I'm feeling a little self-conscious. Via Fark, I've found the list of 100 "must read" Science Fiction books, and I hesitate to say, I have yet to read them all. I spotted four classics my library has missed in all my years: Drowned World, by J.G. Ballard, Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch, In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman, and Last and First Man, by Olaf Stapleton.
Our local library, too, falls short of complete. I think the last time I looked at our SF section, it had about 60 books, and most of them were swords-and-sorcery (fantasy) rather than real, hard SF. There was little to redeem it.
I think I will have to send this weblink to the head librarian, along with a few requests for them to hunt a few titles down through inter-library loan systems. I can't afford to buy the missing titles for myself, right now... being poor does have its down side.
Of course, I have a birthday coming up, in a month or so... hint hint hint. And, I wouldn't turn down copies of anything by, say, Nancy Kress or Connie Willis which didn't show up on the list. I just finished sharing around my copy of To Say Nothing of the Dog, and won't, now, allow my copies of Passage and Bellwether to leave my house until either my "Dog" comes home or somebody buys me a new copy. Hmmmph.
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