Steel Remains - Richard Morgan

First Law - Joe Abercrombie

Old Man's war - John Scalzi

Night Watch trilogy - Terry Pratchett

Joe Pitt - Charlie Huston

The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle

The Terror - Dan Simmons

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore

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An Edge of the Forest, Agnes Smith

Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis

Shardik, Richard Adams

Little, Big, John Crowley

A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

Earth Abides, George R. Stewart

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

A Trio for Lute, R. A. MacAvoy

Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

Mordant's Need, Stephen R. Donaldson

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Unlikely Ones, Mary Brown

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

The Mabinogian Tetralogy, Evangeline Walton

The Blue Star, Fletcher Pratt

{Hyperion Cantos, Dan Simmons}

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell

The Last Unicorn, Peter Beagle

The Once and Future King, T. H. White

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

I would like to replace Hyperion Cantos with The Sparrow in my list.

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Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith

The Other City - Michal Ajvaz

Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock

Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis

Finch Jeff VanderMeer

The Gone-Away World - Nick Harkaway

I Am Legend - Richard Matheson

The Facts of Life - Graham Joyce

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

The Thousandfold Thought - R. Scott Bakker

Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

Before They Are Hanged- Joe Abercrombie

Escape From Hell! - Hal Duncan

Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

Market Forces - Richard K. Morgan

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman

Fell Warren Ellis

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Also, though I do not know if this will be counted. I have a list from a reader who is not a member of the board, but still wanted to contribute. If it counts, then all is good. If not, then oh well.

Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson

The Scar - China Miéville

1984 - George Orwell

Blade of Tyshalle - Matthew Stover

The Warrior-Prophet - R. Scott Bakker

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin

Market Forces - Richard K. Morgan

Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake

The Claw of the Conciliator - Gene Wolfe

The Black Company - Glen Cook

Planetary - Warren Ellis/John Cassaday

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Dark Tower - Stephen King

Shriek: An Afterword - Jeff VanderMeer

City of Golden Shadow - Tad Williams

Fables - Bill Willingham

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A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin

Dune - Herbert

Warlord Chronicles - Cornwell

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein

Ender's Game - Card

Speaker for the Dead - Card

Hyperion - Simmons

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

Robot series - Asimov

Commonwealth Saga - Hamilton

The Book of the New Sun - Wolfe

Earthsea series - LeGuin

The Martian Chronicles - Bradbury

Abhorsen Chronicles - Nix

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Adams

Harry Potter series - Rowling

Foundation trilogy - Asimov

Spin - Wilson

The Reality Dysfunction - Hamilton

Cryptonomicon - Stephenson

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Ok, here are my votes. This was really hard.

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

Dune - Frank Herbert

Prince of Nothing - R. Scott Bakker

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

Player of Games - Iain M. Banks

Eyes of the Overworld - Jack Vance

Watership Down - Richard Adams

The Lions of al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson

The Lyonesse Trilogy - Jack Vance

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

Neuromancer - William Gibson

The Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula Le Guin

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Damnit, I want to get Pratchett and Gaiman in there too, as well as Donaldson's Gap Sequence, but I can't figure out how. And I need to bold more than two books.

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A slightly complicated post.

First thing first: I'm aware that, although I've been coming here, or to its predecessor board, for almost a decade, and actively posting for a year, I've never really found a place here - I think I've made about two or three posts in that time that haven't been shouted down or ignored, and I rather embarrasingly needed the merciful good words of a few good people here to even be allowed to run this poll; things have now come to a head, as you may have seen, and it having been revealed how I am thought of by people here, and most importantly by your authorities, I'm not sure that my position here is tenable for me.

As a result, I think I have to take some time away from this board - perhaps a week, perhaps two or three - while I think about things: whether to save you from my further presence, or whether to limit myself perhaps to non-Literature subforums, or to only particular types of post/thread. Assuming that, as seems likely, the mods would rather delete my posts or prohibit me from replying to people, rather than actually banning me.

------

The point of all this: I've compiled almost all the ballots so far, and it seems that they have slowed down almost to a halt. This seems a fortuitous coincidence with the former self-pitying whining: perhaps it would be appropriate to set a deadline of next Sunday for all remaining votes to be cast?

I still intend to compile this list, although I regret having become involved in it: I have spent hours and hours of my free time recording nearly 1500 total nominations for over 500 different books, for people who either don't know me or don't like me, and who in general probably couldn't care less about the results and are likely just using this as an excuse to list their own favourites (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I suspect I could come up with any list of 100 that I fancied without anybody noticing). Even for me, it is nothing more than the sort of "intellectual exercise" that is forbidden here. However, having put so much time and effort into it, I suspect I will complete it for reasons of vanity, although to be honest right now I could not be less interested in any of it.

So, if you still want to vote, please do it in the next week; after that, I can't guarrentee I'll either be around to see, or have enough motivation to care - although if I check in next Sunday and see that people are voting furiously, I'll probably be willing to extend the deadline. Unless you've been voting furiously all week, in which case I don't know whether or not I can stand compiling it all. Of course, maybe I will do it anyway - after all, I was stupid enough to sign up for this, wasn't I? Once I've compiled it, I'll give you a list - either in person, or through one of the members here I know from elsewhere, if I've either been banned or have left permanently.

----

To those who will swear at and/or mock this post: yes, I know how people reply to leaving posts, thank you, I'm sure your opinion of my for this is no lower than my own is. Having made a commitment, however, it would seem unfair of me to simply disappear for a week, a fortnight or forever without explaining what's going on with this project.

Hopefully see you all next week.

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The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

The Last Unicorn - Peter Beagle

Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Prince of Nothing - R. Scott Bakker

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon

Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock

Cyteen - C.J. Cherryh

At The Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Baltasar and Blimunda - Jose Saramago

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

Holy crap. That was hard.

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I just wanted to say that I, for one, will be very interested in the results of the poll, I even intend to use it as a sort of informal reading guideline for the next few years. And I'd like to thank you for undertaking the tedious task of implementing the system, and collecting/calculating the results.

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Lots of us have undertaken (thankless) tasks whether on this board or others which have eaten up HUGE chunks of our free time. This is something to think about before volunteering to do something. I think you'd feel better if you attempted to complete what you've started.

I have no idea what the personal drama you refer to is all about so I have nowt to say about that, but I didn't think that the suggestion that you get 'a respected boarder' or whatever to do this poll instead/as well was personally directed at you. I thought it was just because of your 'n00b status' in the eyes of the person who made that comment. I may be wrong.

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I've either been banned or have left permanently.

don't leave; get banned instead. if you leave first, then the would-be banner will say that it was voluntary, and you are left to prove constructive banning, i.e., that conditions were so intolerable that the reasonable person would feel compelled to resign because of the oppression, harrassment, or discrimination. it's a difficult burden to prove in most jurisdictions, so if you want to preserve your chances of recovering for tortious interference with internet commmunication, i advise that you let them ban you, and then sue for the wrongful discharge.

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By the way, Wastrel, if you collect the data (as I sincerely hope you will), do try to retain the votes by anonymous individual. It would be fun to do some kind of cluster analysis and turn the data into a recommendation system.

(These things work like this: if many people vote for (x,y,z), and Bob votes for (x,y) then an algorithm can recommend z to Bob. But you need to retain the data per respondent, instead of just collating votes per book.)

Note that I am not officially volunteering to actually implement that algorithm any time soon! But it would be a shame to throw away data.

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