I've been poking around on the web and I can't find a source. (If it's from SFC, the most recent issue online is September.) Without that, it's hard to make anything at all out if it, since there's little context. For example, who's lists are these from -- writers, fans, critics,all of the above? (You use the word 'critics', so I might assume just critics. If so, I didn't know there were that many.) As for the popular versus the critically successful -- now there's a discussion. I decided a long time ago that critical success (at least w.r.t. literature) doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with whether I'll like a book or not.
On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 11:55 PM, SteveC <[email protected]> wrote: > > My friend Bob Sabella went though a large number of lists of the best > books of 2008 and created a composite listing of the most mentioned > titles for his apazine. I'm sure he won't mind my copying the list > here. It sort of formats for me, so I hope it's not too unreadable > once Google does the usual horrible things it does to text. Three of > the top four books are Hugo nominated. The other two nominess, Charles > Stross (Saturn's Children) and John Scalzi (Zoe's Tale), don't make > even 3 best lists. I'm sure that says something or other about > popularity and those darn intellectual critics who have been ruining > the field since 1965. > > Title Author # of lists > Anathem Neal Stephenson 17 > Little Brother Cory Doctorow 15 > Matter Iain M. Banks 9 > The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman 7 > Tender Morsels Margo Lanagan 6 > The Quiet War Paul McAuley 6 > Implied Spaces Walter Jon Williams 6 > City at the End of Time Greg Bear 5 > The Gone Away World Nick Harkaway 5 > Sly Mongoose Tobias S. Buckell 4 > Toll the Hounds Steven Erikson 4 > The Shadow Year Jeffrey Ford 4 > Pandemonium Daryl Gregory 4 > The Steel Remains Richard Morgan 4 > Liberation Brian Francis Slattery 4 > The Dragons of Babel Michael Swanwick 4 > Flood Stephen Baxter 3 > Ink and Steel Elizabeth Bear 3 > All the Windwracked Stars Elizabeth Bear 3 > The January Dancer Michael Flynn 3 > The Temporal Void Peter F. Hamilton 3 > How to Make Friends With Demons Graham Joyce 3 > The Night Sessions Ken MacLeod 3 > Last Dragon J.M. McDermott 3 > The Devil’s Eye Jack McDevitt 3 > House of Suns Alastair Reynolds 3 > > > > -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
