recursion

The Science Fiction Book Club released their list of the Top 50 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the last 50 years (1953-2002).

Here's the ones I've read:

1. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
9. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
10. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
11. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
12. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
13. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
14. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
15. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
16. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
17. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
18. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
19. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
20. Ringworld, Larry Niven
21. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson,
22. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
23. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
24. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
25. Timescape, Gregory Benford

25 out of 50's not bad! I'll have to read the rest of them sometime. I would probably pick a little differently (Snow Crash above The Stars My Destination and Stand on Zanzibar? And only two "hard" SF books -- granted, two of the best.) but overall I think that's a pretty find book of science fiction. I wonder how much overlap there is with David Pringle's 100 Best Science Fiction Novels which covers 1949-1984. I haven't got time to figure that out now, unfortunately.

"George W. Bush is out of control."

Should those words be enough to arrest a man in a public library?

William Rivers Pitt asks that question in Arrest Me. And it's not hypothetical. Andrew O'Conner was arrested in a public library and interrogated by Secret Service agents. Using the Patriot act, the police monitored his internet chat session at the St. John's College Library in Santa Fe.

This isn't some paranoid conspiricy theory bullshit. It happened. The American Library Association confirms it. So does the Santa Fe New Mexican. It happened. And it's going to keep on happening until the PATRIOT Act is repealed like the Alien and Sedition Acts were. It must be repealed. Join the ACLU and help us fight against it.